Motorola Razr: Looking Sharp

Remember when Motorola were the talk of the town? When everyone, especially the ladies, had those cool Razr flip phones and schoolkids were forever honking the phrase “Hello Moto” at anyone who’d listen? Seems quite a while ago now but it looks like the glory days are on the way back for Motorola, judging by their last couple of forays into smartphone territory at least. After tentatively testing the waters with the Milestone and Milestone 2, gaining confidence with the tough-as-old-boots-yet-cool-as-a-frozen-cucumber Defy, and then wowing us with the power and accessorize-ability of the Atrix, the Moto boys have harked back to the halcyon days enjoyed in the not too distant past and incorporated a bit of their history with this latest Android effort, the nostalgically named Motorola Razr. Will it carry on the lineage of the name and turn out to be a damn sexy handset? Or will the Razr fail to make the cut? (geddit?). Let’s see…

Design

Those of you old enough (or into phones enough) to remember the original Razr series might be quite surprised at this new-fangled version as it looks precisely nothing like the phones that inspired it. Gone is the flip-tastic clamshell form factor replaced by a slick, expansive and very, very thin sort of candy bar shape (if that candy bar had run over by a steam-roller). That said, it still retains that almost militaristic vibe rocked by the original thanks mainly to the brutalist lines and stealth bomber-esque outer shell. The more closed-minded of you out there might well bleat that the new Razr is slightly odd-looking, especially when the stark back panel and slightly unsightly bulge on the rear which houses the 8 megapixel camera, but we’d say that it’s these little nuances that give the thing a bit of character and set it apart from the gazillion other Android handsets out there.

It’s not all about the external armour though (and it’s definitely armour that the Razr’s innards are wrapped in…parts of the casing are made from Kevlar – the same stuff that bullet-proof vests are constructed from), because there’s the small matter of a 4.3-inch super AMOLED Gorilla Glass-coated display to whet your appetite further. Yes, not only is this new Moto piece slicker than your average, er, slick thing, but it’s also tough as old boots and has some top of the range display tech onboard too. You certainly gets your money’s worth with this one we can tell you. Underneath that nigh-on-indestructible screen sit the usual touch sensitive nav buttons, although the space that houses them is perhaps a littler bigger than it needs to be – if they’d been squashed up a little further, the screen could have been made a tad larger. As the rest of the phone’s looks are so shinilyimpressive, we’ll let them off.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of this device though is the girth, and more to the point, it’s apparent lack of. Weighing in at just 127g and measuring just 7.1 mm thick, we’d say that this Razr lives up to it’s name, such is its blade-like form. However, if you’re thinking that they must have scrimped on tech to make it this thin, you’d be wrong for the new, snazzier, 100% more Android-ier Razr come with all the bells and whistles you’d expect of a high-end smartphone. It’s just that that Moto have done it that little bit smarter…and infinitely less bulky.

Innards

Unlike the original Razr from years back, this one doesn’t feature a clunky ‘own-brand’ operating system and is stuffed full of Android goodness, Android 2.3.5 goodness to be precise. Ok, this might not be the latest version to join Google’s open-source operating system jamboree, but give the Moto boys a chance will ya? Ice Cream Sandwich and all the sparkly new functions it promises has only just landed, but even so, the Razr will get an update to the fresher than fresh little green robot as soon as the Motorola boffins (along with the rest of he manufacturers) have mangled it enough to fit on their kit. Chill yer boots though fans of up to the minute software platforms because the Android it ships with is more than equal to the task of powering along a top-notch smartphone.

Of course, this being a Android joint means that all the usual Google-y goodness comes along for the ride including dedicated YouTube widget, Maps, Navigation and the all important key to the Android Market so you can sharpen up your Razr with a load of cool apps. Unfortunately though, the skin that Moto lays over the top of Android isn’t the most exciting and pales in comparison to the likes of HTC’s Sense. There is a neat little graphical flourish which shows all the homescreens in a deck of cards-style layout and lets you scroll through them (displaying a kind of phosphorus glow around each when selected), but other than that, nada.

What the Razr lacks in internal pizzazz is certainly made up for by the considerable processing power it packs under the hood. Whilst it’s true that we’ve seen 1.2GHz dual-core processors tucked away under the lithe bonnets of high-end smartphones before, this one does seem to make things especially swift. Transitions were smooth and jitters when opening up apps and streaming video were markedly absent, but the quickness was none so evident than when surfing the web. Android’s bundled browser helps a lot here and makes your web usage smoother, allowing tabbed browsing and bookmarking, but even without that helping hand, it’s still swift with pages rendering in the blink of an eye. The front-facing 1.3MP camera (to go with the 8 megapixel  one on the back), is especially useful for video calling, whilst the more powerful one has an LED flash and is capable of video capture in 1080p HD. On top of that, the music player has all kinds of cool options including internet radio and DNLA connectivity so you can play content through other bits of kit. Nice.

The Final Word

Motorola have been steadily ramping up its Android output in recent times with the appearance of the Milestone 2, hardman Defy and accessory-laden Atrix. We’d have to say though that this latest addition to the stable trumps the lot, dispensing with what many might have described as gimmicks and cramming a whole load of high-end smartphone features into an innovatively designed outer shell. If you’re after a high-performance device with streamlined social networking, web-browsing, and well, everything really, the Razr is as sharp as they come.