Motorola RAZR MAXX mini-review

The RAZR MAXX has been my main phone for almost three months now, and it is a cracker of a device. Right, on paper the phone is decidetly mid-range now, if not because of the massive 12.54Whr battery - which is still untouched in the industry - at least in the UK. It is a rather old device in smartphone terms but is perfectly usable for most people. Motorola has even since released a successor called the Droid RAZR MAXX HD, though this is limited to the American market for the time being.

What I love about the MAXX is its build quality. I am currently also carrying the Samsung Galaxy S III, and in comparison, the MAXX feels like a Rolls Royce where as the Samsung Galaxy S III's cheap'ish construction is more like a Toyota Yaris, albeit a soup'ed up turbo version. There's nothing wrong with that by itself, it is just that the MAXX feels luxurious and capable of taking a beating. Three months as my daily driver, the RAZR MAXX still looks new.

Lag Lag Lag

This is one blog post I am dreading to write, but I had to even if it invites a horde of fanboys over to stampede on the comment section. Last week I received a call from my brother who is now the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy S3. I asked for his impressions and the first thing he mentioned was there is some lag. Lag? How is that possible? This monster has four fricking Cortex A9 cores. That's two more cores than I have on my laptop!

Then I remember what pretty much every Android smartphones review I ever wrote - each one has noticeable lags even the One X (which I loved - thanks HTC Sense!). Most are fine, and I am sure the Galaxy S3's lag isn't detrimental to its usability. But for a flagship phone with four cores, it shouldn't even lag, at all. Today I played with a friend's Galaxy Note 2, and boy, does the thing lag like it's entering a competition to see whether it can a trophy in lag. Even excusing the amazingly awful lag from the S-Pen stylus (something which never happened with old style resistive touchscreens), the Note 2 was practically unusable.

This isn't an Android witch hunt. In fact, I have been using a RAZR MAXX for more than a month now and since updating the ICS, the handset has been relatively lag free (shocker!). Only on rare occasions would the device stutter, and that's only because I have ten apps running in the background. I know Motorola gets a lot of stick for their lack of support, but I am pretty happy with the MOTOBLUR-free ICS update. Add to the fact that the RAZR MAXX has a massive battery, you would need to pry it off my dead fingers. And this is a device that has two partly Cortex A9 cores.

But, but, but, I hear some geeks protesting, you can install custom ROMs. I am sorry, but that's just no excuse and certainly isn't something one should use to excuse bad support. When one purchase a £450 smartphone, one should always expect that it runs the best as it could. Even as a self proclaimed geek, rooting and installing a custom ROM isn't something I would like to do. I have done my fair share of ROM 'hacking' back in the PalmOS days, and I can think of a thousand things I would rather do (like writing this) than downloading and installing nighties these days. No reviewers should excuse slowdowns because you can root.

Perhaps manufacturers just can't be bothered, hoping against hope that their poor coding could be fixed through sheer brute force. But there is a fundamental problem that, if even through multiple cores, a device would still not run as smoothly as it should. Google is attempting to fix this through Jelly Bean, but Jelly Bean isn't available for every smartphones out there is it? And what's to say that any improvement by Jelly Bean or subsequent version wouldn't be reversed by future iterations of TouchWiz, Sense etc.?

Motorola RAZR MAXX first impressions

I have been using the Motorola RAZR MAXX for a day now and let me open up this post by telling you this: the battery life is phenomenal. A pretty old smartphone by today's standard (it was released in the US early this year as the Droid RAZR MAXX), the RAZR MAXX features a 3300mAh battery (12.54 Whr equivalent) - almost double in capacity of the battery included in the HTC One X and original Droid RAZR.

The qHD AMOLED display uses a pentile sub-matrix configuration meaning that blurs are visible particularly when reading texts. I am no fan of such pixel configuration and will be glad to see the back of this technology. On the other hand the display is bright enough to use even outdoors. The backlit does appear to be uneven, but it isn't very apparent unless the brightness is at its dimmest point. A 1.2GHz dual core ARM Cortex A9 CPU and PowerVR SGX540 courtesy of the OMAP4430 SoC keeps things moving. This is the same SoC family that also powers the Blackberry Playbook and Galaxy Nexus, albeit at a lower clock speed.

As the RAZR MAXX inherited the exact same internal performance as last year's RAZR, the specs are mid-ranging. But despite running on a Frankenstein combination of Android 2.3 Gingerbread and MotoBlur, the performance was actually springy. I was disappointed that it was not equipped with Android 4.0 ICS - after all I waited until the ICS roll out to begin before I requested this review unit but at least the unit performed well. A 8MP camera module sits on the backside and is capable of 1080p video recording. Wrapping stuff up, the RAZR MAXX has a microSDHC card slot for expansion - a rare find these days.

Phone manufacturers, you are doing it wrong

In a survey conducted by HTC last year, the Taiwanese manufacturer asked customers whether they prefer their phones with great battery life or are willing to sacrifice that for thinness. Apparently the majority of customers prefer a thin phone with awful battery life. Armed with this result, HTC decided to cancel the production of phones with 3000mAh batteries to make the HTC One series, like the HTC One X, which I am currently reviewing.

The very thought that HTC shelved plans for a smartphone with 3000mAh battery greatly depress me. I am sure I am not the only one who isn't fond on the direction the mobile industry is heading towards. As much as I love the One X, its mediocre battery life isn't one of them. Thin 'superphones' like the One X needs large batteries. With a 4.7" display and quad core processor, you would think that a bigger battery would make sense. These days I always carry a wall charger with me whenever I am out, in case I have to make a pit stop at Starbucks to top up, as well as my Motorola emergency charger. I would rather not, but I have little choice in this.

Motorola, the only manufacturer that gets it

Now if you think I am singling out HTC for this, you are wrong. It just happened they admitted to using a survey to justify this awful decision that lead me to write this post. My current main phone, the Nokia Lumia 800, has a battery that wouldn't last a full day on power use (it isn't even thin!), as was my previous Samsung Galaxy S II. In fact the only device I ever owned that was capable of lasting a full day, and then a couple more, was my old Nokia E51. What a wunderphone that was.

So dear HTC, Nokia, Samsung and Sony, you are doing it wrong. We do not care if a phone shaves an extra 1mm in thickness, and we certainly do not care if it holds the title for world's thinnest whatever phone. We want phones with large batteries, and we want them now. Hell, if Motorola can even give us a slim phone with awesome battery life, why can't you?

Source: GSMArena

Motorola DEFY+ abused and reviewed

The original Motorola DEFY was one of the most exciting phones from last year, not because of the specs (it was slow), but because it was the first competent rugged smartphone that doesn't look like a rugged phone. With the Motorola DEFY+ (Plus), Motorola has beefed up the specs slightly, whilst retaining the same rugged IP67-certified design that we've all come to love. It now ships with Android Gingerbread, a single core 1GHz TI OMAP processor and 512MB of RAM. The specs may not excite you, but the water resistant level certainly will. The DEFY+ is rated to be able to survive up to 30 minutes underwater at a depth of up to 1 meter.

Check out my review of the DEFY+ on FoneArena, but not before watching the video above of me quite literally abusing the heck out of the phone. Enjoy!

Motorola RAZR preview

Motorola today announced the world version of their newest and greatest - the RAZR. This is the LTE-less version for LTE-less countries like Britain. Like the old RAZR2, the new RAZR runs on Linux but don't be fooled. This baby runs on Android Gingerbread 2.3.5 with a upgrade path to Ice Cream Sandwich six weeks after release. At 7.1mm thickness, it is also the thinnest smartphone, ever.

Read my first extensive hands-on preview on FoneArena.

Motorola XOOM review

When Apple stunned the tech industry last year with their iPad and a few Android manufacturers were eager to get a slice of the tablet market. There was no tablet-optimised Android versions back then but that did not stop a few manufacturers from attempting to shoehorn Android Froyo (and Gingerbread) onto tablets despite them being created for smartphones. The public were clever and did not buy into it, with many purchasers commenting that Android in its then iteration was ill suited for large screens.

Google has since released an Android version called Honeycomb which was designed from the ground up with a 10" screen in mind. While still icon-based, the UI was completely overhauled, now sporting a layout more similar to that of a desktop OS. With the XOOM, Motorola was the first manufacturer to launch a tablet based on the OS. But can they catch up with Apple, who has also made improvements with their second version of the iPad? 

Do read my review of the Motorola XOOM hosted at FoneArena here.

Motorola P793 Universal Portable Power Pack review

I have been using the Motorola P793 Universal Portable Power Pack battery charger for a good couple of months now. In fact I rarely leave home without it. It's a slim portable charger that is perfect for any heavy smartphone users like me. Always connected, today's powerful (and inefficient) smartphones demands more than the too-small-for-smartphone batteries that all the phone manufacturers seems to think are enough.

Beneath the slim black case of the Motorola P793 lies a 1420mAh battery, essentially the same size as you would find on an average smartphone. An on/off power button can be found on the top, while a four-LED indicator can be found next to it. The indicator will give the user an idea on how much power is left, or when charging it from a power socket, will indicate when it is charging or when it reached full capacity.

A microUSB cable (in stylish blue) is conveniently built into the charger. The built quality is good, but the cable can be worn out as mine eventually did. Fortunately a full size USB can be found on the charger allowing users to plug in any USB cable. You can even charge two devices simultaneously using the built-in cable and another cable via the USB port. With a thickness of about 10mm and a weigh of only 54g making it is almost inexcusable for any power user not to carry one in their pockets, purse or bag. It certainly is far more portable than my Proporta Ted Baker charging kit, which I tend to only carry with me during weekend excursions.

As I have been using a Nokia N8 as my main phone for the past six months (has it been that long?), the Motorola P793 is an indispensable accessory that is ideal for the average N8 user. The 1420mAh battery is sufficient to charge up the N8 at least once, and then some. I have also used it on various phones such as the XPERIA Arc and Motorola DEFY. It outputs at 500mAh, which is decent enough to charge most phones in under two hours.

The Motorola P793 isn't widely available in the UK. At £30 (the lowest price I can find on a UK online store), it is a bit pricey for what you get. For the same price you can get a Proporta USB Turbocharger 3400, which has a battery capacity of more than double that of the P793. Having said that, the Motorola P793 is a much more portable and compact charger than the Proporta, and is perfect for people who needs a bit more juice for their smartphone for the day.

Motorola DEFY review

For over a month, I have put Motorola's semi rugged DEFY smartphone through its paces. I've grown fond of it, because it is unlike any smartphones on the market. Yes, it is slow. And yes, it has Motorola's love it or hate it MOTOBLUR homescreen. But I can't deny its obvious charm.

Where others chases MIPS, the DEFY succeeds in a small niche unexplored yet by many smartphone makers - that is a full semi-rugged smartphone with very little drawbacks associated with making such phones. It is small, cute, has a OS that is in vogue and a large battery capacity.

The DEFY is a rugged smartphone. It is marketed as a complete smartphone solution for social savvy people with the added bonus of being dustproof, scratch-resistant and splash-resistant. Motorola calls it the lifeproof phone. I don’t disagree. The DEFY is a rare breed in smartphones. Not only is it a smartphone, it is also capable of withstanding the daily abuse that life throws at it - and it does so stylishly.

When I first heard of the Defy, I expected to be greeted with a smartphone equivalent of a Panasonic Toughbook laptop, but no – the Defy looks like any normal smartphone. It is even smaller than my Nokia N8! It won’t take any design awards home as far as physical aesthetics is concerned, but it isn’t something you would be embarrassed to own. In fact it looks rather cute!

The Motorola DEFY comes in an eye catching compact box. Inside you will find the DEFY, a large 1540mAh battery, microUSB cable, 2GB microSDHC card, headphones and USB wall charger. As a rugged smartphone, the DEFY is surprisingly small and light. It looks nothing like most rugged phones I have ever laid my eyes on. Hat tip to Motorola engineers for creating a rugged smartphone that not only looks normal but in fact stylish even.

The capacitive touchscreen is incredibly sharp. The DEFY packs a 3.7" LCD with a resolution of 480x854, and is covered by a Gorilla Glass ensuring that it is as scratch-resistant. Multi touch is supported. Colour rendition is accurate and not oversaturated as you would normally find on an OLED screen. Contrast could be better. Just below the display are four capacitive touch-sensitive soft buttons. Personally I've never been too keen on touch-sensitive buttons as they are too sensitive, and thus prone to accidental presses.

On the top of the phone you will find the small power button and 3.5mm audio jack. The volume rocker resides on the right side of the phone, while on the left the microUSB port. A reassuringly large 1540mAh battery can be found behind the battery cover. The microSDHC and SIM card slots can be found below the battery. A 5 megapixel camera with VGA 30fps video recording and LED flash resides close to the top of the back.

Looking around the Defy it is evident how Motorola managed to make it water-resistant. Not only is the battery door sealed well, the microUSB port and headphone audio jack are covered by protective flaps. But what truly surprises me was how small and light the DEFY is.

With a thickness of 13.4mm, it is barely thicker than my Nokia N8 but also significantly lighter (118g vs 135g). The lightness can be attributed to Motorola's decision to use plastic. Some may see this as a bad thing, but I’ve seen no evidence that the built-quality is compromised by the use of plastic material. Overall the DEFY is smaller than the N8, but has the added advantage of having a bigger and more importantly, removable battery.

The DEFY is powered by Android 2.1 (Eclair) and Motorola's own custom homescreen MOTOBLUR. The homescreen actually looks and feels like a normal Android homescreen. The MOTOBLUR integration comes in the form of widgets. There are plenty of widgets to choose from, including Social and Status (for Twitter and Facebook), Weather, Contacts, RSS, Music Player etc. While the widgets are resizable, they are rectangular in shape, which makes them rather unattractive to look at.

The technical specs of the DEFY are modest. It runs on a 800Mhz TI OMAP3610 ARM Cortex A8 processor. The relatively slow processor (both in clock speed and out-dated architecture) coupled with Android 2.1 is evident when using the DEFY. I’ve shown a couple of HTC Desire owners the DEFY, and they’ve all commented on how laggy the DEFY felt.

512MB of RAM is available so you wouldn’t have any issues multi-tasking. There’s also 2GB of on-board storage for installing applications. A 2GB microSD card is also bundled with the phone. In addition to that, the DEFY packs quad band EDGE, dual band HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth with A2DP, built-in GPS receiver, accelerometer – basically almost everything you would expect in a 2010 phone.

Like many modern smartphones, the DEFY has two microphones, one which is used to cancel out noise. Motorola dubs this the CrystalTalk technology. In-call quality is good and clear while I never encountered any issues with reception. Smart dialing feature is missing, though I didn't find that I miss it at all.

The phonebook is brilliantly social savvy. You can link each contacts with their own Twitter and Facebook accounts, thus giving you an easy way to view any of your contact's latest social updates. Linking the contacts is easy and painless, though isn’t as straight forward as Microsoft’s approach with Windows Phone 7. Messaging is easy with the DEFY. Threaded messaging is here, and the built-in Swype support makes composing texts and emails a relatively painless process. Gmail is unsurprisingly supported and works in a way that you would expect it to, including option for push e-mail, labels and archives.

Web browsing is a breeze thanks to the high resolution screen. Despite running on Android 2.1, Flash is included. Zooming can be done via either double tapping or pinch to zoom. While multiple tabs are supported, text reflow isn't.

Most modern smartphones are very well capable of replacing dedicated DAP (MP3 players), and the same can be said of the Defy. The music player, while basic, is intuitive. The audio quality is very good with overall good frequency response. It isn’t as good as the iPod Touch or N8, but most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference unless they invest in $200 headphones.

As the DEFY comes with built-in GPS receiver, you can use Google Maps as a SatNav device. Google Maps is preloaded, though if you want the latest and greatest you can always grab the latest Google Maps 5 via the Android Market.

The DEFY comes with a standard (in 2010 terms) 5 megapixel camera with LED flash. Video recording is limited to VGA resolution, which is disappointing but hardly surprising - Motorola never set out to make the DEFY a cameraphone. Still for a social phone you would expect better. Unfortunately because the DEFY does not have a physical camera shutter button, it was impossible to take pictures underwater. I tried, but because the DEFY uses a capacitive screen, water makes it difficult to operate the screen. So forget about using the DEFY for cool underwater shots.

You can also forget about low light photography as the DEFY is poor at that. With good amount of lighting available, the DEFY managed to capture some decent pictures with good amount of detail. The camera UI is simple to use, with a handful of options available to the user (nothing manual).

So is it worth your time? Geeks will unlikely taken by it – the DEFY is slow compared to its other Android cousins and the lack of Froyo/Gingerbread will no doubt put some people off. But it isn't without its charm. The DEFY is a competent smartphone competing in a category that has no competitors. There are no other rugged or semi-rugged consumer smartphones that looks as stylish as the DEFY on the market. If you are in the market for a clever social phone with the ability to keep up with your hectic lifestyle, then the DEFY is for you.

This review was originally published at Fone Arena

Motorola Defy is lifeproof!

Yesterday evening I was invited to a Motorola party in London. They call it the Defy the Cold party, and surprise surprise - it had something to do with their recently launched Defy smartphone. Also seen at the party was the new Motorola Milestone 2. Released in the US as Droid 2, the Milestone 2 is pretty old news now. Still it was pretty exciting to play with it, and I hope to get one soon to review.

Anyway back to the Defy... the Defy is a new Android budget smartphone. It runs on Android 2.1 (Eclair), which is an even older news now that Android Gingerbread 2.3 is out. Motorola reckons that the Defy will be blessed with Froyo 2.2 update on Q1 2011. At this rate, lord knows when if ever it will ever get Android 2.3 update.



Still for around £260 sim-free, the Defy nets you plenty of good specs - 800Mhz ARM Cortex A8, 512MB RAM, 2GB built-in storage with microSDHC slot, 1540mAh battery, WiFi, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, aGPS receiver, 5MP camera, 3.7" LCD with 480x854 pixels resolution etc. Oh and it happens to be dust proof and water resistant as well. Motorola calls the Defy the 'Lifeproof' phone. I call it a friggin awesome phone.

I can personally confirm its water resistance. It had no problems under the tap or when dunked under water. As long as the micro USB, headphone jack and battery door is firmly closed, water will not get in. The only issue I've encountered is due to the nature of capacitive screen, it is almost impossible to use the semi rugged Defy when there is water on the screen, much less under water.

Update: I wrote a slightly more extensive preview on Fonearena.com. Check it out.