MOBILE

Droid RAZR HD And RAZR MAXX HD Smartphones Review (Part 1)

6/21/2013 5:47:48 PM

The Motorola Droid RAZR HD and Droid RAZR MAXX HD are Android-based, 4G LTE-capable smartphones designed by Motorola as the successor to the Droid Razr series. Notable changes from their predecessors include 720p resolution displays and increased display size while maintaining similar overall dimensions. Additionally, the battery capacity on the standard RAZR HD improved 42% from its predecessor. These smartphones were released on October 18, 2012 exclusively on Verizon Wireless in the US.

RAZR MAXX HD (left) and RAZR HD (right)

RAZR MAXX HD (left) and RAZR HD (right)

When Motorola restored the RAZR brand in 2012, we did not realize that we were looking at the new face of the company. At that time, Google had not officially taken over this mobile phone manufacturer yet, it had many unimpressive devices and while it was a modest success, the Droid RAZR did not exactly turn the market on its head. However, in retrospect, it is quite reasonable when RAZR becomes the standard-bearer for Motorola. Despite the fact that we were not impressed by 2012’s model, it was a big step in the right direction for the company, a device that featured a great mix of premium styling and performance. The new RAZR HD and MAXX HD take that basic attempt to address our concerns about the display and battery life, the latter of which was already handled in dramatic fashion by the RAZR MAXX. So, how do the latest caps-happy, vowel-averse handsets from Motorola stack up against 2012’s incarnations and the current crop of competitors? Keep on reading to find it out.

Hardware

More than anything else, the RAZR line is all about design and hardware – the HD series is no different. The entire backs of the two devices are wrapped in Kevlar, with a distinctive herringbone-like pattern of black and gray rectangles that give the rear of the phones a very smooth, seamless feel. Holding it naturally, that surface is only interrupted by the small Motorola logo inserted in the middle of the device. Above that are the speaker and the 8-megapixel camera. Finally, the Droid RAZR HD sees Motorola bid the camera hump adieu. The design flourish made its most high-profile appearance in the Droid X and made a return in devices like the Atrix HD and original Droid RAZR. There is still a slight taper to the body, but no obvious bulge to house the sensor. At 8.4mm thin, it is quite a slender device. It may not get down to the nearly anorexic 7.1mm of the Droid RAZR but that additional volume is put to good use by the 2,500mAh battery which, as we’ll see later, stomps all over its predecessor. The MAXX HD is a bit thicker at 9.33mm and has no taper, which allows it to fit a stunning 3,300mAh powerpack inside. Larger battery and increased storage (32GB vs 16 GB) are what distinguishes between the $199 RAZR HD and the $299 RAZR MAXX HD. Otherwise, they’re the same phone.

The RAZR HD is quite slender at 8.4mm thin

The RAZR HD is quite slender at 8.4mm thin

The RAZR MAXX HD (left) is thicker (at 9.33mm) than the RAZR HD(right)

The RAZR MAXX HD (left) is thicker (at 9.33mm) than the RAZR HD (right)

The slightly body leaves space for a nice strip of aluminum around the edges and allows Motorola to spread out the various ports and buttons. The top houses only the headphone jack, a drastic change from the original Droid RAZR, which also found room there for the HDMI and micro USB ports.

HDMI and micro USB ports are moved to the left-hand side, towards the bottom

HDMI and micro USB ports are moved to the left-hand side, towards the bottom

Instead, it is moved to the left-hand side of the handset, towards the bottom of the body, below the hidden tray for the micro SIM and micro SD cards. On the right side, there are a Power button and a Volume rocker, which are textured very nice and depress with a satisfying amount of feedback. At the front, you’ll find the necessary sensors and an HD camera for Video chats and self-portraits. Sandwiched between the earpiece and Motorola logo is a long, thin notification LED that underlines the company name.

Up front, there’re sensors and an HD camera; sandwiched between the earpiece and Motorola logo is a LED

Up front, there’re sensors and an HD camera; sandwiched between the earpiece and Motorola logo is a LED

Combine all with an edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass on the surface and you have got a rather solid and senior-feeling device. Actually, the word that we’d like to use to describe it is “dense” – like a brick. It has the same size and weight as the Galaxy Nexus but, subjectively, it feels a bit heavier when you hold both at the same time. It is about 1mm thinner than the Nexus but as its straight sides and almost featureless body, it feels a bit more inconvenient in the hand. Despite being narrower than the Galaxy S III and One X, the RAZR HD and MAXX HD seem a little too big. It’s such a shame because we love the heft and stunning build quality. From a construction and material selection point of view, the RAZR line belongs in the same class with One series of HTC and iPhone. But, as time gone by, the small inconveniences of the design became increasingly clear. It’s almost as if Motorola forgot to care about safety and efficiency when building the devices, making one-handed operation a bit more fatigue. It was impossible to find a position that allowed this reviewer to stretch across the screen with his thumb while keeping the lock key within easy reach.

RAZR HD’s 4.7-inch screen

RAZR HD’s 4.7-inch screen

One of the most welcome changes to the RAZR line, of course, is the screen. Motorola has gone from a 4.3-inch panel to a 4.7-inch one and bumped up the resolution from qHD to a full 1,280 x 720, without changing the handset’s size. Of course, being a version of Super AMOLED HD, that means we’re still looking at a PenTile layout here. It’s not a bad screen at all. Although it can’t compete with the stunning LCDs of the Optimus G or the One X, it’s at least on par with the Galaxy Nexus. Colors are bright and saturated while darker areas are deep and almost light absorbing – perhaps unnaturally so. But jagged edges are hard to spot, viewing angles are extraordinary and it shrugs off direct sunlight as a minor inconvenience. However, one of the biggest surprises was the speakerphone, which was loud, clear and one of the best we have ever heard in a long time. And you’ll be able to us that speaker almost everywhere in the world since, in addition to the Verizon standard LTE and CDMA radios, the RAZR HD and MAXX HD also support GSM 850/900/1,800/1,900 and HSPA on the same hands, plus 2,100 MHz.

 

Other  
 
Top 10
Extending LINQ to Objects : Writing a Single Element Operator (part 2) - Building the RandomElement Operator
Extending LINQ to Objects : Writing a Single Element Operator (part 1) - Building Our Own Last Operator
3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 2) - Discharge Smart, Use Smart
3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 1) - Charge Smart
OPEL MERIVA : Making a grand entrance
FORD MONDEO 2.0 ECOBOOST : Modern Mondeo
BMW 650i COUPE : Sexy retooling of BMW's 6-series
BMW 120d; M135i - Finely tuned
PHP Tutorials : Storing Images in MySQL with PHP (part 2) - Creating the HTML, Inserting the Image into MySQL
PHP Tutorials : Storing Images in MySQL with PHP (part 1) - Why store binary files in MySQL using PHP?
REVIEW
- First look: Apple Watch

- 3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 1)

- 3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 2)
VIDEO TUTORIAL
- How to create your first Swimlane Diagram or Cross-Functional Flowchart Diagram by using Microsoft Visio 2010 (Part 1)

- How to create your first Swimlane Diagram or Cross-Functional Flowchart Diagram by using Microsoft Visio 2010 (Part 2)

- How to create your first Swimlane Diagram or Cross-Functional Flowchart Diagram by using Microsoft Visio 2010 (Part 3)
Popular Tags
Microsoft Access Microsoft Excel Microsoft OneNote Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Project Microsoft Visio Microsoft Word Active Directory Biztalk Exchange Server Microsoft LynC Server Microsoft Dynamic Sharepoint Sql Server Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2012 Windows 7 Windows 8 Adobe Indesign Adobe Flash Professional Dreamweaver Adobe Illustrator Adobe After Effects Adobe Photoshop Adobe Fireworks Adobe Flash Catalyst Corel Painter X CorelDRAW X5 CorelDraw 10 QuarkXPress 8 windows Phone 7 windows Phone 8 BlackBerry Android Ipad Iphone iOS