Droid Razr by Motorola is the Best Phone I’ve Ever Owned

Yeah. The title of this post says it all. The Droid Razr by Motorola is hands-down, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the best phone I’ve ever owned. And it’s not even close.

Motorola tapped me to become a Motorola Insider a couple of months ago and gave me a Razr shortly after it came out. I have to admit, my technological knowledge is pretty sparse. Which is why I was snickering to myself that Motorola was giving a free phone to a person who can barely manage to set his phone to vibrate.

Which is exactly why I’m not going to drone on and on about the Razr’s lightning fast 4G LTE network, the 8 mp rear camera with an 8x zoom, the 1.3 mp front-facing camera that shoots HD quality video all powered by a Dual-Core 1.2GHz , Dual-Channel RAM Processor that runs the 2.3.5 Gingerbread Android platform which is Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) upgradeable. If you want the technical specs like the 16 GB of internal memory, just click here and you’ll have it all.

Instead, I want to talk to you in practical terms about what this phone does. Especially the main reasons why I like it, why you’ll like it and how it can help you on a daily basis and actually make your lives easier. And yes, this phone does that. I’m not being dramatic. So on that note, here’s what struck me about the phone immediately.

“Holy crap this phone is thin!”

Well, it is the RAZR. And the name is well-deserved. It is 7 mm thick. Yup. Seven freaking millimeters. It is truly the reinvention of Motorola’s 2004 Razr (which I also owned and loved back in the day) and damn it’s thin. Thin to the point I worried that it would snap on me if I played with it too hard. But fear not people, because the RAZR might be thin but it’s also sturdy. It’s actually got Kevlar backing.

At first I thought “Isn’t Kevlar overkill for a phone?” But when my 3.5-year-old dropped it on the second day with no breakage, I was suddenly thankful for Motorola’s foresight. The front screen is also made of gorilla glass and holds up really, really well.

“Holy crap, this phone is BIG!”

The Razr is thin, but it’s also big. I was rocking an HTC Droid Incredible before this and I liked it a lot. But once I saw the Razr’s 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced Screen I was mesmerized. Honestly, it’s more tablet than phone. While I could do most everything one-handed with my Incredible, it’s a little tougher with the Razr. Which is actually a good thing since it pretty much eliminates texting while driving carelessness.

“Holy crap, this phone is FAST!”

Aside from the thinness, the sheer speed of this phone is terrific. The 4G speed is a marked difference from the 3G I was used to, and it makes this phone really hum. There’s very little lag between actions and when I turn the phone from vertical to horizontal I no longer have to wait 30 seconds for the screen to auto-adjust. Likewise for the times I jump online or use my apps. I tap it and it comes up immediately.

The only thing I had a small problem with was the connectivity. I was getting randomly disconnected from both the 4G and 3G network and had to use Wi-fi where available. Thankfully they rolled out an update a week ago and I’ve had far fewer problems, and my 4G Verizon LTE service is hardly ever interrupted.

“Holy crap, this phone is smarter than I am.”

I know, I know. That’s not saying much. But seriously, the coolest built-in feature on this phone is Smart Actions. Let me ask you something. Have you ever gone to work or bed only to be bothered/woken up by the notification sound or a badly timed phone call? Do you keep forgetting to send your significant other a text everyday when you leave work? Well, Smart Actions has you covered and then some.

Here’s how it works:

Let’s say you want to automatically put your phone on vibrate when you get to work. Go to Smart Actions and input the trigger and the action you want. If you get to work at the same time everyday you can use the “Timeframe” trigger, or put your work address into the phone and it’ll detect when you arrive. When the trigger is, well…triggered, you can list one or more actions you want to take place. You can put the phone on vibrate, dim the screen, send an automated text message, etc.

This picture of Will was taken with the Razr's 8 MP camera. Very good quality!

Personally I have Smart Actions for work, home, the car, battery level and battery extender. When I get to work the phone goes to vibrate, the screen dims to 20%, and GPS and the Bluetooth goes off to save battery. One of the coolest features is the Battery Extender Smart Action. If I turn the screen off or if the phone is motionless, it turns off background syncing for email and apps which really helps save the battery.

And speaking of battery, the Razr has a non-removable one. But it’s really an upgrade from anything I’ve ever had. With moderate use my Incredible wasn’t making it more than a few hours at a time. But the Razr routinely goes 8-10 hours. And if you harness Smart Actions you can gain an extra 25% or so on top of that.

There’s also a service called Motocast that gives you remote access to files on your PC. But since I still haven’t evolved from my mid- to late-1990s CD collection, I really don’t have much use for streaming music and I take my laptop with me almost everywhere, so I haven’t used it. But it’s a nice feature to have.

As any of my regular readers know by now, I don’t do a lot of product reviews. And when I do get involved with a company I make sure it’s a brand and a product I believe in, that will benefit my readers. And let me tell you, this will benefit you. Big time. I love this phone. Maybe a little too much since MJ is already jealous of it. I am 100% certain the money you spend on the Razr will be money you don’t regret forking over, and this phone is an absolute game-changer. To get more information or buy the phone, just click here.

And just for kicks, here’s a video I took with the Razr so you can see the 720p HD video capture. This was taken on Christmas just before a big fantasy football matchup in which Donald Driver of the Green Bay Packers had to be held in check. I just didn’t want you to think I went around randomly inciting violence amongst the ranks of NFL wide receivers.