Hands-on with the Motorola Droid Razr and the “Motoactv”

The Motorola Droid Razr announced today will arrive with a set of seriously impressive specs. And with new streaming capabilities, enterprise support, and 4G LTE access, it’s coming for all those companies who have become complacent, overconfident that no other phone could ever offer what they do. We went hands on with the new smartphone, as well as with the new Motoactv phone/workout monitor, at the New York launch event this afternoon.

The Motorola Droid Razr

The Droid Razr feels as thin as promised, and it’s even lighter than expected. The back of the phone is constructed from Kevlar, so it’s tough and light. Unfortunately, it’s not “user-removable,” so that 1800mAh battery is always going to stay where it is. The flat back and angled edges didn’t feel especially comfortable to hold, especially given the phone’s width.

The standard four Android buttons sit along the bottom of the Super AMOLED display, which is very clear and bright with nice coloring. The screen doesn’t stretch all the way to the edges of the phone; it leaves about a quarter of an inch of bezel on either landscape side. We don’t love when 4-plus-inch-screen phones do this, as it makes them even more unwieldy to hold.

In regular use, the phone is fast. We experienced not a hint of lag in our short time with the Droid Razr and never found ourselves waiting while the few pre-installed apps opened. We attempted to see how fast the browser might load some pages, but it wouldn’t navigate away from the Droid Razr homepage.

One side of the Droid Razr has a small trapdoor that takes microSIMs and SD cards (a 16GB one comes pre-installed in addition to 16GB of internal storage). On the fat end of the phone are a microUSB and microHDMI port that are compatible with the recently announced lapdocks, which use the Droid Razr’s included webtop environment.

Motorola is also debuting a new app with the Droid Razr named Smart Actions, which allows users to create different battery use profiles depending on a number of criteria. For example, users can set the app to turn off Bluetooth and GPS when they enter their homes, turn off WiFi-seeking when they leave the house, dimming the screen after 9pm or when the battery drops to 20 percent capacity, and so on.

We did a brief file exchange using the new Motocast functionality, which allows users to sync photos, videos, documents and other content with their home computers. A representative noted to us that the transfers go through an intermediary server, but it stores none of the files that pass through. As expected, if your computer is not on, files won’t sync. 

As we noted above, the phone has some enterprise support, including FIPS 104-2 encryption, remote wipe, corporate email and calendar access, and comes pre-loaded with Citrix Receiver and GoToMeeting.

The rear 8-megapixel camera took very sharp, clear pictures. Though we weren’t able to test it in a variety of lighting scenarios, the Droid Razr’s camera looks like it could stand up to the quality levels of the Samsung Galaxy S II and the iPhone 4S. When we asked about the battery life on 4G LTE, a representative balked a bit by telling us, “It depends what you’re doing” (durr) but finally estimated the talk time at about 9.5 hours. Remarkable, if true.

Motorola also boasted of their new nanotechnological Splashguard technology used in the Droid Razr, which allegedly protects the phone from about three tablespoons of water thrown at the back. We were prevented from testing this, but then, we’ve never seen a phone done in by so little water anyway. It’s the pools and toilets that get you.

The Motorola Motactv

As for the Motoactv, it’s very difficult not to think of it as a fatter version of the iPod nano, though it is capable of many things the nano is not. The Motoactv is a chunky black thing with a metal back that creates grooves on all four sides, which allow users to slide it in any direction into accessories like an arm or wristband (sold extra, for $29 each). It also has two more buttons than the iPod nano: one as a shortcut to stop or start a workout, and the other as a shortcut to play and pause music.