First Australian review of Motorola’s 4G RAZR HD

For the most part, performance of Motorola’s RAZR HD operating system flies without any problems. Apps usually open quickly, benchmarks show that it’s a reasonably fast system, and while we have the odd slowdown here and there, the RAZR HD performs quite well.

Mobile connectivity is also very, very good, as can be expected with 4G inside the RAZR HD. In the centre of Sydney, we pulled speeds of 48Mbps down and over 20Mbps up, which is over twice the theoretical maximum of ADSL2+, enough for anyone to really appreciate.

Even Motorola’s camera isn’t bad, though it’s not the best we’ve ever seen.

There’s no dedicated macro mode that you can force, the shutter is loud and impossible to silence, snapping pictures isn’t quite as fast as the immediacy we’ve come to expect from Ice Cream Sandwich, and the light meter constantly evaluates itself for whatever you’ve focused on, as opposed to the whole scene.

All up, the images aren’t terrible, but they won’t replace a dedicated camera and lack clarity when viewed up close.

In some ways, it feels as if Motorola spent more time on the video mode, though, with some interesting modes, such as a time lapse mode, 60fps slow motion mode capturing in 720p, and audio modes designed to get the microphone recording better in different environments, such as when there’s strong wind or at a loud concert.

Where we do chuck a tantrum is the battery, which only manages roughly a day, especially if you use the screen often. Based on our tests, that’s the area where the battery really takes a hammering, with Android’s battery monitor showing us that roughly 77 percent of the battery was dedicated to the screen.

Our test consisted of pulling the phone off charge at 7.30 AM and using it with 4G tests, social networking, phone calls, emails, web browsing, and the odd game, with the handset running down to 10 percent at midnight.

That’s roughly a day of life, which is about on par with most 4G handsets we’ve tested: not terrible, but it’s certainly not the amazing battery performance Motorola suggests is possible with the RAZR.

One way around this is with Motorola’s specific battery saving Smart Actions, though we suspect you’ll want to keep the screen off for as long as possible to truly maximise the battery life of the RAZR HD.

Conclusion

Motorola may be a little late in bringing a new flagship handset to the party, but what it has done with the RAZR HD is pretty fantastic in and of itself.

Sure, it doesn’t have the quad-core processing speeds you may see in other devices, and it doesn’t have the best battery life, but the RAZR HD does feature an impressive build quality, strong 4G performance, and a video camera worth mentioning.

All up, Motorola has done a tremendous job with the RAZR HD, and while we wish the 2500mAh battery would give us a little more juice, it’s a top notch phone worth owning.