Droid Razr Maxx vs. iPhone 4S: Can Motorola's Beefed-Up Razr Trump Apple's Beast

The Motorola Droid Razr Maxx, which is almost similar in specifications to the Droid Razr, was released at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and boasts, as the highlight of its specs sheet, a much-improved battery back-up capability.

The smartphone is designed for customers who spend days and nights multi-tasking and is something of a marathon runner, with enough endurance to allow the user to talk for 21 hours on a single charge.

The 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 Apple's iPhone 4S.

The iPhone 4S, which was unveiled on Oct. 4, has a voice-enabled personal assistant called Siri, a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, an Apple A5 chipset and an 8 megapixel camera. It also has a 3.5-inch TFT Retina multi-touch display and is loaded with the latest Apple operating system iOS 5 and iCloud.

Let's see how the Droid Razr Maxx fares against the iPhone 4S:

Display: The Razr Maxx has a 4.3-inch qHD 960 x 540 Super AMOLED Advanced display with Dupont KEVLAR fiber, a scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass and water-repellent nanoparticles. On the other hand, the iPhone 4S has a 3.5-inch LED-backlit IPS TFT Retina multi-touch display with a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels at 326 ppi density. The iPhone 4S has fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating on front and back.

Size: The Razr Maxx is 8.99 mm thick and therefore a tad heavier than its predecessor - the Droid Razr - which was 7.1 mm thick. The Droid Razr Maxx has a dimension of 130.70 x 68.90 mm and weighs 145 grams. The iPhone 4S measures 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm and weighs 140 grams.

Operating System: The Droid Razr Maxx runs on the Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, with an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich around the corner. Apple's iPhone 4S runs on the newest operating system - the iOS 5 - that comes with 200 new features including an improved Notifications System, Newsstand and iMessage.

Processor: The Droid Razr Maxx sports a dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 chipset, PowerVR SGX540 GPU with 1GB RAM. The iPhone 4S, which comes with an A5 chipset, is powered by a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU.

Camera: Both smartphones sport a rear-facing 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture capability. The Razr Maxx has a 1.3 megapixel camera in the front, while the iPhone 4S has a VGA camera for video calling.

Connectivity: The Droid Razr Maxx is touted as 4G LTE device, running on Verizon's network. The iPhone 4S has HSDPA 14.4 Mbps and HSUPA 5.8 Mbps.

WLAN/Bluetooth/USB: The Droid Razr Maxx has 3.5mm jack+ EMU and supports USB 2.0 HS, Corporate Sync, DLNA, FOTA, Stereo Bluetooth Class 2, Version 4.0 LE+EDR. iPhone 4S has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, advanced Bluetooth 4.0 version with A2DP and USB 2.0 version.

Storage: The Droid Razr Maxx has 16GB of internal storage, which can be expanded to 32GB via a 16GB microSD card included in the package. The smartphone can support a microSD card of a maximum of 32GB. On the other hand, the iPhone 4S has fixed 16/32/64 GB internal storage configurations.

Battery: The Droid Razr Maxx has a whopping 3,300 mAh battery that is expected to give up to 21.5 hours of talk time and 380 hours standby time. The Apple smartphone has a Li-Po 1420 mAh battery, with 8 hours of talk time on 3G networks, up to 14 hours on 2G networks (GSM) and a standby time of 200 hours.

Pricing: The Razr Maxx is expected to be available at Verizon for $299.99 on a two-year contract. The iPhone 4S is available on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint networks at $199.99, $299.99 and $399.99 for the 16GB, the 32GB and the 64GB, respectively.