Motorola Droid RAZR Smartphone Review

During our everyday usage tests of the Droid RAZR, we felt the phone was very responsive. We checked email, browsed the web, placed calls, etc and were pleased with how quickly the Droid RAZR responded to our requests. Indeed, with a 1.2GHz dual core T.I. OMAP4460 processor and 1GB of LP DDR2 RAM, we expected the phone to be snappy and smooth and it held up to these expectations.

We also appreciated the high-resolution qHD Super AMOLED Advanced display found on the Droid RAZR. With a resolution of 540 x 960, we definitely noticed a difference compared to other devices such as Samsung's Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch which has a slightly larger display (4.52-inches) but lower resolution of 800 x 480. Although you probably won't notice a huge difference between the Droid RAZR and another high-end phone that's currently available unless you have these two phones side by side like we did. The Droid RAZR definitely has one of the better displays. In addition to clarity and vibrancy, the Droid RAZR's screen also has excellent viewing angles.

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The Droid RAZR comes with 16GB of internal memory as well as a 16GB pre-installed microSD card. We appreciate the extra storage that Motorola and Verizon Wireless have provided with the Droid RAZR in comparison to some of today's other phones. We also like that the microSD card slot is very easily accessible on the side of the device. This makes it very easy to swap cards, though with 16GB, we hope you won't run out of space too soon.

The Droid RAZR offers an 8MP rear-facing camera with LED flash. We were very satisfied with the images captured using this phone's camera. Although the images won't compare to a standalone digital camera, we felt the Droid RAZR's camera did a better than average job at taking good photos. As is the case with the flash found on most every camera phone, it was not uncommon for indoor shots to be washed out by the flash or too dimly lit by the flash (if the subject was far away) to get an excellent shot. With adequate ambient lighting, however, we were able to capture good images indoors as well as outside.

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As one should expect, we had no complaints or issues with the Droid RAZR while placing and receiving calls. The Droid RAZR supports 4G LTE connectivity. We tested the phone in one of the new markets Verizon Wireless recently added, and we definitely noticed a big difference in surfing speeds when connected to the new 4G LTE network. Of course, there are a few tradeoffs to this high-speed connectivity: increased battery drain and the potential to consume more data than you realize. If you don't have one of the "old" or grandfathered unlimited data plans from Verizon Wireless, you'll definitely want to keep tabs on how much data you're consuming, particularly if you're using the phone to stream video and for other data-intensive tasks. 

Battery Testing:

Speaking of increased battery drain while using 4G LTE connectivity, we felt like the Droid RAZR's battery didn't last as long when we were putting the fast connection to good use streaming movies or surfing the web.

In addition to using the phone for everyday tasks, we also like to put a quantitative measure on the Droid RAZR's battery life. To do this, we set up our own Web-surfing test. In this test, we set up a webpage with a mix of graphics and text. The page automatically refreshed itself every three minutes. We set the Droid RAZR's display to 50% brightness and turned off Wi-Fi.

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When we ran this test, the Droid RAZR lasted for a 200 minutes while connected to a 4G network before giving up. Recognizing that many of the phones we've included on our Battery Test chart in the past have used 3G connections while running this same test, we also ran the Battery Test with 4G connectivity turned off. With 3G connectivity, the Droid RAZR lasted for 275 minutes – an increase of one hour and 15 minutes over the battery life when connected to a 4G network.

Motorola and Verizon Wireless claim you should get up to 12.5 hours of talk time and up to 8.5 days of standby time from the Droid RAZR while connected to the Verizon Wireless network. In our everyday usage of the phone—checking email, surfing the web, etc—the phone was able to make it through a work day (approximately 8-10 hours) with light to moderate use without a problem. Of course, your mileage will vary depending on how you use the phone.

If you consider the longevity of the Droid RAZR's battery when connected only to a 3G network, its battery life is respectable at over 4.5 hours of continuous web surfing.