Only had it for about half the day now and most of that has been just setting it up, playing with it, and downloading stuff, a lot of heavy usage. I will see how I like it when I'm at work tomorrow and will be able to give, maybe, a better review later in the week. This is very much a first impression but... Please forgive me if I ramble... And, boy, do I ever! Sorry guys! Hope this is at least... Maybe... Helpful?
Aesthetics & Hardware
GORGEOUS! I have absolutely nothing to complain about with the way it looks, except maybe that the power button is so small and right where the volume buttons used to be on my old Droid X. I'm only slightly concerned that I will accidentally turn my phone off while trying to change the volume, though. I have definitely already accidentally changed the volume while trying to shut off the screen. I'll get used to it.
I love that the touch screen takes up the whole front of the phone and, I didn't think I would, but I also like the weaved kevlar on the back. It adds a dash of pizzazz to it.
No camera button. SCORE. Also, the trade off of physical buttons for capacitive ones is a very nice change between this and my old phone.
Amazingly thin. The little hump at the top is as thick as the thin part of my old phone. Impressive! And I don't get the impression that it's going to snap in half. It's very well built.
And this thing is light. Like... almost eerily light given its composition (basically, not crap). I expected it to be a heavier phone and with the security tag that weighs it down at the store, it was very surprising to hold it by itself and see just how very, very light it is. And... I honestly don't know if I like that. I liked that my DX was a bit on the heavy side. I always knew where it was on my person (pants pocket, coat pocket, etc.) and it made me feel like I wasn't going to destroy it by looking at it, and that it wasn't made from bad material. Given that I know this phone is as well made as it is makes this a little mind-bendy to me.
Screen
I am well impressed. It takes turning the brightness all the way up, I think, to truly appreciate it, but it's still very pretty. Nevertheless, I suppose I am just a little disappointed. My first experience with a super AMOLED screen was with the Samsung Captivate for AT&T, and the execution of contrast and the color scheme of the UI was just amazing. This screen is still wonderful, but I guess it didn't quite meet my expectations. As it's been said before, the green tint of the screen is slightly noticeable, but it's not a turn off for me.
Phone, including Bluetooth & speakerphone usage
I'm not really into Bluetooth. I only use about 50 minutes of my allotted 450 minutes every month. I don't need to use Bluetooth.
I haven't used the speakerphone yet. I've actually only taken one call and it lasted only about 30 seconds, but from what I could tell, it was super, super crisp and clear-- even while connected to someone using US Cellular-- and I had a moment of thinking, "Wow, that's nice! It's like she's standing right next to me!"
Overall User Interface, including Motoblur and widgets
Honestly? It's the worst part about the phone. The Blur is driving me INSANE. Why can't I just visit my gallery and not have to be connected to all this extra crap that I'm completely not interested in? The first time I popped in, I thought, "Wait, is there a second gallery app I need to go to or what?" There are several things that are different that I found myself immediately disliking, even simple things, like the way the browser icon looks. What was wrong with the old one? I was also absolutely blown away by how much bloatware there is. It made me want to root it immediately just to get rid of it all but... Yeah, I'm not gonna do that yet. >_>
There are plenty of things I do like about it though. It's not all bad. I like the lock screen. The time is nice and big, and I'm not as annoyed by the locks as I thought I might be. Instantly accessing my camera is a plus. I like the cube transitions between the home screens and that you can hide those pesky bloatware apps. I like that you can switch to landscape on the homescreens as well. I like the 'Favorite Contacts' widget, which shows 4 of your faves, and when you swipe down on it, it expands to show all your faves. I especially like the homescreen editor and the fun little animations they added to it. I do not like that when you're adding an app to the homescreen, it doesn't let you choose immediately where it goes, just puts it in the next available spot in the row. I do like the app drawer pages. And the calendar widget, which may save me from having to download a separate agenda app, even though I might do it anyway just for stylistic reasons.
I don't know. The UI is kind of hit and miss for me.
Signal Quality
I honestly haven't been paying attention. My phone has been 4 places today. The Verizon store, my front porch, living room and bedroom. I looked just now and I have 5 bars, so no complaints. But then, Verizon rocks in my city.
The only thing I do have to say (and please excuse me for being a squealing fangirl all of a sudden) is OMG ISN'T 4G AWESOME?! First time using it and I am just blown away by how fast this phone is with the 4G. I haven't compared it to how fast it is when it's on 3G only, but... I just cannot get enough of how unbelievably fast it is. Rock. On.
GPS
Idk. Haven't used it yet. I have high expectations though. I'm hoping it's miles apart from my DX, which would find the address of where I wanted to go quickly, but I would be about halfway there (guessing as I was driving) before it would kick in with directions, maps, etc. And even then it would be incorrect. I did play with the Traffic widget just a little to see what it did and how long it would take me to drive to work. It seems pretty accurate.
Social Networking
All I've gotten around to doing is downloading FB and Twitter so far. I'm pleased that the Social Status widget is still there. It's pretty much the only blur app that I like. But I'm not much of a social networking person anyway. I like my Gtalk. S'bout it.
Email/Calendar
More of the same. And that is not a complaint.
Battery Life
Okay, I said that the UI was the worst part about the phone. I take it back. The battery is the worst part about the phone. I've had it 8 hours and have had to charge it twice. The battery life is way shorter than my DX and it's got a pretty quick charge with its tiny (adorable) charger, which isn't a good thing in my mind.
But, y'know, I was playing with it all day and I had it going full blast. It took me forever to figure out how to turn off 4G (I'm a genius, me -_-; ). But I did a little reading in the forums here and have since modified my Smart Actions and the nice little Task Manager that came with it. So... I'll reserve my opinions on it. Even if my battery life continues to suck, it's probably not going to be a deal breaker. I like way too many things about this phone to get rid of it, and I know I'll probably root it eventually and set some real CPU governors and battery settings to make this baby last forever.
Performance
Uh, I think I've probably touched on this quite a bit already, albeit in bits and pieces. It's FAST, and it's Android. Nuff sed.
One tiny, little nitpick about the performance. The first hour or so I had it, it kept turning on the Wi-Fi without my permission. And frankly, it annoyed me a lot. But then it stopped. So... Whatever.
Media
Haven't gone there yet.
Keyboards
I used to love Swype. Until I Swyping while half asleep and got sick and tired of the typos that I was making. I switched to the regular keyboard and have never looked back. I still think Swype is awesome and if you like using it, more power to you. I'm not gonna bother with it now.
As for the regular multi-touch keyboard, again, more of the same. Which... Includes a slight complaint, I guess. I had when you go to edit a word and the place-marker arrow extends into the selection field and sometimes you just can't get to the word that you want to select. Never fails. I think that's more of a OS problem though.
Camera
I am super excited to have a front facing camera, even though I know I'll probably have very limited use of it. Still. It's awesome.
I really like the UI of the camera. Still pretty ticked off about the gallery, but... I'll get over it... Once I feel it's safe enough to root and remove... I'll get over it.
As I mentioned before I love that there's no external camera button. I have no reason for this, I'm just glad. I also liked that they didn't feel the need to add a 'Camcorder' icon for the app drawer. A little superfluous if you ask me.
The camera takes pictures very, very quickly and that is awesome. It auto focuses, which is great. Honestly, no complaints. I'm actually thrilled with the camera. I think I'll probably use it a lot more than I did on my DX.
Haven't used the camcorder yet so...
How the RAZR compares to your previous smartphone
The Droid X was my first smartphone ever. And I was absolutely 100% convinced that it was the very best Android smart phone EVER, despite the fact that I knew there was better hardware out there, better this, better than. I could not be convinced that my phone could be beat. Until today. What I hold in my hands now may not be perfect, but it's miles ahead of what I had before and with each new stone that I overturn, I find one more thing to love about it. The only thing that I think my DX has on my RAZR is readily available roots that I can perform from my Linux computer, sbfs, and ROMs. And it wont be long before it doesn't even have that either.
Update on 12/27
I've had it for nearly a week now and I really have to say that my love for this phone has only grown. Things I would like to add to my initial review:
I've gotten used to how lightweight it is and it doesn't bother me as much anymore. I'm still a little concerned about dropping it because it's so light, but I'm being super careful with it right now until I get a case for it.
The call quality is just superb. I have been very satisfied with every single call I've taken, both with signal and voice quality; probably the best I've ever had.
As for the UI, I downloaded Go Launcher Ex and have used it and its subsequent apps to completely customize the way that it looks. And it makes the UI so much more tolerable. I hardly notice the Blur anymore, since GLE has so many great apps itself to replace it, so my thoughts on that have been turned around. I almost don't feel the urge to root my phone anymore, as a matter of fact (though it would be nice to have some tethering and AdFree).
I was a bit concerned when Verizon was having problems with their data connections last week, but since the latest update, I haven't had any more problems. I've also learned how to switch between 3G and 4G finally, and that has helped with things, especially battery life...
Which I'll address now. I was completely wrong about this aspect. The battery life sucked initially, because I wasn't using all the tools made available to me. Smart Actions is your BEST FRIEND with this phone. It allows you to set up rules, which allow actions to be triggered on your phone. Vague description is vague, I know, but for example: for the Battery Extender rule, when the display is off, my phone is not charging, and is not moving (all triggers), then the GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Background sync all turn off (actions). For my Low Battery Saver rule, when the batter level is less than 35% and not charging (triggers), the brightness drops down to 0%, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Background sync turn off, and my display timeout drops down to 15 seconds (actions). Also, there is a Task Manager that comes on this phone which allows you to keep or kill all the apps on your phone (including the ones that run the phone in general, not just ones you've downloaded), and for everything you add to the auto-end list, it will kill them after the display has been turned off for 2 minutes. These two apps, plus a few other things I selected to help my battery life, have made my phone battery one of the longest lasting (3G and beyond) phone batteries I have ever had. So, I take back what I said before. Great battery life.
Overall, I love this phone. It's the best phone I've ever had. And I've had a lot of phones.