Motorola RAZR Contracts

In the RAZR, Motorola resurrect an iconic brand and give it a sleek modern makeover. The RAZR shapes up well in a face-off with the Galaxy Nexus, making it one of the better handsets on the market at the time of its Autumn 2011 release. Like the Nexus, it possesses a pacy 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB RAM and 16GB of in-built storage. So how does the RAZR sit in the current smartphone market?

Aesthetically, the handset oozes cool, being the lightest and thinnest of its kind.  As Motorola assert, “thin no longer equals frail”: it is still a tough piece of kit, composed of a Kevlar fibre weave that ensures the hardware is well-armoured. Initially the RAZR runs on Android 2.3.5, however by Spring 2012 it will be supported by Android OS 4.0, drawing it into line with the rival Galaxy Nexus. The RAZR’s camera beats the Nexus on megapixels, boasting 8 MP, and in featuring a second front-facing 1.3 MP camera, it beats the iPhone 4S with its basic VGA cam, and the Nokia Lumia 800 which only has one rear-facing camera. The screen to show off your pictures is an impressive 960x540 resolution, on a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED display which is smaller only than its bulkier contemporary, the Nexus.  The Motorola phone also prevails in the memory stakes, its microSD card allowing up to 32 GB storage, which outstrips most rivals.

In terms of unique features, the RAZR’s most notable ones are Motocast and Smart Actions. The latter feature is a cool option which not only allows you to adapt functions in accordance with time and location, such as a quieter ring tone while at work, but also suggests new actions to optimise your phone’s productivity. This is rumoured to improve your phone’s battery life by up to 30%, thanks to smart energy-saving suggestions. As the RAZR boasts one of the better smartphone batteries anyway, the increased run time is a significant plus point to owning this slick phone.

Finally, we come to Motocast, which is Motorola’s answer to the iCloud. It is not a cloud storage option per se, rather a method of remote streaming your files from your home computer. Coupled with the RAZR’s  “government-grade encryption”, it is a safer method of accessing your documents from anywhere.  This gives the potential to stream music and films from home without impacting on the RAZR’s memory, so it gives Motorola’s offering a slight advantage in the capacity stakes.

All in all, the RAZR is a sleek, stylish effort, more compact than its closest rivals and promising a business-like level of efficiency. Ideally suited to the style-conscious and mobile professional, the RAZR should easily carve itself a slice of the smartphone market.