New 4G Motorola Razrs for Telstra in Q4

Motorola and Telstra will join forces to launch two new 4G handsets in the last quarter of the year: the Razr HD and the smaller Razr M.

In an effort to meet the needs of two distinct segments of smartphone shoppers, Motorola will release two Razr handsets with differing physical dimensions. The Razr HD sports a 4.7-inch 1280x720-pixel resolution display in a frame that is nearly identical in size to last year's Razr. The Razr M is smaller, about the same size as the iPhone 4S, but with an impressive 4.3-inch screen for its size. To achieve this screen-to-handset ratio in both models, Motorola's engineers have worked to get the screen as close to the edge of the handset as possible, leaving very little bezel around the sides.

Despite aesthetic differences, both phones will operate on the telco's 1800MHz 4G network, which Telstra recently committed to reaching 66 per cent of the Australian population with 4G technology, with a planned expansion of over 1000 new long-term evolution (LTE) base stations.

This isn't all that the phones have in common. Both the Razr HD and Razr M run on the same dual-core 1.5GHz Texas Instruments processor, and have 1GB of RAM. Both have 8-megapixel cameras and run on Android Ice Cream Sandwich, with a planned update to Jelly Bean due before the end of the year.

Also worth noting is that Motorola has space for big batteries in its latest handsets. The Razr HD has a 2530mAh capacity battery under the hood, while the smaller M has a 2000mAh unit. In comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S III has a 2100mAh battery and the HTC One X has 1800mAh capacity. Motorola estimates that the Razr HD should be good for 16 hours of continuous talk time, or about 10 hours of streaming video.

The launch of the new Razrs is key for Motorola, having been acquired by Android-maker Google earlier this year. At a launch event in New York overnight, new Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside told press that the company is placing three big technical bets in these releases, focusing on speed, power management and the Android user experience.

Pricing and a firm release date are yet to be set, but Telstra has established a registration page for customers looking for more details.

Joe Hanlon travelled to New York as a guest of Motorola.