Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX Review

Introduction:

When Verizon introduced the Motorola DROID RAZR last November, we were impressed with its design, build quality and features, including a 4.3” display and dual-core processor – all wrapped up in a body that is only 0.28” thick. The only caveat being the 1780 mAh non-removable battery, as it may not provide long enough power for heavy users. Motorola hopes to alleviate this with the new Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX, as it comes with a higher capacity 3300 mAh battery, which Motorola says increases the talk time from 12 hours to 21 hours.

Design:

Overall, there is very little cosmetic difference between the DROID RAZR MAXX and the original DROID RAZR. Both are constructed out of premium materials, including a stainless steel body, Kevlar fiber on the back cover for reinforcement, and water repellent nano-coating on the inside to help protect the phone from accidental contact with liquids.



You can compare the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

In fact, when looking at both of the smartphones head-on, they appear nearly identical, though the Motorola logo on the DROID RAZR MAXX is a charcoal gray, and the one on the original RAZR is silver. There is more of a noticeable when viewed from their sides, as the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX is slightly thicker at 0.35”, which is only 0.07” more than its slimmer sibling. Cosmetically, we like this bit of extra thickness, as it helps to smooth-out the “camera hump” that is quite noticeable on the DROID RAZR. Not only that, but the MAXX feels more comfortable in our hand as there’s more surface area to grab on to. There is also a difference in weight of 0.62 oz, but it doesn’t make the DROID RAZR MAXX feel overly heavy.


We remain pleased with the 4.3” Super AMOLED Advanced display, as colors are saturated and viewing angles are good, even though its qHD resolution of 540x960 doesn’t allow for as much fine detail as the HD displays found on the HTC Rezound and Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Typical for an Android, we find the same set of capacitive buttons sitting beneath its display – with the microphone situated very close to the home button. Meanwhile, the front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera and narrow earpiece are all located directly above the display. Furthermore, to profoundly exhibit its premium taste, the Motorola name is etched into the diamond-cut aluminum accent. On the left side of the phone sits a plastic flap that hides away the handset’s microSIM 4G card slot and microSDHC card slot – the latter of which is occupied by a pre-installed 16GB memory card.

The power/lock button is positioned on the right edge along with the volume rocker. Between the two, the power button is slightly more raised versus the flat feel of the volume rocker – still, they exhibit a good response when they're pressed. Finally, the 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash and the speakerphone grill are all stuffed into the handset's hump, though as we mentioned earlier, it’s much less pronounced on the DROID RAZR MAXX.

Interface:

Again, we see identical features here, as the software on the DROID RAZR MAXX is carried over from the DROID RAZR. It comes running Android 2.3.5 (though an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich is said to be coming later in the year) and with the manufacturer’s MOTOBLUR user interface. This provides for some nice 3D effects for the desktop, widgets, and app panel.

If you’re big on social networking, you’ll take pleasure with the deep integration that the interface has to offer. In fact, the Social Networking app manages to aggregate all your social networking content in a single place – and it offers nice looking 3D window panels as you’re looking through posts. But instead of running the app, you can still get your quick fix by using the available social networking widgets on the homescreen.



Internet:

The DROID RAZR MAXX isn't shy to show off its web browsing performance – even more when it's packing 4G LTE speeds. In fact, we managed to get downloads up to 12Mbps and uploads of 8Mbps in our testing, but of course you can achieve even better results depending on your location and network congestion.

Besides the favorable speeds, the overall web browsing experience is arguably rock solid thanks to its responsive nature. So whether it's pinch zooming or kinetic scrolling, its movement is very gracious to deliver an engaging experience. Throw in the fact that it doesn't stutter even in the face of Flash content, it's remarkably equipped in providing us with that near desktop-like experience.



Camera:

The DROID RAZR MAXX comes with the same 8MP autofocus camera that is on the DROID RAZR, so it comes as no surprise that the images it produces look similar – not the best we've seen from an 8MP camera. When outside in sunny conditions, image detail is good, but can be lost in bright over-exposed areas. Meanwhile, colors are saturated, though there is a tendency for them to look bluer than neutral. For indoor shots, image quality is decreased as there is plenty of grain and digital noise that is visible. The LED flash does a nice job of illuminating dark environments, but the autofocus has difficulty focusing with it, resulting is multiple attempts of capturing a flash image.

Even though videos are recorded in HD resolution at 1920x1080p and 30 frames-per second, they failed to impress us, as detail is quite poor and it picks up on even the smallest vibration. It may be good enough for uploading to YouTube, but not for recording your family’s vacation.

Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX Sample Video:

Performance:

So here’s what the DROID RAZR MAXX is all about – the battery life. Motorola says its 3300 mAh battery is capable of 21 hours of talk time. We conducted several tests, and were only able to get up to 17 hours of continuous talk time on a full charge – 4 hours less than what Motorola claimed. This is still quite good, as it surpasses the regular DROID RAZR’s 10 hours of talk time (1780 mAh battery) and crushes 6 hours of talk time on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (1840 mAh battery). Naturally, most people will not talk on the phone for that long in one sitting, so we’re glad to report that under regular mixed usage, which includes some talk, web, email, app use, and standby, the DROID RAZR MAXX was able to last up to 3 days before requiring a charge, while the DROID RAZR and Galaxy Nexus require nightly charging. It is clear that the 3300 mAh battery is a winner here – and we hope to see high capacity batteries on future handsets. We only wish that the DROID RAZR MAXX would have been released at the same time with the DROID RAZR three months ago.

Unfortunately, we can’t speak to the call quality on our end this time around, as the DROID RAZR MAXX sample unit we received appears to have a defective earpiece speaker, which produces an irritating rattling sound whenever someone talks (even when lowering the volume). We did try a Bluetooth headset, which did allow for voices to sound good on our end.  The person that we talked to said we sounded great on their end.  We  believe that the MAXX is identical to the original DROID RAZR, which has fantastic calling quality.

Conclusion:

If you are a power user and are sick of continually charging your battery, you should take a look at the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX. Its talk and standby times are the longest that we've seen on a smartphone, and the device has plenty of high-end features to quench an Android user’s thirst, with its only drawbacks being the non-HD screen and the mediocre camera quality.   

Software on tested device:
Android 2.3.5
System version: 6.11.748.XT912.Verizon.en.US
Software date: Nov 30, 22:23:34 CST 2011

Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX Video Review: