Three New Motorola Smartphones

By Alex Angove

Last updated 06 September 2012

Motorola has announced three new smartphones for the US: The Motorola Droid RAZR HD, the Droid RAZR Maxx HD and the RAZR M 4G LTE. While we’d like to see a more compact naming scheme, all three phones are looking pretty good right now, even if they don’t come running Jelly Bean out of the box.

The Motorola Droid RAZR HD

The Droid RAZR HD sports a 4.7 inch Super AMOLED 720p display. Basically that all means that it should be a very crisp, large and vibrant screen of great quality. Shipping with Android 4.0.4, the Droid RAZR HD will apparently be seeing a Jelly Bean update sometime soon, but we’ve been let down by that kind of promise before so we’ll remain sceptical for now.

A dual-core 1.5GHz S4 processor runs the show, backed up by 1GB of RAM. It’s not the most powerful setup in the market right now, but dual-core should certainly get the job done.

Fantastically enough the RAZR HD supports 4G LTE, but will only be available on the Verizon Wireless 4G network. An 8MP camera, 2500mAh battery and thin profile (8.4mm) all back up the rest of the hardware quite nicely.

The Kevlar-coated rear plate from previous models has made a comeback, which is great as it’s not only handy for grip, but also protects against scratching while offering a unique and stylish look.

The Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx HD

Apart from having the silliest name of the bunch, the Droid RAZR Maxx HD sounds like our kind of smartphone. Why, do you ask? The RAZR Maxx HD is basically the exact same phone as the RAZR HD, except it sports an incredible 3300mAh battery. Motorola claims that this smartphone can get up to a whopping 21 hours talk-time, which is almost unheard of in the smartphone market.

Even better, the larger battery only runs the profile up an extra millimetre, meaning the Droid RAZR Maxx HD is still a fairly sleek-looking device despite its increased power storage capacity. The reason we’re big fans of this is that it’s an example of functionality over aesthetics. It’s true that we do love a sexy, thin profile on a phone. But sometimes it’s better to sacrifice just that little bit of visual appeal and go for something that gets the job done just that little bit better.

If the Droid RAZR Maxx HD turns out to last a full two days with medium-to-heavy use then we can see ourselves becoming huge fans. If not then it would seem that the extra power was for nothing, as we can’t see too many users charging their device every day and a half.

Other specs include:

Dual-core 1.5GHz CPU
1GB RAM
Android 4.0.4
8MP camera
4G LTE support on Verizon
4.7 inch 720p Super AMOLED display

The Motorola RAZR M 4G LTE

If it’s ok with everyone we’ll just call this one the Motorola RAZR M, or even the RAZR M for short. The RAZR M sports a fairly intriguing design with an even thinner bezel than the Droid RAZR HD or Droid RAZR Maxx HD. While we do love the look of this near edge-to-edge display, we’re a little concerned what having this thin a bezel would do to structural integrity. Hopefully Motorola hasn’t sacrificed too much damage endurance for the new snazzy look.

The RAZR M does boast a slightly less impressive display than the previous two devices. With only a qHD (540x960) resolution on a smaller 4.3 inch screen it won’t be turning too many heads. It certainly shouldn’t be considered out-dated, but it’s not going to be comparable to 720p HD. It is still a Super AMOLED Advanced display so colors should come out bright and vibrant.

There’s still a dual-core 1.5GHz processor powering the handset, along with 1GB of RAM so speed shouldn’t suffer. Also included is 4G LTE support, meaning that users can still experience that super-fast wireless broadband even though they don’t quite have a top-end device.

The 8MP camera and 8GB of internal storage aren’t particularly overwhelming, but hardly unexpected from a device in this price range. There’s always the MicroSD slot for storage expansion for any app or media junkies out there. The 0.3 MP front-facing camera doesn’t sound great, but megapixel count isn’t everything so we’ll hold off judgement until we see it in action.

Of the three the RAZR M is the only one currently available for preorder and should be released within a week or two. It’s currently $149 on a 24 month Verizon Wireless plan, although prices are always subject to change.

Our Overall Opinion

Ultimately we like what we’ve seen so far of these three phones. They don’t seem to bring too much new functionality to the table, but they at least seem competitive with the current market. We certainly would have liked to see Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, as buying a device while expecting a fast OS upgrade is usually a foolish venture.

We like the new thin-bezel look and the old rear-Kevlar style. Of the three we have to say that we’re most impressed with the Droid RAZR Maxx HD, with its straight-forward approach to increasing battery life. We’d definitely like to see more manufacturers focusing on increasing power capacity rather than CPU power.