Any thoughts on Razr M vs Razr Maxx?

**pdarrah** · 09-13-2012, 11:48 AM

I'm going to be upgrading a couple phones in the next week or so - 1 is a blackberry and the other is a Droid X. The blackberry is on it's last legs & we want to have matching phones this time (My dad & I - we work together for family business & it is easier if our phones are the same) We have to have global ability, which definitely narrows the options.

I've been very happy with the Droid X and when I started looking a few weeks ago, was thinking we would just go with the Razr Maxx. Now that the M has come out, I'm not sure which is the better choice. I like the smaller size, but am a little worried about the non-removable battery. I've only pulled the battery on my X a few times total in the last 2 years, but what do you do with a total lockup if that isn't an option?

Any thoughts on how these 2 phones compare? Is the Maxx worth an extra $100? Are the screens, processors, cameras, etc. similar or is one clearly better than the other?

**Scout_313** · 09-13-2012, 12:52 PM

I wanted a smaller phone, so I went with the RAZR M. Since I just got it today, I'll have to see how battery life is, but I am amazed that they were able to fit the components of the RAZR/RAZR Maxx into such a small package and still bump up to a better processor. So long as the battery life is not atrocious, I will be very happy with my choice.

**calbrs04** · 09-13-2012, 03:28 PM

I am probably going to do the Razr M based mostly on the physical size of the device. HD screen might be good for some, but I honestly can't tell the difference. Heck, I think the screen on my Fascinate looks better then the retina on my 4S.

**TauntingBull** · 09-13-2012, 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by pdarrah

I'm going to be upgrading a couple phones in the next week or so - 1 is a blackberry and the other is a Droid X. The blackberry is on it's last legs & we want to have matching phones this time (My dad & I - we work together for family business & it is easier if our phones are the same) We have to have global ability, which definitely narrows the options.

I've been very happy with the Droid X and when I started looking a few weeks ago, was thinking we would just go with the Razr Maxx. Now that the M has come out, I'm not sure which is the better choice. I like the smaller size, but am a little worried about the non-removable battery. I've only pulled the battery on my X a few times total in the last 2 years, but what do you do with a total lockup if that isn't an option?

Any thoughts on how these 2 phones compare? Is the Maxx worth an extra $100? Are the screens, processors, cameras, etc. similar or is one clearly better than the other?

I would HIGHLY recommend waiting another month or so for Maxx HD...

**pdarrah** · 09-13-2012, 04:53 PM

Scout_313 - Thanks for the info - would love to hear in the next couple days how the battery life is doing.

Calbrs04 - Yeah, I'm not too worried about the screen. I'm actually happy with my X and I'm pretty sure both Maxx and M are better than that. The odds of me watching a movie on a phone is pretty small - I don't watch many anyway & if I really wanted to I think I'd steal my spouse's iPad!

Taunting Bull - I've been trying to hold out on the upgrade, but the blackberry is on its last legs. Its needing a battery pull every few days just to keep it going. My Dad is traveling to southeast Asia in a few weeks and I'd like him to have a more reliable phone before then... If we have to get phones now, I think either the Maxx or the M are the best options for us - its just figuring out if the Maxx is really worth $100 more than the M.

**Scout_313** · 09-13-2012, 11:08 PM

Today was a short day but I had 9 hours 43 minutes of time on the battery with 2 hours 10 minutes of screen on time (all while running on LTE) and the phone still had 42% battery life remaining. Compared to the original Droid RAZR, the Galaxy S3, and the Galaxy Nexus, the battery life is awesome so far.

**reyxlp** · 09-14-2012, 09:09 AM

I had the Razr Maxx and loved it but I'm really happy I switched to the Razr M.

Screen is almost the same size (software ICS buttons take up some real estate so don't be fooled -- despite being the same "4.3", it *is* a smaller screen) and the smaller device size is awesome. With the Razr Maxx, I always had a little trouble handling the phone with just one hand for lots of typing.

I just hope the battery will hold up. On the Maxx, I don't think I ever dropped it below 50% per 24hrs and every now and then would go 2 or 3 days on a single charge.

**Payne78** · 09-15-2012, 05:54 PM

I gotta say I love my Razr M. Only problem I've had is connection with my home wifi, but seems to work ok everywhere else. I love the colors on the display and the build quality is very solid. Today I've had it off the charger for 12 hours so far and just got to 49%. That's with some scramble, facebook, bit of youtube and about 4 hours of Pandora radio on 4G. I am using a task killer to kill off apps I don't want running everytime I turn the display off, so I'm sure that helps. Overall very impressed with the phone and like the small size. BTW the screen really is that big when your watching a video because the software buttons retract. It's pretty darn cool.

**WAldenIV** · 09-15-2012, 07:54 PM

Originally Posted by Payne78

I gotta say I love my Razr M. Only problem I've had is connection with my home wifi, but seems to work ok everywhere else. I love the colors on the display and the build quality is very solid. Today I've had it off the charger for 12 hours so far and just got to 49%. That's with some scramble, facebook, bit of youtube and about 4 hours of Pandora radio on 4G. I am using a task killer to kill off apps I don't want running everytime I turn the display off, so I'm sure that helps. Overall very impressed with the phone and like the small size. BTW the screen really is that big when your watching a video because the software buttons retract. It's pretty darn cool.

Android doesn't need task killers anymore. It hasn't since Froyo, which introduced its own memory management. Programs running in the background are not affecting your battery life. In fact, it has more or less been proven that task killers will hurt battery life more than help because the programs aren't available in memory to be accessed and need to be relaunched constantly. There is a reason they built a recent apps button into ICS.

If you want to improve battery life, use wifi as much as possible, set apps to refresh at longer intervals (e.g., every 2 hours instead of every 15 minutes), and lower the screen brightness to a comfortable level.

**Payne78** · 09-16-2012, 07:29 AM

Originally Posted by WAldenIV

Android doesn't need task killers anymore. It hasn't since Froyo, which introduced its own memory management. Programs running in the background are not affecting your battery life. In fact, it has more or less been proven that task killers will hurt battery life more than help because the programs aren't available in memory to be accessed and need to be relaunched constantly. There is a reason they built a recent apps button into ICS.

Though I don't doubt that it has its own memory management I can say with 100% certainty that the day after I installed a task killer my battery performance went way up, even though the phone got more use. Soooo, I dunno but seemed to work for me.

If you want to improve battery life, use wifi as much as possible, set apps to refresh at longer intervals (e.g., every 2 hours instead of every 15 minutes), and lower the screen brightness to a comfortable level.

Well I don't doubt what your saying, I would hope they built in a memory manager but I can say with 100% certainty that I got much better battery life the day after I installed the task manager even though the phone got more use. So I dunno, I'll keep track of it.

**WAldenIV** · 09-16-2012, 08:38 AM

Any new smartphone will require several days and several battery discharge cycles to reach peak performance. Your improvement is likely the natural improvement during battery conditioning. I got 17 hours out of my first charge with the M yesterday, including just under 4 hours of screen on time and over 52 minutes of talk time. The best thing you can do is remove the task killer before it starts mucking up your phone.

**pdarrah** · 09-17-2012, 08:25 AM

Thanks everyone for the input - I decided to go with the M. The smaller size and price decided it. There just didn't seem to be any strong reason to pay more and cart around a bigger phone! The only real plus would be the battery and I'm not really a power user that needs the massive battery life.

We picked up 2 of the Razr Ms on Friday afternoon and so far I am pretty happy. (My dad is struggling a bit with the touch screen since it is all new to him - I think he'll be fine in a few days)

The only issue I have had is that it works amazingly well on 4G, but when I'm in a 3G area I don't seem to be able to get ANY data connection. Email won't update, can't view web pages, twitter won't update, etc. Is this normal with 4G phones? What happens if I'm in an area with no 4G? I live near Chicago, so I'm mostly in 4G but I do travel and I know I won't have 4G everywhere. Do I just have a setting messed up somewhere? Or is there something wrong with my phone?

So far battery has been no problem (although weekend useage isn't anything like weekday usage). I have had it using battery about 10-11 hours per day and its been around 80% left when I plug it in. However, other than email and twitter, I don't use it much on the weekends so it really doesn't mean much yet.

**phositadc** · 09-17-2012, 08:50 AM

You should definitely still be getting your emails, etc., Even when you aren't in a 4g area. when you are in a3g area data should act exactly the same, just much slower. It's possible the 3g towers in your area were just having technical issues for a period. Is it still exhibiting the problem? Is your dad's doing the same thing? If so I'd talk to Verizon.

**WAldenIV** · 09-17-2012, 09:06 AM

Was the 3G indicator blue or white?

**pdarrah** · 09-18-2012, 09:18 AM

phositadc & WAldenIV - I'll keep watching and see if there is a pattern or if it was a 1 day problem. Yesterday, I was in 3G a couple times and it was fine. The 3G indicator was blue and I had a strong signal.

I'm still thrilled with the battery on this phone. Keep in mind I'm coming from a DroidX which I could easily run down to nothing in a day. Yesterday was a fairly typical day for me. I was on battery 15 hrs and 15 minutes. According to the battery info I had the screen on for 1 hour 52 minutes of that. I didn't really do any battery management. WiFi was on all day whether or not I was using it. At the end of that, I still had 65% of my battery available. That is just amazing to me. I was mostly using email (4 accounts - 1 IMAP, 3 POP), twitter & the web.

**phositadc** · 09-18-2012, 09:29 AM

Originally Posted by pdarrah

phositadc & WAldenIV - I'll keep watching and see if there is a pattern or if it was a 1 day problem. Yesterday, I was in 3G a couple times and it was fine. The 3G indicator was blue and I had a strong signal.

I'm still thrilled with the battery on this phone. Keep in mind I'm coming from a DroidX which I could easily run down to nothing in a day. Yesterday was a fairly typical day for me. I was on battery 15 hrs and 15 minutes. According to the battery info I had the screen on for 1 hour 52 minutes of that. I didn't really do any battery management. WiFi was on all day whether or not I was using it. At the end of that, I still had 65% of my battery available. That is just amazing to me. I was mostly using email (4 accounts - 1 IMAP, 3 POP), twitter & the web.

So you still have access to your droid x? If so can you put them side by side and compare the signal strength of the M to the droid x? See my thread on signal strength for more detail!

**pdarrah** · 09-18-2012, 09:53 AM

Originally Posted by phositadc

So you still have access to your droid x? If so can you put them side by side and compare the signal strength of the M to the droid x? See my thread on signal strength for more detail!

I passed the DroidX to my 13yo son. I'll check them side-by-side when we get home tonight and post on your thread. My husband has a Verizon iPhone, so we can check it also. He is constantly complaining about signal strength since his company moved from AT&T to Verizon a couple months ago which makes no sense as everyone else I know is complaining about AT&T's signal around here (Chicago area).

**phositadc** · 09-18-2012, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by pdarrah

I passed the DroidX to my 13yo son. I'll check them side-by-side when we get home tonight and post on your thread. My husband has a Verizon iPhone, so we can check it also. He is constantly complaining about signal strength since his company moved from AT&T to Verizon a couple months ago which makes no sense as everyone else I know is complaining about AT&T's signal around here (Chicago area).

Thanks that would be wonderful if you could check signal strength with all 3 of them. I'm not sure how to see the actual dBm reading on an iPhone though.

**pdarrah** · 09-19-2012, 09:10 AM

Battery update for yesterday

I was on battery 15 hrs and 20 minutes. According to the battery info I had the screen on for 3 hour 20 minutes of that. I didn't really do any battery management. WiFi was on all day whether or not I was using it. At the end of that, I still had 58% of my battery available. I was mostly using email (4 accounts - 1 IMAP, 3 POP), twitter & the web. I also downloaded & setup K-9 mail to see if it will handle my IMAP email better than the default email app. Looks good so far, but not sure it is handling the POP accounts well - doesn't seem to be syncing them. Looking around settings to see if I have something messed up....

**mikeladue** · 09-19-2012, 07:27 PM

I really like the size of the M vs the big RAZR. Battery life isn't going to be as good, but the smaller form factor fits my hands better and is more comfortable.

I've been using mine pretty heavy between yesterday and today and its about ready for a charge. It's at 27%.

So far, great phone.

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