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"Great phone. Can't wait to get one" on by PritchardV
Pros: + Call quality is great, music sounds good, video playback is excellent
+ Very solid build
+ Display is fantastic, colors are vibrantCons: - Camera could be better
- Battery is not removableSummary: I have read every review I can find and I have given it about a half hour of my time at the Verizon store, just playing with it. The phone is elegant and a joy to play with. I am new to Android, but my wife has an iPhone 4, so I have a frame of reference with the major competition.
There are a LOT of pluses with this device. 4G means this phone is fast. It is amazing how fast web pages load. I recently downloaded an album on my wife's iPhone, and it took almost 20 minutes. I fully expect to be able to download the same album on this device in under 5 minutes. I have watched the iPhone take minutes to do routine updates -- again, I expect more with the Razr, and feel confident it will be much faster.
The colors are vibrant -- and the pentile effect that some professional reviewers don't like is not all that visible to my amateur eye. If you like watching movies on your phone, the 4.3 inch screen will serve you well.
The phone is designed to be tough, even if you don't use screen guards and a case. Gorilla glass makes the glass difficult to scratch and almost impossible to break. Kevlar protects the back of the phone while still giving it a luxurious feel. I fully expect someone with more money than brains to buy one of these just to create a YouTube video testing if the Razr will stop a bullet. The design is aesthetically pleasing -- and it is a worthy successor to the Razr name.
There are some negatives about this phone. They aren't particularly important to me, but they might be to you.
First, the camera could be better. Though it doesn't have the horrible shutter lag of the Droid Bionic, it still takes a second or 2 to autofocus. Once it focuses, though, there is no shutter lag. Picture quality, however, is OK at best.
Second, it gets warm with heavy use -- though that seems to be a bug across the 4G platform. So if you want a 4G phone, expect it to get warm, at least at times.
Third, if you like using your phone with just one hand, this phone is not the one for you. While the Razr is the thinnest smartphone out there (7.1 mm for most of its body), it is most certainly not the narrowest. It is wider than both the iPhone and the Bionic, and if you have small hands it might feel awkward. Frankly, the Razr feels like a small tablet and less like a traditional phone.
Finally, and this is the biggie for a lot of people, the battery is not removable. When this is combined with the way 4G sucks down battery life, some potential owners will run away. However, if you are worried about battery life on the go, there are some wonderful external batteries available on Amazon, about the the size of a cellphone themselves, that should solve that problem before you get your phone into a charger.
Overall, a great phone - and if you will buy the DROID RAZR I suggest you have to check for best deal before you decide at: Flixya.com/blog/3913111/Motorola-DROID-RAZR-4G
Good Luck! -
"An fantastic phone that won't be for everyone" on by masterazunai
Pros: 1. Large, LED screen that has great colours, and even on a low brightness setting it looks great.
2. Wickedly fast browsing and almost completely free of lags in operation
3. The sexiest android I have ever seen. You'll make all your friends jealous.Cons: 1. Very wide (I have very large hands, and this is therefore not a problem at all for me).
2. Mediocre battery life, though still the best of Verizon's LTE lineup.
3. No removable battery (though there is a hard reset available)
4. Expensive!Summary: I recently switched from AT&T to Verizon (completely worth the change for any of you frustrated with your cell phone service provider... the coverage is fantastic), and had no doubt about which phone I was going to get. Back in February, I got the Inspire the day it launched, and the terrible battery life, 10 minute boot times, Sense, and the eventual breaking of my micro-usb port led me over to the Atrix... it was love at first sight. Motorola's version of Android was much less intrusive than Sense (this was 2.3 not 2.2), and the overall performance of the phone (not to mention the outstanding batter life on that particular phone) easily outstripped the Inspire. However, AT&T remained a problem. Inevitably, I switched to Verizon, and after the wonderful experience I had with the, it was only logical I switched to the oh-so-sexy Razr. This phone has lived up to all of my expectations. I'll give you a detailed rundown:
After a little over a week with the Razr, I have to laud it even more. Battery life has proven to be good and bad at the same time. On standby (even with 4g active) I get about 2 days of time out of the phone. This is without any use mind you, as I had lost the phone for a while. Calling, texting, reading books, playing games, and even IMing and Facebook don't drain the battery to drastically, but even with full charge, 2 hours of LTE browsing will bring the battery down to 15%. This sucks, but being able to turn off 4g does a lot to help this problem when you're on the go.
Connectivity:
Let's face it: no matter how nice your phone is, it's a hunk of metal and glass without cellular service. Verizon deserves it's rep, and with all the driving I did over the Thanksgiving weekend, I lost 3g and 4g only once, and this was on a backcountry road on the way to my relatives in South Carolina. I'd say this loss lasted about a minute. Other than that, I was happily downloading music, texting, and browsing the internet at 3 and 4g speeds throughout the trip. Outside of cities, 4g coverage can be hard to come by, but there is almost always 3g in abundance, and I averaged about 1 mbps down on my connectivity test throughout the trip on 3g. That's fine (and above average for AT&T) and will get most cell phone internet surfers fairly easily through browsing, but faster is always better, right? 4g ranges anywhere from 3 mbps to 17 mbps down. This is INSANELY fast. In my house (which is not covered by AT&T), I have no use for wi-fi, because my 4g coverage is faster than my wi-fi. Speaking of wi-fi, this phone's connectivity to it is very good and has a very good range. Connectivity wise, this is a truly unparalleled phone.
Dimensions: We live in America, and what's more, most of us don't carry rulers around in our pockets, whether metric or english. So I'll give you the dimensions of this thing in terms of something we all have hanging around. Driver's licenses.
The phone is almost exactly 1 1/2 licenses long, and about 4/5 of a license wide. It's a hefty phone, and it definitely won't be for people with small hands, unless they like using the phone with two hands, of course. However, the focus of this phone is the thickness, or rather, the thin-ness of it. If you were to lay 7 credit cards on top of eachother, you'd have a perfect idea of how thin it is for 90% of the phone, and the "hump" that some people have made a fuss about is really only 2 (2!!!) credit cards thicker. At it's thickest point, it is only about 1 1/2 millimetres thicker than an iphone 4. If the whole phone were as thick as the "hump," it would still be a very thin phone.
Camera: I don't take a whole lot of pictures on my phone, and whenever I do they are only quick snapshots to be quickly posted to Facebook. However, to those of you who need a good camera on your phone, I don't think I'd suggest a phone. But, if you need a decent camera on your phone, I don't think I'd suggest the Razr. It takes fine pictures in good light and without zooming, but any zooming gives pictures a very grainy quality, and bad light does the same. The video, though, I have found is quite good. It adjusts well to light and captures action without much blur. Another nice thing about the video and photography on the phone are the the added features in the Motorola software. Ironically, these are features that are not available in stock android until Ice Cream Sandwich (this is a recurring theme), and even though I would much prefer ICS to Motorola's 2.3.5, I almost wonder if all the added ICS-esque features are a rude gesture to those of us (like myself) who have been pondering the merits of releasing a flagship phone contemporary to the first ICS phone.
Software: I never had the misfortune to deal with the (apparent) Motoblur atrocity, so even though the Atrix forced me to make a 'Blur account, I never felt slighted because the skin for 2.3.4 was so much better than Sense (in my own, humble opinion) and was apparently so much better than the 'Blur skin on the 2.2 Atrix. For those of you who did have to deal with the bad 'Blur, never fear, the Razr is here, completely free of Motoblur! In fact, I would go so far as to say that I would rather have the Motorola skin than stock 2.3, as it comes with many added benefits. Again, one might note some irony in the fact that ICS-esque features are apparent. The side swiping app menu, the ability to easily create folders, the blue backrounds, and the in camera editing tools are all VERY similar to Ice Cream Sandwich, and one must never forget the convenience of being able to sync all your social networking contacts to a phone, right on startup. I have been very pleased with Motorola's added software here.
I will also add that as a non-swyper, the multi touch keyboard is an absolute dream, and I type almost as fast on the phone keyboard as I do on a real keyboard on a laptop.
Hardware: On the ouside, Kevlar and Gorilla glass protecting the phonehave been much touted in the world of android world, and they stand up to the test. The back is waxed by something, and while it may seem like it scratches, the Kevlar underneath stands up to my fingernails, the sand and keys in my pockets, and the driver's license I used to measure it with. It would NOT scratch. I haven't test the glass on the front, but I have had many good experiences (meaning potentially bad experiences that turned out harmless because Gorilla glass is effective) with Gorilla glass, and it has never proven itself wrong.
On the inside, a 1.2 ghz processor that thinks its a 1 ghz processor sleeps (I haven't noticed any real difference between the Tegra 2 in my Atrix and the OMAP in the Razr anyhow), and it provides nearly flawless performance in all the areas I frequently use. In fact, the Razr has better browsing times (you can find any of these tests online) than the iphone or the SG2 (though the SG2 still tests higher than the Razr in many areas... more on this later). Now I'll give some test numbers (I quit all tasks before the tests, but did not reboot):
Antutu Benchmark (a cumulative benchmark that test many different functions of the phone, and it allows you to easily compare the phone to other devices... and I ran this twice): Averages 5951.5, which puts it above the SG2, by about 50 points (better graphics processing, better cpu float point, worse RAM and worse cpu integer), but about 20 points below the Galaxy Nexus for, though strangely enough the areas in which it excels above the SG2 it excels even more so above the Galaxy Nexus, though in the areas that it lags behind it lags behind even further when pitted against the Nexus.
Linpack (tests millions of floating point operations per second. Basically these a complex math problems given to the phone, and the app times how fast the phone completes them. I ran multi-threading and single-threading each 5 times and took the average): The phone averaged 49.7992 on single-thread testing, and it averaged 74.5556 on multithreading. This ranks the phone above phones/tablets like the nexus s, the galaxy tab, the dell streak, the htc incredible, and the g2, though the incredible and the g2 both had scores above the Razr.
Final Comments: This is a good phone. In fact, I'd say it was a great phone, and I am extremely glad that I didn't wait for the galaxy nexus. However, the battery life, while not bad, is not fantastic. The phone is extremely thin, but very wide. It has good call quality, but the battery life can make frequent calling without a charger (especially on 4g, though keep in mind that 4g can be turned off) hazardous. This isn't a perfect phone for everybody, but for those of you who like a big, thin, sexy, powerful phone, look no further than the Droid Razr.
Updated on Nov 30, 2011
Secondly, my 4g speed have gotten even better. I've peaked at 32 mbps with full bars, with webpages, songs, and apps loading extremely fast.
The processor really shines in heavy usage. The type of multi-tasking I do with this thing would likely have killed my poor Atrix. The internals are truly powerful.
I can't stress enough how amazing this phone is. I wouldn't trade it for any phone on or coming to the market. -
"Sexy, rugged, fast, functional and excellent display" on by GameDiversity
Pros: 1) Excellent call quality, 2) very fast processing, 3) sexy, rugged and well constructed, 4) excellent display for NetFlix, etc., 5) very helpful applications: Motocast, Motoprint, Smart Action, MotoActv, 6) very functional complimentary products: lapdock
Cons: 1) Burns through battery charge, 2) maybe too wide for small hands and 3) average to below average camera (I am using HDR Camera+ instead of pre-installed app for many photos
Summary: The Motorola Razr is simply an excellent phone ... the only drawbacks are the battery life, camera and width (if you have small hands). I really thought I was going to get the Galaxy Nexus, but now I am viewing that phone as purely a specialty item. When this phone gets ICS - OMG!
The more I use the phone, the more I really enjoy it. Smart actions is really helping me manage the battery life so I am okay (but wishing for better) in this department). The camera is still a mixed bag; however the video quality is excellent. I am also getting good use from my lapdock and motocast. I am passing on the Galaxy Nexus; I don't believe its camera will be any better and the RAZR is one eye-catching, well performing and functional phone.
Updated on Nov 17, 2011 -
"Great "Smartphone." Even better w/further customization" on by SirRyu1987
Pros: Fast
Smart Actions
Thin
Great display
Great call quality
CustomizationCons: Have not found any yet.
Summary: Well...this is the first time I review a smartphone, even though I have had many different smartphones, and have always done my research before buying. Having had iPhones, Windows Phones, and Android phones, I have tried pretty much everything out there (I have also had Web OS phones and Symbian). So, I can compare this great phone to those I have owned, and this phone beats them all, in pretty much every area (yes the iPhone/Rezound has better resolution).
I have used all of my phones in an enterprise environment (I works in IT Management). I send and receive tons of emails per day, and browse the web quite a bit. Therefore, battery life and having a phone that is fast and reliable is a must. The Razr has met all of these requirements better than any phone I have owned.
I have read some reviews that complain about the battery life. I think those that are "real" Android users, will know that any smartphone with Android will drain the battery fairly quick without further customization. These people that are complaining about the battery are probably setting up a lot of email accounts, social networking accounts, and have a lot of apps running background sync. This will totally drain your battery in a few hours. Therefore, to preserve battery life, you need to customize your email accounts, social networking accounts, and any other apps, to sync every few hours.
A great plus on the Razr is the Smart Actions, which automates the customization process. I have created several rules that apply when I am at home, work, or in the road. I have one that stops background sync when the phone is just seating. When I pick up the phone, it syncs up and I get any emails that were sent to me. Smart Actions is just awesome! Now I can truly call my phone a "Smartphone."
Also, call quality is better than any phone I have had, so far no dropped calls.
So, if you do not want to spend some time to customize this phone to be even better than it already is, then go for the iPhone or a Windows phone, which are designed for users that want a "limited" smartphone from the get go.
You may have heard that Android is for geeks, and in some sense that is correct, but anyone can take a few minutes to customize their Android phone to get the most out of it.
So, I highly recommend this phone above any phone out there, just know that you need to dedicate some time to make it your own, but if you do, I promise you will be highly satisfied. -
"Exceeded My Expectations" on by rcm1454
Pros: Amzingly fast speed, great call quality, ease of use
Cons: None that i can think of.
Summary: I have used this phone for the last 5 days, after dropping my Blackberry Bold. I was apprehensive to learning a new OS, going to a larger phone, and battery life being too short. I am very pleased with the phone in all three aspects. The current oerating system, not sure if it is gingerbread, butternut, cheesecake or whatever other ridiculous name they put on it, but it is ver yeasy to use; almost intuitve. The speed of the phone, and browser capability is also amazing. Obviosuly coming from Blackberry, where the browser is awful makes the Rzr shine, but it is so fast and easy to download and install apps, I am a convert for sure. The battery life has been "fine". Not great, not bad. IT definitely is not what the Bold was, but how could it be? Finally, the phone is so thin and light, the overall larger footprint doesnt bother me at all, and fits in a pair of jeans very easily.
overall I love this phone....and would recommend this to anybody!
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