Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX HD Review

By Rob Boggan

Just one year ago, we were treated to the revival of a legend in the wireless industry. Motorola re-released their most popular device to date in the Motorola RAZR, only this time it was a full featured smartphone packing Android. Months later, we were treated to the DROID RAZR MAXX, essentially the same phone but with a monstrous battery inside, aimed at pleasing even the most harsh battery life critic. Not only did Motorola successfully recreate a legend, they also successfully repositioned themselves into the top of the smartphone space. Can Motorola keep coming up with stylish, rock solid devices, or is it all downhill from here? Check out my review of the Motorola Droid RAZR HD…

At first glance, I could hardly tell what had changed on the device. Upon further inspection I could see tiny little improvements here and there that actually made all the difference. For starters, it rocks a pretty sweet 4.7 inch display, with the resolution receiving a nice little bump up to 720×1280. The phone is still incased in a nice soft touch materal, with an aluminum frame, and the ever popular Kevlar backing. The RAZR MAXX HD is bigger than it’s predecessor not only because of the bigger screen, but also because of the massive 3,300 mAh battery stuffed inside it. One nice little revamp is the notification LED has been nixed, in favor of a sweet and discreet notification light directly below the Motorola logo. The phone follows a pretty standard layout with the sim slot and MicroSD slot housed on the left side of the device, with the microUSB and microHDMI ports right beneath. On the right side of the device lies the power key, and the volume rocker.

While using the RAZR MAXX HD, it literally felt like I was getting a truly stock phone from a carrier, but then I opened the app drawer. One thing that gets annoying with ANY carrier is the unreasonable amount of bloatware that gets installed on the device. There is an amazing amount of preloaded apps, that take up precious memory on the device and unfortunately cannot get uninstalled. Outside of that, I am a huge fan of Motorola’s interface and widgets. The new circles widget gives me a combination of time, weather, and data usage detail all from one central location, without the need of an additional app. There’s also the amazing Smart Actions App that allows your smartphone to change certain settings based on situational or locational scenarios. For example, you can use the Smart Actions app to have your Wi-Fi turn on, Bluetooth turn off, ringer set to vibrate, and screen brightness dim to it’s lowest level once you pull into your driveway. For me, Smart Actions is wildly more convenient than NFC, simply because I don’t need anything extra to make it work, all I need to do is set my requirements and it just works.

The cameras on the RAZR MAXX HD remain mostly unchanged, with a 1.3 megapixel front camera for self portraits and video calling, and an 8MP main camera on the rear of the phone. The cameras performed pretty well, but it was largely based on lighting conditions. If I were generally in a bright well lit room, the camera would take pretty solid photos. If I were taking pics in a poorly lit room however, I would need to either try to seek out a natural source of light due to the over saturation of the flash. Recording videos worked as expected, with HD videos coming out very crisp and clear, but at times would suffer in the audio department. With most videos we recorded, the sound that was produced typically ended up on the tinny side. Battery life pundits be advised: Your prayers have been answered. Even with the heaviest of heavy use with this device (Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, YouTube, Netflix) I was still able to squeeze two full days of use out of the RAZR MAXX HD. With moderate use we’re talking about four days solid. Yes a smartphone that gives you four days of use. Without a charge. Godsend.

All in all, the DROID RAZR MAXX HD is definitely one of the best on Verizon’s lineup right now. Packing unmatched battery life with the latest Android OS and a good build quality, the DROID RAZR MAXX HD is the phone for you if you’re a constantly connected user that wants to spend less time charging your device and more time actually enjoying it.