Motorola Razr review

Motorola has resurrected the Razr brand with its latest Android handset, aiming to attract buyers with a thin and light, eye-catching design.

The device also packs some unique business-friendly features, including MotoCast remote and MotoPrint wireless printing, and Smart Action programmable functions.

As thin as a supermodel
In the looks department the Razr is fairly plain from the front, apart from the shiny Motorola logo at the top. The shape is similar to the firm's Xoom 2 tablets with cut off corners. Unfortunately there's a small hole in among the buttons that spoils it slightly, looking like a DIY accident has occurred.

However, flip the handset over and you're presented with something quite different. You can't help noticing how thin the device is at just 7.1mm - thinner than a ballpoint pen. This is outstanding engineering and makes it the thinnest smartphone we've seen. The phone isn't this wafer thin from top to bottom, but only a small section at the top around the camera is slightly thicker.

Of course, the fact that the phone is thin means that it's light too. It tips the scales at 127g, which is impressive for a smartphone with a large 4.3in screen. The device is quite comfortable to hold, if a little wide at 69mm.

The back also looks stunning with the woven Kevlar, which feels good as well as looking cool. It's nice to see something different and it's definitely a phone you will want to show off to your mates. The design is built for overall toughness with a stainless steel core, a Gorilla Glass touch-screen display and a Splash Guard coating to fend off rain or accidental spills.

There is no rear cover so you can't get access to the battery. Instead, the microSIM and microSD card slots are on the side of the Razr underneath a fold-down cover.

Usual high-end specifications
You get the kind of specifications that you would expect from a high-end, flagship smartphone. The Razr comes with a Texas Instruments 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.

This is about standard for the chip and RAM, and there's a decent amount of internal storage. The phone's performance is far more impressive than the specifications are on paper. The touch screen is responsive without being over the top, and transitions between home screens or menus are smooth and lightning fast.

We found 16GB enough internal storage to have onboard, and you can bump this up by a further 32GB by using the microSD card slot.

Super Amoled Advanced technology is vibrant
As we mentioned earlier, the screen is large at 4.3in and challenges the best with its Super Amoled Advanced technology. The screen is sharp, bright and vivid with a qHD 540x960 resolution and pixel density of 256ppi. This is 49ppi higher than one of its closest rivals, the Samsung Galaxy S II, but still not quite as good as the Retina display on the iPhone 4S, which packs a 960x640 resolution at 326ppi.

The screen size and quality meant that we found it great for the usual tasks such as web browsing, watching video and playing games, and the phone will fulfill all the multimedia needs of business users comfortably.

To add to the multimedia goodness, there's also Digital Living Network Alliance technology and a microHDMI port on the top of the handset. This is a good shout from Motorola as we always like to have the choice.

To compete with the best smartphones on the market, a handset needs good cameras. The Razr has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash that's capable of full-HD 1080p video recording, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.

You can access the camera app directly from the lock screen, but unfortunately there isn't a dedicated shutter button, which is always frustrating. However, the camera still took some decent shots, especially when shooting macro photos. It did struggle slightly in lower light, and other phones, such as the iPhone 4S, cope a bit better.

Video recording was of a high standard. At HD 1080p it's up there with the best and our test footage was crisp and smooth. However, we would have liked an auto-focus lock like the one on the iPhone 4S. The front-facing camera is superb with a very clear picture and only a small amount of noise. It's one of the best we've seen on a smartphone.

Android Gingerbread will be outdated
With Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) just around the corner, the Razr will soon be out of date because it runs Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. There's nothing wrong with Gingerbread, but we can't help but be disappointed that it doesn't have the most up-to-date software. Until the rollout of ICS, which Motorola said will occur in the first quarter of next year, the Razr will be stuck on Gingerbread.

The interface is good, with an apps tray and decent widgets. The drop down notification bar is simpler than most, but you can clear notifications individually, which is handy.

Motorola has added a couple of apps to the Razr that offer some unique features.

First there are 'Smart Actions', which help with the everyday management of the phone by setting up rules. Rules can be customised with a large range of actions and triggers, including time, location or battery level.

For example, you can create a rule to make the Razr switch to silent mode when you're at work. The device will do this automatically based on your location.

Second is 'MotoCast', which allows you to remotely connect to multiple computers to access files with your phone. Once set up, you can access your PC from anywhere to stream music or download content to the handset for offline use. This is easy to use and works well, but the downside is that you need your PC switched on to access the content.

Meanwhile, 'Motoprint' allows you to print documents, emails, photos and the like over a Wi-Fi network.

Like the Motorola Atrix that we reviewed in May, the Razr also has 'Webtop', which means you can plug the phone into various accessories and turn it into a computer. These include Motorola's Lapdock, which is a laptop powered by the handset.

Great for web browsing
Thanks to the Razr's lovely screen and silky performance, it's good for web browsing. Web pages loaded quickly and most of the screen is used apart from the status bar, which stays put. Scrolling and pinch zooming were flawless, but you get a list view of open windows instead of a nicer graphical view.

The Razr comes pre-loaded with the Swype keyboard, which is a good thing. We've always liked the innovative way you can use one continuous gesture to type each word. The space bar is too small when tapping out letters manually, so we ended up hitting full stop instead quite often. If you don't like Swype you can always use the stock Android keyboard or download an alternative.

All day battery life
With an above average 1,780mAh battery, we expected the Razr to outclass its rivals, but this was not the case, as the phone delivered what we would describe as an average performance.

It was mostly the screen that sucked the life away. We got a day's worth of use out of the battery so, like pretty much every smartphone, you'll need to charge it up regularly.

If you're clever with Smart Actions you should be able to get more time out of the battery by getting the phone to turn off certain functions, like mobile data and Wi-Fi, when you're not using the phone.

Processor: Texas Instruments 1.2GHz dual-core
RAM: 1GB
Display: 4.3in qHD 540x960 Super Amoled Advanced
Internal storage: 16GB with micro SD card slot
Camera: 8-megapixel rear-facing and 1.3-megapixel front-facing
Operating system:Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Dimensions: 69x131x7.1mm
Weight: 127g