Verizon Motorola Droid Razr and Lapdock 100 Combo Review
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When Motorola detonate onto a Android stage with a strange Droid (a.k.a. Milestone), a association quick ramped adult to one of a some-more notable smartphone makers. Then, over a march of a integrate of years, their repute forsaken as their phones became reduction and reduction innovative, and reduction and reduction rival opposite a likes of Samsung.
A splendid mark was a 2011 CES, where Motorola’s booth, with a Xoom, a Atrix, and a Droid Bionic, was among a stars of a show. But, prolongation delays for a Bionic, muted opening by a Xoom, and common sales of a Atrix all undercut Moto’s momentum.
That downward trend could usually unequivocally good be cut brief with a rebirth of one of Motorola’s many sacred of product brands: a Razr.
If we weren’t stealing underneath a stone between 2003 and 2007, we substantially saw some-more Motorola Razr clamshell-style underline phones than any other mobile device, during slightest in a U.S. It was, by any metric, a blockbuster product line. With a recover of a Droid Razr, Motorola is utterly apparently perplexing to gain on that code recognition. But, is a Droid Razr estimable of that name?
HARDWARE
The unequivocally initial thing you’ll notice about a Droid Razr (hereafter “Razr”) is that it’s thin. Crazy thin. Like, “that can’t be an actual, functioning phone” thin. But, amazingly, it is. Except for a mound during a top, a heading of a Droid family, a phone is 7.1 mm thick.
In comparison to things we competence have around your house, a Razr is about a same density as:
- a smoke-stack of 4 US quarters
- 3 SD cards
- 6 CD-Rs
In fact, here’s a list of smartphones that are thinner:
Now, with that thinness comes some compromises. The first, and substantially a biggest, is a Razr’s non-removable 1780 mAh Li-Ion battery. Yep…the behind doesn’t even come off (well, it’s not ostensible to, anyway).
Also, a whole phone isn’t 7.1 mm thick. As mentioned, a mound during a tip is indeed about 12 mm (~1/2 an inch). But, that density is immune when we comprehend it houses a 8MP behind camera, LED flash, and orator on a behind (see below), a headphone jack and micro-USB micro-HDMI ports on tip (see below), and a front-facing 1.3MP camera, earphone, LED indicator, and vicinity sensor on a front. At slightest Motorola was intelligent adequate not to need a use of a stupid headphone jack dongle like HP did with a Palm Veer.
The Razr sports a 4.3″ qHD (540×960) Super AMOLED Advanced display, that is flattering excellent. It’s not utterly as frail as Samsung’s latest AMOLED displays, yet it’s unequivocally unequivocally close. You have to have flattering good prophesy to discern a unequivocally teenager pixelation we was means to notice when looking for it. In daily use, however, we never had a complaint.
However, a Razr has a rather far-reaching bezel on a sides of a display, creation a altogether package 2.7 inches far-reaching and 5.2 inches tall. This creates for a rather vast intent in one’s pocket, that can be conspicuous even yet it’s so thin. But, during usually underneath 4.5 ounces, it’s impossibly light and easy to forget it’s there. Despite that lightness, a Razr feels impossibly sturdy. Perhaps that’s since a behind is a constructional member and not a groundless square of cosmetic meant to be taken off regularly, or maybe since it’s built with Kevlar and Gorilla Glass. Regardless of a reason, there’s no discernible flex in a phone…it feels stone plain like many of Moto’s things does.
Other than a ports mentioned, underneath a doorway on a left-hand corner are microSD (16 GB supplied) and LTE SIM label slots. On a right corner are a energy symbol (which is so small and scarcely flush as to be formidable to find by feel alone) and an unfortunately small volume toggle. All told, a Razr is one amazingly large phone. The slight tapering during a tip and bottom, along with a semi-exotic materials and implausible thinness, make this a genuine beauty to behold.
Internally, a user is treated to some top-drawer silicon: a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 16GB of inner storage (separate from a microSD card), a full 1GB of RAM, and all a standard sensors and wireless connectivity (including Verizon’s so-fast-it’s-silly 4G LTE) you’ve come to design in a flagship smartphone.
SOFTWARE
As of this writing, a Droid Razr comes with Android Gingerbread 2.3.5, yet Motorola has betrothed vociferously that it will get Ice Cream Sandwich / Android 4.0 during some point. So, it’s future-proof, yet how distant off that destiny competence be is anyone’s guess.
Motorola has also enclosed a latest apartment of UI customizations and value-added apps, that they’re no longer job by a specific name (e.g., MotoBlur). So, I’ll usually impute to it as a Moto UI. Motorola has positively schooled from a past mistakes. Where MotoBlur was a box investigate in terribleness, a latest Moto UI is very, unequivocally functional, if still a small reduction engaging to demeanour during than HTC’s Sense or Samsung’s TouchWiz UIs.
In fact, a some-more we used a Razr, a some-more we started to conclude a small things Moto is removing right. Many of a customizations they’ve combined to a Android OS are constrained and supplement genuine value. For example, Moto includes on-board a unequivocally good involuntary form manager called “Smart Actions.” Smart Actions lets we set adult profiles consisting of time of day, location, events (e.g., removing docked), and so on that, when activated, means a phone to automatically do something.
The easiest instance is a initial one we set up: every night during 9pm, a phone gets incited down to 0% liughtness and all ringers and quivering are incited off. Then, during 6am, it gets easy to 50% liughtness and max ringer/notification volume + vibration. we could, for example, supplement a plcae qualifier to that to contend usually change a settings if I’m during home, so that’s unequivocally cool. Sure, there are lots of 3rd-party apps that do a same thing, yet carrying it already on-board is appreciated.
Another value-added UI encouragement is a ability to drop particular notifications from a presentation shade. Stock Android (prior to 4.0) and other OEM UIs all offer usually mass-dismissal of notifications, that is flattering stupid — sometimes, you’d like to keep usually one to get behind to after on. With Moto’s UI, we can do that.
Also, distinct HTC, that usually shows adult to 8 recently-used apps when long-pressing a Home button, a Razr will uncover we adult to 20. Nice. So, in a nutshell, since Motorola used to have a genuine waste when it came to comparing their Android UI modifications to those of Samsung and HTC, we would contend it’s no longer many of an issue. Yes, some of a menus are a small tasteless — a Settings icons are all still monochrome (seriously, Moto, we can’t means tone icons?), for instance — yet functionally, I’d put a Moto UI adult there with any of them.
One square of software that a Razr offers (along with a Bionic, Droid Atrix, and Photon) is Motorola’s innovative Webtop app. See next for some-more on that as partial of a contention of a Lapdock 100 laptop-style smartphone dock.
Other than that, Moto and Verizon have pre-loaded a Razr with a metric ton of 3rd-party apps. Amazon Kindle, Blockbuster, GoToMeeting, Let’s Golf 2 Demo, Madden NFL 12 Demo, MotoACTV, MotoPRINT, My Verizon, Netflix, NFL Mobile, Pandora, QuickOffice, Slacker, VCAST, and many other apps consecrate a substantial “bloatware” bucket on a Razr. Sure, some of these are things I’d differently download, yet I’d cite many of them not being there to start with.
USABILITY
For me, detached from app accessibility (not an emanate on Android), 4 factors establish a phone’s usability: size, speed, stability, and battery life. I’ve discussed a distance and, unless we wear pants with small pockets, it’s mostly a non-issue.
Regarding speed, this phone feels VERY fast. we never once beheld anything I’d call poignant perplexity or lagginess. The TI OMAP 4430 that runs a apps and a 300mhz PowerVR SGX 540, that pushes a pixels, mix to yield a unequivocally well-spoken experience. Rendering is fast, scrolling is fast, and downloading is fast, generally when doing so around Verizon’s 4G LTE (where we mostly see download speeds in additional of 15 mbps).
Stability has been excellent…in a brief time I’ve used a phone (about a week), I’ve not had a singular reset, force close, or other notable hiccup.
Finally, battery life. With a non-removable battery, we have to consternation if this will be a emanate that sours a whole thing. I’ve been unequivocally agreeably astounded during how good it is. A integrate of times, I’ve left a full 24 hours on a singular assign in a Wi-Fi environment. Plus, it seems that Verizon has gotten a 4G energy settings tweaked, as we was means to get a full day’s use on cellular/LTE each day we had a phone outward of Wi-Fi environments. So, all told, unless we was in an area with no Wi-Fi and unequivocally bad mobile reception, I’d trust a Razr to make it by a day though any trouble. Of course, YMMV.
WEBTOP THE LAPDOCK 100
Like we discussed in my review of a Motorola Droid Bionic and HD Dock, a Webtop judgment unequivocally appeals to me. we adore a judgment of being means to take my desktop work state with me inside my phone between sit-down computing sessions.
The Razr has dual Webtop accessories accessible for it: a HD Dock (which hooks adult to a TV or guard around HDMI) and a Lapdock 100, a laptop-style unstable keyboard wharf (shown above). The Lapdock 100 costs ~$250 and consists of a 1366×768 display, a QWERTY keyboard, an additional battery, and a wire to bond a phone.
Below is my video examination of a Lapdock 100.
So, I’d give a Lapdock 100 a B. It’s flattering organic and does supplement a decent keyboard and accessible additional battery to a Razr, yet a whole knowledge is still a small laggy and delayed to be truly enjoyable. Maybe we’ll see Webtop turn a unequivocally absolute apparatus when quad-core processors like a Tegra 3 make their approach to Moto’s phones. And, formed on how quick new Android inclination are being launched, that should be any day now.
SUMMARY
The Motorola Droid Razr on Verizon is a powerful, compelling, pleasing package with frequency any poignant trade-offs. If a Verizon patron was wanting a top-drawer smartphone, he could do much, many worse than by picking adult a Razr. Even during a reward cost of $300, we would have no perplexity during all about recommending it to friends and family.
The Lapdock 100, however, is not utterly as excellent. It’s a small too thick and complicated for what it does, and does slowly. But, for reduction than what a standard netbook costs, it competence make a decent backup device for someone who’s constantly regulating between locations. we could see a tyro regulating it to take records in class, for example.
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