MSRP: $649.99
Body
Measuring 5.2 inches tall by 2.7 inches wide and just 0.37 inch thick, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD is almost as svelte and pocket-friendly as its sibling the Droid Razr HD (5.2 inches by 2.7 inches by 0.33 inch), impressive considering its large 4.7-inch display and high-capacity battery (3,300mAh). That said, the Razr Maxx HD is substantially thicker than both the Samsung Galaxy S3 (5.4 inches by 2.8 inches by 0.34 inch) and the original Droid Razr (5.1 inches by 2.7 inches by 0.28 inch). The phone is close in size to its predecessor, the Droid Razr Maxx (5.14 inches by 2.75 inches by 0.35 inch).
Display
A huge improvement Motorola has made to its new Razrs is the enhanced
displays. The Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD features a vast 4.7-inch 720p
(1,280x720-pixel-resolution) screen that's much sharper than the
displays used by the first Droid Razr and Droid Razr Maxx. Those devices
had qHD resolution (960x540) screens with a lower pixel count. Details
of enemy tanks and warplanes were very crisp in the HQ YouTube trailer
for "Red Dawn," entertaining enough to help me suspend my disbelief in
such a ridiculous plot. 
Software and UIAt $299.99, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD costs a pretty penny, which is why I'm disappointed that the device ships with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and not Google's latest operating system, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Still, Ice Cream Sandwich offers a modern look and plenty of enhancements over Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Motorola also says that the phone will be upgradable to Jelly Bean in the future.
Features and apps
Another capability Android 4.0 brings to the table is its native support for folders. Just drag app shortcuts on top of one another to create custom folders and help beat back home-screen clutter. It's one of the first things I do with a new phone, and since the Razr Maxx HD has access to more than 700,000 apps via the Google Play store, organizing your home screens is always recommended.
Camera
Since it's equipped with an 8-megapixel sensor and LED flash combined with a modern Snapdragon S4 processor, I was hopeful the Droid Razr Maxx HD might address the primary weakness of Motorola smartphones: image quality. Unfortunately, while the device snaps pictures quickly, in under a second, and launches its camera app in 1.9 seconds, the images I captured were not inspiring. In fact, just like the Razr M and Razr HD, the Rar Maxx HD produced images with inaccurate white balance and lots of color noise in low-light shots. For instance, my still-life images were dark and had an unnatural yellowish tinge. Moving outdoors, things improved, with hues becoming more normal if oversaturated.
Performance
I think Motorola's decision to use Qualcomm's 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processors in its 2012 Razrs was a smart move. They're much faster and more efficient than the chips in the old Razr line. Mirroring my experience with the Razr M and Razr HD, the Razr Maxx HD felt fast and responsive, whether opening applications or zooming through menus. This impression was confirmed by benchmark testing, with the Droid Razr Maxx HD notching a high Linpack (multithread) score of 207 MFLOPs. That narrowly beats the Droid Razr HD (198.4 MFLOPs) and squeaks by the Droid Razr M (182.2 MFLOPs) on the same test. Boot time, though, was consistently slower than the Razr HD's, with the Razr Maxx HD taking 40 seconds to power up, a full 7 seconds longer.
| Performance: Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD | |
|---|---|
| Average LTE download speeds | 16.2 Mpbs |
| Average LTE upload speed | 12.5 Mbps |
| App download | 646KB in 2.8 seconds |
| CNET mobile site load | 5.8 seconds |
| CNET desktop site load | 6.4 seconds |
| Boot time | 40 seconds |
| Camera boot time | 1.9 seconds |
