Motorola RAZR XT910 review: Through thick and thin

Introduction

Armed to its newly sharpened teeth and carrying the legacy of a legend, the Motorola RAZR XT910 is out looking for blood. The blood of the best Android phones on the market. And it will cut them where it hurts - their screens, chipsets, cameras and build.

Motorola RAZR XT910 official photos

The 4.3" SuperAMOLED screen boasts higher resolution than, say, the Samsung Galaxy S II. It bumps up the pixel density to 256ppi (up from 217ppi). And with a dual-core processor running at 1.2GHz and 1GB RAM, it's got enough processing power to challenge the other dual-cores. It has an 8MP camera with 1080p recording too.

But even those specs just aren’t as impressive as the sheer look of the thing. The RAZR droid is only 7.1mm thick throughout (take that Japan-only phones) and about 10.7mm at the bulge that holds the camera and loudspeaker.

And by the way, the rest of the specs are pretty exciting too. Here's the best part of them - and the not so good.

Key features

• Stunningly thin 7.1mm body, splash resistant
• Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA
• 4.3" 16M-color capacitive SuperAMOLED touchscreen of qHD resolution (960 x 540 pixels, 256ppi), scratch-resistant Gorilla glass
• Dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP 4430 chipset; 1GB of RAM
• Android OS v2.3.5 with customized UI
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; face detection, geotagging; 1.3MP front-mounted secondary camera
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps; Slo-mo VGA@120 fps
• Dual-band Wi-Fi ab/g/n; Wi-Fi hotspot functionality; DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS; Digital compass
• 16GB storage; expandable via a microSD slot
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v4.0 with LE and A2DP
• standard microHDMI port; Web Top compatible (docks sold separately)
• Smart dial, voice dialing
• Office document editor; MOTOPRINT app to print Office docs
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary mic
• DivX/XviD/X264 video support
• Web browser with Adobe Flash 11 support

Main disadvantages

• The phone is thicker at the top
• Bigger than other phones with the same screen size
• Screen uses PenTile matrix (offset by high ppi); a little dim too
• No FM radio
• No dedicated shutter key
• MicroSIM card support only
• Non-user-replaceable battery

The RAZR may be thin but it's hardly fragile - it uses Kevlar to cover its back and Gorilla Glass to secure the front. It's splash-resistant too.

Are the other droids shaking in their boots already? They should be - the Motorola RAZR has an impressive array of accessories by its side, including one that turns it into a full-fledged 14" Android-running netbook (full-size keyboard, Firefox browser, etc.).

Motorola RAZR live photos

The expectations are high - with this many talents on its resume, the Motorola RAZR will try to slash other droid's hopes of being the best. But does it have the (retail) package for it? And is the hardware as good as it sounds?

If you're not afraid of sharp objects, jump to the next page and find out. We've got our first aid kit at hand, just in case.