It's been a while since Motorola has been a cool name to drop in
smartphone-centric circles. It's a shame, since following an
ill-advised obsession with the ultra-slim RAZR brand which led to a
variety of good-looking but so-so handsets, the US firm has
recently been serving up some
pretty tasty dishes, and the the Razr HD is probably the best
so far.
It's on sale now for around £400.
Design
Like previous Razrs, the HD is slim, at just a smidgeon over 8mm, but it still takes up a hefty amount of pocket space at 132x68mm and at a weighty 146g it feels like a hefty slab of tech. All of the front is covered by a single sheet of Corning Gorilla Glass surrounded by the casing rim which sits slightly proud to help protect it against accidental scratches if you happen to set it down face first. A cover on the side ejects to permit insertion of your microSIM and microSD cards (it has 16GB on board, but you can add cards up to 32GB). Charging and syncing is by the usual microUSB port and there's a micro HDMI slot too for mirroring the Razr HD's display on your TV screen.
Like previous Razrs, the HD is slim, at just a smidgeon over 8mm, but it still takes up a hefty amount of pocket space at 132x68mm and at a weighty 146g it feels like a hefty slab of tech. All of the front is covered by a single sheet of Corning Gorilla Glass surrounded by the casing rim which sits slightly proud to help protect it against accidental scratches if you happen to set it down face first. A cover on the side ejects to permit insertion of your microSIM and microSD cards (it has 16GB on board, but you can add cards up to 32GB). Charging and syncing is by the usual microUSB port and there's a micro HDMI slot too for mirroring the Razr HD's display on your TV screen.
The backplate fixed to the aluminium casing is made of tough
DuPont Kevlar, which has the feel of rubberised plastic, and
incorporates a distinctive chevron pattern that appears to move in
the light -- we rather liked it. The casing apparently features
"splash guard protection", though with no seals on the various
orifices it's hard to see just how effective this is. It's
certainly not in the same league as some of Sony's recent handsets
like the
Xperia Z, which can withstand being totally submersed in
water.
Features
The 4.7-inch Super Amoled touchscreen display offers a fair-enough HD resolution of 1,280x720 pixels, which equates to around 312 pixels-per-inch (ppi) -- certainly in the same ball park as the iPhone 5's 326ppi but a step down from the recent HTC One's stupendous 468ppi. Even so, it looks beautifully sharp and colours are deliciously vibrant whether you're checking out photos online or viewing HD video. Some might prefer a slightly less OTT display, but you can always turn the brightness down a bit to give it a more "natural" look (and save the battery while you're at it).
The 4.7-inch Super Amoled touchscreen display offers a fair-enough HD resolution of 1,280x720 pixels, which equates to around 312 pixels-per-inch (ppi) -- certainly in the same ball park as the iPhone 5's 326ppi but a step down from the recent HTC One's stupendous 468ppi. Even so, it looks beautifully sharp and colours are deliciously vibrant whether you're checking out photos online or viewing HD video. Some might prefer a slightly less OTT display, but you can always turn the brightness down a bit to give it a more "natural" look (and save the battery while you're at it).
It's running
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, so just slightly behind the very latest
4.2 version, though Motorola reckons an update's on the way. The
company's given the Android UI a light skim with some slightly
different icons and a few original widgets, including its circle
icons, which show time, weather and battery life. Flicking each
circle up or down gives you additional info too, like different
cities for the weather, or different clock displays. It's a nice
idea -- it would be good to see some more circle widgets in
future.
There are a few other tricks too, such as swiping to the right
from the homepage to bring up a list of quick settings, including
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and mobile data so you can make some
on-the-fly adjustments. There's also Motorola's SmartActions app
which allows you to programme different actions, such as cutting
back on background apps when your battery's low, or enabling you to
set up particular functions in different locations -- like putting
your phone on silent when you're at work, or enabling GPS and
Bluetooth when you get in the car. You can switch your SmartActions
on manually, or programme them to come on depending on where you
are, what time it is, the status of your battery or other
conditions.
Performance
The 1.5GHz dual-core processor is backed by a single 1GB RAM, which until recently would have looked very good, but in these days of quad-core engines backed by 2GB (take a bow, HTC One, Galaxy S4) is now starting to look just a little bit stingy. This isn't a front-rank powerhouse, and the price probably reflects that, but it does make a decent fist of fast shifting between apps and displaying data-heavy web pages. It delivered an AnTuTu performance benchmark rating of 7,690 which compares well with other dual-core handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini or the Sony Xperia T.
The 1.5GHz dual-core processor is backed by a single 1GB RAM, which until recently would have looked very good, but in these days of quad-core engines backed by 2GB (take a bow, HTC One, Galaxy S4) is now starting to look just a little bit stingy. This isn't a front-rank powerhouse, and the price probably reflects that, but it does make a decent fist of fast shifting between apps and displaying data-heavy web pages. It delivered an AnTuTu performance benchmark rating of 7,690 which compares well with other dual-core handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini or the Sony Xperia T.
This puts it in the mid ranks rather than the real top-enders
like the iPhone 5, HTC One or the soon-come
Samsung Galaxy S4. Still, it has 4G capability if you're in an
area that can make use of it, plus NFC for wireless payments.
The eight-megapixel camera comes with autofocus and an LED flash
-- pretty much standard for this price point in other words. Photo
modes include multi-shot (up to six), HDR (High Dynamic Range)
imaging which helps to balance the light and dark areas of a
picture and panorama, which lets you stitch together a series of
pics to form a 180-degree image.
Picture quality is decent though not exceptional, lacking a
little in detail but with good colour balance that looks more
accurate when you view your pics somewhere other than the Razr HD's
Super Amoled screen. Video recording holds up pretty well though,
and it will capture scenes in 1080p HD.
There's a sizeable 2,530mAh battery on board, bigger even that
the mammoth 2,300mAh power pack on the new HTC One, and despite the
power demanded by the processor, it seemed to do a pretty good job,
managing comfortably more than a day of heavy use.
Conclusion
The Motorola name may not have the hip cache of Apple, Samsung or even Sony, but on the evidence of the Razr HD the US company is perfectly capable of producing a very fine Android smartphone. And we can expect more once the effects of Google's buyout of the company begin to take effect, perhaps later this year.
The Motorola name may not have the hip cache of Apple, Samsung or even Sony, but on the evidence of the Razr HD the US company is perfectly capable of producing a very fine Android smartphone. And we can expect more once the effects of Google's buyout of the company begin to take effect, perhaps later this year.
Despite its thinness, the Razr HD will seem on the chunky side
to some, and though it has a decent spec, there's not a lot to help
it stand out from the tide of mid to high-end Android handsets out
there. It might be the best Razr yet, but that's not necessarily
enough to guarantee success.
