Motorola RAZR hands-on: First look

Hardware and accessories

Holding the Motorola RAZR for the first time you immediately notice how thin and light it is. Motorola has put the new RAZR on an extreme diet and the results are fascinating. The RAZR boasts a waistline of just 7.1mm which, in fact makes it one of the slimmest smartphones in the world. Of course, there's a bit of a bulge around the camera lens, but this won't be where you would normally be holding the phone so we are willing to let this one slide.

Motorola RAZR held in hand

The RAZR build quality is quite impressive, too. Motorola R&D obviously wasn't kept on a short leash with this one and nor were they afraid to use materials that might bring the production price of the smartphone up. That's why you'll find quite a lot of nice surprises here.

The Motorola RAZR sized up against the HTC 7 Mozart and the HTC Desire Z

For example, the back of the Motorola RAZR is made of Kevlar, which is five times stronger than steel. The backbone of the phone is made out of stainless steel for extra rigidity. But most impressive of all is the special material Motorola have dressed the internals of the RAZR with to avoid it being killed by splashes of water.

The RAZR doesn't disappoint in the display department as well. With its 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED Advanced display, the device stacks up pretty well against the Samsung Galaxy S II, not to mention how it crushes both the HTC Desire Z and HTC 7 Mozart.

The RAZR Super AMOLED Advanced screen is quite impressive

Motorola has launched a bunch of new accessories for the RAZR as well, just like they did for the Atrix. One of them is the Multimedia dock, which has multiple USB ports and an HDMI out port to connect with your TV Set. It is wired to the phone itself, but wireless control of the whole thing is possible through Motorola's Smart Controller.

The Motorola RAZR multimedia dock

The Smart Controller, which resembles a remote control, uses Bluetooth and controls your phone via a trackpad and the four standard Android buttons. The trackpad supports multitouch and when you operate it a typical black mouse cursor appears on the screen to guide you.

The Smart Controller

Another cool feature of the remote is its ability to be used as a wireless phone receiver. Flip it and you can take a call via the integrated speaker and microphone. The Smart Controller has an HID Bluetooth profile, which means that if properly configured, you can use it with virtually any Bluetooth device.

The multimedia dock in action

Two new lapdocks were also introduced. The Lapdock 100 and 500 will transform the RAZR into a full-fledged notebook utilizing its hardware to the max. Looks like Moto want to continue the trend they set with the ATRIX.

Now we'd be taking a short tour around the Motorola RAZR UI. Join us after the break.