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Motorola RAZR HD Review

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The Motorola RAZR HD Android smartphone launched in the US in 2012 and is just now launching in the UK. But can old tech cut it in today’s ruthlessly competitive smartphone market?

Design & looks

The RAZR HD continues Motorola’s strong and distinctive design pedigree. The RAZR HD is the largest in the Droid RAZR series, with a huge 4.7 inch screen at its heart. This is a high definition screen with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution. That marks it out as a 2012 phone, as the latest generation phones such as the Sony Xperia Z and HTC One have 1920 x 1280 pixel screens. Still, it’s an impressively detailed display and thanks to its Super AMOLED technology, it’s also bright with vivid saturated colours.

The phone chassis is constructed from metal, with shatterproof Gorilla Glass on the front and Kevlar fibre on the rear. Kevlar fibre is a synthetic material used to make body armour. It’s reported to be five times stronger than steel. Both the outer surface and the interior electronics are protected with a splash-guard coating.

The result: a large and heavy phone, but almost indestructible and with a very large high-definition screen.

Under the hood

The RAZR HD has a fast 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, making it fast but not quite as fast as high-end rivals. The 12GB of built-in user memory can be increased by adding a memory card, giving a maximum storage capacity of 44GB, which will be plenty for most users.

The phone is an Android smartphone and it runs Android Jelly Bean 4.1. An update to version 4.2 may be released later.

Camera

As with the screen and processor, the camera isn’t good enough to rival the flagship devices of 2013, but it’s on a par with camera phones from last year. With an 8 megapixel sensor, auto focus and an LED flash, it’s good enough to replace a compact digital camera for most uses, but underperforms in low lighting conditions.

It can record video at Full HD 1080p resolution and a second front-facing camera enables HD video chat.

Connectivity

The RAZR HD is 4G/LTE compatible as well as supporting Wi-Fi data connectivity. This makes it an ideal phone for high data users.

It also supports NFC and Bluetooth wireless connectivity in addition to a micro-USB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Battery life

The battery life of all the DROID RAZR phones is outstanding, and the same is true of the RAZR HD. Despite the large display and the dual-core processor, the phone can deliver up to 16 hours of talk time or 20 hours of music playback. The AMOLED technology used in the display is ultra-low power and the phone comes with a very high capacity 2530mAh battery.

Another weapon in the phone’s battle against power consumption is the SmartActions app, which can help to manage the phone and reduce power requirements.

Conclusion – still excellent for the price

The design and construction of the RAZR HD is distinctive and first rate. It feels bulletproof and unbreakable, and its slim design has lots of appeal. At the same time, it’s not a small phone and won’t suit everyone’s taste for that reason.

The display is large, bright and finely detailed and the phone runs smoothly, thanks to the dual-core processor. There’s plenty of memory available, the camera is better than average and the connectivity and battery life are outstanding.

The phone can’t compete against the latest flagship models from Samsung, Sony and HTC, but the price reflects that. If you’re looking for a stylish and capable Android phone, and don’t want to pay a premium price, the RAZR HD still has a lot to offer, even in 2013.

Written By

Steve Morris writes about smartphones, tablets, computers and future technology at tech review site S21. He blogs about science, technology and other matters at Blog Blogger Bloggest. Catch his tweets at @s21tech.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Hemant Jain

    April 9, 2013 at 12:02 pm

    looks are awesome. specs are smart too.

  2. Samfrank

    April 9, 2013 at 12:56 pm

    If it is as good as my Razr Maxx on battery life I would buy it if the Maxx died. That also was not a cheap phone but does more than I could ever want and is not made of fragile plastic.

    • Steve Morris

      April 9, 2013 at 8:12 pm

      It won’t match a RAZR MAXX (that has a 3300 mAh battery) but it will outperform most other products on the market.

  3. myles

    April 9, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    the most amazing phone it is. i’m already in love wth it.

  4. Alan Foster

    April 9, 2013 at 6:08 pm

    Inspiring looks and savvy specs. This phone has hit the nail for me and I’m all set to buy one. Lucky I read it here since I’m already looking to make a new purchase.

  5. Vincent Armstead

    April 10, 2013 at 12:10 pm

    Thanks for the reviews!!!
    As this Motorola RAZR device looks good with some great features but it cannot compete with other brand smartphones in 2013..

  6. Luis

    April 12, 2013 at 3:26 am

    Thanks for the run-down on this phone, Steve. I’ve been considering getting this one!

  7. Merlin

    April 13, 2013 at 9:50 am

    The specs of this phone look quite competitive to the other smart phones out in the market. The design looks cool but I wished that it had a 2Gb RAM. Thanks for sharing this smart phone.

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