Droid Razr teardown reveals impressive guts

iFix has voided yet another warranty in order to show us exactly what makes the new Droid Razr tick. To open the phone, they begin to saw the unit apart with adozuki, but quickly realized a spudger and plastic opening tool were also reasonably effective.

Motorola has been making a come back after being set aside for years by other companies that have had a seemingly endless stream of hipper smart phones. About two years ago though, the company introduced the Droid, which turned out to be a very successful smartphone series. Back in action, the company is betting its super-identifiable Razr namesake and styling will bring back the same "wow" factor as it did in 2004. Be sure to check out our hands on review, if you have not already.

The Droid Razr packs a lot of technology into a "razr" thin form factor, so what we find inside the phone is an impressive amount of thoughtful engineering. The unit is packed tight with no room to spare, filled with EMI shielded chips, an ultra-thin 1750mAh battery, tiny ribbon cables and a lot of adhesive.

The website rates the Droid Razr a 4 out of 10 on its repairability score, a rating low enough to probably scare away all but the most confident do-it-yourselfers.

iFixit lists the inordinate number of chips found inside the unit:

• Toshiba THGBM4G7D2GBAIE 16GB EMMC Flash Memory
• Samsung K3PE7E700M-XGC1 4Gb LPDDR2 RAM
• Qualcomm MDM6600 Dual-Mode Baseband/RF Transceiver
• Qualcomm PM8028 Power Management IC
• Avago ACPM-7868 Quad-Band Power Amplifier
• Motorola T6VP0XBG-0001 (believed to be the LCM 2.0 LTE baseband processor)
• Texas Instruments WL1285C Wilink 7 Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/GPS
• Skyworks 77449 Power Amplifier Module for LTE/EUTRAN Bands XIII/XIV
• Toshiba Y9A0A111308LA Memory Stack
• ST Ericsson CPCAP 6556002
• Hynix H90H1GH51JMP
• Infineon 5726 SLU A1 H1118 3A126586
• Bosch 2133 C3H L1ABG accelerometer

iFixit also notes some unusual design elements. The digitizer (the glass on the front) is permenantly adhered to the AMOLED LCD display, which makes breaking the digitizer an expensive accident. Also, there are a tremendous amount of chips on the system board facing the display which makes it eerily devoid of all visible circuitry on the bottom. This was done to keep the Razr slim, no doubt.

Images courtesy of iFixit. You can view the full teardown here.

Verizon doubles 4G LTE data cap ahead of Droid Razr launch

Verizon has launched promotion that will substantially boost the bandwidth cap imposed on its 4G customers. Starting today (November 8 for the calendar-impaired), the carrier is doubling its allowable consumption of wireless traffic without charging extra. Subscribers who pay $30 for 2GB of bandwidth will receive 4GB per month, $50 will get you 10GB instead of 5GB and folks that cough up $80 will be afforded 20GB instead of 10GB.

There doesn't seem to be any catches, though existing 4G customers will have to specifically request the increase whereas new customers will receive the higher limits outright. It's unlikely that this promotion will last forever. In other words, you'll only have a limited opportunity to request the higher caps. However, once applied, the change will last for the lifetime of your account according to a Verizon representative speaking withRootzWiki.

It's by no coincidence that Verizon's latest 4G marketing efforts kick off only three days before it's expected to launch the hotly-anticipated Motorola Droid Razr. Based on early reviews and hands-on impressions, the handset is poised to be among the finest to date. It boasts a 7.1mm, 4.48oz body crafted from stainless steel and Kevlar, a 4.3-inch display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass, a 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP4 processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, an 8MP camera, as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, microSD, USB and HDMI connectivity.

The Droid Razr officially launches this Friday, November 11, but it's been available for preorder since late last month. Pricing is set at $299 with a two-year contract. Shortly after the Razr's arrival, Verzion will add the HTC Rezound and Samsung Galaxy Nexus to its 4G LTE offerings. The lineup currently includes the Motorola Droid Bionic, Samsung Stratosphere and Droid Charge, LG Revolution, Pantech Breakout, and HTC Thunderbolt. Oursmartphone guide was recently updated if you're looking for a more conclusive rundown of today's most popular handsets.

Motorola Droid RAZR hands-on impressions

While we work on the full written review of the Motorola DROID RAZR, I thought I'd at least share some of my gut feelings and impressions of the device, now that I've been using it for a short while.

To start with, Motorola really hit it out of the park with the hardware. The 7.1mm thick body is super tough thanks to its Kevlar back cover, Gorilla Glass up front, and a steel internal frame. You might lament the lack of a user replaceable battery, but you'll love the qHD resolution Super AMOLED display, speedy dual-core 1.2GHz processor, and fine 1080p-capable 8 megapixel camera. You simply can't argue with the results.

The software is surprisingly good, too. The Motorola user interface is mostly unobtrusive and workable, and the new Smart Actions system on the phone can really make the DROID RAZR seem self-aware at times.

I pretty much love everything about the phone. Pretty much. I'm certainly thankful for the high data rates offered by Verizon's LTE network, but the DROID RAZR is every bit a battery hog because of its LTE support. Even with a 1780mAh battery, this device struggles to get through a full day under relatively light duty. With some tweaks of the battery settings, of which there are many, and some clever Smart Actions, you might be able to extend its life. But out of the box, the Motorola DROID RAZR still wants for juice, and it runs excessively hot while it sucks down those milliwatt-hours.

In the end, if LTE is what you are after, there simply is no other device on the market that can package it up as slickly at the Motorola DROID RAZR.

The Motorola DROID RAZR will go on sale on November 11, 2011 ("11-11-11") for $299.99 with a two-year contract. For a limited time, Verizon is offering double the normal amount of data on its monthly data plans for 4G LTE smartphones. As such, a $30 monthly data plan will net a DROID RAZR user 4GB of data monthly.