Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX, Droid 4, and Lapdock 500 Pro Impressions
by Brian Klug on January 12, 2012 10:02 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
- CES
- Motorola
- CES 2012
- Droid 4
- RAZR MAXX
- Lapdock 500
Anand and I stopped by Motorola this afternoon and got to spend some time with a number of the handset-maker's newly announced products, including the RAZR MAXX, Droid 4, and Lapdock 500 Pro. We covered the announcement, but as a refresher, the RAZR MAXX is a RAZR with a gargantuan 3300 mAh (12.54 Whr) battery and slightly thicker profile, and the Droid 4 is a close relative that eschews the SAMOLED Advanced display for TFT-LCD and includes a 5-row QWERTY keyboard. Both include 4G LTE connectivity and a 1.2 GHz OMAP4430 SoC.
When playing with the RAZR MAXX, it's shocking how a phone with this large of a battery manages to not feel strangely heavy or bulky. Like a number of other Motorola devices, the RAZR MAXX's internal battery is also the higher voltage 3.8V nominal chemistry as well. The MAXX simply closes the thickness difference between the camera bulge and the backside and instead results in a flat surface. The best way to think of it is that the thickest part of the RAZR is no thicker on the MAXX, only the thinner carbon-fiber region puts on some bulk. I'm excited to see how the MAXX does in our battery life tests with that big of a battery.
Motorola also whipped out the purple RAZR which we grabbed some shots of. The white and purple RAZRs are identical to the gunmetal grey device we've already reviewed.
The Droid 4 looks and feels a lot like the RAZR, and doesn't bulk up that much with the addition of a QWERTY keyboard. I came away very impressed with the Droid 4's keyboard, which felt very communicative and comfortable, just like the Droid 3's. The Droid 4 includes a LCD-TFT with RGBW PenTile instead of the RAZR's RGBG Super AMOLED Advanced.
Lastly, we got a brief chance to touch and inspect the Lapdock 500 Pro, which feels like a much more serious, grown up, evenly-balanced notebook than the Lapdock 100. In addition, the Lapdock 500 Pro includes many more I/O options, including Ethernet, D-Sub, an SD card slot, and front facing camera.
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3DoubleD - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
I'd like to see the large battery capacity become standard. A 3300 mAh battery on a phone without a (unnecessary) power sucking LTE chip would be amazing. I was really hoping the Galaxy Nexus would have a > 2000 mAh battery, but we were disappointed there. So long as it's thinner than ~10 mm, throw as much battery in there as you can.Souka - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link
"standard. A 3300 mAh battery on a phone without a (unnecessary) power sucking LTE chip would be amazing"Just turn off LTE... and there ya go, Razr 3G
or just get an iPhone4s and have similar battery life, but much better speed (HPSA+ vs Razr 3G).
Unless the Razr is also HPSA+?
Brian Klug - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
Both the RAZR/RAZR MAXX and Droid 4 (as well as a number of recent Motorola designs) could absolutely be world-phone WCDMA devices with a simple software update. Already inside build.prop on many of these phones are references to that functionality.-Brian
retrospooty - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
"or just get an iPhone4s and have similar battery life"Ya, but then you have to have an iPhone ;)
Seriously though, the iPhone was a great design in its day, but now a 3.5 inch screen just isn't cutting it. Most Android's (the highest selling phones by far) are 4.3 inches, and now even larger models are starting to appear. That and there is no variety to fit different peoples needs. No removable battery options, no larger screen options, no qwerty options, no 4G options.... no options at all.
Souka - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
My point abotu getting a iphone4s is that you'll have HPSA+ speed, but the battery life as well. These early LTE phones just eat battery life, so reverting back to just 3G will help, but still the iPhone 4s does better and while having a faster data connection (3G vs HPSA+).Look at battery charts... iPhone 4 and 4s are tops on everthing except 3g voice (which motorola has done some nice work).
The iPhone 4s is 4G via HPSA+ (well....I like calling it 3.5G, but it's fast).
BTW, the RAZR doesn't have a removable battery just like the iPhone.
Variety? Having the iPhone adds variety! :)
My background with smartphones over past 6 years....I've had a variety of Blackberries(starting with 7290, ending with Storm), iPhone 3GS, then androids (Eris, Droid1, DroidX, Incredible2, Evo3D, Bionic, and now waiting on my Galaxy Nexus... It's from a perk being in IT. I get to try new phones and give people my old at work, been that way for past couiple of jobs.
cpug5150 - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
Are you out of your freaking mind? I've had the Bionic, Razr, and Nexus and let me tell you, I just returned my iPhone 4s 2 days ago because the battery was literally herendous. I was below 50% on a full charge after 2 hours in which the only thing I did was text. I got 4.17 hours total on a full charge of usage: Bluetooth, OFF; WiFi, OFF, no internet, no gaming, no video, no music, not even voice calls, NOTHING but texting! I could've used every single one of those apps on any of those droids I mentioned on 4g and they wouldn't be as bad. I heard the 4s's battery wasn't as good as the 4 but I never expected that. Hands down to WORST battery life I've ever had on a phone. You obviously never had a 4s.jiffylube1024 - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
Now double that battery life and you have an exciting option. Seriously, a 3300mAh battery on the Razr MAXX is a good idea. All current smartphones have mediocre battery life. I paid $50 to get the Korean extended battery for my SGS II (2000mAh - unlike those fake 3000-3800mAh batteries from China that are huge and don't live up to their rating). A legit 3300mAh rated official battery (that doesn't stick out like crazy) is a wicked option on a smartphone.jjj - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
Battery life should be easy to guess for the Maxx since everything else should be identical to the vanilla Razr, I am curious about charging time.SirKronan - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
I have the stock battery, and no LTE in my area, so naturally LTE is turned off. I get great battery life. I use the crap out of my phone and still get through nearly every day with a single charge, unless I'm doing something crazy like lots of video chat or powering my strand of USB Christmas lights with it....I bet the Razr Maxx is going to be a battery beast.
phoenix_rizzen - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link
It's kind of sad when people get excited about their smartphone lasting 1 whole day. :(My Xperia Pro (which I use to check e-mail, surf the web, play games like Flight Control, Blow Up, GLWG, and similar, read RSS feeds, test wireless signals, and a bunch more) gets 50 hours (just over 2 days) of use out of a single charge. And even that's not worth bragging about.
It absolutely boggles my mind that in 2012 phone vendors are putting these dinky little batteries into smartphones. Why, oh why, oh why are 4"x2" phones being shipped with tiny little sub-2"x2" batteries? Why aren't batteries the size of the entire backside of the phone? Why aren't batteries integrated into the back cover of the phone? Why are we forced to turn to third parties from Asia to create full-sized battery packs for phones?
The battery in my ancient SE w580i "walkman" feature phone has a physically bigger battery than my Xperia Pro. :(
There's ample room in most smartphones for 2500+ mAh batteries. There's just no reason to be shipping these puny 1500-1800 mAh things in this day and age.