Is anyone considering a change to the Razr HD Maxx???

[jneusch]

Since moving from my iPhone 4s to the GS3 in July I am very satisfied, mostly. I love the bigger screen, flexibility of Android, etc, etc. I had to install something on my wife's 4s the other day and the phone really felt small. With that said, the GS3 is not without its challenges:

Radio not as strong as the iPhone. I definitely drop calls where I never did before. I hear that the radios in Motorola phones are second to none.

Bluetooth is really quirky on the GS3. For example S-voice and any voice prompts/dictation use the phone mic rather than the BT mic. BT drops in and out and requires a restart to solve. Audio is also an issue. If connected to the aux port and BT and a call comes in the phone will route the call to the speakers, but the caller cannot hear me. There is no option to route to my BT headset. I have to unplug the aux port. This has been heavily documented. I have read that Motorola does a good job with BT also, which is why I am thinking about a switch.

Finally you have the bigger battery and Kevlar back. I did buy the Qcell 4200 battery, but now my phone is thick and heavy and won't fit into my Defender case. I like having a belt clip holster rather than keeping it in my pocket.

When considering these facts I am taking a look at the Razr Maxx HD. I can't think of too much I would be giving up. If there is, please point it out to me. I do know RAM is 1gb less, no S-voice (no big loss there) and no Touchwiz extras. Again, this is just a consideration where I am looking for feedback and others that may be considering the same thing.

 

[HalizDad]

no.

 

[jlibis]

I wouldn't....s3 will be getting jelly bean soon and Motorola is super slow with updates so they will be stuck on ICS for awhile. With jelly bean comes project butter and the all amazing Google now. I would say do it but I've seen how poorly Motorola has handled their updates. I don't think its worth the headache.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

 

[rvhighway]

No. The grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence, "as they say."

You can make the phone much more satisfying if you get rid of that darn S-Voice and replace it with Google Now pending a JB release. Of course that requires rooting it, but if you do that and nothing else, it will open up some decent functionality for you.

I can't comment on the BT issue. I only use it to hook up to the car and make or get phone calls over the car system. In that case the BT works fine, otherwise I have no futher experience under the conditions you describe.

 

[ncc1701p]

I have to ask a few questions:
What kind of Bluetooth headset are you using...
Dropped calls? I can't recall that last time I had a dropped call.. mustve been a year ago or so, but dead spots to tend to happen here and there. Pertaining to your bluetooth audio problem i have the same issue. I use the Motorola Elite Sliver, more costly than your average bluetooth but I really dig it and it has some very nice features. I somewhat found a workaround for this. It all comes down to the media player you are using. I use a few players and I currently use Meridian which was one of the 1st players to do flac,ogg,etc.. (back to my droid 1 days). I noticed when I got a call while hooked up to my car stereo that the call came into my bluetooth. Took the call, audio automatically paused. Once done it resumed it back on my speaker and life went on.

Personally I chose this device especially on verizon was because it had 2Gb of ram. I figure that would give me some future-proof ahead of me. Of course you can root/re-rom OR use titanium backup to freeze some of the bloatware. I don't use S-voice personally but there was alot to freeze. I sit around 900Megs of free ram on the average.

Here's food for thought: I had my Droid-1 for 2 years & 9 months. The very 1st android phone on Verizon. I noticed that as time went on software kept getting updated (Maps,Gmail,etc..) As these updates happened they got bigger to the point where alot of apps could not feasibly run concurrently on my droid 1. It had 256Megs of Ram (or something close to that, cant remember). So I think having 2Gb should be a new minumum, I wouldn't touch anything w/ less than 1Gb of ram. Think about it.. 1Gb of ram.. well u need to run your OS.. thats 25% chomped already..depending. I just feel safer w/ 2Gb vs 1Gb. And personally I think the multitasking ability on this phone is phenominal. I am driving playing music, using google navigation, FoxFi for guest devices while getting tweets,gmail,etc.. ALL w/o slowdown. Granted battery life is pretty important to some you just have to train yourself and figure out what you want in the background polling for what and how often you want to get this info. I also carry THIS:
iPhone—pƒ‚ƒoƒCƒ‹ƒoƒbƒeƒŠ?[?i4700mAh?j - DE-A01L-4710ƒVƒŠ?[ƒY Sorry its in japanese but you'll get the idea. Its
for extreme battery emergency recharging purposes (portable 4700mAh). Good enough for 2 full charges to my S3. I could buy a new removable battery but I haven't gotten to that point yet.

IMHO.. stick w/ the S3.

 

[sux2bu]

I am, I only bought my S3 to hold me over until the Maxx HD comes out. I replaced my wife's crap iPhone 4 with an S3 and the giant screen made my RAZR look tiny (only had the RAZR for about a month, insurance replaced my Droid with it). I have always had Motorola phones and it's true that the reception is second to none. I haven't had my S3 long enough to really put it through it's strides (just got it two days ago) but I have noticed a few things compared to Motorola. Obviously this is the RAZR and not the Maxx HD but they should be very similar.

The S3 looks very sexy, but it also looks a little too girly for me (maybe it's because I got the white one but that was the cheapest one I found). The RAZR looks sick as hell in black with the machined Motorola label and the Kevlar has that cool carbon fiber look to it. I think of it as the S3 has a metro sexual look and the RAZR has a tactical look.

The S3 is VERY slippery, it has a glossy back that just feels like it's gonna slip out of your hand and head for concrete. The satin sides and Kevlar back of RAZR give it an extremely secure hold in your hand.

Build quality also is much better on the RAZRs, they don't feel so plasticy and fragile. Look up drop tests and the Moto also does a lot better.

The S3 does feel snappier that the RAZR and I have to think that is because of the 1GB vs 2GB of ram. I noticed my RAZR get laggy sometimes and I REALLY didn't like it. Imagine if I was showing off to one of my iPhone friends. The Maxx HD will also only have 1 GB of ram.

Battery on the S3 isn't all that great, luckily it has a removable battery (which I think is a must on my phones). The only reason I am getting the non removable battery Maxx HD is because of the giant battery that is "supposed" to last 32 hours. The regular RAZR is awesome on battery, I know it has a smaller screen than the S3, but I got 18 hours out of it before I got a battery warning as compared to 13 hours out of the S3. That's my normal use with everything on.

Another few down sides to the S3 is no HDMI output and Samsung accessories are crap compared to Moto.

But I'm gonna do a side by side when I get the Maxx HD to see which one I keep.

 

[jneusch]

I have to ask a few questions:
What kind of Bluetooth headset are you using...
Dropped calls? I can't recall that last time I had a dropped call.. mustve been a year ago or so, but dead spots to tend to happen here and there. Pertaining to your bluetooth audio problem i have the same issue. I use the Motorola Elite Sliver, more costly than your average bluetooth but I really dig it and it has some very nice features. I somewhat found a workaround for this. It all comes down to the media player you are using. I use a few players and I currently use Meridian which was one of the 1st players to do flac,ogg,etc.. (back to my droid 1 days). I noticed when I got a call while hooked up to my car stereo that the call came into my bluetooth. Took the call, audio automatically paused. Once done it resumed it back on my speaker and life went on.

Personally I chose this device especially on verizon was because it had 2Gb of ram. I figure that would give me some future-proof ahead of me. Of course you can root/re-rom OR use titanium backup to freeze some of the bloatware. I don't use S-voice personally but there was alot to freeze. I sit around 900Megs of free ram on the average.

Here's food for thought: I had my Droid-1 for 2 years & 9 months. The very 1st android phone on Verizon. I noticed that as time went on software kept getting updated (Maps,Gmail,etc..) As these updates happened they got bigger to the point where alot of apps could not feasibly run concurrently on my droid 1. It had 256Megs of Ram (or something close to that, cant remember). So I think having 2Gb should be a new minumum, I wouldn't touch anything w/ less than 1Gb of ram. Think about it.. 1Gb of ram.. well u need to run your OS.. thats 25% chomped already..depending. I just feel safer w/ 2Gb vs 1Gb. And personally I think the multitasking ability on this phone is phenominal. I am driving playing music, using google navigation, FoxFi for guest devices while getting tweets,gmail,etc.. ALL w/o slowdown. Granted battery life is pretty important to some you just have to train yourself and figure out what you want in the background polling for what and how often you want to get this info. I also carry THIS:
iPhone—pƒ‚ƒoƒCƒ‹ƒoƒbƒeƒŠ?[?i4700mAh?j - DE-A01L-4710ƒVƒŠ?[ƒY Sorry its in japanese but you'll get the idea. Its
for extreme battery emergency recharging purposes (portable 4700mAh). Good enough for 2 full charges to my S3. I could buy a new removable battery but I haven't gotten to that point yet.

IMHO.. stick w/ the S3.

My issue with BT isn't my headset. I have the Plantronics Voyager Pro+. I have used it with my BB and iPhone 4s. Sometimes the GS3 won't let it connect or disconnects. I have to restart BT to get it to work. BT also goes in and out in my car when I connect to media audio in my 2013 Camaro. Unfortunately, I don't spend a lot of time in my Camaro or the other audio problem would have never come up. My work car does not have BT streaming, which is why I discovered the issue with the Aux port.

The dropped calls are in relation to areas where I can talk without issue on my BB and my former 4s, both VZW. I still have the BB for work, which is soon getting the boot as we are going to a bring your own device program at work.

I am concerned about having only 1gb of RAM. I think you are right about multi-tasking. I am on the road for work as a sales rep, and I use my phone for lots of things.

I will be curious to see what complaints show up on the board when the Maxx HD comes out next week. I will NOT pull the trigger right away. I really want to see what the JB update does for the S3, AND how long it will take to hit the Maxx HD.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[leroybrute]

I would have been all over the HD Maxx if the Note 2 wasn't going to be here a couple weeks later. Might do the HD Maxx for the wife or daughter just so I could play with it. My son and I are all over the Note 2 when its released!

 

[chevyman29]

i had tons of issues keeping my razr maxx connected to my pioneer car stero . i was always having to lauch to music app from the phone or something . wouldnt stay connected yada yada . with my s3 i paired it one time i repeat one time in the three months ive had it . it works perfect every time my calls automatically go to my ear piece and everything else through the radio. if im listening to music and leave the vehicle whenever i get back in i just hit play on the radio and it just starts right where it left off . the razr never worked the same two times in a row . dont assume just cause its a moto device it will work right .

 

[eric3316]

I wouldn't....s3 will be getting jelly bean soon and Motorola is super slow with updates so they will be stuck on ICS for awhile. With jelly bean comes project butter and the all amazing Google now. I would say do it but I've seen how poorly Motorola has handled their updates. I don't think its worth the headache.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

Funny, the Razr M already has a JB leak and has been out much less time then the S3. I think going forward Motorola will be handling their updates in a much better fashion.

We have still yet to see anything even close to surface for our Verizon S3.

 

[eric3316]

Battery on the S3 isn't all that great, luckily it has a removable battery (which I think is a must on my phones). The only reason I am getting the non removable battery Maxx HD is because of the giant battery that is "supposed" to last 32 hours. The regular RAZR is awesome on battery, I know it has a smaller screen than the S3, but I got 18 hours out of it before I got a battery warning as compared to 13 hours out of the S3. That's my normal use with everything on.

Another few down sides to the S3 is no HDMI output and Samsung accessories are crap compared to Moto.

But I'm gonna do a side by side when I get the Maxx HD to see which one I keep.

Battery on the S3 is better then any other 4G phone minus the Motorola Maxx's and this is because of the size of the battery and not the efficiency of the device. I can go 16-18 hours with 4 hours of on-screen time using 4G. How can one say the battery is not great?

Also, with an MHL adapter I am pretty sure the S3 supports HDMI out...

 

[mettech]

I had the Droid X with 4 batteries, and my wife got the Razr Maxx two months ago trading in her Droid X.. I was waiting for the Razr Maxx HD, but when the G S III had a price drop to $149, I bought it two weeks ago.

The Razr Maxx is perfect for my wife since she forgets to charge the phone everyday. lol

At this point, (until the reviews of the Razr Maxx HD comes out,) I am pleased with the GSIII. No issue with phone calls droping or battery life. I do want the option to change out batteries because I dry camp and ride my bike for several days out. I do have a solar battery charger, but it takes two days to charge one battery.

 

[Suntan]

I had a Droid 3 prior to the GSIII. Not apples to apples with your situation, but there is some relevance.

The HD Droid will likely have better call reception, and better support for HDMI out. The GSIII will likely be better or on par for most everything else.

With my GSIII I have had a couple of call dropouts in tough areas (middle of a store, middle of a hotel, etc.) that I didn?t seem to have with the Moto. That said, the 3G, 4G and wifi reception seem to perform as good or better than the Moto.

I haven't had any issues with my BT and it seems to be the most robust at handling BT compared to any of my devices (TF101 and Droid 3 being the others.) It pairs and works well with my car ('09 Audi A4) and a couple of stereo headsets. I use call capability as well as media streaming in the car and they work fine. I only use the headsets for media.

The GSIII does do HDMI out, but you need an MHL dongle which adds a lot of extra fussiness. On top of that, the D3 Moto had a nice overscan compensation feature that the GSIII does not have. In addition, the GSIII seems to have some formatting issues with some TVs, rendering an image that is not a true 16:9 picture on some TVs. I never had that problem with the Moto. If the GSIII had the dedicated micro HDMI out and the comprehensive overscan handling that the Moto had, it would be perfect for me.

Anyway, happy shopping. Get the phone you like the best.

-Suntan