Really nice phone, S3 Alternative October 19, 2012

Reviewer:  Whitewolf "JB"  (Pennsylvania, USA) -

For some reason Amazon has this phone on backorder so I got it local from a VZW store on release day. My wife got the S3 a month back and I'm glad she did because I found I hate it. The biggest problem I have with it is the ridiculously shaped home button dead center of the bottom section of the phone. Why would you ruin a large touchscreen with a physical button?

So, I waited for release day for the RZR HD. There were 2 reasons that I wanted a RZR: The first is Smart Actions. It is basically a macro builder which allows you to automatically set the ringer off at certain times of day or based on location. Basically its a lot like the Outlook Rules for desktop email. The second item that had me eagerly waiting was the style. I simply like rugged looking phones. This one fits the bill. It is sleek but it is a nice shape for me. Some will call it boxy or square but I like the hard corners. The Kevlar back is a nice touch but if you get a case like I did you will never see it. Still, its a nice design choice and adds to the industrial/rugged look i mentioned earlier.

I didn't feel the need to go with the Maxx because a larger battery isn't worth $100 to me. If I traveled heavily or if I was on my phone constantly I would want the upgrade but I have been pleasantly surprised with the battery of the RZR HD. I used it on and off all day for normal stuff: Checking and sending emails, a few phone calls and my son spent 2 hours playing Plants vs. Zombies. I still have 60% of battery left and I took it off charge 17 hours ago.

The call quality is probably the best I have ever had on a cell phone. It is really clear for me and for the other party. I was extremely happy as I just assumed "ok" call quality was a fact of all cell phones.

I connect my phone via BT to my aftermarket car stereo and have no issues at all. Again, call quality is excellent.

I have not yet used the rear camera but I have put the front camera through its paces with the "Face Unlock" feature and I have no issues with the front camera.

The transitions from screen to screen are smooth. There is occasional choppiness but I have come to see that as standard depending on what else is running (I'm talking to you app addicts!) but it isn't a problem for me.

There is the standard suite of crap-ware courtesy of Verizon that you can't uninstall but at least ICS has the ability to choose favorite apps for the tray so you won't have to flip past "Verizon Navigator" and "Slacker Radio" every time you look for an app.

Overall I really like the phone. I highly recommend it.

Moto's best yet October 22, 2012

Reviewer:  Ladouche 

I ending up buying this phone from Verizon on the day of release, and went with the regular HD opposed to the Maxx for $100 more since it seems steep for a few extra hours of battery life, and I'm glad I did.

I'm on this phone constantly.. E-mail, text messaging, web browsing, pictures, and going through apps, and the battery life is even better than advertised (24 hours). So far over the past 5 days I've had this phone, this battery has lasted 30+ hours, and still was above 30% battery life when I put it back on the charger.

The look and feel of this thing is the next best thing. Its iphone'ish design looks great and the kevlar backing feels great in your hand. The aluminum trim around the phone is just the icing on the cake. I was considering the Galaxy s3, but after using that phone, I hated the way it looked, and feels. I fell in love with this phone the second I had it in my hand. Not to mention, the display is pretty nice as well. The display is equal quality compared to the s3, as well as brightness, which could be a little higher on both phones in my opinion.

ICS runs smooth on this thing, performance is solid, and the Smartactions feature is great as well. Being able to customize your phone settings based on location or time of day is a great way to improve the battery life even longer, and add convenience to your life. I have wifi set to automagically turn on when Im in my house, and turn off when I leave, as well as a Work setting, and a power saver setting to reduce screen brightness and app syncing to improve battery life once the device drops below 25%, which it only got that low the night I bought the phone since the battery was only 30% full out of the box.

Also, I would like to mention this phone DOES has a LED flashing indicator, which is something you wont notice by looking at the phone. The little bar underneath the Motorola logo at the top of the phone flashes, and it flashes different colors for different notifications. (Blue for Facebook, and Green for Texts) .. I'm not sure if this is customizable or not.

Anyways, the ONLY complaint I have about this phone, is that the USB charger port is at the bottom side of this phone, I wish it was at the top on the side. The SIM card and microSD card are in a sealed tray due to the phones water resistant design, so a tool is required to remove the card, which may be a inconvenience to those who frequently need access to the card for whatever reason.

Great Punch in Phone October 24, 2012

Reviewer:  Titans27 

I have been an Iphone user my entire smart phone life. However, I thought I would change it up and since my contract ran out in early October, I found it dumb having to wait for the Iphone 5 until around Christmas time. I decided to go with the S3. I actually really liked the phone except for the battery life and the signal. The signal at my house was very low and was always searching between 1 bar and 0 bars to No Service (O with a line through it). After 12 days I returned it for the Razr HD. I am amazed on how great this phone is. It does feel heavy but I can live with that since it is built tough. You can tell it is built nice whereas the S3 felt light but cheap.

Pros- Battery life, signal strength, the build of the phone, actually found keyboard is easier than the S3, screen is better than the S3 in my opinion (not by much but brighter less dull)

Cons- weight, camera

Gave it 5 stars because it does exactly what a phone should do. Yea the camera could be better but I didnt buy the phone for the camera.

Cannot wait to keep messing with this device, sounds like a keeper to me.

Great Upgrade (Coming from Droid X) October 29, 2012

Reviewer:  odracir2388 

I'll start by saying that I didn't buy this phone from Amazon but from costco.com instead since they have an online deal that comes with couple of neat things including an extra car/home charger, screen protectors and a couple of holsters (if you use them) plus a mail in form that will get you a car dock and portable charger (price was $189 plus tax/fees).

So I upgraded to this phone from a Droid X that was on its last legs. While I loved the X, I felt that these new phones with the supposedly humongous screens would end up giving me a phone that was way larger than I already have. On release day I went to the Verizon store to check the phone out and compare the size to my X. To my surprise, the HD was almost the same width as the HD (maybe 1/8") and the height is not that huge of a difference (more like 1/4"). I think Motorola did a pretty good job with the screen real estate on the phone and so the ratio of screen to phone is a lot larger on the HD than on my old X. I also love the huge notification light and it's placement right under the Motorola logo. The fact that this has on-screen keys also makes the phone look so much sleeker and sexier. I know a lot of people are complaining about the camera but coming from a Droid X, it's a huge improvement and I also love the fact that now I can do video calls using the front camera and Google talk (software plays a part in how good the pictures are so perhaps a third party camera application will work better than the stock). As others have mentioned, the phone comes with the usual Verizon bloatware and although I can't uninstall the software, I can at least go into the App settings and disable them so that they don't show up in the tray. Battery life is amazing on this phone despite not being the MAXX. Coming from the Droid X, I'm used to having to plug in my phone because the battery would only last 8 hours MAX. This phone now lets me go through the whole day without charging with plenty to spare for anything else I want to do with the phone. Currently, my phone is at 52% power after being on for over 14 hrs and a screen on time of 1 hr 44 mins.(I know it's not a huge amount but that's normal for when I work) and having all radios turned on except bluetooth (wi-fi, 4g, gps). I also have several background apps running continuously. I really don't understand the idea behind this phone being heavy (it feels pretty light to me) as if it were a lead weight. I also don't understand how small peoples hands can be as I can easily reach across the screen with my thumb. Navigating around this phone is smooth as well.

The smartactions are really great on this phone when they all work correctly. The reason I say this, is because for some reason, the location based smartactions can't seem to get an address to put into the system when I try to use location as a trigger. I've noted that several other people have this problem as well and that it might be caused by an update so I'm sure this will be fixed in a later update. The reason I don't dock a star for it is because there are ways around a location based trigger to let your phone know when you are at a certain place by letting you use as many triggers as you want. The location trigger just makes it easier. Plus, you can always turn off a smartaction whenever you want or override it with your own manual control of the phone.

Overall, this is a great phone to upgrade to.

Razr HD simply great! January 21, 2013

Reviewer:  W. Littlejohn "WWL"  (Chicago, IL) -

There aren't many current reviews for this phone (when I was getting ready to pull the trigger that made me pause) so thought my recent experiences might help some people on the fence.

In the last six weeks I've gone through the GSIII, the Razr M and am now currently happily using the Razr HD. All three were bought through Costco so I can't shed any light on the buying experience through Amazon.

I got a great black friday deal on two GSIII's for my wife and myself. My bride is not a tech oriented person but has really taken to the GSIII. She likes the light feel etc. On the other hand I found the plasticy feel and construction a real turnoff so I went back to Costco to exchange it. The GSIII felt bulky and cheap but there were no other real options to trade in for so I chose the Razr M with a promise that an additional upgrade would be ok when other new phones became available.

I really liked the M. It's size, battery and functionality were great. I really liked the kevlar construction...it just felt solid. But since it had only 8GB of built in memory, and I was going to be married (on Verizon) to this baby for two years I was pining for a larger screen. I really thought I wanted the Razr Max HD, but Costco doesn't offer that in their stores so I had to choose between the HTC Droid DNA ($199) or the Moto Droid Razr HD $99).

I worried about the battery on both of these but chose the Razr for price, ease of charging (didn't want to pay for wireless pads)and expansion for music etc. (Razr's have extra memory slot....DNA does not) I also wasn't sure I wanted the 5" DNA screen....at some point big is too big.

What a surprise. I simply love the Razr HD. After a quick update to Jellybean everything about the phone is great. The camera is fine....I've read the Jellybean update improved it's performance. The look and feel of the phone is significant improvement from the Razr M. Simple things like improved ringtones, a sleeker volume rocker and notification light are noticeable upgrades from the M. And surprise, surprise the battery is really fine as well. I'm not a power user but during daily use I never go below 50%. And the larger screen has been great. Texting, using the camera, reading and responding to e-mails has been much improved. I've seen some side by side tests that knock the screen compared to the DNA but for my used it's been really great.

Finally the coup de grace occurred yesterday. My wife and I drove from Chicago to Indiana for our daughter's gymnastics meet. Using the same Verizon network, the GPS on my Razr consistently kept up with our movements....while the GSIII just couldn't seem to find out where we were. Throw in better call quality, better construction and feel and my journey from GSIII to Razr HD has been worth it.

Almost perfect November 16, 2012

Reviewer:  K. J. T.  (MA) -

In order to help Motorola build the best mobile phone possible, I'm writing with some brief pros and cons regarding the DROID RAZR HD.

PROS:
Motorola Smart Actions
Phone build/design (e.g. DuPont(tm) Kevlar® fiber, Corning® Gorilla® Glass, and a water repellent nano-coating.)
Long battery life
Speaker location
Microphone location
Removable storage (microSD)
Stripped down UI
LED Indicator
Screen dominates most of phone size

CONS:
RAM (need 2GB min.)
Bloatware (VZW grrr)
Camera takes so-so quality photos
No quad core processor

Great phone, like night and day compared to my Droid X February 9, 2013

Reviewer:  Michael Girardo  (Southeast, GA United States) -

Wow, what a great phone. My previous phone was a Droid X that I bought from Amazon Wireless 2 years ago for a penny. I thought that was a great phone. The Droid Razr HD is leaps and bounds better.

The two most important things for me are Speed and Battery Life. This thing is quick to load. Most of the reviews say 30 seconds, it's a really quick 30 seconds.

The battery life is great compared to my Droid X. The phone was off the charger my first full day of use from 7:30 am to 11 pm and it still had 46% battery life, so 24 hours doesn't seem like a stretch at all. I used the phone a good bit more than I usually would since I was still setting up the apps, re-arranging home screens, configuring Media Player, etc. Played some games for about 35 minutes and did some reading.

Most all reviews I have read and watched all complain about the camera. First of all, it's a phone, who cares about the camera? I think the camera is great when used with HDR (High Dynamic Range). The camera takes better pictures than the 8MP camera on the Droid X. If you want a high quality camera, get an actual camera.

A lot of reviews that I have read also complained about the weight. I guess people can't find anything to complain about, so they pick on its weight. It's about the same weight as my Droid X. It's actually less noticeable than the Droid X in my pocket because it is thinner than the Droid X.

Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) is definitely better than Froyo which was on the Droid X. Motorola's Circles widget is cool, but unfortunately it uses AccuWeather as its weather source and AccuWeather stinks. SmartActions is a really cool app. I'm not a fan of Conversation View in Gmail and not being able to turn it off in the Gmail app is a bummer, but ICS's Gmail app is much improved. Still can't turn it off in the App, but I can live with it. On the Droid X I used the Email app instead of the Gmail app for my Gmail account.

The best thing about this phone was the price. The few days before I puchased it Verizon had it for $149.99 w/ 2 year contract. Amazon Wireless had it for $.01 w/ 2 year contract for new accounts and upgrades. How could I pass it up. Unfortunately it was on back order (I guess a lot of people couldn't pass it up). Even though it was back ordered, I got it 1 week from the date of purchase. About 2 days after I bought it, the price went back up to $99 for upgrading customers.

I am very happy I went with the DROID RAZR HD. The only thing I don't like about it is that the battery isn't removable. I had to pull the battery to unstuck my Droid X at least once a month. Hopefully, that won't be an issue with the RAZR HD.

Put this one on your short list February 4, 2013

Reviewer:  R. Seward 

This phone has to be one of the top 5 Android phones available right now. One thing that made this phone stand out from the competition is the build quality. It feels rock solid with its KEVLAR backing, Gorilla Glass, and a water-repellent nanocoating for added assurance.

I've owned this phone for about 6 weeks now and the performance is 2nd to none. Call quality is great even on the speaker phone; and the battery life is above average for a smartphone with this size of display and performance specs. Motorola has done a very good job of minimizing their presence within the Android OS, while still providing some very useful custom apps, such as SMARTACTIONS, Circles and the Quick Settings menu. SMARTACTIONS allows you to automate tasks based on conditions; for example if your battery power drops below 25%, it will automatically adjust the display brightness, and turn off the WiFi or any other feature you elect to change. The conditions are not limited to battery power; it can be based on your GPS location, like silencing your ringer while at work, or based on time of day, etc... "Circles" is a nice widget that displays information of your choosing such as time, weather, battery level etc... With "Quick Settings" you simply swipe to the left from the home screen to access frequently used settings.

As many other reviewers have stated, the one area this phone falls short is the camera. Despite its 8.0MP rating, it does not perform very well in most environments. My experience has been that pictures are grainy and colors are not true. I was aware of the poor camera reviews before I purchased the phone, so I had an idea of what I was getting. Although a better camera would be really nice; I have a DSLR that I use at events where I desire high quality photos so it wasn't a deal breaker for me, but for others it might be; especially because some of the competitors have really outstanding cameras.

Very close to Perfection, best Smartphone I've had February 11, 2013

Reviewer:  Michael 

I used to work for Verizon and we would get new phones every 3 months, so I've had at least 7 different smartphones in my life, and this one is my favorite.

Pros-
-Beautiful Design and nice screen
- Awesome Battery life, easily getting all day and if you want to set up Smartactions even longer.
- Terrific reception, with a much smoother 3g/4g switch than previous LTE phones
-Quality feel and durability with Gorilla Glass & Kevlar (and believe me I've tested out both of them)
-Smoothness & overall quality and look
- NFC works well

Cons
-The Camera is not great, unless you're in good lighting and use the HDR setting.
-Personally, I think the phone should have more RAM on it. Not to say that it lags on me too often, however but I feel like it should have 2gb vs. the 1gb it currently has.

No phone is ever perfect, but I'd 100% recommend this one to anybody, great phone

Incredible phone November 18, 2012

Reviewer:  TheBigIndian 

Incredible phone. Battery life is amazing. Been on this phone all day since 7 am and after 12hrs of use it still has 78% charge. Motorola still lives up to its fantastic signal reception. Very solid phone. Jelly Bean 4.1 update promised before end of year. For you geeks, this phone is rootable if you wish to remove verizon's bloatware. This is an upgrade for me from my Droid X that lasted over 2 years without a problem. For businesses, this phone supports corporate email flawlessly. NFC functions great. Downside of this phone is the carrier. Verizon currently is blocking Google Wallet in favor of its own lacking wallet service. Not the phone's fault. If you want a real phone, this is it. If you want less, you can try apple.

Best Razr for the buck! February 26, 2013

Reviewer:  nightshade "Nightshade"  (somewhere) -

Wow, first I want to say I have had my Razr for about 2 weeks now and it is tremendous. My girlfriend just got a Samsung S3 and I did not want to hurt her feelings, so I didn't say anything, but the Razr HD and the Maxx are just made so much better. S3's are made cheap and if you drop it you have a paperweight. Back to the review, I came from a Droid X which is a great phone, but omg this phone is incredible. First aesthetically its gorgeous, kevlar backing, and Corning GG (Gorilla Glass). I use a sleek set of Cruzerlite cases and its about the same size as an Iphone 4S and very light, I recommend that case. Battery life is great I have not charged my phone in 2 days and I am a heavy texter. Amazon has this for 50 with an upgrade so I say its a buy, because to me 100 dollars more is not worth a larger battery that I cannot change (yet). I rolled back to ICS just to test things and went back to JellyBean 4.2 and everything is rock solid although Verizon bloatware is not good, I had to remove all of it. If you are on the fence like I was, I loved my Droid X, but in the end the upgrade was worth it. This has to be the best Motorola product I have owned and I have owned a lot. No knock on S3, but If you are using a Network Extender dont get an S3 from Verizon, I got my 4G Razr to work with my extender(even though Verizon says Razr's are incompatible)with some fine tuning. I had an S3 before this phone and it was not compatible even when I rooted the S3, it constantly sucked my battery looking for 4g and the S3 even switching to CDMA only auto PRL will freak out sometimes looking for 4G and drain your battery.

motorola droid razr hd June 18, 2013

Reviewer:  Al 

Like the phone, but didn't give it 5 stars because the battery didn't last as long as I thought it would. After what I consider normal usage, u still need to charge it every night.
I love buying my cell phones from Amazon because they have been so much cheaper than Verizon or Bestbuy!

Motorola DROID RAZR HD (Verizon Wireless) June 11, 2013

Reviewer:  Jets 

I just bought this device. Great phone. What can i say well nothing bad at all Motorola makes great phone and combine with verizon as a carrier its a match made in heaven. Love this phone, way better then an iphone. Keep up the good work guys...

Great phone. June 7, 2013

Reviewer:  M.davis 

So far the phone has worked flawlessly. In comparison to my Samsung, the Motorola wins hands down. Long battery life, clear, bright screen. Love it.

Nice phone June 7, 2013

Reviewer:  Alan Webb "knogeek"  (Richmond, Va) -

Other reviewers talked about battery life. I'm getting 8 hours or so on a charge if I actively use it. Good enough. This is my first Android phone, having switched from an iPhone 4. I like Android, like this phone better than my iPhone 4. The voice recognition seems better, it does the expected things of a smart phone well, and feels nice in my hand.

HD Razr June 5, 2013

Reviewer:  Bryan 

This is an incredible phone. My previous phone was an HTC Trophy that has great reviews but compared to this phone it should have gotten 1 star. This phone has been labled as having a less than stellar camera. Compared to the Trophy this thing is a million times better. Very happy with the camera. Had a hiccup early on that forced me to have Amazon replace the phone but they couldn't have handled it any better. 5 stars to Amazon as well.

Awesome phone! We love them. May 22, 2013

Reviewer:  Avid Hunter 

Everything about these phones are great. The battery life is awesome! We had HTC Amazes and were lucky to have them last half a day without the battery dying. Obviously this is a much higher quality phone. TMobile is the worst carrier too.

Switched from the HTC Thunderbolt and this is a GREAT PHONE! May 9, 2013

Reviewer:  Rachael Towle "Rachael the Jedi Mommy!"  (Huntsville, AL USA) -

Transitioning from my Thunderbolt to this phone went smoothly. There aren't a lot of different ways this works from my HTC product, so it was easy to get used to. I LOVE the batter life on this phone! I use it a lot - play games, check mail, etc. I normally only have to charge it when going to bed at night (unless I've had the phone in my face all day.... which happens sometimes). The length of the phone is a little longer than what I was used to, but it isn't so big that I can't use just one hand to handle it, etc. I would recommend this phone to anyone looking for a phone with a great battery life that doesn't weigh a ton, and is priced reasonably!

This phone is great! April 29, 2013

Reviewer:  Richard Gobrecht  (Orefield, PA United States) -

I've had a DROID RAZR HD for about a year. Gave my wife my old one (DROID X) for her first smartphone. When I saw Amazon had this deal ($0.01) I knew it was time to replace the old DROID X. Now we both have the HD. It's just a solid phone that runs the latest Android OS. I'm not a heavy user, but my battery is seldom below 40% at the end of the day when I plug it in to charge, so I didn't need the more expensive MAXX. Slim, fits in my pocket and I hardly know it's there. Fast & 4G. I like the Smartactions. Just nothing to complain about it. She also gets more out of her smartphone now.

Great phone February 11, 2013

Reviewer:  Mom of two "AKF"  (Pineville, LA, USA) -

Love this phone. Great, sturdy feeling phone with excellent battery life. Easily makes it from 6am to 11pm with average use without needing charge. Very responsive. Nice screen. Amazon wireless is absolutely great!! Very pleased with price and customer service!!