Droid RAZR First Impressions

My first review device from Verizon came in yesterday, and it's the Droid RAZR. It's my first Android smartphone, after having used a Blackberry for work and iPod Touches for years. As I understand it, this is not the current flagship Android device, that being the Galaxy Nexus, but it's still supposed to be one of the top-of-the-line devices.

Or, at least it was until the Droid RAZR Maxx launched yesterday. That device is basically the same thing except that instead of having a camera bulge and really thin body, it has a uniform thickness and larger battery. The teaser video for the RAZR Maxx hammers on the battery element, pretty much implying that the RAZR's battery life is unacceptable. Motorola's CEO Sanjay Jha himself proclaimed the RAZR "too thin". Perhaps I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth by even bringing this up, but Moto's CEO said that, not me.

It is remarkably thin, even slightly slimmer than my 3rd gen iPod Touch. The tapered edges on the Touch make them feel about the same thickness in my hand though.

The face-down RAZR is on the right; the iPod is on the left.

For as thin as it is, though, it's not small. It feels like a monster compared to the iPod Touches and Blackberry phones I've had. I have about average sized hands for an adult male, and it's too big for me to fully use in one hand. I can reach the entire screen with my thumb if I grip it completely on the sides, but then it falls out the bottom thanks to gravity and a slick backing. If I grip it more from the bottom with my pinkie underneath to prevent it from falling, I can't reach the top of the screen to bring down the notifications drawer.

The device came with unlimited 4G LTE, which was awfully nice of Verizon to supply. The SpeedTest.net app clocked in at 7.98 Mbps down and 4.47 Mbps up, which blows away my home Internet from Time Warner. That's pretty awesome.

Some of the defaults were a little weird. It has haptic feedback turned on automatically, which makes it vibrate any time you use the four Android buttons or type on the keyboard. I thought everyone decided that wasn't a good idea after the first Blackberry Storm, but I guess not. I had to go to two different places to turn it off entirely. Also, the notification sound was very high by default. That led to me getting woken up at 4:45 am this morning by the sound of this thing shouting "DROID!!" at me to let me know the Motorola skin had an update available. Not cool.

I'm still getting used to Android, and I've barely even touched the market yet. I don't have a complete picture of it just yet. Here are a few more random things before more comprehensive review-like substances come in the future.

• The first time I pressed the dedicated search button, Motorola's home screen skin (process com.motorola.home) crashed. In fact, it reliably crashes when you press the search button while in the app browser. Whoops.
• Bloatware fiesta! Not counting Google's apps, it came preloaded with Amazon Kindle, Blockbuster, Verizon device setup, Flash player, GoToMeeting, Verizon IM, Let's Golf 2, Madden NFL 12, Motoactv, Motoprint, Motorola Music, Netflix, NFL Mobile, Quickoffice, Slacker radio, Social Location, Social Networking, V Cast ringtones, Verizon Video, VideoSurf, VZ Navigator, and Webtop. Toss in the Motorola skin, and that's 23 pieces of software that don't come with stock Android. That I know of, at least. I am not sure about some of the others.
• Only some of the bloatware can be removed. I was able to junk GoToMeeting, Blockbuster and Let's Golf 2, but, no shock here, none of the Verizon or Motorola apps can be uninstalled without rooting the device. Surprisingly, some of the third party apps couldn't be removed either like the Kindle and Slacker apps.
• I miss some of the niceties of iOS, like the rubber banding on scrolling and tapping at the top of the screen to go to the top of a list view.
• Most iOS users when going to Android complain most about the system-wide back button being unpredictable. I've had no such issues so far.
• Call quality is excellent, but I have never had issues with call quality in the many years I've been on Verizon.