Today’s the day that Verizon is finally releasing a couple of new DROID RAZR handsets from Motorola. We told you a week ago that the carrier would be outing them today, and they obviously kept up on their promise. Both phones are available for purchase at Verizon’s website or any one of their brick-and-mortar establishments across the US.
The DROID RAZR HD will come with 16GB of internal storage and you can choose between either black or white. The DROID RAZR MAXX HD will come with 32GB of internal storage, but will only come in black. The RAZR HD will the cheaper of the two, costing $199 after a new two-year contract, and the RAZR MAXX HD will fetch for $299.
While both devices are almost identical to one another, the RAZR MAXX HD has a larger battery that’s able to last for up to 32 hours of normal use according to the specs. Both devices feature a 4.7-inch AMOLED HD display with a 1280×720 resolution, while a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM are on the inside.
Verizon had a decent Q3 this year, selling almost 7 million smartphones. With the launch of these new DROID RAZR handsets, the carrier might be looking forward to another good quarter coming up, especially with the holiday season just right around the corner. Check out our full review of the Motorola DROID RAZR HD and take a look at our hands-on of the DROID RAZR MAXX HD to learn more about both devices.
Just yesterday we posted news that Motorola’s DROID RAZR HD arrived in Canada for Rogers Wireless customers, and it was only a matter of time before we saw the phone arrive state-side on Verizon. Exactly one week from today, on October 18, Motorola’s DROID RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD will officially be available at Verizon stores across the US.
The DROID RAZR HD will come with 16GB of internal storage and will cost $199.99 in either black or white. The DROID RAZR MAXX HD will cost $299.99 and come with 32GB of internal storage, but will only come in black. So, just like Henry Ford once said, you can have the RAZR MAXX HD in any color you want, as long as your favorite color is black.
Both phones are practically identical save for the battery. The MAXX has a larger-capacity battery that’s able to last for up to 32 hours of normal use. Both devices feature a 4.7-inch AMOLED HD display with a 1280×720 resolution. On the inside is a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM.
Both the DROID RAZR HD and the MAXX HD are extremely thin and lightweight, thanks to the unique kevlar fiber backing on both devices, which also makes them more durable and rugid than most smartphones on the market. To see more photos of the two devices and even a video that shows them both in action, check out our hands-on session.
After numerous rumors and leaks throughout August, Motorola finally announced and unveiled its new DROID RAZR lineup last month, which included the new DROID RAZR HD. However, they were a little shy on some details — mainly availability and pricing. However, Canadian wireless carrier Rogers just announced the device for use on their network, which means we may see the device jump over the border shortly.
The DROID RAZR HD comes packing with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage. It also comes with an 8MP rear camera that offers zero shutter lag and burst mode. The phone sports the signature Kevlar design of other RAZR devices, making the phone lighter and more durable, while keeping it thin.
What makes the device really stand out, though, is its HD display that it touts in its name. It’s a quite remarkable 4.7-inch AMOLED HD display that has a 1280×720 HD resolution. The device also packs in 4G LTE and runs off of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but it’s expected to get a Jelly Bean update fairly soon.
Along with the DROID RAZR HD, we also might see its close brother, the DROID RAZR MAXX HD, hit Verizon around the same time. Obviously, we’re still not sure what the timeline is for an American launch of these devices, but in the meantime, check out our hands on of the DROID RAZR HD and the MAXX HD to get a better idea of the two phones.
The RAZR HD from Rogers is available today and pricing starts at $99.99 after a 3-year contract, or you can pay a full $599.99 for the device without a contract.
Many people are excited for the iPhone 5, but a day after the reveal of the new device, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has shared his early opinion. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Wozniak said that he’s “always excited” when a new iPhone is revealed, and there’s one thing in particular he’s hoping for with this latest iteration. Specifically, Wozniak hopes that the iPhone 5 will deliver better photo quality over the iPhone 4.
“I am always excited about every iPhone product because there are always good advances,” Wozniak said. “A better quality on the pictures will mean a lot, because when I show people pictures on my iPhone 4 and my Galaxy S III, they always say the Galaxy S III, or even the Motorola Razr, pictures look better.” Wozniak also said that he thinks Apple has taken some “very important steps” with the latest iPhone, but will wait until he’s actually able to test the iPhone 5 himself before making his final judgment on the new device.
The iPhone 4 has a rear-facing 5 megapixel camera, whereas the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S III, and Motorola DROID RAZR all have an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera. The iPhone 5 comes with a number of improvements over its predecessors, including a larger 4-inch screen (as opposed to the 3.5-inch screen on the iPhone 4 and 4S), a thinner and more lightweight design, and perhaps most importantly, 4G LTE functionality. It will also come with iOS 6 pre-installed, which boasts a number of new features over iOS 5.
Oh, and for the record, Wozniak also gave his opinion on Apple’s recent patent trial against Samsung. “I hate it,” Wozniak said, presumably bluntly. “I don’t think the decision of California will hold. And I don’t agree with it — very small things I don’t really call that innovative.” Instead of courtroom tussles, Wozniak said he would prefer it if everyone would just agree to share patents, giving companies a pool of technology with which to make the best devices possible. That sounds perfect to us, to tell the truth, but unfortunately, we’re thinking that companies like Apple and Samsung wouldn’t be as receptive to the idea.
Motorola and Intel have released a new teaser ahead of their presentation next week in London. The teaser is just that – a video that features a whole lot of nothing and is meant to get the tech crowd amped up for next week’s reveal. The teaser promises things like “edge-to-edge speed” and “edge-to-edge power,” which makes it pretty easy to guess what the companies are building up to.
That would be the international release of the freshly-revealed DROID RAZR M, which comes sporting a 4.3-inch edge-to-edge AMOLED Display. Intel’s in on this tease because the international RAZR M will have an Intel Medfield processor running the show. That’s in comparison to Verizon’s version of the DROID RAZR M, which has an S4 Snapdragon processor under the hood.
In other words, Intel’s dual-core Medfield processor will be less powerful than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4. Our friends at Android Community point out that while it’s disappointing to hear that the international version of the DROID RAZR M won’t be as powerful as the model on display here in the US, this is definitely a step in the right direction for Intel. Have a look at the teaser trailer below.
See? There wasn’t all that much of note present in the trailer. Also, keep in mind that while we’re pretty sure that Motorola and Intel are teasing the international DROID RAZR M, nothing’s for sure until it has been officially revealed at their event, which is going down on September 18. That’s exactly one week away from today, so we’ll be finding out what Intel and Motorola are teasing soon. Stay tuned.
The DROID RAZR M was revealed at the event where Googler and relatively new CEO of Motorola Dennis Woodside spoke about the “new plan” for the company – a plan that’s starting right here. We got a brief DROID RAZR M hands-on experience at the event and found that it was a surprisingly powerful-feeling device for its status under the DROID RAZR HD devices sitting nearby. With its near-edge-to-edge 4.3-inch display, it’s tried-and-true fabulously powerful dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor under the hood, and a collection of protective elements throughout this device’s chassis that make it, again, an ideal phone for today’s mobile landscape – just as the original DROID RAZR should have been (and still is, for many happy users, to be fair).
Have a peek at some hands-on walkthrough time here with the DROID RAZR M and see if it and the review text (and photos) above and below answer every question you’ve got about the device. If you find yourself still sitting with quandaries at the end of the post, please feel free to post in the comments section. We’ll do our best to expand where necessary!
Hardware
When I traveled from New York City to Minneapolis the day that I was handed the DROID RAZR M, I carried it in my pocket through three airports and dropped it at least 5 times. I’m clumsy. Because of the protective features Motorola was and is being up front about in this device and the other RAZR devices as well, I thought about how awesome it was that the M bounced around and didn’t show a scratch. Of course it’s partially really good advertising, and I can be a sucker for great promotion, but there’s quite a bit of reality in the pitch as well: there are more protective components here than there are fragile bits.
You’ve got Corning Gorilla Glass across the front, one big flat panel. The back of the device is mostly made up of of a panel of DuPont KEVLAR fiber, the rim of the device is either white or black hard plastic, and the frame is made of aircraft-grade aluminum. Inside you’ve also got water-repellent nanocoating, so you’re good in the rain and if you splash a bit of coffee over the top of the device.
The device does not work with legacy accessories that connect with the microUSB and microHDMI combination as seen on our review of the Motorola Lapdock 100 – here with the RAZR M, you’ve just got a microUSB port and that’s it. You’ve also got a standard headphone jack at the top of the device, power button and volume rocker on the right, and a door on the left also with a microSIM and microSD card slot as well.
The device is palm-sized and will be basically the closest device in size and shape to the upcoming iPhone 5 – which will certainly be carried by Verizon once it appears as well. The display will likely be a similar size as well, and the display will be comparable without a doubt. Beyond the basics, on the other hand, these two devices will not be compared unless Verizon workers are asked which device has Android and is basically the same size as the iPhone. More than likely you won’t find a lot of people entering the store with that comparison needing to be made.
Also note – there’s no other device on the market that looks or feels like this. Outside the other RAZR and Motorola devices that’ve been out in the last few months, (like the ATRIX HD), of course. That back panel assures you you’re working with Motorola hardware.
Software
There’s a collection of applications here that you could feel a number of ways about. If you thought that having Google own Motorola meant that they’d be releasing devices with only the Google standard set like the Nexus lineup does, you were wrong. If you’re looking for a device that you very well could potentially work with without needing to download any additional apps, this is it. Have a peek at the full collection of apps coming out of the box here:
You’ve got a “Verizon 4G LTE Edition” of Color here, this app being a social networking connection to photos and videos – including streaming live video via Facebook. Apps like Audible and IMDb as well as NFL Mobile will connect you to media from all directions, Zappos and Slacker Radio and Viewdini also bring you physical product shopping, streaming radio, and video listings. This device also comes with a suite of Amazon apps including Amazon for Amazon.com shopping, Amazon Kindle for ebooks, Amazon MP3, and the Amazon Appstore. What’s interesting here is that while previous Amazon-toting Android devices have worked with Bing rather than Google search, this device uses Google and has the Google Play store as well. You get the best of both worlds.
This device works with Smart Actions like several Motorola devices before, this app able to do things like detect when you’re in a certain area (GPS located) and turn your device’s brightness down. You can turn your sounds down when you enter a meeting (according to your Google calendar event), you can set a notification to pop up to remind you to charge your phone at a certain time of day, and you can turn off data sync when you’re asleep – amongst many others. You’ve also got Voice Commands and Voice Search as provided by Google’s newest Android systems. Note here that this device has been guaranteed to get Jelly Bean by Motorola, but that it currently uses Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich.
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich provides you with a Recent Apps button so you can easily switch between apps on the go. It also brings a notifications pull-down menu that’s accessible from your lockscreen as well as your homescreen – there’s a quick access button there to get to your full settings as well. There’s a new feature brought on by Motorola here as well which, when you pull your homescreen over to the right, you get a Quick Settings menu with on/off switches for GPS, Mobile Data, Bluetooth, and other oddities as well.
Below: Motorola includes an easy start guide for anyone unfamiliar with Android in general but especially with their unique user interface. They’ve made it specific to this device, too, with perfectly pointed arrows at the buttons outside the display.
Motorola’s user interface works well here with Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich features, not being overbearing as it was back when it was called MotoBlur. Here we’ve got a collection of easy-to-understand icons in your settings menu, features that are well placed (like the previously mentioned Quick Settings menu), and what’s not a rather quick software build as it works with Qualcomm’s processor. Have a peek at a few benchmark results here as well to see how it adds up compared to the rest of your smartphone and tablet favorites.
Camera
The camera is rather nice – certainly not the most excellent beast in the mobile field right this minute, but more than reasonable for the promises Motorola has made for the device. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 processor has architecture dedicated to image processing specifically, also, so it’s certainly helping out at least a little bit. Have a peek at some examples of photos and video as captured by the DROID RAZR M and see what 1080p video and 8 megapixel photos look like here.
Battery and Data Speed
The battery is a massive 2000mAh and, in combination with the amazing ability of the Snapdragon S4 to keep itself on low-demand while the device is asleep, you’ll have so much standby time that you’ll freak out. See here first what happens when you use the device moderately – lots and lots of time.
Then have a peek at what happens when you turn the device’s display up to full brightness. This chart shows how quickly you can drain the battery – note that this isn’t entirely unique to this device, you can make this happen with the right combination of high-demand apps and display power and data transfer and all that good stuff at once. What you should pay attention to here though is the flatline at the end – when the death drop ends, that’s where I turned the brightness of the display to “auto.”
The DROID RAZR M works with Verizon’s 4G LTE data network and has proven itself as a rather fabulous internet beast – the danger here will be that you get too addicted to the speed and end up using your whole data allowance in the course of a few days. That’s been known to happen with some people, you know. Have a peek here at a set of data speed readings from both New York City (including LaGuardia Airport – also in the demo video above), and Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Wrap-up
This is a rather fun addition to the Motorola collection of smartphones, and Verizon will be better for it having it in the Droid universe as well. You’ll find yourself enjoying the DROID RAZR M’s near-edge-to-edge display especially, with bright, sharp, and colorful delivery yours for the taking. The processor under the hood is more than powerful enough to handle any app, game, or video you’ve got or will get in the next few years on Android, and the whole user interface is quite slick.
This device is made to be its own little beast, not part of the docking and mirroring universe that Motorola smartphones have been almost exclusively for the past year. Because of that, you’ll have lower cost ($99.99 USD with a 2-year contract), and the device can be smaller as well. The battery inside this device is thinned-out in a way that makes it non-removable as well – the same situation as the original DROID RAZR too.
So you’ve got a smartphone that’s not made to come apart and certainly isn’t made to be part of the Motorola lineup from the year previous to this season. This is indeed part of the “new plan” spoken about by Dennis Woodside as Motorola’s tie with Google keeps the company flying high into the future. We’re excited to see if the DROID RAZR HD and HD MAXX are up to snuff as well – soon enough!
During Motorola’s keynote on Wednesday, the company announced a nice little bonus for loyal fans — should your 2011-or-later handset not receive a Jelly Bean update, you’ll get $100 if you upgrade to one of its new models. Well, a website for the deal has gone live and the initial Ts&Cs don’t make it sound like an immediate discount, but that the Benjamin will instead be reimbursed as a gift card, carrier credit or a cash equivalent of Motorola’s choice. We’re still in the dark about which specific phones will be denied a taste of Android 4.1, although the list is expected “very soon.” In the meantime, you can sign up at the source link below to receive details of how to update, or how to claim the rebate once the fate of your old handset has been decided.
Boy, what a day. September 5th has been one for the books, as five new devices from Nokia and Motorola were exposed to the public eye. We were happy to bring you extensive coverage of everything that happened today, but if you’re just getting home from work you may not have had the opportunity to keep up with the goings-on. To help you navigate the feeds a little easier, we’ve compiled all of the essential news in one place. So kick off your shoes, grab a bite to eat and meet us below the break to get caught up on the latest smartphones!
The Motorola DROID RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD may have been the biggest talking points during Motorola’s press event today, but the DROID RAZR M kind of stole the show in its own little way. Motorola has made a big deal about the RAZR M’s edge-to-edge screen, which is something we didn’t expect to see in a budget-priced handset. That’s the thing, too: despite its rather noteworthy features, the RAZR M will be available from Verizon for just 99 smackers.
In comparison to the original DROID RAZR, the RAZR M is a bit smaller while keeping the same dimensions on the screen. The 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced Display will undoubtedly be turning some heads as it spans almost the entire width of the device. The DROID RAZR M will come running Ice Cream Sandwich at first, but Motorola was promising Jelly Bean updates during its press conference, so it stands to reason that we can expect an update to the elusive Android 4.1 at some point in the near future. Additionally, the RAZR M is one of the first devices from Motorola that comes with Google Chrome pre-installed.
On the inside, we have a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, just the like the leaks before today claimed. There is also 1GB of RAM to work with, along with 8GB of internal storage – a nice boost considering that most budget-handsets only come with 4GB. The 8-megapixel camera is capable of shooting video in 1080p, and with Kevlar backing and Gorilla Glass on the front, the RAZR M should be able to stand up to a few tumbles, just like we would expect from present-day Motorola devices. To top it all off, this device comes complete with NFC and 4G LTE functionality, with Motorola looking to take advantage of Verizon’s 4G LTE network.
All in all, it seems like the DROID RAZR M isn’t a bad handset for the budget-minded consumer, especially if you like the fact that the screen takes up most of the front. It’s available for pre-order today from Verizon and it will be launching next week, so you don’t have to wait that long to get your hands on one. Keep it right here to SlashGear for more news on the Motorola DROID RAZR M!
The DROID RAZR M has suffered numerous leaks in the past few weeks, leading us to believe that Motorola would unveil the new device at its press event today. Sure enough, Motorola has officially announced the DROID RAZR M at Gotham Hall in New York City. It may not be as major as the announcement of the Motorola RAZR HD, but one look at the specs and you’ll probably agree that the DROID RAZR M can hold its own.
The most noteworthy feature of the DROID RAZR M is the new edge-to-edge screen. The 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display is touted as having “almost no borders,” so that should capture some attention. Just as interesting is the fact that the RAZR M will be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, but Motorola promises that it will be getting an update to Jelly Bean. Other features include an 8-megapixel camera capable of 1080p video capture, a dual-core processor, NFC and 4G LTE capabilities, 8GB of storage, and 1GB of RAM.
This phone is also ready to take a beating – though we don’t suggest that you go out of your way to try to damage it. With that Motorola Kevlar backing and Gorilla Glass featured though, it’ll be a good handset for the more clumsy folks among us. It looks pretty sleek too, with Motorola touting the fact that the RAZR M is “significantly shorter and narrower than the original DROID RAZR” even though it features the same size screen. Not too shabby if you ask us.
Surprisingly, Motorola says that the DROID RAZR M will be available starting next week for only $99. It’s up for pre-order at Verizon starting today at 5 PM Eastern. Google has wasted no time putting Motorola to work after the buyout earlier this year, and now Motorola has a few of brand new devices ready to offer the full Android experience. This team up marks the beginning of “the new Motorola,” so we should be seeing some exciting things coming up soon. Stay tuned, because we’ll have a hands-on with the DROID RAZR M coming up shortly.
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