The Motorola Droid Razor: A Revolutionary Design and Software

This is Neil Ipatel with The Verge, and I'm excited to introduce you to the Motorola Droid Razor, the thinnest 4G LTE phone on the market, and the thinnest smartphone overall. This device boasts an impressive thickness of just 0.28 inches (7 mm) thanks to a stainless steel frame inside and a Kevlar back plate. Not only is it incredibly thin, but it's also remarkably light and strong. You can easily feel the device's sturdiness in your hand, with no flex or give whatsoever.

Design-wise, the Droid Razor follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, the Droid X2 and Droid Bionic. The classic Motorola hump at the top of the device houses the camera elements, but what sets this phone apart is its incredibly slim profile. Measuring about the same size as the Samsung Galaxy S2 on Sprint, which has a slightly larger screen, the Razor's 4.3-inch display is impressive, if not slightly compromised by the large bezel surrounding it. While the iPhone may offer more compact designs, the Razor's QHD Super AMOLED display is certainly a notable feature.

However, in practice, the Droid Razor falls short of its promise. The screen suffers from noticeable jaggies and image distortion when scrolling or browsing, particularly compared to the QHD LCD display on the Droid X2. While the iPhone 4S boasts an industry-leading Retina display, the Razor's Super AMOLED is still a step behind. Nevertheless, the device's design continues to impress, with a stainless steel frame and Kevlar back plate that provide both strength and durability.

One of the standout features of the Droid Razor is its Smart Actions feature, which allows users to monitor various settings and states on their phone and take action based on them. As demonstrated by the host, this feature can be set up for a variety of scenarios, such as when the battery level falls below 10%, GPS and Wi-Fi are automatically turned off. The process is incredibly easy to use, with intuitive menus and straightforward setup options. This feature is particularly useful for power users who want to optimize their phone's performance and efficiency.

Another notable feature of the Droid Razor is its Android skin, which runs on a custom version of the operating system. Unfortunately, this skin has become increasingly bloated and overrotted with each release, resulting in slow animations that can be downright boring. While Motorola has made efforts to streamline the interface, there's still room for improvement. Nevertheless, the Droid Razor remains an impressive piece of hardware engineering, demonstrating the capabilities of smartphone design.

As Neil Ipatel concludes, "it's really the software that counts." And indeed it is. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which will soon arrive at Verizon with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, promises to be a major leap forward for smartphones. With its sleek design and cutting-edge features, the Galaxy Nexus has all the makings of a revolutionary device. As we wait for its release, the Motorola Droid Razor remains an exciting and impressive addition to the smartphone landscape.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is Neil ipatel with the Verge and this is the Motorola Droid Razor it's not only the thinnest 4G LTE phone on the market it's the thinnest smartphone on the market it's just 28 in thick Motorola made that happen with a stainless steel frame inside and a Kevlar back plate it's really light but it's also really strong and there's no flex at all um you can tell in your hand that it's a pretty sturdy device design wise you can see it follows right in line from the Droid X2 and Droid Bionic there's the classic Motorola hump at the top with the camera elements but it is very thin it's just not that small it's about as big as the Samsung Galaxy S2 on Sprint which is also a 4G device the S2 is a little bit thicker but it has a bigger screen a 4.5 in versus the 4.3 in on the razor the razer's 4.3 in screen and the huge bezel around it makes it hard to use one-handed compared to the iPhone it's a giant monster the Razer uses the industry's first QHD Super AMOLED display but it's not as good in practice as it is on paper you can definitely see jaggies in text and images kind of distort when you scroll around in the browser compared to the QHD LCD display on the Droid X2 the razor is definitely one step behind and it's nowhere near the class of something like the retina display on the iPhone 4S one of the best features on the Razer is smart actions which monitor different settings and states on the phone and take action based on them so here you can see I've set one up for when the battery level Falls below 10% the GPS and Wi-Fi and other sensors turn off it's also really easy to create a new one let's add one here I'm going to set one up so when I plug in the headphones uh audio launches that's the app I like to use so I just scroll down here select audio and I think I also want a notification let me know that I plugged in the headphones so add it there close it out plug in the headphones and you can see already launched I got a little notification you can see Motorola's also put the latest version of its Android skin on the Razer uh it's getting increasingly over rot with every release and the animations on the Razer are particularly slow and uh sort of boring well the Droid Razer is an impressive piece of Hardware engineering with smartphones it's really the software that counts and so I waight for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and arrive in Verizon in probably the coming weeksthis is Neil ipatel with the Verge and this is the Motorola Droid Razor it's not only the thinnest 4G LTE phone on the market it's the thinnest smartphone on the market it's just 28 in thick Motorola made that happen with a stainless steel frame inside and a Kevlar back plate it's really light but it's also really strong and there's no flex at all um you can tell in your hand that it's a pretty sturdy device design wise you can see it follows right in line from the Droid X2 and Droid Bionic there's the classic Motorola hump at the top with the camera elements but it is very thin it's just not that small it's about as big as the Samsung Galaxy S2 on Sprint which is also a 4G device the S2 is a little bit thicker but it has a bigger screen a 4.5 in versus the 4.3 in on the razor the razer's 4.3 in screen and the huge bezel around it makes it hard to use one-handed compared to the iPhone it's a giant monster the Razer uses the industry's first QHD Super AMOLED display but it's not as good in practice as it is on paper you can definitely see jaggies in text and images kind of distort when you scroll around in the browser compared to the QHD LCD display on the Droid X2 the razor is definitely one step behind and it's nowhere near the class of something like the retina display on the iPhone 4S one of the best features on the Razer is smart actions which monitor different settings and states on the phone and take action based on them so here you can see I've set one up for when the battery level Falls below 10% the GPS and Wi-Fi and other sensors turn off it's also really easy to create a new one let's add one here I'm going to set one up so when I plug in the headphones uh audio launches that's the app I like to use so I just scroll down here select audio and I think I also want a notification let me know that I plugged in the headphones so add it there close it out plug in the headphones and you can see already launched I got a little notification you can see Motorola's also put the latest version of its Android skin on the Razer uh it's getting increasingly over rot with every release and the animations on the Razer are particularly slow and uh sort of boring well the Droid Razer is an impressive piece of Hardware engineering with smartphones it's really the software that counts and so I waight for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and arrive in Verizon in probably the coming weeks\n"