First look: Motorola Droid Razr M
updated 08:26 pm EDT, Thu September 6, 2012
We take a look at one-third of Motorola's new lineup
At the Motorola press event yesterday, the cell phone manufacturer unveiled three new entries in its Droid Razr lineup: the Droid Razr Maxx HD, the Droid Razr HD, and the Droid Razr M. The company said it was making three big bets with its three new phones, hoping that it had correctly identified the things that consumers desired: speed, battery life, and Android. Electronista got its hands on the Razr M, and took a closer look at Motorola's slim-bezeled, big-screened budget phone.
Motorola hails the Razr M as "the most compact 4.3-inch 4G LTE smartphone" on the market. That's quite a few qualifiers, but the device does indeed feel quite compact and light. Even its packaging is diminutive, coming as it does in a square form with sides only slightly longer than the device itself. Unboxing is easy enough, with the Droid brand covering slipping off and the box inside opening to reveal the Razr M, which sits at the ready just inside.
Inside the box, purchasers will find the Razr M's charging unit, consisting of a microUSB and a wall plug. There's a wealth of reading material from Verizon tucked into the box, but on the tech side, that's all the device comes with. It was disappointing that the Razr M doesn't come with headphones packed in, as that should be standard with modern smartphones.
Like its bulkier brethren, the Razr M sports a Kevlar backing. It's a pleasant texture, if somewhat oddly interrupted by the plastic, glass, and metal aspects of other parts of the unit. The device is somewhat thicker at the top than it is at the bottom, giving it a slightly wedge-like profile.
As to the Droid Razr M's signature feature, its thin bezel is executed nicely. Turn the 4.3-inch display on, and the bezel virtually disappears. The qHD Super AMOLED display is somewhat standard, but it's quite suitable for the device's form factor. We compared the screen size on an iPhone 4S to that of the Razr M, and Motorola's claims appear to bear out: in a just slightly larger form factor, the Razr M manages to pack in what looks to be about 40 percent more screen real estate thanks to its thin bezel.
For the time being, the Razr M looks like a solid pickup at $99 on contract. Electronista will test the unit more thoroughly and give it a full review after we've put the device through its paces.
