Only rarely do I get to cover big consumer-electronics events; I just got back from a fun one. Motorola Mobility and Verizon teamed here in New York to roll out Motorola's latest smart phone, the Droid RAZR. At just 7.1 mm thin and weighing in at 127 grams, the Razr is touted as the world's thinnest smart phone. What's even more remarkable is that the phone will be available from Verizon (pre-orders starting on Oct. 27; available in November for $299) for its 4G LTE network. Out of the box, the phone will run Android 2.3.5; no word on any pending update to Ice Cream Sandwich. And bad news for the Android hacking community: the bootloader will be locked. (Check out colleague Bill Wong's take on the Droid RAZR here)
When I say well-built, I'm referring to a laser-cut, woven Kevlar fiber back and a stainless-steel core. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. And the phone's internals are protected by a technology that Motorola calls "SplashGuard," which will essentially weather-proof the device. Go ahead, take it out in the rain. It won't care.
On the firmware side, an application called SmartActions implements seamless, automatic power management to optimize battery life. You can set up a profile that will help the phone know when to turn off functions like Bluetooth when they're no longer needed. Motorola claims that SmartActions will reap up to 30% more battery life.
The phone comes equipped with MotoCast, which is Motorola's answer to cloud technology. MotoCast enables seamless streaming/storage/sharing of files with a PC. Also included is a set of enterprise-ready business applications like GoToMeeting. Videoconferencing is taken care of by the phone's HD webcam.
What's really cool is that the MotoActv is smart: It learns which tracks in your playlist motivate you to work the hardest and melds those tunes into a personal high-performance playlist. And, if you should get a call while you're out on a run with your MotoActv and your RAZR in a fanny pack, it'll know enough to seamlessly route that call to the SF700 headset. No muss, no fuss, just take that call without having to fumble for the phone!