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Motorola Droid Razr hands-on (photos)

The Razr is back and it's more powerful than ever. CNET goes hands-on with the new Motorola Droid Razr for Verizon Wireless.

Bonnie Cha
Bonnie Cha was a former chief correspondent for CNET Crave, covering every kind of tech toy imaginable (with a special obsession for robots and Star Wars-related stuff). When she's not scoping out stories, you can find her checking out live music or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California.
Bonnie Cha
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Motorola Droid Razr (Verizon Wireless)

After weeks of rumors, the Motorola Droid Razr made its official debut in New York today. The Android Gingerbread smartphone features an ultrathin design, a dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and 4G LTE capabilities, among other things. The smartphone will be available for preorder on October 27 for $299.99 with a two-year contract and will be in stores in November.
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Razor thin

At just 7.1mm thick, the Droid Razr is the world's thinnest 4G LTE smartphone, according to Verizon and Motorola. It is, indeed, quite thin and lightweight at 4.47 ounces, but still on the bigger side in terms of height (5.14 inches) and width (2.71 inches).
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Kevlar fiber

Just because the Droid Razr is thin doesn't mean it's not durable. The smartphone features a Kevlar fiber back and has a water-repellent nanotechnology coating that protects the phone inside and out.
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Top view

On top of the phone, you'll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, a HDMI port, and a Micro-USB port.
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Android Gingerbread

The Droid Razr will run Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and includes remote wipe, PIN lock, and government-grade encryption for enterprise-minded customers.

Powering the smartphone is a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB RAM. In our brief time with the device, we were impressed by the Droid Razr's speed. It felt very responsive as we zipped around the menus and launched apps. Motorola also says battery life will not be compromised by the phone's size. It ships with a 1,780mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 12.5 hours, but of course, we'll have to see if this holds true in our battery drain tests.

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Display

The Droid Razr rocks a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced qHD touch screen, and it's absolutely beautiful. The display is incredibly sharp and shows off bright colors. Photos and videos looked great, and it was easy to read text.
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4G LTE

An exclusive to Verizon, the Droid Razr supports the carrier's 4G LTE network and also offers mobile hot-spot capabilities for up to eight users.
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Smart Actions

Motorola introduced a couple of new apps at today's event, one being Smart Actions. This program allows you to automate certain tasks, as well as customize certain settings to optimize battery life.
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Sample Smart Actions

Here you can see a sample of some of the Smart Actions.
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Motocast

Another new app is MotoCast. The free utility allows you to stream or download music, photos, videos, and more from your PC to your phone.
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Camera

On back, you'll find the Droid Razr's 8-megapixel camera and LED flash. The camera can shoot 1080p HD video, and there's also a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video calls.
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Lapdocks

The Lapdock 500 and the Lapdock 100 are optional Webtop accessories for the Motorola Droid Razr. Together with the Webtop application on the Droid Razr, these accessories turn the phone into a portable PC. When docked, a Linux-based user interface is launched. It provides access to Firefox and a slew of other Webtop apps. The Lapdock 500 has an Ethernet connector that provides power as well as Internet connectivity.
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Lapdock connector

Both the Lapdock 500 and Lapdock 100 have a pull-out dock connector. This means both Lapdocks are compatible with a wider variety of Motorola phones and not just the Droid Razr. So far, they are both compatible with the Photon 4G and the Atrix 2.
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HD Station

The HD Station is an optional Webtop accessory that can be hooked up to a monitor.
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HD Station in action

The Webtop interface is displayed on the monitor, thanks to the Droid Razr docked into the HD Station.

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