Android 
Android continues to evolve through various devices. Some are decent, some not, and once in a while along comes something gorgeous. That’s what we have here with the Motorola RAZR.
It’s a new design and a new phone with a really old name. The original Motorola RAZR was all kinds of popular, selling like there was no tomorrow. The flip-phone was admittedly the phone that everyone wanted, at the time.
So with the new RAZR, do we have something just as popular and desirable? Or is it just another large screen’ed Android smartphone? Read on for our review.
The Motorola RAZR has a pretty slim retail package box. Very indicating of what’s inside, eh?
There’s the usual contents inside, but check out our Motorola RAZR Unboxing for more details on that.
The Motorola RAZR has some new things for the company. There’s a non-removable battery, and the phone uses a microSIM, perhaps trying to make it easier for folks to move away from their iPhones, on to this Android beauty.
There’s a generous 16GB of built-in storage, and a microSD slot incase you need more memory space. Great for folks who have a huge music collection, or perhaps like to watch a lot of video on their smartphones.
The first thing you notice about the Motorola RAZR though, is that it’s quite large. Super slim, but large. A unique looking sort of large. It fits into your pocket very easily thanks to that slim profile, but perhaps too large for the average lady. If you’re one of those people still looking for a ‘small’ phone, this definitely isnt for you.
The first thing you notice about the Motorola RAZR, is that it’s large. Super slim, but large.
And like all large screened phones, we found ourselves struggling to hold the phone securely. And my hands are pretty much averagely large, if I do say so myself. It’s hard to confidently hold the RAZR in one hand, while reaching about with your thumb. You sort-of have to balance it on your fingers, which is a recipe for disaster.
Thankfully, that Kevlar back panel is really good at helping keep the phone in place. It has a nice little softness to it, while makes it grippy enough so that it isnt slippery, like the smooth friction-less back panels of the Samsung White Galaxy S II or HTC Sensation XL. As you might already know, Kevlar is used in body armour and to make bulletproof vests, so chances are that back panel can survive a pounding too.
There are the usual Android controls around the RAZR, with the usual android capacitive touch keys below that huge display.
You’ll also notice the Motorola badge proudly situated prominently above the earpiece on the front of the device.
On the right, you have a screenlock/power button that is apparently diamond cut aluminium, and a volume rocker switch below it.
At the top, you have the microUSB port, a miniHDMI port and a standard 3.5mm audio jack.
At the left side, you’ll find a pretty secure little flap concealing the microSIM card slot and the microsD slot.
Coming back to that interesting back side of the RAZR, there’s the 8 Megapixel Camera, single LED flash and mono loudspeaker situated here.
I’m not too hot on phones that have their loudspeaker on the back, since it tends to get muffled when placed on a flat surface.
And incase you were wonder, there’s no ports or anything at the bottom.
Most Android fans are super excited about Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich nowadays, which is why it’s sad to see the RAZR running the older, Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Which might be a turn-off so some folks.
Motorola is notoriously slow to update their devices to the latest version of Android, so that’s something worth noting. It’s not really a huge deal in daily usage, but ICS does bring along a lot of new enhancements. Gingerbread has the advantage that folks are more aware on how to use it, and where to find everything, and it’s still an excellent version of Android.
With Motorola being bought by Google and all, who knows, the next flagship Android phone could be made by Motorola instead of HTC or Samsung. Or maybe Motorola wont be as slow to release updates this time around.
This might be however, the last phone by the manufacturer to feature the MotoBlur overlay on top of the Gingerbread UI. I’m not a big fan of MotoBlur interface, especially that terrible keyboard, but with Swype pre-instaled, it wasnt too bad an experience.
the RAZR did not feel as quick as other dual core phones
Another thing that was mildly annoying, was that the RAZR honestly did not feel as quick as the other dual core phones we’re reviewed. Strange because there’s a 1.2GHz dual core processor (which is the same Cortex in the iPhone 4S), a generous 1GB of RAM, and PowerVR SGX540 graphics. Maybe it’s the shiny MotoBlur layer, or things just arnt optimized yet, but it just doesnt feel as fast as the Galaxy S II, or even the HTC Sensation. No doubt a software update will fix things. It’s not slow by any means, dont get me wrong, it’s just not as fast in my opinion.
That being said MotoBlur gives the phone a unique look and feel, with small things like the moving reflections on the widgets and buttons when you move between homescreens, and other minor things around the OS. There’s a neat weather related ‘forest’ live wallpaper too, which shows you nice little animations on the homescreen depending on the weather in your area.
Motorola has a tweaked music app onboard, which allows you access to all your music along with internet radio stations and DLNA servers as well.
Audio quality is quite good, which is saying something for a Motorola phone. You have equalizer settings as well, to get the music sounding just right.
The camera on the Motorola RAZR isnt much to write home about. Photos in good lighting can be decent enough, with an okay amount of detail with natural enough colors.
Ofcourse the lower the lighting gets, the more troublesome the focusing becomes, and you’re less and less likely to get a properly focused picture. Instead you get a lot of ‘shakey‘ camera shots with lots of noise. The single LED light is not really of much use, but comes in handy as a light in video mode.
Coming to Video, things are a bit disappointing, even though the RAZR can record in 1080p HD. The quality is quite bad, and not something you’d expect out of a flagship Android phone nowadays.
Coming to Video, things are a bit disappointing
Videos were a bit washed out, and grey, with blown out highlights. Videos often looked like they were put through one of Instagram’s filters, to be honest. And not in a good way.
The only good point about the camera, is that Motorola’s camera app is pretty decent. There’s even built-in effects that you can play around with.
One thing I really liked, and was unique to the RAZR (or I didnt notice it on Moto’s other phones), was the ‘audio scenes’ section in the video camera mode that lets you set the sound recording so that it suits the environment you’re in. There’s clever things like wind reduction mode which cuts out wind noise by quieting the rear microphone. You can even choose to balance out the front and rear microphones depending on your subject.
Motorola, like most Android OEMs, offers built-in Twitter and Facebook clients, in addition to an email client seperate from the Gmail client, and bundles all that communication, and your SMSes under one conversation view. Except emails in your Gmail.
I’ve been a bit spoiled by how Windows Phone groups all your twitter, Facebook, messages and emails from a certain contact under that person’s entry, so I’m not really a fan of this implementation. Plus, I’d assumed most Android users are also Gmail users, so the fact that your Gmail emails are not included in this unified inbox, makes no sense at all to me.
Motorola also has a ‘MotoCast’ feature that they keep talking about. Basically it includes a PC client that lets you access music on your computer, right from your RAZR, using a wifi network or 3G.
Pleasantly, the app works fine on both windows and mac OS, but is limited to Motorola devices only, ofcourse. Unfortunately data caps here in India are pretty restrictive, so I personally did not get much use out of it when I was out and about. And in my apartment, I preferred to use my computer for media. It’s just one of those features that sounds very cool when you first hear about it, I guess, but isnt of much use to a majority of people out there, I imagine.
The best part of the custom software on the RAZR, is Smart Actions, which lets users define automatic actions that the phone should perform when certain conditions are met. For example, you can set your phone to automatically go silent in the night while you’re asleep. Or you can silence your phone when you get to work because it can also work via location. Or you can even get it to start the music app whenever you plug in your headphones.
The Smart Action Triggers include:
Location
Time
Battery level
Charging
Display
Headphones
Incoming calls
Missed calls
WiFi
Bluetooth
Actions you can perform include:
Send a text message
Send notification
Play a playlist
Adjust Ringer volume
Change Ringtone
Change wallpaper
Launch application
Launch website
Display timeout
Adjust Brightness
Toggle GPS
Toggle Wi-Fi
Toggle Bluetooth
Toggle Airplane mode
Toggle Cellular data
The Motorola RAZR is quite comfortable to hold when on a call. The size and weight ratio is oddly, just right. Sure it’s big, but it’s grippy and the ‘lip’ on the back helps you have a secure grip on it.
Call quality was loud, clear and crisp with no problems hearing on both ends of the call. Some folks have noticed a rattling issue with the earpiece, but our unit thankfully, did not have any such problem.
On the battery life front, it’s all good news.
On the battery life front, it’s all good news. Which is saying something in an Android phone’s case. Under normal usage, we got an entire day’s worth of battery life out of the Motorola RAZR, with a little still left over. That outlasts every other dual core Android phone we’ve tested, except for maybe the behemoth Samsung Galaxy Note.
Much of that is thanks to the 1750 mAh battery which is more than what most of the usual Android phones ship with.
Here’s a 10 minute long overview of the Motorola RAZR and it’s various functions.
Just to give you a better idea of it all.
I’m a bit confused about what to say about the Motorola RAZR. What you have here is a stylishly designed phone, that’s impressive from the moment you hold it in your hand(s). For one thing, it’s super slim. Have I said that enough times?
The 4.3 Inch 540 x 960 pixels (256 ppi) Super AMOLED screen is nice, bright, and vibrant. It’s not the best screen we’ve used, the Samsung Galaxy SII, Nokia Lumia 800 and iPhone 4S boast that, all for different reasons. But it’s certainly close to that bunch.
I’m a bit confused about what to say about the Motorola RAZR.
The battery life is suprisingly good too, so I cant moan about the bad Android-induced battery life here. There’s even Bluetooth v4.0 with LE+EDR onboard, which is the first time we’ve had it on a phone. Didnt really do much with it though, admittedly.
The only worry is that compared to it’s competition, it’s a tiny bit slow. You’ll notice the shuttering when you go from the menu to the homescreen, or quickly move between apps. And like we said the stock keyboard is annoying, but that’s easily fixed.
The MotoBlur UI is fine by me for the most part, though as I mentioned earlier, I’m not a fan of that one app for messaging, email and social networks all together. I’d still prefer the stock Android UI to be honest.
When the Motorola RAZR was first announced, I was all sorts of in love with it. When I first held it, I reconsidered that. And after properly using it for a while, it’s hard for me to not recommend it as a very viable option as your next smartphone.
- Stylish
- Good battery life
- Huge screen
- Light and super slim
- Might be too big for most folks
- Not as quick as it should be
- MotoBlur
The phone of the year? Nah.
Worth considering? Hells Yeah.
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff
hey , can u tell me will droid Razr Maxx launch in india ??? if yes then can u tell me the availability of it ???? and is it worth waiting ???
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