Motorola's Razr HD smartphone has been out in the US for a few months and now it's arrived in the UK. Here's our Motorola Razr HD review.
Motorola may not be the highest profile smartphone maker around but it makes some desirable and feature rich devices. It's taken a while for the Razr HD to arrive, replacing the Razr i as the firm's flagship handset.
Since the Razr HD is a 2012 smartphone launching in 2013 in the UK, the big question is how does it stand up to rival flagship smartphones on the market. Read our review to find out.
See also: Group test: What's the best Android smartphone?
Motorola Razr HD: Design and build
Like other recent Razr devices, Motorola has opted for something of an alternative design. The Razr HD looks like a lot of smartphones from the front with a glossy black finish but has a fascinating back.
Once again Motorola has used Kevlar as a material and this time covers the entirety of the handset's back and wraps right round to the aluminium which runs around the edge. In our opinion, it simply looks awesome and gives the premium feel you want from a smartphone.
Sadly, the Kevlar rear cover doesn't make the Motorola Razr HD bullet proof. However, the combination of it along with the aluminium frame and Gorilla Glass makes the Razr HD a hardy handset. You certainly won't need to run out to buy a case or a cover for it. Read: Motorola Razr i review.
Motorola Razr HD: Hardware and performance
With a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM we got the kind of mid-range performance you'd expect in terms of benchmarks.
We recorded a score of 1536 in GeekBench 2, which isn't bad but other flagship devices have been getting well above the 2000 mark. A framerate of 22fps in GLBenchmark is a good effort but wins the Razr HD no awards.
The least pleasing test was the SunSpider JavaScript test in which the Razr HD managed a not very speedy 1856ms. After using the phone for a number of days, we experienced no major performance problems.
You get a fairly decent 16GB of internal storage and the handset has a microSD card slot for expansion. It can take up to 32GB memory cards.
The Razr HD's 4.7in HD is a little smaller than a lot of rival flagship smartphones. The 720 x 1280 resolution don't punch quite the same amount of pixels either with new devices up to Full HD now. Even so, the 312ppi display looks great with a crisp and vibrant image.
With a decent amount of brightness on offer, the Razr HD's screen performs well in different lighting conditions. However, the auto-brightness function was too erratic to leave switched on.
We've got no complaints when it comes to connectivity since Motorola has fitted the Razr HD with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC and support for 4G LTE networks. It also has the rare addition of a micro-HDMI port.
Motorola Razr HD: Cameras
With a lot of smartphones coming with 13Mp cameras now, the 8Mp camera on the Razr HD might not sound very impressive. However, we were very impressed with the rear facing snapper.
We found the Razr HD consistently took high quality photographs which look nicely exposed and saturated. Touch-to-focus means you can tell the camera exactly what to focus on and we the HDR is particularly good. Video is also smooth and can be shot at Full HD 1080p resolution.
The front facing 1.3Mp camera is also of a good quality, producing a crisp 720p image for video chats and the like. Unfortunately, there's no dedicated camera button for activating the shutter like the Razr i features.
Motorola Razr HD: Software
The UK model of the Razr HD ships with Android, 4.1 Jelly bean, almost the latest version of Google's operating system. Since Motorola is owned by Google, the interface is largely stock Android but there a couple of key differences.
Firstly, the lockscreen is different with access to audio settings and apps like camera and text messages.
More importantly, the main homescreen is situated on the far left rather than centrally with the option to add more panes to the right. To the left of the main homescreen are a number of quick settings, normally squeezed into the Android notification bar.
It's a pretty standard affair when it comes to pre-loaded apps and widgets aside from the innovative circles clock, weather and battery level widget.
One app which is worth a mention is Smart Actions. It allows you to make certain things happen automatically via pre-defined parameters. For example, the Razr HD could dim the screen at a certain battery level, or switch to silent mode when you arrive at the office. It's extremely handy and can save battery life, too.
Motorola Razr HD: Battery life
We experienced exceptional battery life from the non-removable 9.4Wh (2530mAh) battery. As you can see from the screenshot, we still had 24 percent remaining after a whopping 56 hours. This was with light usage during the second day, though so we expect that the Razr HD will last most users a couple of days.
Motorola Razr HD: Summary
The Razr HD impressed us in a number of areas and is genuinely a nice smartphone. It's a shame that Motorola took so long to bring it to the UK. Its SIM-free price of around £400 means that it sits in a strange place in the market.
More exciting ad up-to-devices like the Sony Xperia Z and HTC One are not a great deal more, around £100, and the superb Nexus 4 is still a great bargain at just £239. However, if you can find the Razr HD on a reasonable contact price then it's a solid choice.
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Motorola Razr HD video review - a solid Android phone at an odd price
Comments
Patricia Swimby said: Hi again well I have managed to find out some answers but as I suspected it is all down to ignorance on my part going from my Sony Ericcson k800i to this was just too much of a leap for me anyway in the hope of helping others who feel equally clueless I will attempt to explain where I went wrong First of all I didnt realize that you have to type the code of your router into the phone so I was using the phones own Internet and because I had turned on the wi fi in settings I mistakenly thought that I had linked it to my home Internet As I was on the phone so long it used up the whole months allowance of Dolphin Text and Internet pay as you go that I have and had then gone into my credit while all the time I was blissfully unaware of what was happening Next as if that wasnt enough I found out GPS had been on the whole time too which Id never heard of After putting 500 only on it the next day for fear of the same thing happening I tried to work out where I was going wrong but then it required an upgrade and was still upgrading 5 - 6 hrs later bear in mind it was still not connected to the home Internet On top of that I had watched all of the tutorials on the phones own Internet too I had to put yet another 500 on it in order to finally ring EE which I should have done earlier but I felt a fool as I do now but if my tale of woe helps even one person who is struggling then I dont mind I still have a long long way to go before I know what Im doing for instance It took me about half an hour to find out how to log out of Facebook which was eating into my download allowance I Googled it and the answer there was press menu first but I wasnt sure which was menu You touch the top left hand horizontal lines which takes you left scroll down till you see account touch then log out After speaking to EE I was feeling a whole lot better now as I had some idea what was wrong nowand with the phone now safely connected to home Internet I received a text asking me to rate the help I had been given and not to worry as texts were free I tried to send one and a red circle with a cross through it appeared I rang to check balance again youve guessed it 0 pence again so it has now cost 1500 and still not sorted I will have to visit an EE shop for more help as the staff are likely to know what to do Finally I did manage to download a free music app and managed to get 10 tunes on it and the sound quality is nothing short of amazing I am blown away by the sound and despite everything I know I am going to love this phone so so much even though I am slightly terrified of it at the moment My fault though not the phones In 48 hrs I feel I have gone from really happy to very worried and het up by the whole business and my last word on the subject would be to get someone who is familiar with all this technology to help you through it because It can be quite hard to get through on your own although its only hard if you dont know what you are doing like me
Flubaluba Billandben said: Actually nice to see phones not being compared to the iphone for a change if anything you can compare windows phones and iphone but the android is in a class all of its own way way better for what it is and what it does I like the iphone dont get me wrong and the new windows8 OS is absolutely amazing but they are no way as open as android
Patricia Swimby said: Bought the Motorola Razr today and know nothing about modern phones my last being a Sony Ericcson k800i which has served me well for six years but when checking Facebook on it I was accidently sending friend requests to people I didnt know due to the centre button sometimes clicking on things as I was trying to scroll down so I decided to get a phone more suitable I have spent at least five hours on it trying to get used to all it can do and thought I was getting the hang of it installing the Facebook app and Free MP3 music download I downloaded about five tunes and then everything stopped connecting even Facebook wouldnt let me log in I thought I would check my balance and was shocked to hear 0 pence as there had been a fiver on it when I started I am with EE on the Dolphin free internet and texts and during the evening I sent about four texts made no phone calls and was just generally reading the guides on the phone that show you what to do Can you please give me some idea where Ive gone wrong as I have obviously done something to incur charges Please could you keep it as simple as possible because I am not very technically minded Thanks
Paul Taylor said: SNAP is a new tether storage and deployment accessory for personal audio earbud use with smartphones music and other portable audio and video game devices SNAP has the exclusive ability to securely anchor earbud-wired devices to the device user Half of all smartphones sold are lost stolen or damaged Kelton Research June 2012The SNAP converts your earbud wires into 1 a leash to prevent device loss and theft and 2 a catch wire to prevent dropped device impact damage Go to Earbud SNAP You Tube gtgt httpswwwyoutubecomwatch
Chris Martin said: We like to keep the verdict short and sharp so you need to read the full article to get all the detailThe iPhone 5 is also an alternative We cant exactly mention every other smartphone in every review
Gh said: in the verdict and you forgot the ip5
Chris Martin said: Where did you copy and paste that from because its not in this articleI think youll find Ive mentioned the Sony Xperia Z HTC One Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Nexus 4 and HTC One SV as alternatives
Guest said: There are better choices across the market - so enlighten us - what are they and how much do they cost