No sooner had Nokia finished revealing two new Windows Phones, had Motorola started its own event in the same city of New York. Motorola isn’t on board with Microsoft’s platform of course, being owned by Google these days, and so it revealed three new Android smartphones.
Nokia was even kind enough to shuttle journalists from its own event to the Motorola show in the same city, albeit in a bus adorned with a giant ‘I Love Nokia’ sign on it. We can only imagine how amusing it must have looked rocking up to an Android-themed event.
Unfortunately, for those who have seen or used either the Droid Razr or Droid Razr Maxx, two of the new smartphones will look and seem all too similar. Both the Droid Razr HD and the Droid Razr Maxx HD phones are effectively the same, save for the bigger battery in the Maxx model. What Motorola has done is upgraded the existing Razr and Razr Maxx models with a better screen, and stuck ‘HD’ in the product names.
That screen is an impressive 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display which boasts a high resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. Inside both phones there’s a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor running at 1.5GHz, along with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, which is expandable by a micro SD card slot. Both also pack an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash, a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera, and all the wireless connectivity you’d expect to find. The big difference is in the battery: the Razr HD has a pretty big 2500 mAh battery, while the Razr Maxx HD has a whopping 3300 mAh cell.
Moto also revealed a more different model, while still keeping with the Razr theme. The Droid Razr M is a fair bit smaller than the other two, but boasts a stunning edge-to-edge display. Most have noted that the phone is only slightly taller than the iPhone 4S and seems diminutive compared to the Razr Maxx HD, but it somehow packs in a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. As the term ‘edge-to-edge’ entails, the screen takes up most of the front of the phone, leaving barely any bezel on the sides, and only a small amount at the top and bottom.
Asides from its impressive-looking screen, the Razr M also has a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and 1.3-megapixel front camera, 1GB of RAM, a host of wireless connectivity including NFC, and 8GB of expandable internal memory. Motorola has squeezed in a pretty big 2000 mAh battery to keep you going throughout the day, too.
Strangely, despite being owned by Google itself, Motorola is not launching any of its new phones with the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean, installed. All three devices will hit the shops running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich along with Motorola’s MotoBlur user interface on top. Motorola has promised to get the devices updated to Jelly Bean however, and if they fail to update a 2012 phone to the new software they will give you a $100 credit!
Motorola will be holding a UK-specific event on September 18th where we should find out prices and release dates for the new Droids in our fair isle.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.