Motorola Droid Razr Review

 

NEW DELHI: The name conjures up a whole lot of emotions for many people, especially for those who owned or lusted after one in its lifetime. The Razr was a status symbol, a fashion icon and one of the most successful flip phones of all time, a title it holds till today. Of the many iterations that followed, none could recreate its success - but Motorola is trying yet again to change that, with the newest Razr, also called the Droid Razr or the XT910.

The new Razr wears the name with pride. But why this comparison? After all, what could a phone launched in 2004 possibly have in common with an Android smartphone launched in 2011? For starters, like the original Razr, the Droid Razr is razor-thin. It also uses innovative materials (anodised aluminium then, Kevlar fibre and stainless steel now). And it was cutting-edge for its time (a really large and high-res screen, superlative performance and high durability). 

Motorola has used a special water-resistant 'nano' coating - even the internals are protected. Motorola claims that the device should be able to take a little splash of water without any issues. And at 7.1 mm, it is impossibly slim. By comparison, Samsung's Galaxy S II is 8.5 mm, Apple's latest iPhone 4S is 9.3 mm while HTC's Sensation is 11.3 mm thick.

MotoRazr 2011

The super amoled screen is one of the most dazzling screens on any smartphone.

Thanks to the qualities of amoled, blacks are truly black and not a shade of grey The camera is super-quick, both while starting up and with shot-to-shot times. It can geo-tag photos, touch to focus, detect faces, stabilise shaky photos and shoot full HD video.

The 8 MP camera unit, 3.5 mm (headphone), micro HDMI and micro USB ports are on the top inside the 'hump' - a design highlight that dates back to the first Razr

It may be Kevlar, but it's not bullet proof. Kevlar enhances the 'premium-ness' of the device - plus it's surprisingly resistant to scratches, even from a knife Fitting all this impressive hardware into a shell that is mostly 7.1 mm thick is nothing short of an engineering marvel.

Even the non-user replaceable battery is wafer-thin. First phone to use Kevlar extensively

The thinnest smartphone at just 7.1 mm (original Razr was 13.9 mm)

Extensive use of glue to hold it together Water resistant internals (splash proof only) & stainless steel backbone

Specs

Quad band GSM, 3G, 4.3-inch super amoled touchscreen, 1.2 Ghz dual core processor, 1GB RAM, 8MP front, 1.3 MP front cameras, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS, 127 grams

Price: Rs 33,990

Ringing out competition

The new Droid Razr certainly has all the right ingredients, but it remains to be seen whether it will be able to recreate some of the success that the original Razr enjoyed. Motorola has some tough competition from HTC, LG and Samsung - all of whom already offer large-screened, dual-core Android superphones.

MotoRazr 2004

The 176 x 220 pixel, 2.2-inch internal screen was huge at the time. It was great for photographs and web browsing, thanks to the high resolution (for the time) The keyboard was etched from a single wafer of metal, with a cool blue electroluminescent backlight. It was figuratively and literally a cutting-edge design The all-aluminium outer panels meant that the Razr was always cool to the touch - it was one of the defining features of the phone

The outer screen was smaller and lower resolution, but it still showed a lot of information (including network name, signal strength, time and caller name)

At 13.9 mm, the Razr was the slimmest clamshell phone of its time. Save for the large hump at the bottom, the phone was an even thickness when flipped open

Specs

Quad band GSM with GPRS, VGA camera, Dual colour screens, 5.5MB total memory, Bluetooth, Mini USB, 95 gm

Price: Rs 8,000-15,000