Motorola Unleashes Droid Razr: Razor Sharp But Can it Take on iPhone 4S?

Motorola took the wraps off the new Droid Razr on Tuesday, announcing that it will be available for pre-order October 27 and will hit Verizon Wireless stores early in November. As Motorola's iconic brand, the Droid Razr is claimed to be the thinnest smartphone to date and among the lightest ever made.

We wanted to create a true object of desire, incredibly thin, that delivers features without compromise, Motorola Mobility Chairman and CEO Sanjay Jha said at a press conference on Tuesday. Not only is it a marvel of modern engineering, it is beautiful.

The iPhone 4S was sold-out in pre-orders and quickly sold out in stores across the world. So far, Apple has sold over 4 million units of iPhone 4S since hitting the stores worldwide on Oct. 14 - a feat which Motorola may find difficult to beat.

So can the new Droid Razr take on the popular iPhone 4S? Jha spent time comparing the new Droid Razr to the new iPhone 4S.

The Droid Razr will use the Android 2.3.5 software, nicknamed Gingerbread, although there had been rumors that it would run on Google's Android 4.0 version aka Ice Cream Sandwich from 2012.

On the other hand, Apple's iPhone 4S runs on the well-known iOS 5. The iOS 5's important features include the notification bar, cloud synchronization, wireless syncing, Twitter integration and Widgets. After comparing the iOS 5 and the newest Android version the conclusion is that the key features of iOS 5 can also be found in Android except the hot new personal assistant program, Siri and iMessage that is copied from RIM's BlackBerry.

Motorola calls the Droid Razr an impossibly thin smartphone. It is 7.1 mm (0.28 in) thick. In comparison, the iPhone 4S, at its thinnest point, is 9.3mm wide.

Droid Razr is lighter than iPhone 4S too - it weighs 127 grams (4.48 ounces) compared to the 140 gram iPhone 4S. The Droid Razr is built on a stainless steel core with a gorilla glass screen resistant to scratches and a splash-guard protector that lies on the inside of the smartphone. Jha also claims the phone will be wrapped in woven Kevlar fabric (the same material used for bullet-proof vests).

The Android 2.3 phone will launch in November and will be supported by Verizon Wireless exclusively. Droid Razr carries a price tag of $299 with a two-year contract. Pretty expensive, considering that the iPhone 4S 16GB model sells for $199. In fact, the higher price may be the only thing that could hold back the Droid Razr from becoming an iPhone killer.

However, considering the 32GB version of the iPhone 4S, which sells for $299, the two devices are comparable in price since the Droid Razr comes with 16GB of internal memory in addition to a pre-installed 16GB microSD memory card.

Both the two smartphones have Dual-core processor and 8-MP rear-facing cameras with 1080p video recording capability. Droid Razr has 1.2GHz processor, which is slightly faster than iPhone's 1GHz processor. Droid Razr is also better in memory storage capacity too with 1GB of RAM compared to 512MB in iPhone 4S.

Perhaps the most important advantage of the Droid Razr over iPhone 4S is the thinner device's ability of packing in faster 4G LTE network technology. It is said that 4G is the next generation of wireless. The Droid Razr supports the 4G technology of Version that has more than half the United states covered with its new network. It can be predicted that the new feature will soon become table stakes for any new device. On the other hand, even the 4G-enabled version of the iPhone 4S for AT&T is not truly 4G but just supports a version of HSPA+. To get true 4G LTE, iPhone fans will have to wait until at least the next release of the device.