Review: Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD

Motorola is keeping its iconic Razr brand name alive with two phones currently on shelves – the Droid Razr HD and the Droid Razr Maxx HD. Both have stunning looks, top-rate build quality and Motorola's tastefully restrained take on Android. Both run on Verizon's fast and wide-reaching 4G LTE network.

With moderate use, very few phones will last beyond the early morning of a second day, let alone make it through two sunsets. But the Maxx proves it can be done, all while powering a massive screen and running on the high-speed 4G LTE network.But the big reason to buy the Razr Maxx HD – and of these two, it's the Maxx I'd recommend – is its amazing battery life. I tested both, and while the more svelte Razr HD's 2,530 mAh battery had no problem cruising through an entire day with 10 to 20 percent of a charge left over by bedtime, the Razr Maxx HD, with its much larger 3,300 mAh battery, regularly pulled through an entire day, and routinely lasted a whole extra workday before needing to be connected to an outlet.
This is outstanding. With moderate use, very few phones will last beyond the early morning of a second day, let alone make it through two sunsets. But the Maxx proves it can be done, all while powering a massive screen and running on a high-speed network. If you live a life on the road, you can’t ask for a more compelling reason to pick up the big Razr than that.

The Razr Maxx HD debuted at the end of 2012 for $300, but it has since seen a price drop and can be found for around $200, depending on the retail outlet and the status of your Verizon contract.

The phone isn't small – it comes in at 0.37 inches thick and 5.54 ounces – but while it feels substantial, it doesn't seem bloated. Like other Razr devices, it has a distinctive DuPont Kevlar back. Motorola pioneered the use of Kevlar fiber on smartphones, allowing the Razrs to stand out in a sea of me-too designs. Not only does it look great, but the handset stands up to the usual in-pocket abuses and clumsy drops. It’s grippy and comfortable to hold on to, as well.

As the device name would indicate, the Razr Maxx HD packs a massive, high definition touchscreen – 4.7-inches at 1280 x 720 pixels. The display is brilliant and highly detailed. Everything looks great: websites, apps, movies, Motorola’s Android skin (more on that in a bit), and even magazines from Google Play. As with most Motorola products, the new Razr uses a PenTile display. But unlike the older PenTile displays, which use a subpixel arrangement that results in obvious pixelation and jagged edges between contrasting colors (and which I can't stand), the Razr Maxx HD offers up the first PenTile display I've laid eyes on where my usual complaints are absent. The pixel density on the screen here is so high, you can’t detect jagged edges unless you’re holding the phone ridiculously and dangerously close to your face. I didn't think it was possible for PenTile to look this good. It's almost as good as one of the high quality displays found on the Nexus 4, Atrix HD and the iPhone 5. Those still look better, but this is damn close.

Bonding the Razr Maxx HD’s Gorilla Glass display to its Kevlar back is a thin band of aluminum that houses a microUSB charging port, a mini-HDMI port for connecting the phone to an HDTV, a SIM card slot, a microSD card slot, a headphone jack and the usual sleep and volume buttons. The ports aren't sealed, but the phone has been coated with a water-repellent nanomaterial that makes the device splash-proof. Spill a few ounces of beer on it and it'll be OK, but don't flush it down the toilet.

Inside are the specs you'd expect in a $200 phone: a 1.5-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. This is better than the Razr HD's 16GB, and the extra space is welcome.

My only real complaint about the physical hardware is the Verizon logo placed just below the display. It’s an ugly addition and, as the Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy S III and Apple iPhones have shown, a logo up front isn't needed. You know who's getting your $100 each month. And, as it is, the Razr HD and Razr Maxx HD are only available in the U.S. from Verizon.

Motorola hasn't made many changes to Android. All too often, phone-makers will dress up Android in an attempt to differentiate their products, but Motorola has embraced Android almost exactly as Google built it. The small changes Moto has slipped in actually make the OS even easier to use, like a quick-settings menu you can access by swiping to the left from the home screen. The company also skips physical buttons in favor of on-screen buttons, using a setup of three digital buttons to navigate around the operating system – back, home, and a multitasking button so you can manage other apps running in the background. Above those on-screen buttons is a dock of four "favorite" apps, with a button to bring up a grid of all of your app icons.

Most everywhere else, Android is left alone. It still isn't as good as stock Android, but it’s the closest thing to it and for that reason, it’s the best alternative to vanilla Android that anybody is putting out. UPDATE, MARCH 6: Motorola has issued a software update to the Droid Razr Maxx HD, and it now runs 4.1.1. The only big stumble in the software is that Motorola's Droid Razr is still running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and not the newer 4.2 Jelly Bean, which Google (now the owner of Motorola's smartphone business) debuted many moons ago.

Still, the Razr Maxx HD is a fantastic phone. It's not burdened with features that are cumbersome or clumsy, and its brilliant screen and powerful internals will satisfy almost anyone who wants something and fast and adequately future-proof. And of course, there's that massive battery to keep everything running for literally days.

WIRED No other smartphones, particularly those running on LTE, come close in battery life. No-nonsense hardware and software present a mature, hassle free experience. Kevlar back and Gorilla Glass screen are fully klutz-resistant.

TIRED The Verizon logo on the front of the phone is garish and needs to be dumped. A PenTile display has never looked better, but it’s still not as good as the best LCD display.

UPDATE, March 6: The original version of this review overlooked the fact that the phone has a microSD card slot. That has been corrected, but the new information did not change the rating. Also, the Razr Maxx HD's software has been updated to Android 4.1.1.