Original Razr died- refurbish or switch phones?

Raptor05121

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I have an original Razr (first week it came out). Lately I've been keeping it out of its case and I dropped it, cracking the screen. Tonight I was crawling through a window and I guess exacerbated the crack and my screen is green and black with dead pixels. Can't see a thing. Same sounds, vibrator works as you tap the non-visible icons.

Should I buy a new digitizer and upgrade the battery or would it be better to see if Verizon can swap me into a new Samsung? My phone is over two years old, so I'm sure I can upgrade. I'm just curious what a digitizer replacement and battery conversion kit would run me. If possible, I'd like to get a white frame.
 

infantrytrophy

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Since you are off-contract, carefully consider a new strategy of ditching "upgrades" and contracts with carriers. Plan costs are dropping rapidly with competition from TMobile and AT&T. Consider paying full price for great phones like the Motorola X or Google Nexus 5, then starting a non-contract plan with TMobile, or with AT&T (usually better coverage than TMobile). I recently switched from Verizon to AT&T and now have better coverage at home, and at least a good coverage (compared to Verizon) for travel. For 2 smartphones and 2 iPads I am paying $130 for unlimited calls & texts plus 10 GB of shared data. This is about $50 less than comparable plan with Verizon.

If you want to stay with Verizon, don't go with a contract. Verizon has an unadvertised plan - don't remember the name, but offers a big discount if you have your own phone (off-contract). You have to call the national number and ask for a bring-your-own-phone plan or off-contract plan as it may not be available through local retailers.

Regarding the Razr, I would advise against putting any more money into repairing it. I liked my Razr Maxx for 2 years, but it was starting to slow down and "stutter" a bit with internet access. Call quality was fine. Apparently the hardware just wasn't up to current internet data feeds with all of the ads and fancy web pages. Also, the Razr and Razr Maxx are stuck on an older version of Android. They can't be upgraded to KitKat or any future updates.

For any future phone, make sure to get an "unlocked" phone that you can use on multiple carriers. Buying a "Verizon" iPhone directly from Apple would work for all carriers (yes, including AT&T or TMobile, just by inserting the SIM card), but the phone would cost $650 or so. Better choices would be to either buy an unlocked used phone from eBay or buy a new Nexus 5 from Google or a Moto X from Motorola for about $350. Sure, you pay more up front for the phone, but you will more than make up the cost with reduced charges for the cell phone plan. Also, note that the resale value for truly unlocked phones is MUCH better than that of phones locked to a specific network (like most Verizon phones).

I can personally vouch for the Nexus 5. It's a great phone, better in almost every way than my 2-year-old Razr Maxx (except for the amazing battery life of the Razr Maxx). The screen is super, call quality great, speed and smoothness of operation, camera -- all much better than the Razr/Razr Maxx. Even though the screen is larger than that of the Razr Maxx, the overall size of the phone is the same. Moto X is also very good, with very slightly smaller overall size and screen size. My reception with AT&T is much better at my home (compared to Verizon), and AT&T signal has been equal to Verizon on several road trips. This is very specific to your location, of course.
 

eidian

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I got my RAZR back on 11/11/11. About sixteen months later the battery expanded and ripped the Kevlar section from the plastic part of the back. I took that opportunity to convert the phone to the MAXX thinking that I could get at least another two years out of the phone. Well, a year after the conversion I'm posting this reply from my Moto X that I won from eBay that was delivered yesterday.

My advice is the same: move on. The RAZR's heyday is LONG gone. Mine was lagging, stuttering and was just hurting. As much as I loved the phone, I am happy to move on.

I've had the Moto X for only nineteen hours but I have to say that this phone kicks @ss! KitKat is a HUGE upgrade from Jellybean and the Moto X uses it brilliantly. I really like the voice commands; the phone can recognize your voice when it's on standby. I had the phone sitting on the dining room table and as I was walking to the table with my dinner I said, "OK Google now, open YouTube". The phone had YouTube open when I got there! So if you can live without an SD card slot and mini-HDMI and if you can live with only 16 gigs of internal memory, the Moto X could be the phone for you. There are good deals on eBay, I got mine barely used for $200 (free shipping) with everything PLUS an Otterbox case! Getting this used kind of makes up for the $400 that I ended up spending on the RAZR.
 
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