Review Motorola's RAZR V

What was once considered a fantastic device must be weighed against others recently released, and usually in the same price range. The Motorola RAZR V is in a very interesting position right now for those two reasons.
Motorola hasn’t made too much noise since the release of the revamped Rogers-exclusive RAZR in November. Now, nine months later, the RAZR V hits the market on Bell and Virgin for a significantly more affordable price in a body that makes some concessions to achieve it. In many ways this is the same phone that Motorola released last year — internally and externally — but stands on its own with a great new build of Ice Cream Sandwich and a more compact design. Is it worth your time and money? Read on to find out.
Specs
- Android 4.0.4 with (slightly) custom Motorola skin
- 4.3-inch 960×540 TFT display with ColorBoost
- 1.2Ghz dual-core TI OMAP 4430 SoC
- 1GB RAM, 4GB internal storage, microSD slot
- 8MP back camera with flash, 0.3MP front-facing camera
- WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, FM Radio
- 65.8 x 128.5 x 8.35 mm
- 125g

Design & Display
The RAZR V definitely resembles the original with its angular face, sloping Kevlar backing and chrome accents, but Motorola has certainly toned down the quality of materials. While the RAZR V by no means feels cheap, there is a definite plasticky aspect to it that was absent on the premium-feeling RAZR.
The RAZR V is also some 5mm narrower than the sometimes-unwieldy RAZR, and it feels much more comfortable in the hand as a result. The screen, too, while on paper the same as the RAZR — a 4.3-inch display at 960×540 pixels — is somewhat sharper and less distracting than its predecessor. Instead of going the Super AMOLED route, Motorola opted for a traditional TFT LCD display, making text significantly sharper and whites much more accurate. While it loses the deep blacks and lovely colour saturation that comes with a Super AMOLED screen, we did not miss the RAZR’s moiré aberrations and distinct lack of sharpness.
While the device, at around 8.4mm thick, does not come close to the impossibly thin dimensions of its predecessor, we think Motorola made the right move for the end user. It’s more compact overall, which makes it feel like a smaller handset despite being 1.3mm thicker than the RAZR.
Note that the RAZR V uses a regular-sized SIM over a microSIM, and shares a latch door with the microSD slot on the left hand side. The volume rocker is nicely delineated on the right, and the power button, headset jack and microUSB port sit flush on the top.

Performance & Software
As the RAZR V uses largely the same internal hardware as the Rogers version released last year, we weren’t expecting any performance miracles. Motorola has done a lot with the software, however, and this is not your mother’s MOTOBLUR. The version we see on the RAZR V, which runs Android 4.0.4, resembles in many ways the stock Ice Cream Sandwich experience. While transitions between homescreens are not quite as smooth as those on the Galaxy Nexus, we felt right at home navigating around the menus.
The RAZR V uses Texas Instrument’s aging OMAP 4430 processor clocked at 1.2Ghz, with 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage. It’s also limited to Bell’s HSPA+ network at 14.4Mbps, but many of these things are built into the price. Still, considering the ATRIX HD LTE is only $20 more on the same Bell network and offers a better array of internal hardware and software, we’d be inclined to recommend that one over the RAZR V. If you’re insistant on the smaller form factor, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the spritely app load times, total lack of lagginess when scrolling through the browser, and a stability that could only have come from Motorola.

The company’s SmartActions have been updated for ICS, and now provide recommendations based on usage patterns. For example, the device can keep track of your favourite locations or times of day and, based on your battery life, enable a Battery Saving mode. Similarly, if you tend to go to bed every night around midnight, you can have SmartActions enable Silent Mode and suppress the screen from turning on during the night if you receive a notification.
Motorola has also added a four-way lockscreen shortcut system that provides easy access to the camera, phone and messaging. But perhaps the most notable admission of Motorola’s integration into Google’s corporate culture is the inclusion of virtual buttons in place of capacitive ones. Both the RAZR V and ATRIX HD LTE sport the Galaxy Nexus-like on-screen navigation icons, and while they have been slightly altered from stock, they work identically. We couldn’t be happier.

Camera
The 8MP camera on the RAZR V does a decent job at capturing moments in good lighting, but suffers from Motorola’s reliable distortion and softness. That’s not to say the camera is bad — the interface is fantastic, with easy-to-reach granular controls, and the shutter is snappy for a piece of older tech — but it doesn’t reach the heights of other 8MP sensors on the market. With the bar being set so high by the iPhone 4S, Galaxy S III and HTC One X, it’s easy to dismiss the RAZR V as underperforming. But we have to take into account the handset’s price — $399 outright or $29.95 on a 3-year term — and cut it a bit of slack as a result.

The device can also shoot modestly smooth and detailed 1080p video, though again it lacks the sharpness and smoothness of its ATRIX HD LTE sibling. The VGA front-facing camera does a decent job at video chats and vanity shots, but we wouldn’t recommend using it for anything other than a mirror.

Battery Life
SmartActions is supposed to allow your battery to last up to 30% longer than an equivalent device, but we were happy to find that the RAZR V didn’t need it to last a full day. The 1750mAh battery was sufficiently large to see us through most of the day with regular calling, browsing, emailing, photo-ing and more. While the PowerVR SGX540 GPU is no longer the graphical beast it once was, we found it to be pretty light on the battery wallet when playing games or watching video.
We were a bit vexed that Motorola didn’t manage to squeeze in a larger battery — something like the 3300mAh cell of the RAZR MAXX would have been nice — considering all the extra proverbial legroom, but we’d imagine it would have raised the price of the handset considerably. Nevertheless, the juice, coupled with liberal application of battery-oriented SmartActions, should allow for one-day-plus usage from the RAZR V.

Call Quality, Network Speed & Miscellaneous
As with all Motorola phones, the RAZR V is solid as a phone. Call quality is unsurpassed in the industry, with a sharp, clear feed that never sounds muddled or sibilant. Call volume, too, is more than adequate for even the loudest of rooms, and Motorola’s background noise suppression works very well.
Because the RAZR V is a HSPA+ device, it’s network speeds are limited to Bell’s 3G network. We were able to achieve around 4-6Mbps download and 0.5-2Mbps upload depending on the location and time of day. Compared to the newest LTE devices this is nothing to write home about, but we were pretty pleased with the performance overall.
Bell and Motorola have bundled a number of apps on the RAZR V, including some business-oriented services such as Citrix GoToMeeting and Receiver. There’s also a full version of Gameloft’s Asphalt 6 and Bell’s Mobile TV app, among others. Because the platform has been upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich, you can now disable unwanted apps, which is the next best thing to being able to uninstall them.

Conclusions
The Bell Motorola RAZR V is a good little smartphone at a decent price. Because its bigger brother, the ATRIX HD LTE, is priced so closely — just $20 more than the RAZR’s $29.95 on a 3-year term — we can’t fully endorse it unless you’re buying it outright. At $399.95, it’s an excellent deal if you’re looking to go off-contract and want an all-round high-performing handset with a great screen, good battery life and a solid, close-to-stock operating system.

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Verizon Affirms HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE Release Date, Announces Price

Late last week, HTC sent out a tweet that appeared to finally confirm what we had all been hearing, that the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE would make its retail debut on Verizon sometime this week. Since July 5 had been mentioned as a possible release date before, that seemed like the obvious candidate. Sure enough, Verizon has now come through with an announcement of its own, confirming that date and finally revealing the smartphone’s price.

There were some early Droid Incredible 4G LTE discoveries, all the way back in April, that might have had you thinking the phone would launch with a $300 on-contract price tag. That wouldn’t make much sense with Verizon not even charging $300 for theGalaxy S III, so thankfully that figure was just a placeholder. Then, in early June, we heard a rumor that the carrier would instead be selling the DI4GLTE for a more reasonable $150. That’s the same price Verizon revealed today in its official announcement, on-contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Comparing the phone to HTC’s One series, it fits somewhere between the One V and One S, both in screen size and processing power. It’s got a four-inch Super LCD qHD screen, a 1.2GHz Snapdragon S4, and an eight-megapixel main camera.

Source: Verizon

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T-Mobile expand their LTE, HSPA+ coverage

T-mobile had a Press conference last night and Unsurprisingly, the company expand their network. The company is using the $4 billion and spectrum licenses to do exactly what they need to stay competitive with other carriers: expand their HSPA+ coverage and, more importantly, roll out LTE.
As the FCC has now approved the AWS spectrum transfer from AT&T as part of the breakup deal, T-Mobile has gained enough spectrum, in addition to their refarming plans to enable to launch of LTE in AWS spectrum and up to 20MHz of LTE in 75% of the top 25 markets.

“We’re making great progress on our four billion dollar 4G network transformation,” said Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA. “With these partners on board and the AT&T AWS spectrum secured, we’re on track to enhance our 4G experience this year and deliver nationwide LTE in 2013.”

T-Mobile reiterates their wish to launch 4G HSPA+ in the 1900 band in a large number of markets by the end of the year. Current testing shows a 33% increase in HSPA+ data speeds and improved in-building coverage. “Rolling out 4G HSPA+ services in the 1900 MHz band will also offer customers with the ability to use a broader range of devices, including the iPhone, on T-Mobile’s 4G network.”

“In contrast to our competitors, nearly half of T-Mobile’s postpaid smartphone customers are using a 4G device,” said Ray. “Not only are we delivering a fast 4G experience to a higher percentage of our customers, we’re also making it more affordable to step up to 4G. Whether you’re purchasing one of our latest 4G superphones – or bringing your own device, you can get better value with T-Mobile.”

Full Press Release:

Today, T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced multi-year agreements with Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to support T-Mobile’s $4 billion 4G network evolution plan, including network modernization and deployment of long term evolution (LTE) service in 20131.

As part of the agreements, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks will provide and install state of the art, Release 10 capable equipment at 37,000 cell sites across T-Mobile’s 4G network, increasing signal quality and enhancing performance beginning in 2012. T-Mobile also expects to be the first carrier in North America to broadly deploy antenna integrated radios, enabling accelerated deployment and reduced site loading.

Last week, T-Mobile secured the AWS spectrum licenses from AT&T which were agreed to as part of the breakup of the proposed merger between the two companies. This new spectrum, in addition to the refarming effort, enables the launch of LTE in AWS spectrum and up to 20 MHz of LTE in 75% of the top 25 markets.

“We’re making great progress on our four billion dollar 4G network transformation,” said Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA. “With these partners on board and the AT&T AWS spectrum secured, we’re on track to enhance our 4G experience this year and deliver nationwide LTE in 2013.”

The company’s timing for LTE allows T-Mobile to take advantage of the latest and most advanced LTE technology infrastructure, improving the overall capacity and performance of its 4G network, while optimizing the company’s spectrum resources. T-Mobile will also apply deep LTE technology experience gained from its parent, Deutsche Telekom, a recognized global leader in LTE development and standardization.

As part of the company’s network modernization effort, T-Mobile also plans to launch 4G HSPA+ service in the 1900 MHz band in a large number of markets by the end of the year. Network modernization trials have shown up to a 33 percent increase in HSPA+ data speeds as well as improved in-building coverage. Rolling out 4G HSPA+ services in the 1900 MHz band will also provide customers with the ability to use a broader range of devices, including the iPhone, on T-Mobile’s 4G network.

T-Mobile also announced that its nationwide HSPA+ network has expanded to deliver a competitive 4G experience to well over 220 million people in 229 markets. In addition to an expanding 4G footprint, the 4G experience T-Mobile provides is pervasive among its customer base.

“In contrast to our competitors, nearly half of T-Mobile’s postpaid smartphone customers are using a 4G device,” said Ray. “Not only are we delivering a fast 4G experience to a higher percentage of our customers, we’re also making it more affordable to step up to 4G. Whether you’re purchasing one of our latest 4G superphones – or bringing your own device, you can get better value with T-Mobile.”

Beginning today, customers in Little Rock, Ark.; Hattiesburg, Miss.; Springfield, Mo. and Madison, Wis. can experience the fast speeds available on America’s Largest 4G Network. Customers in Fayetteville and Little Rock, Ark.; Lake Charles, La. and Springfield, Mo. can experience the faster speeds offered by our HSPA+ 42 network with devices such as the recently launched HTC One™ S. Current customers are experiencing average speeds approaching 8 Mbps with peaks up to 22 Mbps using T-Mobile’s HTC One S.

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"iPad WiFi + 4G" Name is Changed to "iPad W-Fi + Cellular"

"iPad WiFi + 4G" Name is Changed to "iPad W-Fi + Cellular" by Apple in Some countries.This is due to customer complaints regarding the use of the term “4G” after the launch of the new iPad a couple of months ago.

The new iPad, available in almost 90 countries, comes with “4G” networking capabilities, albeit only in some countries, and on selected carriers with support for LTE. Because of Apple’s initial marketing of the device as “4G” regardless of country availability, the company came under scrutiny from Australianand UK regulators, who claimed Apple was falsely advertising the iPad as “4G” and misleading customers without properly specifying such feature was dependent on carrier support.

In Australia, Apple was forced to change its marketing for the new iPad by stating on its website the device wasn’t compatible with Australian 4G networks. In spite of the iPad still working with 3G networks, however, Apple decided to keep the “WiFi + 4G” name even after the initial clarification. This appears to be changing now as the company rolls out an updated product name across all its international websites.

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Most tablets still are sold with only Wi-Fi. For Apple's iPad. But Now AT&T Wants All iPads To Ship With LTE Built-In.

Most tablets still are sold with only Wi-Fi. For Apple's iPad. But Now AT&T Wants All iPads To Ship With LTE Built-In.

The idea is certainly an attractive one for carriers as it makes it more likely that they will gain mobile broadband customers. For some devices, they will also probably gain new two-year contracts in the process. That’s particularly true for devices that carriers subsidize and offer at lower price points as they do mobile phones. 

President of emerging devices, in an interview at CTIA Wireless. And the carrier is talking with manufacturers about making their product lines consistently equipped for 3G or 4G, he said.

"All devices should have all capabilities built in from the beginning," Lurie said. One reason that hasn't become a reality is that the additional hardware has been too expensive in the past, he said. "The ecosystem was a little out of balance."

But the flip side to that freedom is the extra $130 price tag for 3G iPad 2 and LTE new iPad models.

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Verizon lighting up beach town 4G LTE up and down the East Coast

Verizon’s 4G rollout is headed for the beach and the carrier is hoping you’ll catch a gnarly LTE wave. Popular summer vacation destinations up and down the East Coast are being treated to Verizon’s high speed data network just in time for the Memorial Day holiday, the weekend that kicks off a few month’s worth of fun and sun. The beach’s of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Massachusetts are the latest to benefit from Big Red’ aggressive LTE push. So pack your swim trunks and a towel, but don’t forget your smartphone (or your sunscreen). Just be careful around all that sound. It has a tendency to work itself into places you couldn’t even imagine (I’m talking about getting sand in your phone, people). Here is the full list:

• Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach, Lewes and Seaford, Delaware
• Ocean City and Fenwick Island; Queen Anne’s, Kent and Talbot Counties; Chestertown, Queenstown, and Easton, Maryland
• Virginia Beach, Virginia
• The Outer Banks, North Carolina
• Cape Cod, Massachusetts

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