The Motorola Droid RAZR: OMAP 4, 7.1mm Thick, 4G LTE
by Jason Inofuentes on October 18, 2011 11:50 AM EST- Posted in
- Motorola
- Droid
- Verizon
- LTE
- Android 2.3
- Droid RAZR
- Webtop
We're live at Motorola's NYC launch event featuring the return of a long fabled brand, the RAZR. This time paired with a more recent brand, Droid. The phone itself was teased with the line 'Faster, Thinner, Smarter, Stronger' and tries to bear those superlatives out with a 1.2 GHz Ti OMAP 4430 SoC, super thin form factor (7.1mm), Android 2.3 (the latest edition as of press time) and a frame made from steel and a case made partially of Kevlar. In addition the display is a 4.3" Super AMOLED Advanced qHD display, which they peg as having more contrast and more rich colors than a certain 3.5" display. Motorola's not pulling any punches, they want you to know that this is faster and with a better display than the iPhone 4S.
Update: Motorola tells us the RAZR uses the same 8MP rear camera sensor as the Bionic (check out our review for our analysis). The front facing camera gets an upgrade to 720p. The battery capacity is 1800mAh, which should put it right around what we saw in the Bionic.
Update 2: Hands on videos below!
In addition to the hardware, Motorola wanted to show off a few software innovations, no doubt wanting to hedge against the Ice Cream Sandwich announcement later this evening. The first, is what they're calling evolved Webtop, it's unclear how different this is than the Webtop we know and . . . well . . . like, but we'll be sure to investigate further. Next was Smart Actions, a battery sparing system that automatically adjusts device settings for optimum battery life based on conditions including location and battery life. For instance, if you're home, you probably don't need your BT and GPS to run, so it shuts those off. MotoCast is their push to cover the 'personal cloud' market. As they describe it, only 15% of smart phone users devote all their files to the 'cloud,' with the vast majority saving their files in a laptop or desktop that sits at home. This software tunnels your phone to your computer and allows you to retrieve and send files from your phone. The notion of the personal cloud will be big in the future so this may be a real boon if it works as flawlessly as they hope. Lastly, they discussed their Enterprise software, this is an ongoing theme for all new product announcements of late, and no doubt a reaction to the number of iPhone's being tied into business networks.
All of this will be running on Verizon's 4G LTE network and the speed benefits of this network were showed off prominently. If the weight, thinness and battery life claims pan out then this could be the first LTE phone to not be bulky and aching for a spare battery. We are skeptical about any incredible battery life claims given that we're likely looking at the same underlying hardware that has powered previous 4G LTE phones. We'll have more coverage shortly after we get some up close time with the device, but in the interim enjoy some shots from the event.
Preorders start on October 27th, and the Droid RAZR will be available in store and on-line in November for $299 on-contract, par for the course for halo phones of late.
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michael2k - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
Why do they think they can charge more than Apple, already the king of overpriced items?sciwizam - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
Because this has 32GB of storage and LTE?jalexoid - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
And we all saw hot it worked with the XOOM. On the other hand, SGS2 sells rather well....Daniel Egger - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
Because there're enough people around to buy it anyway despite the price? But don't talk to me, I still don't understand why people pay $$$ for gadgets that suck most at what is supposed to be their number one purpose: TELEPHONYmichael2k - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
If we used these things for phones we wouldn't be buying smartphones, we'd be using Nokia phones.Ergo their #1 purpose isn't telephony, it's actually games, apps, web browsing, email, etc.
blueboy11 - Friday, October 21, 2011 - link
Well, think about it, if Verizon already has Apple in their pockets already doesn't make sense that they charge for their phones like Apple does too? I guess they felt that they would be left out, huh? More than likely it's to cover their asses by subsidizing the phone so that if you were to return it, they wouldn't lose too much money off of it, that's my take of it. LTE isn't too much of an issue, since we already pay a ridiculous amount of money on our bills to cover it the costs of maintaining/upgrading cell towers on it anyways.Johnnn3433 - Saturday, November 5, 2011 - link
Yeah its most likely the 4GLTE that sets it apart.www.fourgltephones.com
galfert - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
* No mention if if has NFC...probably means is doesn't. Sure NFC is not ubiquitous but within a year it will be and I'll still be stuck in contract. So NFC is a must now.* How thin is it really? 7.1mm is ignoring the hump. I want to know how think it is there. Design is perfect except for the hump. How thin does it really need to be? If it was 10mm think would that be so bad to get rid of the hump? And use the extra space for an even bigger battery.
* Motoblur still in there? ....Pass
* Will the boot loader be unlocked?
JasonInofuentes - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
NFC is a no, not surprising given that thin and NFC doesn't go together just yet.7.1 is ignoring the lump but the lump becomes almost negligible when you consider just how much of this device is 7.1 mm. And the lump isn't too thick.
nuMoto (as I've taken to calling it) is still there, and still falls nicely in the balance of being not too invasive while still being noticeable. the device was smooth, very smooth.
No word on when unlocked bootloaders will actually surface.
Jason
BorderlineADD - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link
I can't find anyplace that mentions the dimensions of the lump at all--everyone just calls the RAZR 7.1mm thick and then shows a photo of a thin phone with a thick lump. Measuring the photo above, the thin part is 21 pixels and the thick part is 33, making the lump approximately 11.1mm thick. The iPhone 4 is 9.3mm thick, which makes it (according to the UK courts) a thinner phone.