Motorola Droid Ultra - Motorola's thinnest Droid ever

Hands-on with the new $199 HTC Droid DNA

HTC jumps into phablets with Droid DNA (hands-on)

Design

On the surface, the slab-shaped HTC Droid DNA looks like just about every other Android smartphone on the market. The only touch of flair are signature Verizon-red highlights which circle the 8-megapixel megapixel camera lens and form a thin line above the screen. Frankly it gives the handset a classic Droid Incredible flavor similar to the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE That said I really like the long red stripes which run along both the left and right edges of the phone. HTC says it was inspired by Lamborghini supercars when crafting them. As for me, I just think the stripes, which are metallic and perferated by tiny holes, look futuristic and striking.

On back, the phone’s soft-touch surface cut from premium polycarbonate reminds me more of the HTC One X and One X+’s design language though. You’ll need that soft-touch coating too since its rubber feel provides a sure grip. The device is large, yet thin. Its 0.16-inch profile makes it thinner than the Samsung Galaxy S III. Picking up both handsets and placing them side-by-side, however, they seem to be of equal thickness, or shall I say thiness. This phone is razor-sharp, there's no doubt about that and its metal buttons and trim give it a much more premium feel than the Galaxy S III's plastic parts.


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Review – Motorola Droid Razr Maxx

The good: Despite a beefed-up battery, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx has a slim, attractive, and durable design with the same gorgeous display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, and fast Verizon 4G/LTE data speeds as its predecessor. It retains powerful multimedia chops and tight security features.

The bad: For such an advanced smartphone, the vague promise of a future Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is disappointing. Also, while a stronger battery is great, it’s still not user-removable. People with small hands will find it hard to wrap around the phone’s wide frame, and the 8-megapixel camera is unimpressive.

The bottom line: The Motorola Droid Razr Maxx proves that a powerful Android superphone can remain thin yet still promise marathon-worthy battery life. If you can live without Ice Cream Sandwich and have big hands, the Maxx is extremely compelling.

Read the Full Review!

Motorola Droid 4 hands-on: Awesome keyboard, blistering 4G LTE

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

CNET - At CES earlier this year, Motorola dropped a trio of new Verizon handsets offering welcome improvements over the company’s existing device selection. They were the now legendary Droid Razr Maxx, Droid Razr Purple, and Droid 4. Out of that lineup, it was the Droid 4 that initially grabbed my attention.

Why, you ask? The simple answer is that it melds dual-core processing, a quality keyboard, Android, and Verizon LTE in one phone. That’s the holy grail to some, at least for Android addicts who can’t seem to live without a real physical QWERTY keyboard. Motorola seriously disappointed Droid fans with its Droid 3, which lacked the final puzzle piece, LTE data. Enter the Droid 4.

Design

It’s clear to me that the Droid 4 takes its design cues from other devices in Motorola’s current 2012 lineup. The phone sports the black obelisk motif, complete with slightly rounded corners and beveled edges, as do the Droid Razr Maxx and Droid Razr. It’s a classy look sure to fit in equally at the office or out on the town. There’s no getting around, however, the large size of the Motorola Droid 4. I mean its girth stares at you right in the face practically begging for trouble. This bruiser measures 5 inches tall by 2.65 inches wide with a full thickness of half an inch. Weighing 6.31 ounces, the Droid 4 is also hefty. Compared with the wafer-thin trend modern smartphones are taking, this handset stands out.

The trade-off for all that extra mass is just what makes it appeal to a very vocal set of Android users, a superb keyboard. Sliding the phone open reveals a gloriously engineered typing surface. While I admit keys are tightly packed together, travel is deep and buttons provide a deliciously rubberized tactile feel. Consisting of five rows, not merely four like on lesser devices, it has a dedicated number row on top. I also really dig the way the backlighting traces the outline of the Droid 4′s squat rectangular keys. The spacebar goes on for what feels like miles and is easy to hit without looking down. The Droid 4′s directional pad is nice as well and something you don’t see often either.

To be clear, though, some things about the keyboard do bug me. First, there is no special key for “.com” or an emoticon button. Those are just minor quibbles, especially since there are keys for often-used punctuation marks such as comma, period, backslash, and equal sign for all you math nerds out there (just kiddin’, computation is cool). The majority of keys serve as secondary symbols too. One detractor is that to activate secondary functions, you need to hit the Shift key twice. This would be fine except that the button isn’t marked yellow like all the secondary symbols are. At least a light on the left indicates when secondary functions are engaged.                 More

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx hitting Verizon on January 26

CNET - Verizon just made the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx ship date official. Enhanced with a big battery designed for maximum endurance, Android fans can scoop up the pricey $299.99 superphone in stores on January 26.

First unveiled at CES two weeks ago, the Droid Razr Maxx boasts a fat 3,300mAh battery pack yet still manages to keep a slim 0.35-inch silhouette.

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Review: Motorola Droid Razr

CNET - The Razr is back, and it’s better than ever. Motorola has done the smartest thing it’s done in years with the Droid Razr, which combines sheer Droid brawn with the legacy of Razr design.

We had the opportunity to get a hands-on look at the phone, and we can’t deny that the Droid Razr’s ultralight design is an immediate wow factor. We picked it up and were stunned at how skinny it was–it’s 7.1mm (0.28 inch) thin, to be exact, which makes it the thinnest smartphone so far, according to Motorola. It’s also correspondingly lightweight, at only 127 grams (4.5 ounces).

But that doesn’t mean the phone is a fragile thing to be coddled. The Droid Razr feels surprisingly solid, and Motorola says that’s because of the sculpted glass, the Kevlar backing, and the stainless steel chassis that holds it all together. There’s even a nanotechnology coating that makes the phone splash resistant. It stops short of being waterproof, though, so we wouldn’t go swimming with it. The Kevlar backing is soft to the touch, which is a departure from the usual rough texture associated with Kevlar. The thin display is made out of sculpted Corning Gorilla Glass, which claims to be scratch resistant as well.

Motorola Droid Razr hands-on (photos)

 

And what a display it is. The 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display is really gorgeous in person. With its qHD resolution, images and graphics are both colorful and crisp. The Droid Razr also claims to be the first smartphone to be able to stream HD content from Netflix.

Powering all of this is a dual-core 1.2GHz TI processor and 1GB of RAM. The result is a seamless navigation experience. We flipped through screens with speed, with no transition lag at all. We didn’t notice any sluggishness when launching and multitasking between several apps as well. The Droid Razr ships with Android 2.3.5 with a MotoBlur skin. It’s not the prettiest skin we’ve ever seen, but it’s not nearly as intrusive as it used to be.          More