Motorola Droid Razr M (Verizon Wireless)

Who said size doesn't matter? Clearly not Motorola. After giving us the shockingly thin Droid Razr?last year, we're now?getting a whole new lineup of Razrs, all in different sizes. The forthcoming Motorola Droid Razr HD and Razr Maxx HD?are in line with most current smartphones. That is, they're pretty darn big. Those 4.7-inch displays look great, but it can be difficult to use a phone that large with just one hand. That's where the Motorola Droid Razr M comes in.

A less-pricey alternative to other top smartphones, the $99.99 Droid Razr M is every bit as powerful. And while it's packing a large 4.3-inch display, it does so using a form factor that's about the same size as an Apple iPhone 4S. Call me Goldilocks, but the size of this phone is just right. 4.3 inches is large enough to watch video and browse the Web to your heart's content, and the phone itself is small enough to use with one hand or store in your pocket comfortably. It doesn't unseat the Samsung Galaxy S III ?as our favorite smartphone on Verizon, but the Razr M offers a killer mix of good design, performance, and price for everyone out there that doesn't believe that bigger is always better.

Size, Design, and Call Quality
The Razr M looks like a newborn Razr. It's smaller in height and width, but it's still carrying a little bit of extra baby fat. It measures 4.82 by 2.40 by 0.33 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.44 ounces. For comparison, the iPhone 4S measures 4.5 by 2.31 by 0.37 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.9 ounces. The new Droid Razr HD, meanwhile, measures 5.19 by 2.67 by 0.33 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.15 ounces. That puts the Razr M at a very happy medium.

My hands are about average size, and I find the Razr M to be very comfortable to hold. Better yet, I can hold the phone in one hand, and use my thumb to drag down the notifications bar, which is something I can't reach on a larger phone like the Galaxy S III. So if you have small hands or you're looking to save some space in your bag, the Razr M is definitely a phone to consider. Motorola achieves this size this by using an edge-to-edge display, which is the same technique rumored to be used by Apple's upcoming iPhone 5. When you look at the Razr M, it's practically all screen. There's some space for the camera up top and a bit of bezel at the bottom, and not a wasted centimeter anywhere else.

In addition to being comfortable to hold, the Razr M is very well built. Motorola is using the same Kevlar back as before and the phone is protected by a water repellant-nanocoating (even the electrical boards inside), while the rest of the phone is aluminum. It comes in either white or black, and both models look sharp.

The Razr M's 4.3-inch, 960-by-540-pixel Super AMOLED Advanced display is bright and super saturated. I'm not fond of the PenTile layout, which causes text and images to look fuzzy, but most people probably won't mind. There's a row of three onscreen buttons and I had no trouble typing on the software keyboard.

The Razr M works on Verizon's 3G and LTE networks, and can roam across the globe on GSM. It also has 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, which worked fine on my WPA2-encrypted network.?Verizon's 4G LTE network is smoking fast, and received top honors in our tests earlier this year for the Fastest Mobile Networks. The Razr M has good reception and pulled in some excellent speed test numbers.

Call quality is good. Voices sound rich in the phone's earpiece, but a little bit muddy. Transmissions are clear, with excellent noise cancellation. Calls sounded fine through a?Jawbone Era??Bluetooth headset and Motorola's voice command system worked well over Bluetooth. The speakerphone also sounds fine, and is loud enough to use outdoors in a relatively quiet environment. The nonremovable 2000mAh battery was good for an excellent 10 hours and 8 minutes of talk time. If you need a phone that lasts even longer, the upcoming Droid Razr Maxx HD has a 3300mAh battery that should be good for nearly an entire day of continuous talk time.

Processor, Android, and Apps
Motorola won't reveal who makes the 1.5GHz dual-core processor that powers the Razr M, but my guess is that it's a Qualcomm S4. That's because it performed almost identically to the Samsung Galaxy S III, which is also packing an S4. Gaming frame rates are actually higher on the Razr M, but that's because the lower-resolution display means it's pushing less pixels. However you choose to think about it, this phone is super fast. It's packing enough power to handle any game you throw at it, or any of the 500,000+ apps in the Google Play store.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/2XXsygnrRAo/0,2817,2409361,00.asp

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