Motorola Droid RAZR hands-on impressions

While we work on the full written review of the Motorola DROID RAZR, I thought I'd at least share some of my gut feelings and impressions of the device, now that I've been using it for a short while.

To start with, Motorola really hit it out of the park with the hardware. The 7.1mm thick body is super tough thanks to its Kevlar back cover, Gorilla Glass up front, and a steel internal frame. You might lament the lack of a user replaceable battery, but you'll love the qHD resolution Super AMOLED display, speedy dual-core 1.2GHz processor, and fine 1080p-capable 8 megapixel camera. You simply can't argue with the results.

The software is surprisingly good, too. The Motorola user interface is mostly unobtrusive and workable, and the new Smart Actions system on the phone can really make the DROID RAZR seem self-aware at times.

I pretty much love everything about the phone. Pretty much. I'm certainly thankful for the high data rates offered by Verizon's LTE network, but the DROID RAZR is every bit a battery hog because of its LTE support. Even with a 1780mAh battery, this device struggles to get through a full day under relatively light duty. With some tweaks of the battery settings, of which there are many, and some clever Smart Actions, you might be able to extend its life. But out of the box, the Motorola DROID RAZR still wants for juice, and it runs excessively hot while it sucks down those milliwatt-hours.

In the end, if LTE is what you are after, there simply is no other device on the market that can package it up as slickly at the Motorola DROID RAZR.

The Motorola DROID RAZR will go on sale on November 11, 2011 ("11-11-11") for $299.99 with a two-year contract. For a limited time, Verizon is offering double the normal amount of data on its monthly data plans for 4G LTE smartphones. As such, a $30 monthly data plan will net a DROID RAZR user 4GB of data monthly.