Motorola release first new phones since Google takeover
- Thread starter cymatty
- Start date
That may be the Razr i's problem in that it's too expensive against an S3 for £50 more. As to which you get only you can decide. Goes without saying the S3 is class above the Razr i but doesn't mean you should ignore it. I really like the size of the Razr i. When Apple announced the new iPhone 5 I thought they may have shot themselves in the foot not going to at least a 4.7" screen. Coming down from a One X to the Razr shows up what I didn't like about the X or S3 for that matter - the bulk of the things and maybe Apple's thinking too? These mid size phone are big enough to be useable without being too cumbersome in the hand or the pocket. Intel chip is fine. Great battery life and pretty acceptable turn of speed. Maybe isn't top dog in the benchmarks but in the real world feels no different to the S4 chipped One S. For me the Razr i gets the job done and never loses signal into the bargain.
"For now, my search is over"
Soldato
Yeah - I waited yesterday for the S3 mini announcement and wasn't so impressed. I played with an S3 today too. Whilst something inside me knows I /should/ get it... I just don't like it much. Same story for the Xperia S. So I went ahead with the Razr i.
I'm sure it'll be better than my HTC Desire - that's what really matters!
I'm in an office of Apple-obsessives... since I don't want every possible fault pointed out with my new toy, I'll wait until I'm home before I charge it up
I'm sure it'll be better than my HTC Desire - that's what really matters!
I'm in an office of Apple-obsessives... since I don't want every possible fault pointed out with my new toy, I'll wait until I'm home before I charge it up
Soldato
Buy Mobile phones.net have it listed as coming in November, along with the Razr HD.
The Razr M only supports a limited nmber of 4g frequencies and read somewhere they're US-verizon/LTE specific? Not sure if it will work in the UK when 4g rolls out on different frequencies. Could be wrong..
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Soldato
http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_razr_m-4974.php
Looks like it's pentaband 4G which is nice - seems to support all three of our ranges anyway!
Same for the RHD and RHD MAXX which is good
Looks like it's pentaband 4G which is nice - seems to support all three of our ranges anyway!
Same for the RHD and RHD MAXX which is good
Get the Razr M instead. Will have better community support and is also better.
I hummed and arghed about this. Razr i was available where as M would have to be imported for now. Didn't fancy the import route and in truth thought it would be a stop gap until the Razr HD Maxx lands in the UK. Now I've used it for just over a week I'm as happy as a pig in **** with it
After the last few months I wanted something that could hold a reasonable signal and as Motorola have been good in the past and the Razr i hasn't disappointed. Not sure if I'll swap once the Maxx lands now. Still have the One X and seems humungous against the razr i.I think you could be right regards community support though of course the M has a little lead on the i anyway. Having messed about loading different roms onto both previous HTC One phones. Unlocking and rooting and the threat of a void warranty I'm not sure I'm right bothered. It seems possible to unlock and possibly root the razr i but I'll stay stock for now. The urge not to tinker may not last though
Jellybean may not be far off and promised before the end of the year. I'd not set much store by a Motorola 'promise' mind There is some discussion over at GSM Arena about audio quality
http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_razr_i_xt890-review-828.php
I've been comparing my Razr i against the One X using Poweramp. Really hard to tell a lot of difference (to me). I was using Shure earbuds. If anything the HTC had a very, very slightly smoother tone? The Razr i does have some 'hiss' between tracks and can be heard on quiet sections to a very small degree. Certainly a country mile away from disappointing for me
I will say my hearing may not be up to younger undamaged ears as mine has had abuse and taken its toll 
Maybe check audio on receipt of a Razr i.I have found a charge cradle that fits and works for the Razr i. It's for a Motorola Droid 4 XT894 BC77 on ebay and item number 261086930145 incase the other Razr i owner in the UK is looking for one
Soldato
Warning: before I knew it, this turned in to an off-the-cuff mini review!
I went ahead and bought a Razr i. Day 3 today and I'm really pleased with it.
The build is really nice - the metal frame makes it feel substantial, even though it perhaps feels a little too light. The phone looks really nice - especially head-on. IMO the perfectly side-on photos on the 'net look ugly, but in reality you don't see it from that angle. The phone always looks great when the front is in view!
It's nice and snappy. In one place I can get it to lag (or "jagger") a little bit - initially when zooming out the home screens. Otherwise it's great; animations and transitions feel smooth, web browsing feels really responsive, as does the home button and menus throughout the phone.
I've got GTA III, World of Goo, Minecraft, Dead Trigger all running at percievably good framerates. Those are all games which would either not run at all or would run with significant lag on my old phone.
Multi-tasking works great - opening previous applications works without any problems or lag - it all feels smooth.
GTA III shows a black screen for a some (as in, 15-20) seconds if you don't exit via the in-game menu and resume the app. This seems more like an app-specific bug - it happens if you do a lot of other stuff on the phone, at which point I believe it'll have properly killed the GTA III process and be trying to restart it when you resume. Eventually it reappears - seems like it's just missing a loading screen at that point.
Importantly for me, normally I can use a phone and instinctively know what came from the manufacturer and what's really android. This all feels very much like vanilla Android - it doesn't feel skinned. The thing which doesn't look fitting are the icons in settings and that "Guide me"/getting started app. Otherwise, I can't tell what's Google and what's Motorola. The settings menu icons could just be a questionable choice by Google!
The battery life is good but only perhaps marginally better than my HTC Desire. However, I didn't use my HTC Desire much (in contrast, I'd often deliberately conserve power by disabling everything and not touching it) whereas I'm fiddling with this thing and playing the odd game throughout the day. So I'm being a bit unfair. After 12 maybe 14 hours yesterday it was on ~50%. Battery usage says ~75% of that is the screen, ~10% is GTA III. So browsing the web with a dim screen would probably give you a fair while.
Anyway, that's my off-the-cuff mini review and thoughts so far!
TL;DR Everything's smooth. Feels very responsive. Web browsing's a pleasure. Good battery life. Up-to-date 3D games work great.
I went ahead and bought a Razr i. Day 3 today and I'm really pleased with it.
The build is really nice - the metal frame makes it feel substantial, even though it perhaps feels a little too light. The phone looks really nice - especially head-on. IMO the perfectly side-on photos on the 'net look ugly, but in reality you don't see it from that angle. The phone always looks great when the front is in view!
It's nice and snappy. In one place I can get it to lag (or "jagger") a little bit - initially when zooming out the home screens. Otherwise it's great; animations and transitions feel smooth, web browsing feels really responsive, as does the home button and menus throughout the phone.
I've got GTA III, World of Goo, Minecraft, Dead Trigger all running at percievably good framerates. Those are all games which would either not run at all or would run with significant lag on my old phone.
Multi-tasking works great - opening previous applications works without any problems or lag - it all feels smooth.
GTA III shows a black screen for a some (as in, 15-20) seconds if you don't exit via the in-game menu and resume the app. This seems more like an app-specific bug - it happens if you do a lot of other stuff on the phone, at which point I believe it'll have properly killed the GTA III process and be trying to restart it when you resume. Eventually it reappears - seems like it's just missing a loading screen at that point.
Importantly for me, normally I can use a phone and instinctively know what came from the manufacturer and what's really android. This all feels very much like vanilla Android - it doesn't feel skinned. The thing which doesn't look fitting are the icons in settings and that "Guide me"/getting started app. Otherwise, I can't tell what's Google and what's Motorola. The settings menu icons could just be a questionable choice by Google!
The battery life is good but only perhaps marginally better than my HTC Desire. However, I didn't use my HTC Desire much (in contrast, I'd often deliberately conserve power by disabling everything and not touching it) whereas I'm fiddling with this thing and playing the odd game throughout the day. So I'm being a bit unfair. After 12 maybe 14 hours yesterday it was on ~50%. Battery usage says ~75% of that is the screen, ~10% is GTA III. So browsing the web with a dim screen would probably give you a fair while.
Anyway, that's my off-the-cuff mini review and thoughts so far!
TL;DR Everything's smooth. Feels very responsive. Web browsing's a pleasure. Good battery life. Up-to-date 3D games work great.
I'm not sure if it feels light or not. I do like build quality and overall feeling is one of being pretty sturdy phone, or least as sturdy as anything can be with a glass face. End result is it sits in the pocket well and doesn't feel like it's weighing you down. Doesn't feel half as vulnerable in the pocket as the One X was, though suspect the glass will break just as easy
The look of the phone is subjective but to me does look tidy. I do prefer the power button on the side and has a posative feel to it. May just have been my One X, but the power button was way to easy to activate and was forever turning the phone on in my pocket. No probs with the Razr i.I get the same stutter when zooming out the home screens from the helicopter view. Other than that it's smooth enough doing everything else. Multi tasking does seem to work better than my old One S and to an extent the One X. I'm pleasantly surprised how well it does work. Can't say I've gamed on my phone due to lack of time so can't comment on that aspect.
As there is no Flash support and not been able to load it at all the video within a web page is a none starter. Also embedded youtube vids seem to float on top of the page pretty much where they like using Quick ICS browser. I keep trying other browsers though always go back to the aforementioned Quick ICS. Youtube app does work fine. TV Catchup seems hit and miss as to if it shows the program though sound does work
Yup, looks like Motorola got at them when Google weren't looking
They're OK I suppose and not something I take much notice of particularly. Other than it's pretty much vanilla ICS. Good job too and if I never saw 'moto-blur' again it would be too soon. I thought I was a big fan HTC Sense but now don't miss it at all. Really like the dialer app and good looking into the bargain.I used to have a Desire and remember battery life was never as good as the Razr i though of course I think it had a smaller battery. Battery life I'm finding very good and battery use during standby seems to be very well controlled.
3g data seems very good. I'm on 3 and in the house has been very poor to borderline useless using the previous HTC One phones. Network Signal app gives a reading of 90 to 100 dBm (in our house) but signal never drops and data is very good. Wifi seems a little fickle and can drop on our router occasionally, but usually reconnects itself. Never had any wifi probs with either HTC One phone.
Razr i has proved to be better than I was expecting. I was hopeful that mobile signal would be good as Moto have never let me down in the past. They've not let me down this time either
As you say it feels very responsive. Web browsing is good be it on wifi (drops aside on our router) or 3g. Going to be a none starter for 4g of course but won't be an issue for me for some time and even then a good 3g signal is pretty acceptable to me. Call quality is loud and clear and to date not had a dropped call. So far so good for the Razr i One last thing for Nexus - it has a good notification light that is easy to see
Also doesn't glow when plugged in to charge. On the subject of notifying when the phone vibrates it does sound a little cheap and hollow? Just an observation 
Got to say the RAZR I sounds great! Wasn't too sure how it would run with the intel CPU with regards to app compatibility and performance/power efficiency but from what you guys have said, it doesn't seem like it is a problem at all
What about the audio and camera/video performance? As good as the X/S or better?
And yeah the NLED looks much better than the S/X! Such a shame HTC implemented it really poorly on the S/X
For people who want to see what the NLED on the M/I looks like:
The design/looks are really growing on me as well now
What about the audio and camera/video performance? As good as the X/S or better?
And yeah the NLED looks much better than the S/X! Such a shame HTC implemented it really poorly on the S/X
For people who want to see what the NLED on the M/I looks like:
The design/looks are really growing on me as well now
Got to say the RAZR I sounds great! Wasn't too sure how it would run with the intel CPU with regards to app compatibility and performance/power efficiency but from what you guys have said, it doesn't seem like it is a problem at all
What about the audio and camera/video performance? As good as the X/S or better?
Alas no. Razr i has a good 10fps burst speed I'm yet to test. Picture quality does not seem as good as the X or S from the odd photo I've taken. Not a big camera phone user myself as prefer my DSLR. Video I've not tried yet. I'll have to try the camera in better light really.
And yeah the NLED looks much better than the S/X! Such a shame HTC implemented it really poorly on the S/X
Not a deal breaker though
Shame that. Camera is very important for me, one of my main uses for smart phones.
Would love to have my own proper camera equipment but it is way too expensive for me at the minute
And plus I don't think I would use it enough to qualify the cost and lastly smartphone camera is much more convenient Not a deal breaker though
For some people here, it is!
Shame that. Camera is very important for me, one of my main uses for smart phones.
Would love to have my own proper camera equipment but it is way too expensive for me at the minute
I say it's not as good but I should add it's not that far behind, just not quite as good image quality. I need to test more so will report back at some point on that one. Camera loads quickly with dedicated button and is also useful for firing the shutter.
If you get good signal with your One S then I could not really see any reason to swap to Razr i. Razr Maxx HD may be another thing
Both Razr i and One S are not that far apart. One S could do with some more storage and Razr i doesn't have a lot built in though has a memory card slot of course. Razr i has the edge here for me though guess you know why Hear what you say regards dslr camera and equipment. I always say the second hand market is littered with good low use DSLR's of either Nikon or Canon variant. A lot dump good low use camera bodies when the next thing comes along. Get a good s/h one along with a good standard prime (or zoom) lens for not too much money and go from there. Main thing is forget the equipment and think about the picture
Downside of the DSLR is it's not always possible to have it with you - unlike the camera phone.For some people here, it is!
LED on my One X went really dim before finally failing. Pretty useless anyway as you know.
No idea why that would be!
Yeah, the main advantages of the RAZR I over the S would be:
- SD slot
- NLED
- signal
- pretty much stock android throughout (although I don't think I would prefer it compared to sense V4 when it comes to features, stock apps) and going by that article about google and motorola working closely together for these phones, software updates
Yup, that is the main thing, carrying a DSLR around is too much of a PITA
Yeah, the main advantages of the RAZR I over the S would be:
- SD slot
- NLED
- signal
- pretty much stock android throughout (although I don't think I would prefer it compared to sense V4 when it comes to features, stock apps) and going by that article about google and motorola working closely together for these phones, software updates
Yup, that is the main thing, carrying a DSLR around is too much of a PITA
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