17:00
Tom
At CES 2012, Verizon announced a new smartphone called the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX, a device that will be paired up with the original Droid RAZR on shelves sometime in the near future. We didn?t give it our Best Smartphone of CES 2012 award, we gave that to the Motorola Droid 4, but that doesn?t mean that the Droid RAZR MAXX isn?t a solid offering.
In fact, it?s one that those of you in the market for a new phone will want to keep your eyes on.
Unfortunately, we still don?t officially know when it?s going to be coming out so you might be starring for a few more days. But to hold you over, we wanted to touch on everything we know about Verizon?s upcoming Droid and fill you in on the latest as far as the release date is concerned.
But first, let?s touch on what we do know.
Hardware
Hardware-wise, the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX is going to be the exact same phone as the original Droid RAZR save for two things. The first, its design is going to be slightly thicker and will measure 8.9mm at its thinnest point. The original Droid RAZR is slimmer and sits at 7.1mm thick.
There is a reason for this though.
The Droid RAZR MAXX will house a massive 3,300mAh battery that Moto and Verizon promise will allow for 21 hours of continuous talk time. It should also help mitigate a lot of the battery drain that Verizon?s 4G LTE network love to dish out.
Other than that, you have the same device.
That means you still have the stainless steel core, the Kevlar back, and the splash guard screen.
It?ll also come with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display with advanced qHD resolution, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor,�1800mah battery, mobile hotspot support, 1GB of RAM, a rear camera capable of shooting 1080p video.
Software
Unfortunately, the Droid RAZR MAXX will also be sharing the operating system of its predecessor which means that it will be coming with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and not the glorious Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Google?s latest and greatest.
Motorola has told us that it will be getting the upgrade to Android 4.0, but it did not relate any sort of specific release date only to say that it would be in the weeks ahead.
Translation: Months ahead.
If you?re unfamiliar with Android 4.0 and its benefits, be sure to check out our extensive guide to ICS.
Pricing
Motorola and Verizon did however announce the pricing on the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX. It?s going to cost the usual $299 premium which will require a new two-year contract. That should come as no surprise considering all top of the line 4G LTE smartphones, save for the LG Spectrum and possibly the Droid 4, have checked in at that price.
The good news is that the original Droid RAZR, at least the 16GB model, will cost $199 on-contract through Verizon.
Release Date
Lastly, we still don?t know when the Droid MAXX RAZR will hit shelves but we have a pretty good idea. We?ve seen January 26th pop up not once, but twice in recent days, so it?s fairly safe to assume that that is the target date that Verizon currently has for its launch.
Nothing is set in stone though but that?s the date you?ll want to keep a close eye on.
Category: Mobile
About the Author (Author Profile)
Adam is a technology blogger based in San Francisco, California who loves his iPhone 3GS and Motorola Droid 2 equally. You can follow him on Twitter or reach him by email at adam@notebooks.com.
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