Motorola Droid Razr Maxx (Verizon Wireless)

Pros: Great Battery, very good screen, fast, good looking and nice build

Cons: Pricey, glitchy, small issues

Summary: I'm an iPhone user. I'm not an Apple fanboy though. In fact, I hated Apple products. But when I went to a smartphone a couple years back, head-to-head comparisons put the iPhone well ahead of anything else. That gap is closing.

I primarily picked up a Razr Maxx after hearing that Verizon was once again changing their data plan. I wanted to try an Android-based 4G phone before that kicked in. After a little research the Razr Maxx seemed like the obvious choice for me.

The biggest reason out of the gate is the battery. It's great. I ran that phone all day long on the 3G network, streaming music, surfing, downloading and installing apps, you name it. At night I still had 30 - 40 % battery life. Amazing.

The screen is great. It's large and pretty sharp. It's not as good as the iPhone Retina display, but since it's so much bigger it gets a bonus point. The gorilla glass was impressive as was the kevlar on the back. It's a great looking phone.

My phone was still running Gingerbread although ICS had just rolled out and an update would be coming over the air any day. I found the Android software a little easier to use, slightly more intuitive than iOS, but only a little. I still had to look some stuff up online but once there you can find anything.

It is great to be able to do so much customization with the Android. I was very pleased to see how many great apps there available now. I use my iPhone for everything - calls, email, texting, surfing the net, and most importantly - MUSIC!

I stream music to a couple Bluetooth devices (Bose Soundlink, Motorola Headphones) through Slacker, Pandora, Rhapsody, and anything else I happen to have (Spotify, iHeart Radio, etc.). This is where I ran into my first real problem with the Razr. The music would make quick skip or 'tick' noises during playback. It was always random but always a couple times each song and across all apps and Bluetooth devices. I looked for answers and found a couple people reporting the same problem but now solutions. I have never had this problem with the iPhone.

I also did not have the 4G reception that I'm supposed to have. Now they have just begun rolling out 4G in my area and we will get more and more, but the map says I should have it and I don't. Strike two but please note this is a strike against Verzion and not the Razr Maxx.

I also noted several little glitches in some of the apps. If I'm running streaming music and turn off the Bluetooth speaker or headphones, the music then starts coming out of my phone. iPhone automatically stops the music. This might seem like a little thing, but it was a big thing for me.

Another annoyance with regard to music was the volume rocker on the Razr Maxx. I did not like it's placement or it's feel. But worse is the fact that volume control function did not seem to operate linear-ally. It was very strange and hard to describe but a search showed this as an issue across certain Motorola platforms so it gets another strike for that.

Last was the price. At $299 plus an upgrade, its was just too much. Had I stopped by even a couple weeks earlier I could have gotten it for $199 on sale but I missed out. At $299 and with the noted issues above I decided to return the phone and go back to the iPhone until later this year.

The iPhone 5 is coming out supposedly, and also a new Razr Maxx HD. I'll do a head to head then and see how things go. If the iPhone has a larger screen and bigger/batter battery life it will be hard for the Razr to keep up if they do not fix those little annoyances. You have to give it Apple when it comes to that stuff - they got that on lock.