Can Samsung's Galaxy Note Beat the Droid Razr Maxx?

Two of the biggest most expensive smartphones in the world face off in the battle of the Samsung Galaxy Note and Motorola Droid Razr Maxx. Both devices are unique full featured Android-powered devices costing $300 on contract. Both should get the Android 4.0 update in the next two months, although there is no timetable set as to when exactly that may happen. Software updates are up to the device manufacturers, but also the carriers who sell them. That's AT&T for the Galaxy Note and Verizon for the Droid Razr Maxx. However, there is a rumor the Galaxy Note will only be exclusive to AT&T for about six weeks. Since it goes on sale Feb. 19 that would put a non-AT&T Galaxy Note on sale in April sometime.

If you don't want to wait or are already with Verizon, there is the Droid Razr Maxx, a 4-3-inch screen monster with a huge battery Motorola says will last 20 hours of talk time. It has a 3,000 mAh battery compared to the Galazy Note's 2,500 mAh. That's significant because as big as the Droid Razr Maxx is, the Galaxy Note is even bigger. It features a whopping 5.3-inch Super AMOLED screen with superior resolution. Even with a bit smaller of a battery and AT&T's 4G LTE support, the Galaxy Note does as well as any mobile device with today's battery technology. The Note also has a companion stylus you can use to scribble with, a handy add-on you may find yourself ditching a tablet computer for. That's likely another reason why the Note is so large, just to further blur the line between phone and tablet (phablet?).

Samsung Galaxy Note comes with a super thin design, 1.4 GHz dual-core processor, 16 gigabytes of storage, microSD card reader and Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). Droid Razr Maxx has a qHD display with 960x540p resolution, 16 gigabytes of storage, 4G LTE capability, mini-HDMI port and expandable memory up to 32 GB (16 GB card pre-installed). We recommend the Droid Razr Maxx because battery life is just too important for mobile these days. Both devices are hard to beat, though, so give them both a hands-on demo before you decide. Tell us in the comments if you think tablets and smartphones should be kept separate or if you like them to be combined (more or less).