Not a good phone at all September 26, 2012

Reviewer:  michael sather 

This phone was bad. the screen broke the earphone jack stopped working,the speaker blew out.and the is the second one i got. The first one stopped working with 4g. This is not including the poor battery life,adds i kept getting.
I would not recommend this phone to anyone.

A lot of kinks to work out, poor battery life, sub-par camera August 10, 2012

Reviewer:  E. A. Jones "movie buff" 

This is my first smartphone, so while I understand there may be a period of adjustment here, I spent a good 30 hours online looking up answers every time I had a problem and getting no help from Verizon customer/tech service with problems. I was very close to sending this back, but didn't. This is an edited/updated review after having the phone almost two months.

The first thing I noticed was that the phone would turn off or go into sleep mode sometimes when I changed position, especially if I was using the Netflix app. The first time I charged it, it would kick into sleep mode as soon as I laid it on a flat surface while charging. After upgrading to ICS it happens much less frequently but still happens. UPDATE: The power off/sleep mode problem resolved after upgrading the Netflix app twice. The first upgrade didn't help, but when the second upgrade arrived a day later, that one did. I believe there must have been a bug fix in that upgrade.

An app will still randomly turn on when I set the phone down on a surface or turn it to a different angle, but the addition of a pretty solid case on the phone seems to have helped. I can't tell you why, and maybe it's a coincidence, but only about once or twice a week does a random app come on when I put the phone down on a table. That used to happen constantly.

When I got the phone it still had Gingerbread. I found I used two things the most: The "ignore"/"answer" buttons when a call came in, and the Twitter contacts. Updated to Ice Cream Sandwich the second day and both those things were gone, and the new ignore/answer buttons are wonky, not working half the time.

Also gone was my ability to get texts in a timely manner -- suddenly my texts took 10-30 minutes to go through and 30-45 minutes for me to receive someone's text. You can't have a real time conversation like that, and that is what I use my phone for. Further, every time I went to Twitter from the home screen, it would disconnect me, and the sleep settings and ringtones I chose (from the default tones that came with the phone) never stayed once I went to ICS. UPDATE: The text issue has mostly resolved, after several very frustrating calls to Verizon. Despite saying that there was nothing they could do, I noticed that a dozen missing texts showed up while I was on hold with the third customer service rep. Since then, everything has been fine with only the very occasional dropped text.

The battery life was never good. I was charging it daily even though it sat idle most of the time, and if I used it for anything more than 2-3 minutes it got almost too hot to hold. UPDATE: The case I mentioned above makes the heat issue much more tolerable. However, the battery life on this really stinks. We used the phone for calls, texts, Twitter, photos, music and looking up info while on vacation a month ago and it was constantly running out of battery life. It would get low and I'd charge it for 1-2 hours from an outlet in the hotel room before heading out to the next place we were going and it would only charge up about 20-30%, which of course didn't last long. Very frustrating.

I found the user interface pretty poor and not intuitive. Maybe for those who had Gingerbread for ages, it made sense. For someone just starting out, it was very strange. Moving and deleting apps on my home screen took two hands and the luck of the Irish. To answer a call, you went through two screens, one when you hit the phone symbol on the screen, then a second screen with 3 small buttons that weren't labeled.

The backup list downloaded all my Gmail addresses and mixed them in with my phone numbers, and it was a huge mess. Plus it kept a random six people from my Twitter contacts after upgrading to ICS -- the rest of the Twitter contacts disappeared and the ability to sync Twitter friends into my address book was taken away, so I couldn't add the rest of my Twitter contacts.

The camera isn't very good. Focusing takes forever and half the time doesn't work. You do NOT want to use this for a situation where you'll want spur of the moment photos. Turning the flash off and on, zoom, and other features are very easy to use, but the photo quality isn't great. I have a six-year-old digital camera which works 10 times better than this phone, and you'd think with all the power packed into this thing it would have a good camera. Sadly, it doesn't.

Sound quality on calls is as good as my last phone, so I'm pleased. Sound quality for music is also good, but using Winamp for Android on the phone for an hour took the charge from 90% to 20%.

What I liked about the phone: The graphics were delightful. It played films well (when it wasn't shutting off randomly) and Twitter (when I could connect) and Gmail worked great. The keypad was nice and I liked the suggestions. So as a computer, it was very nice. As a phone you could text on, though, it wasn't even close to what I needed. I wish it had worked, I can't tell you how disappointed I am.

don't beleive the review of mM Mayes August 11, 2012

Reviewer:  Gail Williams  (Ellabell, GA, US) -

My name is Eric I drive a tanker truck for a living and was on top of my trailer standing and droped my phone about 15 feet onto the blacktop glass down and did not crack and only had a little scratch on the edge so i think its very durable

reminds me of the original RAZR April 1, 2012

Reviewer:  smhong 

The original RAZR flip phones were hot sellers because of their slim form factor and big screen. Much of the same can be said about the Droid RAZR. As slick as the design is, however, I found some major issues with the Motorola's version of Android OS and the battery life. Of course, battery life was also a big issue with the original RAZR. Anyways, I work in an office where there is spotty signal, where the phone has to intermittently switch from 3G to 4G to no data signal. This seemed to cause the phone to occasionally heat up even during standby mode. I've tried turning off the 4G LTE, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, in some combination or another, but the battery just did not get me through a normal 8-9 hour work day. This was very disappointing given that the phone usually sat on my desk or in my pocket unused during that time. Some texting and 10-15 minutes of web browsing with all the wireless modes turned on resulted in 15% battery left by 1pm, after an overnight charge! The OS also seemed to stutter on occasion and was generally not as polished visually or functionally as the HTC sense version (Sprint). I ran to the Verizon store after a week and gladly paid the $35 stocking fee to exchange it for the iPhone 4!

Conclusion: If you like the form factor of the new RAZR, go for it! But make sure you have good reception throughout the day and you don't use your phone very much, especially over 4G connection.

DONT BUY MOTOROLA! September 27, 2012

Reviewer:  javadrinker16 

This has been a nightmare. The "gorilla glass" fractured all on its own after 3 months. Motorola did not cover under warranty. Their customer service wasted my time by asking me to send it in and then refusing to cover it. They violated their own policy which is to either cover it under warranty or return it if it was abused. Instead they offered to fix it for $125. ITS A SCAM.
My complaint to their customer service email was ignored and yet they sent me a survey to ask how they were doing.
This is an amateur outfit!
Buy anything else - Samsung or whoever.
Unfortunately I have 4 of these dogs with another 1.5 years to go.
Should I bite the bullet and dump them now?

Too bad they lost a formerly loyal customer by treating me with disdain.

Know what you are getting - and you will get more than your expected July 24, 2012

Reviewer:  Tipscorner  (Boston, MA United States) -

I will not go into detail on all the ins and outs of the phone but will focus on a few key items:

1. The price was right when I got it, and if its not at this moment, then wait. I got it for free around 2.5 months ago. If its not free now, it will be, or look for another highly rated Android for $50 or less. I did want the Razr Maxx for the battery, but at the time, it was $200, and I could not justify the extra coin for a little more juice.

2. The battery, true, is not the best. I knew that walking in so I will not whine about it now. 99% of the time, it is enough for the day...and when I see it sapping out, I can easily put it in battery saver mode. (#1...keep the screen off when you do not use it...they also have a feature that shows which item pulls the most juice, and its always the screen.) I may get the PowerGen Black Mobile Juice Pack for $23.00 for when I do not have access to plugging it in.

3. Get a cover for it: Motorola Droid RAZR XT912 Shell Holster Combo W/ Kick-Stand -- this goes for less than $7.00 and provides full coverage. Best cover I have ever gotten for any price. Also, do not recommend getting a screen protector. The glass is tough, and I have never found any that do a good job at removing glare.

4. The 4G service is spotty in the Boston area. Hit and miss, but do not blame the phone for it. When it works, its great.

5. Camera is good, but not as good as the current iPhone. Not a deal breaker...I just found where it has this panorama stitching feature. Very cool. This can possibly improve with getting the right app. If you have a great app to recommend, let me know.

6. The Google GPS (Navigation) rocks the house...a HUGELY helpful service. I did get one of those suction cup holders for the window. Works well...just make sure you have it plugged in when using (and your car adapter is long enough...fortunately I still had one from an earlier BB...the one that Amazon threw in was cheap (but works) and too short for this application.

In addition -- it now comes with the newest version of Android (Ice Cream Sandwich). It was not clear when I bought it that they would upgrade this to the new version, but it came across over 2 weeks ago. See, when you buy an iPhone, you need to get a whole new one to get all the new software bells and whistles...not so here. The new SW is a big improvement on many many levels.

A Penny For Your.... PHONE! May 15, 2012

Reviewer:  Dennis "DTz"  (MD) -

Quite a mark-down since I bought mine last November when it was too new to be stocked. $750 price tag but, with a two-year contract, it sold for $299. And now it's a penny!!! Imagine that.

It didn't take long to realize the non-replaceable battery was not up to the task of keeping the phone alive all day but, Smart Panel has been effective at extending battery life. Although, it does cause me to reboot when disabled services can no longer be reconnected. The display is great but it's what discharges the battery the fastest. So, not a good phone for watching videos on battery power. The GPS app is one that constantly displays info but can break even if you keep it plugged into the car's power port.

The bad part about being so thin is that the camera lens geometry causes pics to appear as close ups. It does a good job in daylight - most of the time.

One thing to keep an eye on is USB settings. If you allow it to connect to USB when it is plugged in, it will mount and map two drives and load Web page that starts playing a Verizon promo for cloud backup. I think some of the issues like forgetting ringtones was caused by disconnecting the the USB cable without first safely removing harware.

Bottom line, it's a pretty good phone with a few glitches to get used to dealing with. For a penny, it's a steal.

Love it! May 13, 2013

Reviewer:  C. Crews "Mommacrystal" 

Have had the Droid Razr 4g almost a month now and have had no issues. I read reviews about horrible battery life and honestly if you don't run apps all day the battery life is pretty good. I have had no problems and am glad that I decided on the Razr despite some of the reviews. I have a bodyglove case on it and have dropped it twice, minor drops but still drops nonetheless. No problems :) I love this phone!

Great phone April 23, 2013

Reviewer:  Robin 

I have had my Droid Razr for over a year now and have had no problems at all with it. Best phone I have ever had!

A little disappointing April 10, 2013

Reviewer:  Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen"  (Mpls, MN United States) -

I'm more than a little disappointed in this cell phone. Many of the apps I enjoyed on my Driod X are not available on this one and aren't apparently available in the app stores either. Furthermore the feature I most enjoyed on this phone, the capacity to print from my photo gallery to my printer, they just removed in my latest "upgrade!" The commercial apps for this feature that are free are either for a limited use only--and therefore not really free--or have received low ratings of 1-2 stars from users. The highest starred app is $13, so I'd have to pay $13 to get what I was getting for free before. I can't help but feel there's a definite correlation here! Does motorola have interest in the printer app market!? Not happy. So far the only thing I feel I got out of going to the Razr is a lighter weight phone. I'm not sure it's worth it, especially since my new Verizon contract has limited data download and my earlier contract had unlimited download, something I might still be enjoying with my original Droid. Live and learn.

Screen Broke Without Even Dropping the Phone March 31, 2013

Reviewer:  Nicholas 

I bought the phone with a 2 year contract at Verizon and had it for about a year. The phone worked fine and had many good qualities to it for about a year. I reached into my pocket to pull out my phone one day and noticed there was a huge crack in the screen that rendered the phone useless because the screen was completely black. I am not the only one that had experienced this as I found in reading forums. Gorilla Glass claims they have such resilient glass for phones but it does not make sense that the screen would break if I never dropped the phone.

Worst Battery Life Ever March 28, 2013

Reviewer:  Sobe 

Absolutely atrocious battery life, those who are saying it can't go 2-3 hours of use without needing to be charged are absolutely right. DO NOT buy this phone it is nothing but a headache. Perfomance wise it's a decent phone but battery life kills it.

Worst phone I've ever owned... March 5, 2013

Reviewer:  Zoraya Torres "Amazon Shopper"  (Salisbury, MD) -

I got this phone on a deal. I paid $99 with a 2-yr contract. I bought an Otter Box to protect my new phone. Well that was a waste of money with this phone. It gets overheated easily. So when I went to take the phone out of the Otter Box, the screen cracked! This was DAYS after I bought it. The phone no longer worked. So I had to buy a refurbished phone for another $100 (under the insurance policy). This phone has to be reset every month or so, therefore I couldnt (and wouldnt) protect it with the expensive Otter Box designed for it. So, of course, I later dropped my phone and the screen cracked. This time, the phone still worked, but I couldnt have shards of glass all over the place. So I went to replace the screen & it costs $300! Ridiculous! So I placed a screen protector and it did the trick. All that occurred 7 (only SEVEN!) months ago! For the past 3 days, the battery would not charge completely...no matter how often I reset the phone. I couldnt use the internet or play the app games, because the phone would shut off. Today, my phone just died. Just as well, I was ready to take it out back and put 2 in it. It's not even good enough to be a paperweight.

Motorola RAZR GREAT! March 3, 2013

Reviewer:  geofftodds 

I've had this device for about a year now. I won't waste your time with a long review. This is a GREAT device. I've never had it freeze up. The battery last me around 10-12 hours with modest FB'ing , Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, Texting and calls throughout my day. Everyone has their own type of usage. I didn't go RAZR MAXX because I love the super thin phone! 11 months, still going STRONG! Love my RAZR.

beware iPhone reviewers February 25, 2013

Reviewer:  grnman82 

I read many reviews tonight on this phone and laughed. Let me explain something : i have had thia phone since june 2012. I work in law enforcement. I am in and out of the cruiser, doing traffic stops, etc. I dropped this phone 3 times and i don't have an otterbox. My phone has no cracks. This phone is great and its performance has been impeccable over several investigations.

Just Fair--Would Not Recommend February 14, 2013

Reviewer:  William Corsair "Will"  (Leavenworth County, KS USA) -

I've had the phone since November, 2012. Lately its touch function (texting, unlocking the screen, etc.) has gotten very "touchy" in that it will enter two or three characters even though I've only tapped one.

Battery life is horrible, as others have said. On the other hand, the 4G hotspot is very helpful for us because we're in a rural area and can't get cable or DSL (but, the 4G LTE signal reaches out here and so we've been able to do away with our dedicated 3G data line with Verizon.)

I still have to occasionally turn the whole phone off--completely shut it down--because some functions cease working properly. This isn't a bad thing, and should be done relatively often, anyway. It's just an annoyance.

I wouldn't buy again, would not recommend to someone else, and I'm finished with Motorola. Their quality control doesn't seem to be what it once was. I'll switch to HTC or Samsung next time.

Wonderful !! February 6, 2013

Reviewer:  Josh Montney 

Droid, Finally a Phone that keeps up with ME ! I love this Phone Beats Sprint , Hands Down! I can do on this phone everything I need to do Email chat Pictures Check updates on kids Get service ! Pictures Are Great . It is a Good design The Battery only goes when you are using live wallpapers all day .. let's use common sense there. I can create a doc while at a Practice and email to someone. I have been looking for this Phone . I will only upgrade to Another Droid Apple Who ?? Not for me I won't pay for a name only quality.

no problem here January 28, 2013

Reviewer:  caZ51arlos 

I have had this phone for over a month now. I got this phone because its free. Read all the reviews and was worried about the battery life that alot of others were complaining about. well what I discovered is that it is a good phone for the average user. what I mean by that is if your not on the web all the time. the battery is fine and will last all day. Yes you will need to charge every nite. If your a heavy user on the web this phone is not for you. the battery will not last you long. As for all the other features of the phone, there fine. works great.

RAZR died after 6 mo. of gentle use! (Verizon won't replace) January 20, 2013

Reviewer:  coffee36 

This phone worked great and w/o warning, one morning after 6 mo. of gentle use, the screen was black. The phone wouldn't respond to a soft or hard reset. As I have with other phones I've owned I took the back off to check the battery. I was never told not to do that with the RAZR. Do NOT take the back off! I was told by the Verizon employees there's nothing they can do since I took off the back.

My boyfriend has also had trouble with his RAZR locking up numerous times after only owning the phone for a few months.

Do NOT waste your $. You will be without a phone in a few months and you will NOT be able to get a replacement!

Also, the battery life is pathetic.

Good luck! January 12, 2013

Reviewer:  Abby Normal 

I'm pretty peeved. I've had this phone for 11 months. The screen is shattered and there's nothing I can do. It fell from my pocket to the floor about 2 feet. Screw you Motorola!