Motorola Droid RAZR (Verizon Wireless)
Too fast, Motorola! Too fast! The Motorola Droid RAZR ($299 with contract) very, really fast replaces a Droid Bionic ($249, 4.5 stars) as a many absolute smartphone on Verizon Wireless. That $50 reward gets we a slimmer, faster, some-more imperishable phone with a RAZR. And even yet it takes a Editors’ Choice crown, some-more melancholy adversaries dawn only around a corner: The HTC Rezound and Samsung Galaxy Nexus guarantee to give a Droid RAZR a critical run.
Physical Details, Screen and Call Quality
At 5.2 by 2.7 by a shockingly skinny 0.3 inches (HWD), a Motorola Droid RAZR is singular and striking. There have been other really skinny phones—the Samsung Galaxy S II ($199.99, 4.5 stars) for ATT comes to mind—but a Droid RAZR feels most some-more plain and classier than other super-thin devices, interjection to Motorola’s Gorilla Glass screen, Kevlar behind row and stainless-steel core. At 4.5 ounces, it’s light, yet “space-age material” light, not “flimsy plastic” light. This phone will not snap if we lay down with it in your behind pocket, yet it might indeed rip your pocket.
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The cost for skinny is that you’re carrying a biggest phone in America. It’s longer and wider than a Droid Bionic, and it’s even longer than a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II ($229.99, 4.5 stars), that has a 4.5-inch screen. It’s roughly a distance of a stirring HTC Titan, that is really tighten to being too large to be a handset. The phone is a equivocal hand-buster.
This outrageous phone facilities a large 4.3-inch, 960-by-540, Super AMOLED Advanced display that uses a new various on a PenTile pixel layout. Motorola’s PenTile screens are intensely controversial, since they deliver fringing that can make plain lines or areas demeanour stippled. Anti-PenTile zealots will still get adult in arms opposite a Droid RAZR, yet this arrangement is significantly softened looking than a Droid Bionic‘s PenTile screen. Blue and immature regions demeanour honestly hairy on a Bionic; that isn’t a box here. we couldn’t see any stippling effects. The shade is extremely reduction splendid than a Bionic’s LCD screen, yet blacks are most blacker, an advantage of a Super AMOLED record used on a RAZR. Overall, we found a RAZR‘s images most some-more pleasing.
The skinny pattern doesn’t impact accepting or call quality. Held side by side with a Droid Bionic, we got flattering most a same reception, and a phone was means to trade between 3G and 4G networks when necessary. LTE download formula as totalled by Speedtest.net also averaged out likewise to a Bionic, with (network-dependent) speeds anywhere from 3 to 16Mbps down.
Call peculiarity is fine, and a small softened than a Bionic. The earpiece is shrill though distortion, and with a pleasing volume of side-tone. Noise termination isn’t perfect—a bit of credentials sound came through—but it was amply muffled as not to matter. The RAZR falls a bit brief on speakerphone performance, with decent volume, yet not adult to a Bionic’s level.
The Droid RAZR works as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and a phone connected simply to a Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset for voice dialing, and to an Altec Lansing BackBeat headset for transparent song and video sound.
The Droid RAZR had really good 3G speak time during 8 hours, 42 minutes, nonetheless that isn’t as prolonged as a 10 hours we got with a Droid Bionic. Motorola has softened LTE energy efficiency, though: we was means to eke out 3 hours, 40 mins of pristine 4G streaming, longer than on a Bionic or progressing 4G phones. Motorola’s Smart Actions (see below) will assistance extend battery life, too.
Apps and Webtop
When it comes to speed, a phone’s 1.2GHz, dual-core TI OMAP4 chip benchmarked faster than any other handset we’ve seen before. Although a RAZR is using Android 2.3.5, we got overwhelming Browsermark and Sunspider Web browsing scores that looked some-more like a dual-core-accelerated browser in Android Honeycomb. The Antutu complement benchmark outpaced other dual-core devices, including 1.5GHz units like a HTC Jetstream tablet ($849, 3 stars). Rest assured, this phone is smokin’.
