Motorola?s released three new Droid RAZRs, and we?ve got one of them. I?m Michael Fisher,
this is Pocketnow, and this is the full review of the Motorola Droid RAZR M. Let?s get to
it! We took a brief tour of the RAZR M?s hardware in last week?s unboxing video, and as I mention
in the full review, you could be forgiven for overlooking this device in the shadow
of its bigger, beefier siblings. Motorola is marketing this device as having an ?edge-to-edge?
display, and while it?s not quite what we had in mind when we think of that term, the
bezel is quite thin. They needed to make the device notable in some way, and it wasn?t
gonna be the display itself, which is the same panel as the original Droid RAZR - a
4.3? Super AMOLED Advanced at qHD resolution with a PenTile RGBG sub-pixel arrangement.
This screen has taken a lot of heat for those specs, but it?s not without its pluses: we
found the excellent color saturation and deep blacks to be excellent, and overcoming those
deficiencies for the most part. The casing itself is pretty unremarkable from a design
standpoint. The phone is 8.3mm thick and vaguely wedge-shaped, without the distinctive camera
bulge that has defined the RAZR line until now. Motorola has brought its popular Kevlar
micro-weave backing to this device, and it combined with the Gorilla- Glass 2 screen
protection, aluminum frame, and water-repellent nanocoating give the 126g RAZR M a solid feel
in the hand. There is a notification LED here, but annoyingly it?s not used for anything
but low-battery blinking ? you?ll have to download a third-party app to use it for actual
notifications. For guts, we?re looking at a fairly typical spec loadout. A dual-core
1.5GHz processor is backed up by 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, expandable via MicroSD.
For radios, Verizon?s CDMA and 4GLTE bands are here as well as global roaming with HSPA.
The typical WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth radios are included, and NFC is here too. The primary
camera is 8MP and shoots video in 1080p, and all of that is powered by a nonremovable 2000
mAh battery. All that hardware is put to solid use on the software side. The RAZR M we tested
isn?t running final software, and it?s nothing fancy like Jelly Bean, but it?s a fairly smooth
experience. Specifically, we?re talking about Android 4.0.4 with Motorola?s custom UI skin,
which seems to be growing more and more subtle with each new device. Motorola?s custom unlock
screen is back, with its quick-jump shortcuts, and other flairs have returned as well, like
the Circles widget we know and love from our time with the Atrix HD and Photon Q. Motorola
has also rethought the home-screen layout, positioning the primary home screen all the
way to the left of the ribbon. That might frustrate some users who are used to customizing
both left and right, but it?s let Motorola build a custom ?Quick Settings? page full
of useful toggles, as well as a jump-link to the full Settings menu, which is quite
handy. Importantly, the Motorola keyboard has undergone some serious revisions. While
it?s still listed in the software as ?Motorola input,? the keyboard is as close to stock
Android as we?ve seen, and its autocorrect and responsiveness are much better than other
recent Motorola devices. Otherwise, it?s typical Ice Cream Sandwich, with folder support, widgets,
multitasking ? everything we?re used to seeing from Android. We tested the RAZR M in the
Greater Boston area, and found its performance to be better than average for a mid-range
smartphone. As we mentioned before, UI responsiveness was quite good, with the device only stuttering
and lagging occasionally, and benchmark scores were close to the last Motorola device we
reviewed, the Photon Q. That leads to smooth internet browsing and gameplay most of the
time, and video playback is also good. Considering this isn?t even final software, that bodes
well for the phone?s future if it?s updated regularly. Camera performance was average,
which is actually a step up from most other Motorola smartphones we?ve reviewed. There?s
still the issue of the viewfinder software being finicky when it comes to white balance
and focal point with mixed bright and dark backgrounds, but at least Motorola has FINALLY
included an HDR mode for photos, which helps a lot. Macro shooting is acceptable, the camera
app launches quickly, and the shutter responsiveness is good. The bug that we noted on the Atrix
HD and Photon Q, which causes music to momentarily blast from the speakerphone when you take
a picture if you?re listening to music on headphones is still here ? but one step at
a time, we suppose. For video performance, see the sample videos on the Pocketnow Video
channel. In line with other Motorola hardware, phone calls on the RAZR M were crystal clear,
and callers said we sounded fine. Reception over both 3G and LTE was excellent. Speakerphone
performance in calls wasn?t as loud as during media playback, but it was plenty loud for
most circumstances. Speaking of media playback, there are some handy equalizer functions here
that help music sound better through headphones, which we appreciated. There?s also automatic
volume limiting if the phone thinks you?re listening to music too loud, which we didn?t
appreciate. Let us do what we want. One of Motorola?s big focuses with its new smartphones
has been endurance, and battery life on the RAZR M was quite good. We were able to get
more than a day?s use on a single charge, right in line with Motorola?s claim of 20
hours of ?mixed usage.? And that?s without using the power-saving Smart Actions rules.
The RAZR M isn?t going to turn many heads, sitting as it does in the shadow of its more
notable siblings, but it serves an important function. It?s a midrange device that doesn?t
sacrifice a lot in the way of features or performance in order to get its price down.
It sits well in the hand, feels exceedingly well made, and runs Android like a champ.
The software modifications make Android better, not worse, and it lasts a long time on a charge.
The RAZR M is proof positive that it?s possible to make a mid-tier smartphone feel in many
respects like a premium device. It does the rebooted RAZR brand proud.