Motorola RAZR i

Introduction
Motorola has just launched an intriguing new mid- to high-end mobile phone the Motorola RAZR i. It packs in a superfast Intel processor and has a edge to edge screen that means you can get a large 4.3in screen in a phone little bigger than an iPhone 4S. We got hands on at the launch to see how it holds up.



Motorola RAZR i Design
Motorola has tried a few odd design features in recent years and the RAZR i carries on that tradition. The woven kevlar back looks great but the plastic section surrounding the camera doesn't look or feel as premium, and the Torx head bolts holding it together give it a strange 'tough' vibe. Add in the slightly thick aluminium sides that sit proud of the screen and the way the Motorola has covered the earpiece with its logo, but then only cut out holes for the TOR, making them appear darker, makes the RAZR i feel a little clunky.



That said, it's still a pretty smart handset, and it feels nice and sturdy with kevlar back and aluminium sides. It's also treated with a waterproof coating to protect from rain and spillages. It isn't fully waterproof though, so don't go dunking.

Best of all, though, it feels great in the hand. The kevlar has a soft touch feel while the aluminium sides are nicely rounded. In combination with dimensions that mean it fits snugly in your average sized hand.



All the buttons are also conveniently positioned. The power button sits on the right edge where it's easy to reach without shifting your grip and below it is the volume rocker. You also get a dedicated camera button that both takes snaps and launches the camera app, even from a locked phone. It has a nice light touch too, so it's not too easy to make your shots wobbly when pressing it.



Down the other side is the connectivity, with microSD and microSIM slots covered by a flap and a microUSB charging port left uncovered. Up top is the headphone jack.

All told there's a great combination of features here with good ergonomics and build quality on offer. Only the slightly iffy design and lack of removable battery concern us.

Motorola RAZR i Screen
One of the headline features of this phone is its so called edge-to-edge screen. Motorola has managed to pack a 4.3in display into a chassis little bigger than the 4.0in Motoluxe. the display runs right to the edge of the glass under which it sits, but it's a bit of a cheat to say edge-to-edge as the phone's aluminium sides at a good 3mm or so to either side. This is made doubly obvious by the fact the sides actually stick out slightly above the surface of the screen - great for keeping the screen protected when placed on a flat surface but not so great for emphasising the slimness of the edges of your phone.



Otherwise the screen is quite nice, though not a superphone rival. With a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels, it's not as sharp as the 720 x 1280 HD screen of the Samsung Galaxy S3 or LG Optimus 4X HD, but it's plenty enough to be getting on with. The subpixel arrangement is Pentile but the pixels are small enough that the Pentile peculiarities (coloured fringing round white, slightly grainy look to solid colours) aren't too noticeable.

Perhaps crucially, despite the display running to the edges of the phone, it doesn't feel awkward to use. There's till space for your thumb to rest below the screen and it doesn't randomly sense touches while resting your thumb on the edge either.

Motorola RAZR i Intel Processor
The other headline feature here is the Intel processor. Running at 2GHz it's the fastest phone processor around. We'll be back with benchmarks very shortly but in use it feels lightning fast - yes, quicker than anything else out there.

Graphics performance we don't expect to be quite so phenomenal but there should still be plenty of power for all the latest games, especially at the lower resolution this phone uses.

The one big issue here is app compatibility. Because Intel uses a completely different chip architecture to ARM-based chips, not all existing apps on the Play Store will work on this phone. Intel reckons between 5% and 30% of apps won't be compatible but we'll be sure to test a whole host of our favourites to see for ourselves.

Motorola RAZR i Android Interface
The RAZR i runs Android 4.0 but Motorola is already working on an update to Jelly Bean. Even without that, though, the phone feels fast and easy to use.







Motorola has made a few tweaks such as adding the circle widget. This shows basic information like the time, weather and battery status in a series of circles. These you can then flick round to reveal more information or more options. It's a pretty simple addition but it's one of the nicer widgets we've seen in a while.

We'll be back with more on the interface shortly.

Motorola RAZR i Camera
One of the biggest beneficiaries of the fast processor is the camera which can start it in well under a second, either by tapping the app or holding down the shutter button. Also, there's a multi-shot mode that can fire off 10 shots in less than a second. It's impressive stuff, though we did find the multi-shot to be almost too fast, particularly as there's a slight delay before between pressing the shutter button and it firing off the first shot - it can be difficult to time your shot.





Wrap Up
We'll be back with more thoughts very soon but for now we're reasonably impressed by the Motorola RAZR i. Its headline features - the edge to edge screen and Intel processor - are certainly noteworthy but it's in combination with a good selection of other features that it really comes together. Ergonomics are great, memory can be upgraded and it has NFC. Only 4G is the obvious missing feature.