Add a larger battery and dub it the Maxx. That’s clearly Motorola’s strategy here. The DROID RAZR brought on a whole new meaning to the trade marked line of phones, but like many other smartphones in it’s class, competition was seriously lacking in the battery department. It’s not blasphemy to say that the vast majority of AnDROID phones last less than a day on a single charge with 3G on and generally, when the 4G radios are firing, that number cuts in half sometimes.
SO, being the innovator they are, Motorola decided to fix that with 3300 mAh battery, non-removable, and capable of 21 hours of talk time, according to the boys themselves. Does it deliver? Read on to find out, as well as find information on where to buy the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx at a discounted price!
Design and Features
Design wise, the RAZR and RAZR Maxx are very similar. The only major difference cosmetics wise is the back panel. The camera bump has been smoothed down considerably and we applaud Motorola for this because ever since the DROID X we thought the camera bump was oh so unsexy. Overall the profile is a bit thicker than the original, but not by much. In fact, the only way you can tell is when both devices are side by side.
Other than that, all the specs from the original are here. A quick rundown: dual-band CDMA radios, sorry no GSM roaming upgrade here, mono-band LTE radio, qHD display (PenTile) with 540 x 960 pixels, Corning Gorilla Glass, 3.5mm jack, dual-core 1.2GHz TI OMAP4 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage with 16GB card included and support for 32GB microSD cards, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and 1080p video recording. 1.3 megapixel front facing camera with 720p video recording, Android 2.3 Gingerbread with upgrade to 4.o ICS on the horizon, accelerometer, proximity censor and compass.
Performance
We’ll gloss over most the performance marks here as they remain unchanged; we have a full review of the DROID RAZR up already. Basically you get what you see here, and in this case it’s a whole lot. We can’t complain about much except for the display which is truly lacking compared to the competition. Even Samsung’s Galaxy S II line which sports a lower resolution than the DROID RAZR has much better color representation and saturation then the DROID RAZR.
The camera could be better as it produces some grain under low light conditions. Not only that but put it in direct sunlight and you get washed out colors. But honestly it sounds worse on paper than it does in person. Unless you are looking for DSLR quality shots, you will easily be able to get by with this camera and it may even substitute your regular point and shoot. That said; don’t throw away your Nikon D90 or Canon 60D just yet.
As for the battery, this is where Motorola outdid themselves and is one of the primary reasons consumers are flocking to find out where to purchase the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx at the lowest possible price. In a standard video run down we were able to milk a full 17 hours out of this phone with brightness turned to 60%, WiFi on and 4G off. If you ask us those are some very good numbers compared to the iPhone 4S which just barely managed to get by the 8 hour mark on the same test. Needless to say, even with heavy usage, you can easily get well into you second day on the DROID RAZR Maxx without looking for a plug. Moderate usage can bring you 2 days’ worth of usage. Such great battery life does come at a sacrifice as the battery, just like the original version is not user replaceable, but even power users shouldn’t find a problem with this.
Conclusion
Even with the less than perfect screen and camera, the DROID RAZR Maxx still outshines most of the competition. We were honestly impressed by this phone which brings us to our biggest complaint, why couldn’t Motorola have done this on the original DROID RAZR. In truth, this is just a DROID RAZR with a $100 battery pack (as Engadget has dubbed it). But seeing that you cannot replace the battery on the earlier version as well, the pain is a little easier to bare. Now if only Motorola would not stick a $100 premium to this phone, we’d be cool. Included in this review is price comparison information to assist you in finding the best possible option to buy the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx.