Motorola Razr i user reviews

Kenny Carwash 16 May 2013

Comment: Forgot to mention, I can't detect any of the hissing audio that one of the earlier reviewers describes, and that's with some pretty good headphones. Strange that it's happened over two different devices. I assume you've tried it with different headphones?

The audio on the RAZR i is solid rather than standout, but I'm yet to hear truly good audio on a smartphone. One thing I have noticed is that, with 3G signal, the in-call audio on the RAZR i is eerily clear. Like 'being-spoken-directly-into-your-ear' good. It creeps me out a bit. I want my phone calls to sound like phone calls, thanks!

Kenny Carwash 16 May 2013

Good: Size, speed, build quality, battery life

Bad: Not compatible with some apps, screen and camera not high-end

Comment: I've had this phone for a couple of months and am overall very happy with it. It's the first non-HTC phone I've had for about six years (I've had an XDAIII, Touch Cruise, Desire, Desire S and Radar) and although I did rather like the HTC One, the lack of an micro SD slot made that a no-go for me. I carry 40gb+ of music with me everywhere and thiat isn't going to change until data roaming is substantially cheaper.

There were a few things that drew me to the RAZR i:
Number 1 - I liked the size of the thing. I like to be able to use my phone one-handed and most current Android phones are far too big for that. The RAZR is is still a touch too large, so it's quite hard to get my thumb to the keys on the near edge, but it's still useable in this way.

Number 2 - battery life. All of my friends with Galaxies keep a charger in their desks at work, as the phone can go flat on their way home otherwise. No such worries with this, as I'm currently getting a good day-and-a-half from each charge. The power-saving modes really help eke out that last 20%, too.

Number 3 - handfeel. The feel of a phone is about more than just dimensions and weight, and this is something Motorola have historically been very good at. With its pleasant heft and black, rubbery skin, the Motorola PEBL I had in 2006 is still the nicest-feeling phone I've ever held. The RAZR i isn't as good as that, but it still scores pretty well. The kevlar on the back is soft-feeling and pleasant to the touch, the metal chassis gives the phone a solid feel and the tapered design, thickest at the top and thinner at the bottom, gives it a nice weight in the hand. It's also a very pocketable phone, which the tapering helps with.

Speed is a hard thing to judge without playing with other recent phones for comparison, but the RAZR i certainly runs Jelly Bean noticeably faster than my old Desire S ran Gingerbread. It makes easy meat of heavier apps like Ingress, too, so the big, single-core processor does seem to pack punch. The drawback is that some apps won't work with the Intel chip and it turns out the Barclays mobile banking app is one of them, which is a pain.

Some reviews have knocked the screen, but the only time I notice the supposedly visible pixels is when I peer very hard at it. It has vibrant colours and nice deep blacks and it's good enough for me. The camera is more of an issue, as I do a lot of photography and although the HDR setting is useful, image quality is clearly better on recent Samsung and Apple phones. Instagram will hide a multitude of sins, though.

The RAZR's trump card though, is its price and I'm surprised reviewers don't make more of this. I got this phone free on a £21 per month contract. Any of the current phones would've meant paying at least £10 per month more with money down on top of that. The iPhone 5 in particular would've ended up costing me an extra £500 over the course of the contract. That's serious money and even though the iPhone, the Xperia Z, the GS4 and the HTC One are all better phones than this one, they certainly aren't £500 better.

Robert Houghton 24 March 2013

Good: Great package overall that is very usable day to day

Bad: Screen could have more pixels

Comment: There seems to be a trend lately, with Android devices, for huge screens. Personally I only have average size hands and I dont wear clown pants with huge pockets so I find the larger phones difficult to handle for day to day use.

The Razr I is just the right size in my opinion and the battery life is really the best I have seen in a modern smart phone. Also the build quality is excellent and my phone has worn very well over the months I have owned it. Ok if you want a larger screen this isn't for you but for someone who wants a smaller device and doesn’t want to be sucked into the Apple ecosystem this is an excellent choice especially at the bargain basement price Motorola charges.

Oldbarzo 9 March 2013

Good: Speed, upgradable

Bad: Not much for day to day use.

Comment: easy to use and feels good in the hand. Small flash memory compared to the opposition but expandable with MicroSd card.Really likje the Super A screen.

R7DaRuler 11 January 2013

Good: Contrast, Premium Materials, Edge-to-Edge, Great to use, Fast

Bad: Messy Design, Low Pixel Density, Compact

Comment: This phone is great for everyday use; it is great running apps and is really fast; not Samsung GS3 level, but fast nonetheless. Also, the edge-to-edge screen is a welcome addition. However, you can see pixels without straining, the compactness of the phone makes the screen seem small, and the contrast is so good it looks a bit artifical. Also, there are less apps than usual, for example, BBC iPlayer isn't supported. It isn't a top-end phone, and I regret buying it because of my high-standards when it comes to tech; however, for most it should be great, and I do enjoy using it; but not a much as I wanted to.

John Lloyd 23 December 2012

Good: Battery life, speed, ease of use, smart actions, KEVLAR!!

Bad: Haven't found anything to moan about yet.

Comment: I love the styling, very masculine, looks like something the SAS would use. I had a Samsung Galaxy Ace and this feels much better in the hand and the Kevlar back seems to grip your hand.

I got the phone yesterday and hammered it for 16 hours using WiFi, watching TV on it, listening to music and fiddling with the camera. When I went to bed it still had 21% left. You should get a good 2 days of normal use out of it.

bryan 9 December 2012

Comment: does it work in south Africa

bryan 9 December 2012

Comment: that's a phone

Steve Cronin 7 December 2012

Good: Speed, user interface, edge to edge screen, robustness, battery life, smart actions

Comment: I have just upgraded from a Motorola Defy (my first ever smart phone - which I had free on a 2 year contract) and the first thing that struck with starting to use the RAZR i was the speed. Everything is so fast (obviously comparing it to the Defy), Google maps was a particular problem on my Defy, but the this flies through them. The second thing is what appears to be excellent battery life - it's only the first day of using it, but being a new toy I have hammered it with all sorts of different activities and it was still going 15 hours later. I expect that I will easily get over 24 hours of my normal use.

eudu 16 November 2012

Good: Sleek, fast, cheap, and with pretty much everything. Nice black screen.

Bad: Not quite top-end specs

Comment: Very nice, solid, compact phone.

The audio is fine, I don't get the hiss described above, except some minor hiss immediately before and after playback, with the little thump. I've seen this on many devices and will probably not be a great problem for most.

This phone should be a hit!