What wasn’t there to love about the Motorola DROID RAZR that hit the streets last November? It had it all from great exterior looks to go with its ultra slim 0.28 inches thick body right up to having some great specs like the 4.3 inch screen as well as a dual-core processor. There’s always a but, and in this case, it had it all but the battery just didn’t satisfy hardcore users. So what does Motorola do to solve that, they release the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX, and you guessed it, yes it has a much bigger battery capacity with its 3300mAh battery. What else has it got in store for us under the hood? Read on to find out.
Design
So if you put the Motorola DROID RAZR next to the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX, there’s really not much difference in them, from the exterior of course. Motorola have stuck to the same premium material that we saw on the predecessor. The same stainless steel body and Kevlar fiber for the back fiber have stayed. These materials are almost unheard of in phones made by the competition out there. Also, the nano-coating is still there on the inside of the phone so you can get away with the occasional contact with water. So if you still want to tell the phone apart just from looks, you probably can as the Motorola logo on this one is charcoal gray while its predecessor sported a silver logo.
Measuring in at 5.15 x 2.71 x 0.35 inches, this phone is also thicker than the Motorola DROID RAZR which came in at 0.28 inches. I guess that means, looking from the side, you can say the fatter one is the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX. Well don’t worry, this thickness doesn’t make the phone look bad or anything, it actually sits well in your hands now that there’s more stuff to hold on to. Tipping the scales at 0.62 oz, this smartphone is barely going to make you feel like you are carrying a rock around. This phone also sports the same 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Advanced screen which we won’t have much to complain about, but more on that later. Sticking to Android’s tradition, we find the capacitive buttons under the screen. You also get a 1.3MP front-facing camera with the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX. On the right side of the phone you will find both the power button as well as the volume rocker. Moving to the left, there is a microSDHC and microSIM 4G card slot. Meanwhile right at top you will find a port for microUSB and one for MicroHDMI and lastly a 3.5mm audio jack. Meanwhile on the back of the phone sits the 8MP auto-focus camera that has LED flash as well.
Features
So what CPU is under the hood to power the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX? The TI OMAP 4430 dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex A9 is the one that makes this baby dance. It does everything that’s thrown at it with relative ease and we haven’t had a chance to take it to its breaking point yet as we are starting to doubt there is one.
Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX is going with the Android v2.3.5 Gingerbread, for now. Don’t fret, I said for now with reason, as Motorola promises an upgrade to Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich in due time, perhaps some time later this year. The GUI that runs atop the OS is Motorola’s very own MOTOBLUR. In terms of interface, there’s really not much that differentiates this phone from its predecessor. Thanks to MOTOBLUR, you get the same awesome 3D effects for wherever applicable like desktop, widgets or even your app panel. Social networking fans will love this phone of course thanks to the Social Networking app. This app puts together all your social networking updates in one place. 3D window panels will bring you up to date to your social updates. Other than using the app, you can also use the widgets that you find on the homescreen to take care of your social networking needs if your app fails or if you just don’t like it, which would be weird though.
The Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX is blessed with the same 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Advanced display as the Motorola DROID RAZR. We loved the nice saturated colors we got as well as the good viewing angles. Although the qHD resolution of 540 x 960 pixels was definitely not the best we could find as the display didn’t give as much details as its competitors.
On the back of this phone is an 8MP camera that comes with autofocus and also LED flash. This as you might remember is the same as the one found on the Motorola DROID RAZR. Not surprisingly, the results we got from this camera were pretty much the same, still not impressive that is. Take the camera outside under the sun and you get images that have great details. However, the pictures sometimes turn out over exposed. It was good however that the colors turned out saturated although at times colors were a little heavy on the blue side of things. We didn’t like the indoor pictures as there was a lot of digital noise. Although the LED flash definitely helped a little, the autofocus didn’t as it had trouble focusing on the subject when flash is in play. Videos are recorded at a HD resolution of 1920 x 1080p at 30 fps. However, the details are poor and it wasn’t impressive.
Of course at 4G LTE speeds, you can expect some brilliance with the web browsing. This was helped by the browser as things loaded smoothly and the responsive browser was lovable. Navigating through the pages was easy as you can pinch zoom and do kinetic scrolling with ease. Even when there is Flash content, you don’t get any less performance from this phone.
As mentioned much earlier in the review, this phone differentiates itself from the Motorola DROID RAZR with its amazingly huge 3300mAh battery. With this battery, the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX can last you a whole day no matter what you throw at it, or no matter how much rather. Call quality was pretty good as people on both sides had a good time on the phone. So nothing to worry there.
Pros and Cons
The battery life is definitely the eye catcher for the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX. We also liked the solid materials used in its design. The user interface was as good as the predecessor and call quality was good too.
Some may complain the fact that it doesn’t have Android Ice Cream Sandwich. The screen also lacks in terms of resolution. We find the camera and camcorder also seems to lack quality.
Conclusion
Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX is certainly a phone that has been designed with tremendous class. If you rely heavily on your smartphone to get things done in your day to day life, then with the battery life this phone gives, it will do you a lot of good.
