Motorola DROID RAZR 4G Android Phone, Black 32GB (Verizon Wireless)

Fantastic phone, and is a great iPhone replacement so far November 13, 2011

Reviewer:  Critical Reviewer 

I have been waiting for this phone for quite a while and have spanned the internet looking for reviews on this thing before i bought it. I have had this phone from 11/11/11 and since launch time.

Here are some key things i will review to help you make your decision (hopefully)

Let me first tell you WHY i got the droid razr. A midst the launch of many great cell phones i chose the droid razr because of a few reasons. First let me tell you i talk on the phone about 700 minutes a month, majority of my phone calls are to my family and taking care of business. The remainder i spend my time surfing the web, doing HW, downloading things etc. This means that i will be looking at this phone from both a productivity and multimedia standpoint. I am never home because i am always at school with projects involved in research etc. Thus whatever time i get to connect with family, i use this phone to do it, i have a newborn baby at home so i don't get to spend as much time with her as i wish, this phones front facing 1.3 MP camera does a fantastic job relaying my photo over, although i wish it had a wider mm lense, so it could produce a bit of a wider picture, same goes for the rear facing camera.

The 4g connectivity is what sets this phone apart from everything else, its fantastic, and especially if you're grandfathered in (as i am) to unlimited, the possibilities are quite endless. With that being said i will break down my review

Phone- As in voice calling, call quality

Call quality through the earpiece has been phenomenal, i have been very amazing how clear the phone calls have been and how well i can hear them.

As you make phone calls, the favorites starts putting contacts in this bar as you call your favorite people since those become your most frequently contacted within your favorites- Very intuitive feature, i really like it.

Speakerphone quality is not the best, i would give the best sounding speakerphone to the iPhone, it's very good in terms of producing natural sounding conversation, the Razr, not so much, at the highest volume you will notice crackling, though keep in mind we are talking about a phone call, not music playback.

- Productivity

I find the functionality of being able to pull up my research documents and homework assignments very quickly through the network and the phone. The phone handles pdf, doc, etc files very well, i have noticed no lag.

In addition, i love how i can edit a file on the phone itself, email it to whoever i want, OR upload it to my boxnet account and make it available to all of my colleagues through a link; i never have to touch a laptop.

-Web Experience

Here i have to add, i don't know why the heck Motorola decided to put in 2 steps in order to be able to bookmark a page, its stupid, i should be able to click add and ok. Not click bookmark, which takes me to another page, then click add, then name it then ok. That i think is a burden.

Websites load fantastic, there aren't any websites that have slowed this phone down, and I am very satisfied. Flash is not quite completely obsolete yet, and quite a few sites, important sites, utilize flash. Although i will agree with Steve jobs that flash is a piece of power hogging uselessness.

-Music

Phones does a great job with music, and when you lock the screen you can see what's playing, touch it, and it will allow you to stop, skip to the next track and skip back.

The speakerphone quality here is descent, not the best but descent, i watch a lot of Netflix and it gets the job done, nothing i would return the phone over with.

Battery life-

If you video chat on 4g, your batter will die in 30 minutes, from 100%-0%. It is not necessary to carry a portable charger, for the average user, (i am a Super power user) a day's worth of batter is something this phone can provide and more.

-Screen
The screen maybe pentile, but the only time it makes a difference is when your typing, the boxes around the letters just don't look right. I just love the display though. I know the HTC Rezound is coming out, but I used to have an EVO and the phone just started having issues after 1 year.

-Brand
Ok, Motorola, I used to work there, and by no means do I have a bias towards Motorola, infact quite the opposite can be said. However, Google bought Motorola mobility, and the thing is, in the future, moto and Google will be quite close, that to me puts everything at an advantage vs. the Samsung brand. I've always had a gripe about Samsung phones feeling too cheap, they just feel cheap.

-Speed
The phone is very zippy, only lag is Moto cast. There are absolutely no complaints in zippiness of the phone.
Quality and feel-
I don't notice in my pocket, and I love that. By no means does it feel cheap.
It is very wide so I have a bit smaller hands and had a hard time holding it, so I got a grippy silicone case and it has been great ever since.

-Camera

The camera is pretty damn good, I don't think its bad at all, it certainly is a step up from the bionic. I have found increasing exposure in all my pics gives me better results.

Overall-

I love this phone, and wouldn't trade it for the resound or the nexus galaxy. I think it does what it does really well. If you're considering it and you're just like I in use of the phone then this phone will suit you really well, I really like the thinness, the feel of the phone. Nano coating water repellant technology is great and removable batteries are of the past. It's time to carry back up batteries, no long spare batteries in our wallets.

I will update my review as time goes on.

*********UPDATE AS OF 11.25.2011******************

So far the phone has been really well behaved, no issues. Although i did have it crash because i went app crazy and one of the apps did harm the phone, no worries, reinstalled and am more careful about what i download.

If you have been getting the stupid spam notifications, for me it was the mp3 downloader app. Its been spamming me left and right.

- Battery Life note:

Its been 7 days of my 4g test, and i have gotten through the entire day with 4g on, my day starts at 10am- and ends at about 11pm and ive gotten through the entire day with moderate use with 20% battery life remaining. I will say, that this phone has been very reliable and i havent found the need to carry around a charger or an actual backup battery. I WILL SAY it is really good to utilize this app called "Notification Toggle" and you can use it to quickly turn on and off bluetooth, wifi, 4g etc. i use this when i know i will be having a heavy usage day.

Screen-

Really, pentile is not bad here, yea the HTC rezound screen is phenomenal and great and all, but remember what i said, Google and motorola are going to be the next big thing, have patience and fun little update packages will come to us Razr holders sooner than other phones.
I really love the color saturation as well.
Software-

HUGE HUGE HUGE POINT remember when i said my phone kept crashing? Well guess what it was, i was using task killers (not the one installed on the phone). When i stopped using task killers and uninstalled them entirely, i dont know why my battery life became prolonged, my phone didnt crash (when i had the task killers installed, the screen would randomly become unreponsive or something irritating like that) so when i factory reset it, i did not install ANY task killers and i have to say i have had a very pleasant experience since then. i have been using the onboard task killer and that does plenty.

I also have lookout mobile security installed, i always want to protect myself from phishing etc.

Music-

Really wish it had a stronger speaker. that is all. Other than that i really like the interface.

freedom-

I dont know why, but i have found the motorola is just more customizable than the HTC line, i bought my wife a thunderbolt and i just returned it and ordered the penny deal Razr 4g. We now own 2 razrs. I just feel they do a better job than the thunderbolt.

Video Chat-

I have found that the 1.3 MP HD Front facing camera on the razr is phenomenal in comparison to the front facing camera with the thunderbolt. I had my wife move the phone at a very fast pace with her thunderbolt and it did a REALLY BAD JOB with the FPS( it was very laggy like a crappy quality camera). The Razr on the other hand captured it all, and in addition it was brighter. Believe me i am NOT a motorola fanboy, so i was quite impressed with this. Remember i said video chatting was important to me.

Call Quality-

No Changes, still happy here.

Flash-

I was really impressed the other day, when i did my Flash/Java based homework (which is VERY VERY VERY CPU Consuming) on my razr. Since this was very resource intensive, it had a slight bit of lag, but nothing that irritated me. I was incredibly impressed that even this program ran, and i was able to finish the homework before the deadline. I will say, it is WISE to invest in a bluetooth mouse and bluetooth keyboard for this phone. The possibilities are quite endless.

I have uped my stars from a 4 star to a 5, for all the good this phone does, the bad is quite miniscule. I am very impressed.

So far the best 4G phone on Verizon (including Rezound) November 15, 2011

Reviewer:  Conflicted "spaceheartl4" 

I bought this phone on 11/11/11 after some serious back-and-forth about waiting for the Rezound and Galaxy Nexus. While I was in the store I was fortunate enough to get to play with the Rezound demo the staff had just received, and I still chose the Razr. And here's why:

Screen- the super AMOLED screen on the Razr blew me away. It just looked so sharp compared to the Rezound. I know the resolution on the Rezound is better (720p), but I still felt the Razr screen won.

Battery- the Razr has a larger battery (1780 mAH). I went on a road trip this weekend, and even with heavy usage (watching videos, playing games, taking pictures) and switching between wifi, 3g and 4g, the battery lasted me about 6 hours one day and 9 the other (from 100 to 10%). Then today for a "normal" work day of chatting, texting, some video/games, it has lasted me over 12 hours and is only at 20% battery now. Part of the reason are the "smart actions" and processor speeds, discussed below.

Processor- this has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, lower than the 1.5GHz dual-core of the Rezound. However I noticed very little difference between the two phones when switching between apps, and for loading web pages both will be super fast on Verizon's 4G network. Also, the lower processor probably contributes to the longer battery life.

Speaker- I was excited by the Rezound's beats audio, but the external speaker is not any more impressive than other phones; the key is the headphones. That being said, the speaker on the Razr is louder, but makes a crackling noise when someone is talking (in video or on speakerphone). This is a huge drawback for me as I use my speakerphone a lot. You can get around it by not using the full volume, but you shouldn't have to do that, imo.

Camera- Here the rezound wins, with a better, wide-angle lens, but the Razr's will still capture 1080p video, 8MP pictures, and is perfectly satisfactory for a phone.

Smart Actions - this is the coolest feature of the phone! You can set it to pretty much do anything from certain triggers. For instance, when the display is off, at night, it will switch to silent mode. Or when I am connected to my home wireless, it will turn off GPS and 4G data.

Some final thoughts: Gorilla Glass and Kevlar backing are a huge plus. Also, this phone is so thin and light! After playing with the Rezound and Razr for a few minutes, I just couldn't put the Razr down, it's weight and screen converted me!

Don't listen to the negative reviews based on price November 11, 2011

Reviewer:  Brian Rokosz 

So far the negative reviews for this phone are based off of what Amazon is charging for it ($249 for upgrade customers, $111 for new customers)...the phone is $300 in Verizon and $300 with a ton of accessories over at Costco today.

Now, as for the actual phone itself...it's good. The screen is a new AMOLED Advanced which means it can use the same pixel density as other AMOLED screens but provide a better color saturation...while the Nexus and upcoming Rezound have higher pixel ratios the screen on this still looks great.

The operating system is android's kind of new Gingerbread with Motorola's overlay called Blur. It slows the device down a little bit but provides their own custom interface that creates a more flashy transition between apps, screens, etc.

Also Motorola's RAZR has Kevlar on the back for strength, a nano-coating on the outside and inside for splash protection, and gorilla glass 2.0 for the screen...this might be the first legit Droid where no case is required.

Call quality from MobileTechReview, Phonedog, CNET, and others all say this phone is excellent, as is the smoothness of the web browser and the gps.

The only negative is that the battery isn't removable so the battery in the phone is all you get...what that means for me is nothing though since I have a car charger and charger at the office, not to mention the docking station doubles as one and looks good on my desk.

For ANYONE who's been a fan of Motorola's old RAZR, their new Droids, or just needs a new phone, this is the best one that's out there right now...yes better than the iPhone, especially if you like to customize things...nothing competes with Android in that regard.

The camera and the videocamera so far got good reviews as well, with the Camera side of it getting higher marks, especially when showing off the videos to your friends on the big screen.

Cloud service is standard as well as a smart actions app that can customize how the phone works everywhere you go...for instance it uses gps to detect when you're at work, connecting you to the wi-fi there, making your phone ringer change to vibrate on days when u have a meeting, etc..it's a really cool idea.

Finally through Motorola you can sync your PC to the phone and transfer data instantly...take a note in word for class, the note appears in Word back on your dorm laptop, want to listen to your itunes, music can be streamed from your PC's playlist without you having to actually put the songs on your phone.

It's a great device and everyone who's negative about it just for the price is really stupid...either get it now for $249 like the sad sad people paid 2 months ago for the Bionic, like people did for the Thunderbolt, and like people did for the Revolution....or wait till Black Friday and/or Christmas when I'm sure some sort of sale will be happening...either way it's a good phone.

Droid RAZR, by far the best Motorola smartphone yet! November 20, 2011

Reviewer:  H. Borton  (Michigan, USA) -

Not too long ago, I made a review regarding the Droid Bionic. After a couple days of playing with my friends' RAZR after it was released, I decided I had to switch. So this review, while I will try to cover a lot, will also help those users that have been debating between the normality of the Bionic, or the Ultra-thin sleekness of the RAZR.

DESIGN
While I have to admit, the RAZR is a little wider than the Bionic, the thinness is definitely worth it. I have actually found myself leaving my house and thinking I forgot my phone cause I couldn't feel it in my pocket. I have always been a fan of the RAZR line when I got my first one with Alltel, and was ecstatic to see that it was coming back, Android style! Everything just seems to work with this. The speaker has been moved to the top of the phone, making it less probable of accidentally covering it with your hand while watching YouTube or Netflix. The front facing camera (1.3mp by the way!!! Which is what the Bionic should have came with instead of that crappy VGA camera) is on the right side of the phone, which makes it more centered for video chat when in landscape mode. Some people have complained because the battery is non-removable. In my opinion, that battery works and is absolutely amazing! Why the hell would you want to remove it?! But more into the battery later in this.

NETWORK
To quote from my Bionic review: "Verizon 3G is already pretty good in my area. Verizon 4GLTE will leave you with your pants down! I tested this in Ann Arbor, MI and was blown away as to the speeds this thing was getting. 3G is already about 1-3mbps download for me, but on 4G, I was getting up to 30/mbps download speeds! Triple the amount compared to my friends Sprint EVO3D phone on their 4G network. Definitely not something that disappointed me here. Pages loaded fast, apps downloaded while you blinked!"
Now to add to it. With the Bionic I was experiencing data outages. Periodically I would drop data service completely, and wasn't able to use any apps or browsing. (I have been advised that a software update has been released and is being pushed to the Bionic's, so I'm hoping this has been fixed, but I haven't received confirmation yet.) With the RAZR, call clarity and data network is seamless. I've been told by people they can hear me a lot better, and that the call clarity in itself is about 10x better than what it was before. Data is amazing. Luckily I'm grandfathered into the unlimited data plan, so me and Netflix are best friends!! =) I haven't experienced any issues at all with data, 3G or 4G-LTE.

PERFORMANCE
The RAZR hasn't disappointed me at all in terms of speed & performance. The phone handles apps and multi-tasking with a breeze, with almost no lag at all. Even though the RAZR is carrying a 1.2 processor, versus the Bionic's 1.0, I haven't noticed much of a difference at all. But hey, bigger numbers right?!

BATTERY LIFE
Battery is just amazing! I have found myself having to get up at 5am before, and wouldn't be near a charger till 9pm at night, and still have battery life! This is a first on any Droid I've ever had! With the bigger battery, and the Smart Actions app from Motorola, this phone simply does not waste battery, but uses it sparingly!

DISPLAY
The screen is wonderful. The Super AMOLED display is stunning, gorgeous, riveting, and any other word you can think of. Colors are vibrant and bright, and there is just simply no complaints about it!

CAMERA
I didn't include a camera section for my Bionic review, but will for the RAZR because I feel that this should be addressed. Some have expressed concerns that the RAZR doesn't work as well as it should, or they receive different color tones than what should be. I haven't experienced any problems with it. Pictures are as crisp as I would've thought they would be, and the camera actually is a lot faster to respond compared to previous motorola cameras. The front facing 1.3 mp camera hasn't disappointed me either. I was concerned at first because when you hold the phone in your hand, you kind of have to tilt the phone to the left just to be centered. While I thought this may be a defect, after visiting the Verizon store and playing with their demo phone, I've found this is just how it is. I thought it was weird at first, but then when I did a video chat holding my phone in landscape, I was completely centered. So definitely a strange design of it, but I understand what it was all about.

OVERALL
After using the RAZR for about a week, I was more than willing to sell my Bionic and get rid of it! The differences between the two were just amazing. While I did enjoy the Bionic, I feel that the RAZR was the phone that everyone was hoping for; and almost wonder if the Bionic was just thrown together because it was promised in January, and still hadn't arrived. The RAZR is everything one could hope for. Fast, sleek, thin, sexy, and just plain Brilliant! There is hardly any bloatware on the phone, and what there is, about 90% of it you can remove. Motorola did a fantastic job with MotoCast, and updating the stock Music app to include this. My only complaint is that I wished the stock music app worked with Google Music, but I'm sure that will come when the next Android software is released. While in my own opinions I would recommend the RAZR over the Bionic, it's still naturally up to you, which phone style better suits you.

From Thunderbolt to RAZR November 18, 2011

Reviewer:  Andrew 

I just upgraded from an HTC Thunderbolt to this RAZR and I have to say that the RAZR is better in every respect. Previously, I was confident in HTC's build quality, UI enhancements, etc, but Motorola did a bang-up job here getting rid of Motoblur and replacing it with a much lighter interface. The signal is also better than my Thunderbolt... I can get reception in places I couldn't before.

-UI: Much better than the Thunderbolt I had previously, the mail app is much easier to navigate and has gestures (swipe right-to-left on a mail to delete, though you can change this and the other direction to simply mark mail as read), and switching between folders and e-mail accounts can be done in fewer taps. I'm not sure if this is Android 2.3.5 at work, or Motorola's customizations. Has a 3 icon dockbar + 4th app drawer icon, and the stock app icons look nice without being intrusive. Consistent colors and design between apps. Again not sure if this is Android or Motorola's doing.

-Display: Very nice high-res display. Plenty of room for notification icons at the top (the thunderbolt could only fit about 4, because it ALWAYS displayed a GPS icon to represent the E911 always-on GPS). Very sharp and crisp, and looks nice even at lower brightnesses. Other online reviews said the screen has a green tint because it's a PenTile display (though I've seen a few that dispute this). I personally don't see any green tint. If there is one, it's barely noticeable.

-Design: The phone is obviously very thin, probably one of the reasons you are considering this phone. I can say it's basically a pane of glass (Gorilla glass!) and a bit of plastic behind it. The microphone placement of the THREE microphones and the loud and clear speakers contribute to the good call quality. I wouldn't call it GREAT but I don't think I've used a cellphone with what I'd call 'GREAT' call quality. The camera is quite the shooter, capable of taking 1080p video (but NOT if you enable device encryption... it apparently can't write fast enough with encryption on, and limits you to sub-HD recording). My one nit-pick about the design are the ports on the top. It's the only place thick enough to have connectors which makes sense, but makes it hard to charge and use your phone, or if you leave it on your desk with cables going over the front, the phone is facing the wrong way to quickly glance at. The kevlar back is a nice touch, though it does get warm after using the phone for an extended period (so does the front glass, to an extent). I've seen people complain in reviews about the buttons on the side, and while the volume buttons are hard to press, it's just not something I change often so it hasn't been an issue.

-Apps: There is some included bloatware, but being Android 2.3.5, you can hide apps you don't want to see. You can uninstall the included commercial games as well. SmartActions app is a really great addition here. The app lets you set triggers and actions that will happen automatically on your phone. The triggers can be many things, from being near a certain location (based on GPS/WiFi), connecting to a certain wifi network (set it to your home or work wifi to have the rule only take effect there), battery level, motion sensor, etc. The actions can be changing just about any system setting on the phone, disabling or enabling radios, screen brightness/timeout settings, volume, and even automated text messaging (I guess if you wanted to invite somebody to dinner EVERY TIME you were near their house...?) I do miss HTC's great widgets, and Motorola's are a bit lacking (can't make them certain sizes such as 1x4), but I own Beautiful Widgets so that's not really an issue. The ability to unlock directly to the camera is nice, for when you want to take a picture of something before you miss it. You can also silence the phone from the lockscreen.

-Productivity: The inclusion of the Swype keyboard is great, and Quickoffice really shines when you can type/correct documents with it. In addition, this is the first phone I have ever used that will sync Tasks/To-Do from Exchange with the stock apps.

-Other: The battery is okay, without any power-saving features you will need to charge it daily, but if you use SmartActions to turn on/off wifi and cell data when you're asleep (you could set it to turn those off at midnight, and back on at 7am), or you use the phone's "Sleep" feature (instnat-on low power mode), you can stretch it to 48 hours with light e-mail checking and web surfing use. The front-facing camera is ugly, not in picture quality but the square it leaves on the front of the phone stands out. It's just cosmetic, however. I miss the kickstand from my Thunderbolt, too, but it's not such a big deal with all the other improvements this phone has over it.

I have the opportunity to use quite a few phones on a day-to-day basis as part of my work, but I have to say this is my favorite 'toy', not just because the design turns heads, but because it is a great phone, and probably the best 4G phone on the market.