Motorola sharpens smartphones with revamped Razr
Thinner, stronger, faster, smarter
Motorola revived one of its most popular handset brands today: Razr.
At a European launch in Berlin, the company insists it addressed four key areas with the Razr, making it thinner, stronger, faster and smarter.
At just 7.1mm thick - though it bulges out further where the camera is located - and 127g in weight, the Razr is one of the thinnest and lightest smartphones on the market. Yet it packs a dual-core 1.2GHz processor with 1GB Ram and 16GB of storage. This can be expanded with Micro SD cards too.
The splash-proof ringer features a 4.3in, 960 x 540 OLED display made from scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass. The toughness continues with its stainless steel insides and a laser-cut woven Kevlar-fibre body.
Then there's an 8Mp camera with 1080p HD video recording as well as a front-facing camera for HD face-to-face communication.
Unlike Samsung, which unveiled the first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich device this morning, in the shape of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Motorola hasn't gone for the latest Android platform, despite the company's acquisition by Google this summer. Instead, the Razr comes with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, although an ICS update is promised for Q1 2012.
In the meantime, there's much to admire, with heaps of built-in software features. These include SmartActions, which helps automate tasks for a better battery life, with parameters for certain energy saving measures, easily customisable.
There's also the company's new cloud-based service Motocast, which provides remote access to content on a PC or Mac from the Razr handset. Multimedia can be streamed directly, or alternatively downloaded.
The Razr will be offered with a stack of optional accessories and docking choices, For couch-taters, there's a smart controller for manipulating the phone while connected to the TV. This doubles up as a handset too, receiving calls when the phone is otherwise occupied on its docking station.
The new Motorola Razr will be available early November. Pricing has yet to be revealed. ®
COMMENTS
It is not RAZR
This is passing off on a good design and good phone (for its time). Now if it had a flip to cover/hide the screen (even as an accessory) this would have been a different story.
In fact, if noone selss one, I will be tempted to mod it with one :) This is if I ever get it of course.
Well, Saturday I played with a Nokia N9 (in an Elisa shop)
I can tell you, it's light, thin, fast, intuitive. I didn't have to switch the lingo from Finnish to English to know exactly what to do. Did I say it's thin? Remarkably so.
It's simply fuc*king beautiful. Maybe the best Nokia's ever produced.
Fitting for a swan-song.
But at an eye-watering €599 for the 16Gig version, to the €699 64Gig jobbie, for an unemployed bloke with limited savings, I'd want serious discount if I goto the dealer (Where I got my N8-00 from) to swap.
But, man, it was awesome. The only axe I have to grind is the one I wanna plant in Elop's skull..
Motorola's got to play a lot of 'catch-up' to beat this mother!.
Doing my sums, and if the dealer and I can make a deal, I'll have one tomorrow. Shop opens at 10:00 am.
Ho-hum
When I first heard of the Droid RAZR I hoped for a flip phone. Seems instead we get another generic slab.
No, I don't think it's "copying the iPhone", but you have to admit most high-end Android handsets have very little difference between them.
Stop trying to differentiate on software, Moto (Blur sucks anyway), and come out with some different form factors.
Reminding me about "jesus phone" and patents...
Wonder if Steve Jobs and Jesus are now negotiating IP rights....
RE: Clamshell
"Yes, no way I'm going to have a bare piece of glass lying around in my pocket amongst the coins, keys etc. I'll wait until the stupid non clamshell fad passes thanks."
I've had a original Droid (milestone UK and other places) for nearly two years now, and put the first scratch in the screen yesterday. By dropping the phone face-down on pavement and sliding. Gorilla glass is really, really tough.
