Droid Razr/General Android concerns

[doctraveler12]

I've been out of the country for the past 2 years and am just now switching over to the smartphone world. I'm fairly tech savvy (but obviously way behind the curve on this one). I'm a verizon customer so I've narrowed it down to the Droid Razr, the Nexus, and the dreaded iphone. I'm close to pulling the trigger on the razr but need some reassurance from longtime android users.

Nexus Pros/Cons
The only pros i see with the nexus are ICS right away and a removable battery. Other than that it feels cheap and doesn't perform as well from what I've seen. The removable battery is a big plus though in my eyes

iPhone Pros/Cons
The advantages I see in the iphone are 1. Siri and 2. reliability. The 2nd one is a big one for me. Again I'm a novice in the smartphone world and I'm fairly busy with work so in the beginning I don't see myself as a power user. I like that Apple only has 1 phone to worry about so they'll solve problems on it more quickly (more on this later)

RAZR
I like the style of this phone and from what I've seen the overall performance can't be beat. Added the fact that ICS should be coming out on it soon and there are rumors of Majel (updated voice recognition) which would make this the ideal phone (provided the rumors come to fruition)

Overall I'm torn between the iPhone and Droid RAZR and need some android encouragement (I probably came to the right place for it I think)
I'm just worried that my hopes for ICS and Majel on the RAZR won't come for another 6 months or worse that Motorola and Android developers will move on to bigger and better phones (The Droid 4 perhaps). With the iPhone I know that I'll have a solid phone that will be updated consistently for over a year. I'm worried that I won't get hte same with my Droid RAZR

Android users I need your reassurance

(Save your flaming of me for considering the iPhone, constructive input only please)

[jpcalhoun]

I've been out of the country for the past 2 years and am just now switching over to the smartphone world. I'm fairly tech savvy (but obviously way behind the curve on this one). I'm a verizon customer so I've narrowed it down to the Droid Razr, the Nexus, and the dreaded iphone. I'm close to pulling the trigger on the razr but need some reassurance from longtime android users.

Nexus Pros/Cons
The only pros i see with the nexus are ICS right away and a removable battery. Other than that it feels cheap and doesn't perform as well from what I've seen. The removable battery is a big plus though in my eyes

iPhone Pros/Cons
The advantages I see in the iphone are 1. Siri and 2. reliability. The 2nd one is a big one for me. Again I'm a novice in the smartphone world and I'm fairly busy with work so in the beginning I don't see myself as a power user. I like that Apple only has 1 phone to worry about so they'll solve problems on it more quickly (more on this later)

RAZR
I like the style of this phone and from what I've seen the overall performance can't be beat. Added the fact that ICS should be coming out on it soon and there are rumors of Majel (updated voice recognition) which would make this the ideal phone (provided the rumors come to fruition)

Overall I'm torn between the iPhone and Droid RAZR and need some android encouragement (I probably came to the right place for it I think)
I'm just worried that my hopes for ICS and Majel on the RAZR won't come for another 6 months or worse that Motorola and Android developers will move on to bigger and better phones (The Droid 4 perhaps). With the iPhone I know that I'll have a solid phone that will be updated consistently for over a year. I'm worried that I won't get hte same with my Droid RAZR

Android users I need your reassurance

(Save your flaming of me for considering the iPhone, constructive input only please)

I share your assessment of the Nexus, but won't put as much importance on the removal battery...but that is certainly your call. iPhone or Razr? Well, the iPhone is a good phone and one could say reliable. My oldest son as an iPhone 4 but would disagree with you about reliability, but I think a lot of that comes from the carrier he is with. The advantage the Razr has over the iPhone (my opinion) is the size of the screen, the ability to personalize it (even without root), the availability of 3rd party apps, the build quality and the sheer performance. iPhone can't be beat in the Apple ecosystem...because it is the only phone that can operate in that ecosystem. Likewise, the iPhone doesn't hold up well outside of its ecosystem in terms of user options and user preferences. If you're an iPhone user Apple has pretty much decided what you can do and what they aren't going to let you do on the phone...not as true with an Android phone like the Razr. I have a Razr (obviously) and aside from the dropped data issue (which I believe and have heard is pretty much fixed with the recent update) the phone is terrific. Battery life...it ain't so great on the iPhone either if you don't do some basic, common sense battery management.

[Sydman]

I think you are headed to the right choice with the Razr. I was in the same boat as you a month ago deciding between the Razr and the Iphone 4s or waiting for the Gnex. After seeing all the reviews on the Gnex after being released all my thoughts on it are holding true. Cheap build quality, bugs with ICS, and general under performance compared to the Razr. I have had two other Droids, both the Droid X and the Droid Pro and both have been fantastic. I jumped ship with Verizon got the new Blackberry Bold Touch because I love their keyboards so much, but came running back pretty fast.

There is a video around comparing the Siri with the built in voice commands the Razr already has and they are already pretty similar. Yeah you can't ask your Razr how are you doing today, or do I look fat in the shirt, but if you "need" to do that I think you have bigger problems. I can tell my Razr give me directions to ...... and it will search it and load Google navigation and start telling me where to go, or do plain Google searches, call/text people, and that is plenty for me. The Razr is great and Android in General over Iphone, for me alone not having to use Itunes is a godsend.

So if it comes down to Razr or Gnex I would say most definitely go with the Razr. People on the Gnex can't even get a signal right now, let alone the other bugs they are having make it an easy choice in my humble opinion. Worst case get the Gnex and try it and WHEN you find you don't like it you have the return period to come get the Razr.

[jpcalhoun]

I think you are headed to the right choice with the Razr. I was in the same boat as you a month ago deciding between the Razr and the Iphone 4s or waiting for the Gnex. After seeing all the reviews on the Gnex after being released all my thoughts on it are holding true. Cheap build quality, bugs with ICS, and general under performance compared to the Razr. I have had two other Droids, both the Droid X and the Droid Pro and both have been fantastic. I jumped ship with Verizon got the new Blackberry Bold Touch because I love their keyboards so much, but came running back pretty fast.

There is a video around comparing the Siri with the built in voice commands the Razr already has and they are already pretty similar. Yeah you can't ask your Razr how are you doing today, or do I look fat in the shirt, but if you "need" to do that I think you have bigger problems. I can tell my Razr give me directions to ...... and it will search it and load Google navigation and start telling me where to go, or do plain Google searches, call/text people, and that is plenty for me. The Razr is great and Android in General over Iphone, for me alone not having to use Itunes is a godsend.

So if it comes down to Razr or Gnex I would say most definitely go with the Razr. People on the Gnex can't even get a signal right now, let alone the other bugs they are having make it an easy choice in my humble opinion. Worst case get the Gnex and try it and WHEN you find you don't like it you have the return period to come get the Razr.

+1

[rubiksc00p]

iPhone: The thing iPhone does have over Android is some stability. That being said, you sacrifice a lot of features for stability. Siri really isn't all that amazing considering we've had several apps that will do the same on Android for a long time before Siri. Also, the iPhone does not have 4g yet.

Razr: Great design concept but I don't think they really nailed it in the finished form. It's way too wide. I have huge hands and I still feel uncomfortable holding it because it is so wide. It has a great screen and it's pretty thin. The battery is actually doing pretty well considering it's small. From what I've read and and seem the screen cracks easily. On top of all that, I'm not really a fan of the Blur UI.

Nexus: first phone with ICS. It's also pure with no overlays slowing it down. It doesn't have removable storage which may be a con, but think about it, when would you really need to take out an sd? Internal is also faster. The Nexus has an NFC Chip that no other phones have at the moment. Right now the battery is terrible, but Google is coming with an update, it's a fixable OS problem. The nexus feels the best in my hand out of all the choices and it didn't feel cheap at all.

Take a wild guess which I got/getting?

[Zandar]

We're really looking at iPhone 4S vs. RAZR, here, so I'll confine it to that. There are pros and cons to both, but unless you're really invested in Apple's stuff (iTunes, lots of app purchases on your iPod, etc.), the RAZR comes out the winner (I'm biased, but I'm still right ).

Screen
The iPhone 4S has a better ppi than the RAZR. That is its one and only advantage. The RAZR is bigger (4.3" is far more usable than 3.5"; this is a smartphone, not a feature phone) and uses a better screen tech. The iPhone 4S (and 4) uses an IPC LCD screen. This is a very good and refined tech, but it's last gen. The RAZR uses a sAMOLED screen, which has true blacks for far better contrast and greater vibrancy. Think of it like an LCD TV vs an LED TV, because that's almost exactly what it is. As for the ppi difference, you'l never notice it in actual usage. The size and tech differences, though, you'll notice daily.

Design
The RAZR is the best looking, coolest design to come out in the last few years. Add the Kevlar back vs. the iPhone 4S' glass one (not even Gorilla Glass; it's very fragile, as you can see from a quick Google search) and you have the icing on the cake.

Operating System
You can get the same UI as the iPhone on your Android. Here's how: open the app drawer and do everything from it. Forget you have homescreens, widgets, live wallpaper, etc. Just a nice wall of apps circa 2002. Or, of course, you can have the most advanced-but-usable UI in the history of mobile with scrollable, fully functional widgets on your homescreen, near endless customisation, and some cool live wallpapers to boot. If you're a nerd, you'll say to Android, "you had me at Matrix Live Wallpaper."

Keyboards
Apple's always had one of the better, traditional soft keyboards out there, but Moto's closed the gap. None of that matters, though. Why? I'll tell you why: Swype. Seriously. Spend a solid, fifteen minutes really learning it, and your mobile input experience will take a huge leap forward. The Swype (and other trace style) keyboard is truly an innovation in the mobile space. My wife, not a tech-head by any stretch of the imagination, refuses to use a device without Swype. Oh, and if you don't like Swype or the stock keyboard, there's always SwiftKey X, Flex T9, Thumb Keyboard, etc. These will only improve with ICS. Don't like the Apple keyboard on the iPhone 4S? You're free to stop typing. How's that for choice?

Really, though, I can't understate how important this is. Data entry is one of the key things we do on our devices, and having the option to find the keyboard that suits your style and preference is nigh essential, in my opinion.

Software Updates
Apple's got Android licked in this area, right? Wrong. Dead wrong.

Let's start with simple OS upgrades. Apple has one revision a year (aside from minor bug fixes, which really don't count). If you get a 4S, you're pretty assured of having updates for two years. That means two updates. Android has had, classically, about 3 major releases a year. So even if the RAZR only gets updates for a year, it'll still have one more than the iPhone 4S; and even if it only gets two of those you're on par with iOS. But that's not the whole story.

Simply getting an OS update is not a good comparison. What one really needs to compare are features. Who cares if you get 20 updates but are still behind a handset that only got 1 update? Features are what's important. Apple, until recently, had a horrid notification system, no multitasking, no Flash, a boring, static UI, no video chat, and very limited, often dated hardware (among other things). They fixed the notifications by catching up with where Android was at in 2009, added a kinda-sorta multitasking, and made it so you can video chat with other Apple devices. All they have to do is make it so you can video chat with anyone, add Flash support (you can turn it off; why would you not want at least the option?), upgrade the UI to something not from 2002, give more hardware choices, keyboard choices, homescreen replacement choices, music player choices, other areas for legitimate app procurement, add top-tier GPS navigation for free, better Google Maps experience, and, oh, add 4G compatibility and they're on par with what Android offers right now in the RAZR.

So, you might get the functionality that the RAZR has today in about 3 OS upgrades, basically 3 years, with the iPhone. Then again, you might not. So, to my mind, even with just the ICS update the RAZR is still the better phone for upgrades.

Siri
I would have to say this is the one area where the iPhone 4S stands over the RAZR . . . by a hair. With Voice Actions and things like Vlingo, the RAZR is already 90% on par with what Apple offers. The only thing the RAZR doesn't quite have is the "conversational speech" recognition to the extent that Siri does, but so what? In practise, it really doesn't matter at all. In fact, I would prefer to say, "navigate to pizza" than, "hey, bro, hook me up with some pizza directions, what what?" (I don't think Siri would recognise that, so it's really not that great). Voice actions are a little gimmicky; I rarely use them, and most people seem to say the same. I loved trying out Voice Actions and Vlingo when I fist got them, but the novelty wore off after a couple of minutes. Still, you're getting results from the same places as Siri (Google Maps, Google Search, Wolfram Alpha), and Android's integration of these services is far better. So when you strip away the gimmicky voice portion (which Android will continue to improve upon, for those who care about such things), you're left with a far better experience than what's on iOS (for instance: Android can actually navigate, natively, on its superior version of Google Maps).

Features
I lighted on this already, but let me put some features out there that iPhone doesn't have that many of us find important: MicroSD, 4GLTE. I could list more, but do I really have to?

In short: I can't think of a single thing I can do on an iPhone that I can't do on my RAZR, but I can think of several that I can do on my RAZR that I couldn't do on an iPhone; with better hardware and a sexier form factor, to boot. Unless you must have an Apple device, I don't really see a good reason to purchase an iPhone.


Edit: I forgot about Smart Actions! Seriously, one of the best apps that any company has put on their phones, period. This should be standard on every smartphone made from now on; it's that good. Go crawl the forums if you need examples.

[droidxd00d]

Plus 1,000,000 to this guy ^

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

[rasaun87]

honestly, the iPhone is a VERY dependable phone. You rarely have to worry about the little hiccups that come with androids... first, u gotta decide android vs iOS. Then you decide which android you want if that's the way you choose. I had a 4s andd while I lean towards android myself, I feel you couldn't go wrong. Razr is more power oriented and iPhone is more stability. But I would go android

sent from my bio... err rezo... err Galaxy Nexus. using vanilla android.

[doctraveler12]

i feel like either would make a good choice at this point. thanks for all your help

stupid 2 year contracts

i'll let you guys know how it plays out (headed to the verizon store in the am)

[SnoDrtRider]

Razr: Great design concept but I don't think they really nailed it in the finished form. It's way too wide. I have huge hands and I still feel uncomfortable holding it because it is so wide.

The width is not the problem... I have large hands also (some friends call me shovel thumbs) and the Razr felt awkward in my hand UNTIL I put a case on it.
The added thickness of the case makes the phone much easier to handle when you have larger hands. I think the ratio of width to thickness is the problem and people with larger hands need the extra thickness for it to feel right.