Droid RAZR - Initial Thoughts

[JP 5.56]

I am a blogger, but my blog isn't about phones or tech, so I have no place to blog about my new RAZR - so I am going to bore you guys with it.

Just a few trips around the clock from now, I will have had the Droid RAZR for twenty-four hours. To sum it all up before even getting started: I love this phone. It does have some quirks, some things I'll need to get used to, and there are even still some aspects of it I am worried about, but overall I think it is a great choice and one of the better among the latest generation of Android devices.

Let me start with what I really like about it.

• To put it simply, the Droid RAZR is sexy. It is aesthetically appealing, and the choice of construction materials along with it's lines make it very sleek.
• Coming from the Moto Droid (original), this thing is super fast. It has a lot of the features and GUI Elements built in that I had to root my D1 to get.
• The screen is amazing. Being the anal retentive type I am, even though I know I don't need it, I put a screen protector on which sadly diminishes the greatness of the screen. It's large, very clear and the colors are amazingly vibrant.
• By Utilizing Smart Actions I have been able to control many things I had to do with a third party app on the old phone. It has been off charger for 8.5 hours now, with heavy use. Lots of twitter, email, texting, location based services, streaming music and playing music on the SD card - and its sitting at 50% charge. I'm trying to use it more than I normally would to see how hard I can tax the battery. It's holding up much better than I expected.

Some things that will take getting used to

• Android soft-button locations on the bottom are the screen are different from the D1 (the back button and menu button are in different spots). I find myself hitting the wrong button quite a bit.
• The screen tints blue at an angle. I'm guessing this is due to it being an LED based screen. Not a big deal as I don't actively use the phone at an angle anyway, I just find it weird.
• It's almost too thin. I have large hands, and I HAD to put a case on it to give myself a better grip.
• Some of the apps that came on it like the Social App and Messaging app that put all your social and messing items in one place don't seem to work how I would THINK they should. Not sure if I am missing something or if they just don't do what I think they should be able to do. (How do I add my gmail accounts to the Messaging App?)

I don't really have any large issues or gripes with the phone as of yet, but I am concerned about the battery. After a while the original battery in my D1 just lost capacity, and would only hold charge for a couple of hours. This is easily fixed by getting a new battery and putting it in the phone. Can't do that with the RAZR. With something like an iPod or iPhone, that's not such a huge deal because you can take it down to the Apple store and have them put a new battery in the thing. What happens when the built in battery in this thing loses capacity?

Overall I think it's a great device, and worth the price with the contract extension. That battery concern is really my only issue with the phone right now, and chances are, by the time the non-removable battery in the RAZR loses all capacity, I'll be wanting a new device anyway.