After crashing and burning in a blaze of mediocrity, the once-legendary RAZR lineage has a new successor. The Droid RAZR is a 4G LTE, 1.2 GHz dual-core-CPU-powered, kevlar-constructed wafer of a phone.
The Droid RAZR is only 7.1mm thick (although it has significantly
thicker bump at the bottom), making it the thinnest of its kind. It also
has 1GB RAM, 16GB of storage, 12.5 hours of talk time on the Verizon
network thanks to an 1800 mAh battery, 8 megapixel camera (with 1080p
recording), a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display strengthened with
Gorilla Glass, a steel core and Kevlar fiber, which makes it strong and
light weight. But the real gem here is that all parts of the phone—even
the electronics—have been coated in a water-resistant material, which
will help guard against spills and the elements.
From what we can tell, the Droid RAZR feels like a faster, thinner, better version of the Droid Bionic. Here's what Brent had to say after playing with it:
The phone feels extremely solid but also incredibly light. I held it
next to the the Droid Bionic and it just feels feather-weight, but at
least as strong. The kevlar back is rubberized and had a good non-stick
feel. The new Super AMOLED screen is a dramatic improvement over the
Bionic. That pixely cross-hatch of Pentile has been banished. Instead it
was bright and clear and colors looked very good.
I was hoping I'd see a boost in speed from the 1.2GHz dual-core
processor (vs. the 1GHz found on the Bionic), but nothing was
immediately noticeable. Actually, if felt a little slower, maybe. I'll
reserve judgement on that front, but it's something I'll keep an eye one
when we do our exhaustive testing.
Basically there is no reason, at all, to buy the Bionic over this. I
mean, absolutely zero. Why would you want something heavier, slower, and
worse looking? I'm sure they'll be dropping the Bionic's price tag with
a quickness to give people some (any) reason, but as of now, I'm not
seeing it.
Sadly though, there's no mention of Ice Cream Sandwich as the Android
OS powering the Droid RAZR: it is instead running Gingerbread. It will
run you $299 on-contract, which isn't cheap by any stretch of the
imagination, but isn't unheard of either. You can pre-order on October
27th and it will be available on November 6th
First off, they spent about two years developing the kevlar. They originally looked at carbon fiber (because who isn't these days?),
but carbon is no good for wireless signal. Kevlar, on the other hand,
is super strong, rigid, and won't bork your calls. In fact, kevlar's so
solid that during early prototypes they couldn't even cut a piece down
to size with a band-saw. That should make you feel pretty good about the
phone's strength.
Gorilla Glass on the front helps, too.
This phone is made with a new process, where layers are laminated
one-by-one on top of each other. This makes the devices exceptionally
strong and rigid.
The upside of that rigidity: better sound quality
through the external speakers, since vibration is cut down
significantly. The room I was in had a lot of ambient noise, but the
phone sounded pretty good. The downside: the battery is no longer
removable.
LTE devices are pretty power-hungry, and while most people
don't resort to battery-switching during the day, it's always nice to
have the option.
Moto's engineers said the camera is essentially the same as the one
on the Droid Bionic, but tweaked a little to give it better performance.
We weren't too hot on the Bionic's camera, so we'll definitely be checking that when we get our review unit.
Lastly, the splash guard is created by spraying a nano-coating across
all of the components, except the screen. It's on the ACTV, too, and I
was told that it would be coming to virtually all Motorola phones in the
future. Awesome. Now if we could just submerge them, too, I would be
happy as a clam.
The super-thin, super-light, 4G-sporting Motorola Droid Razr officially goes on sale this morning at Verizon Wireless.
At $299 (with a two-year contract), the phone is also $100 more than the latest Apple iPhone 4S and $50 more than Verizon’s Droid Bionic.
Verizon also lists the Motorola Razr’s retail price at $649, but is not
offering the option of buying an unlocked verison of the phone.
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