Droid RAZR MAXX vs Galaxy S2: Will Motorola Phone Dwarf Samsung's Best Bet?

Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX, which was showcased at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas Monday, is considered to be a value-addition to the RAZR family.

Droid RAZR MAXX, which is being released for $300 with a two-year Verizon contract in the near future, is expected to face immense pressure from Samsung Galaxy S2, which is considered to be the best Android smartphone yet.

Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX sports a 4.3-inch 960 x 540 pixels Super AMOLED Advanced capacitive touchscreen with 256 ppi pixel density. It has a dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 processor with a chipset of TI OMAP 4430, PowerVR SGX540 GPU.

The Motorola phone, which will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread juice, sports an 8 megapixel LED flash rear camera with 1080p video capture capabilities and an additional 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting.

Motorola has promised to upgrade Droid RAZR MAXX to Google Inc.'s latest smartphone OS - Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which has been called Google's most ambitious release to date.

The best feature of the Droid RAZR MAXX, according to Verizon, is its revolutionary Li-Ion 3300 mAh that promises to provide a whopping 21 hours of talk time and 368 hours of standby time.

On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy S2 received overwhelming responses from around the world. Galaxy S2, which runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS and sports Samsung's TouchWiz UI, comes in three variants, on AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, whose version is called Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch. All versions of the Galaxy S2 will get 4G treatment, offering data speed up to four times faster than Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4.

Galaxy S2 comes with an 8 megapixel camera with flash and can record HD video in 1080p, offering the richest video content on a smartphone. The phone also has the front-facing 2 megapixel camera for video chat.

Here is a comparison between Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX and Samsung Galaxy S2:

Display: Both the T-Mobile and Sprint versions of Galaxy S2 have 4.52-inch display screen whereas AT&T version retains 4.3-inch screen of original Galaxy S2 version sold worldwide. Galaxy S2 Epic Touch 4G comes with 4.52-inch (about 206 ppi pixel density) 800 x 480 pixels Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen display. On the other hand, Droid RAZR MAXX will sport a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced capacitive touch-screen with qHD resolution of 960 x 540 pixels and about 256 pixels per inch (ppi) density.

Display Protection: All the variants of Galaxy S2 have Corning Gorilla Glass display protection. On the other hand, the display of the Motorola phone is made with KEVLAR fiber and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla glass.

Size: Droid RAZR MAXX comes with 130.7 x 68.9 x 8.99 mm dimension and weighs 145 grams. On the other hand, Samsung Epic 4G Touch on Sprint comes with a 129.5 x 68.6 x 9.6 mm dimension and weighs 129 grams while the T-Mobile version has 131 x 70 x 9 mm dimension and weighs 135 grams. As the AT&T version retains 4.3-inch display, it features 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm dimension and weighs 116 grams.

Processor: The RAZR MAXX packs a 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core processor, TI OMAP 4430 chipset, PowerVR SGX540 GPU with 1GB RAM. On the other hand, the Sprint and AT&T variant of the Galaxy S2 is powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 Mali-400MP GPU Orion chipset while the T-Mobile variant is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm APQ8060 processor.

Camera: The smartphones from Motorola and the variants of Samsung Galaxy S2 sport a rear-facing 8 megapixel LED flash camera with 1080p HD video capture capability. All the variants of Galaxy S2 have a secondary 2 megapixel camera for video chat while RAZR MAXX has 1.3 megapixel.

Camera Features: RAZR MAXX has touch-focus, geo-tagging, face-detection, image stabilization, automatic focus, and editing tools. On the other hand, the variants of Galaxy S2 has geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, TV-out only via adaptor, and Picasa image uploading.

3G/4G: RAZR MAXX comes with Rev. A up to 3.1 Mbps, HSUPA and supports 4G LTE. On the other hand, the T-Mobile Galaxy S2 version has HSDPA 42 Mbps support while the AT&T version has HSDPA 21 Mbps support, and both the variants have HSUPA 5.76 Mbps. And Epic 4G Touch has Rev. A up to 3.1 Mbps.

Operating System: Both the smartphones have the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system with the promise of an upgrade to Google Inc.'s latest smartphone OS, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Android Head of Engineering Mike Claren announced the new OS - Ice Cream Sandwich - as Google's most ambitious release to date.

User Interface: RAZR MAXX uses Motorola's custom user interface. On the other hand, the variants of Galaxy S2 uses Samsung's TouchWiz 4.0 version user interface.

WLAN/Bluetooth/USB: RAZR MAXX has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 version with LE and EDR, and microUSB 2.0 versions. On the other hand, all the variants of Galaxy S2 have Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, WiMax, Optional NFC, Bluetooth 3.0 version with A2DP and HS, microUSB 2.0 version (MHL), and USB-On-the-go.

Storage: The Motorola phone has a fixed 16GB of internal storage, which is expandable via microSD card up to 32GB. On the other hand, the T-Mobile and AT&T variant of Galaxy S2 boasts of 16/32 GB internal storage and via a microSD card slot it can expand up to 32 GB. But Sprint's Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch comes with 16GB internal storage with expandable microSD card storage.

Battery: Samsung Epic Touch 4G has Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery support, which will offer more than 10 hours of talk time while AT&T versions retain Li-Ion 1650 mAh battery found in original Galaxy S2. The T-Mobile variant of Galaxy S2 has Li-Ion 1850 mAh battery support. On the other hand, Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX comes with a standard Li-ion 3300 mAh battery that gives up to 21.5 hours of talk time and up to 380 hours of standby.

Pricing: Droid RAZR MAXX is priced at $299.99 with a two-year Verizon contract but the release date is unknown. On the other hand, Galaxy S2 is priced at $199.99 with a two-year Sprint contract while the T-Mobile variant is priced at $229.99. The AT&T version of Galaxy S2 is priced at $149.99 with a two-year contract.

Additional Features: All the variants of Galaxy S2 has accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass sensors, Assisted GPS, Adobe Flash, active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, TV-out (via MHL A/V link), SNS integration, MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player, MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, and Picasa integration.

On the other hand, Droid RAZR MAXX has accelerometer, proximity, compass sensors, HTML, Adobe Flash, assisted GPS, GLONASS, active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, Splash resistant, HDMI port, SNS integration, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration, MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA player, and MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player.