Samsung Galaxy Note vs Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx: Stiff Competition Ahead

AT&T confirmed Monday the availability of the most-anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note from Feb. 19 for $299.99 with a two-year contract. With a huge 5.3-inch display, the Galaxy Note is considered to be neither a phone nor a tablet but a happy combination of both.

With the smartphones market seeing huge flood of devices, the competition among the manufacturers are getting stringent daily. The smartphone/tablet hybrid is expected to face competition from Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx, which was made available through Verizon Wireless last week.

In a statement, AT&T said that Samsung Galaxy Note would be available for preorders beginning Feb. 5 for delivery by Feb. 17. Galaxy Note, which has 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED display, is bigger than any smartphones but smaller than a 7-inch tablet.

Galaxy Note combines the best features of a smartphone with the larger viewing screen of a tablet and advanced technology in the S Pen - delivering an all-in-one device that allows users to work more efficiently and maintain productivity while communicating in a unique, personal way, AT&T has said.

Galaxy Note, which comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS with promise of Google Inc.'s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, will be featuring dual-core 1.5GHz Scorpion CPU Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon chipset, Adreno 220 GPU, an 8 megapixel LED flash rear-facing camera, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat and has 16/32 GB internal storage. The AT&T model will come with Near Field Communication technology (NFC), which the European model lacks.

Meanwhile, Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx sports a 4.3-inch 960 x 540 pixels Super AMOLED Advanced capacitive touch-screen with 256 ppi pixel density. It has a dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 processor with a Texas Instruments' OMAP 4430 Chipset and PowerVR SGX540 GPU.

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

The best feature of the Motorola phone, however, 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.

Here is a comparison between Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx and Samsung Galaxy Note:

Display: Galaxy Note will sport a 5.3-inch high-definition Super AMOLED display that will give a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and about 285 ppi pixel density. On the other hand, Droid RAZR Maxx has 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: The display of the Motorola phone is made with KEVLAR fiber and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla glass while Galaxy Note will come with Corning Gorilla glass protection.

Size: Droid RAZR Maxx comes with 130.7 x 68.9 x 8.99 mm dimension and weighs 145 grams while Galaxy Note is expected to come with 146.85 x 82.95 x 9.65 mm dimension and weigh 178 grams.

Processor: Droid RAZR Maxx packs a 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core processor, TI OMAP 4430 chipset, PowerVR SGX540 GPU with 1GB RAM. Meanwhile, Galaxy Note will sport a dual-core 1.5GHz Scorpion CPU Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon Adreno 220 GPU with 1GB RAM.

Camera: Both smartphones sport rear-facing 8 megapixel LED flash camera with 1080p HD video capture capabilities. The Droid RAZR Maxx has a secondary 1.3 megapixel camera for video chats, while Galaxy Note will come with 2 megapixels.

Camera Features: Droid RAZR Maxx has touch-focus, geo-tagging, face-detection, image stabilization, automatic focus and editing tools while Galaxy Note will come with geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, and image stabilization.

3G/4G: Droid RAZR Maxx comes with Rev. A up to 3.1 Mbps, HSUPA and supports 4G LTE. In comparison and Galaxy Note will come with HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps and support 4G LTE.

Operating System: Both 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.

User Interface: RAZR Maxx uses Motorola's custom user interface while Galaxy Note will use Samsung's TouchWiz 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. Meanwhile, Galaxy Note will support Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot along with Bluetooth 3.0 version with A2DP, EDR, microUSB (MHL) 2.0 version, and USB On-the-go.

Storage: Droid RAZR Maxx boasts 16GB of internal storage, which is expandable via microSD card up to 32GB. Galaxy Note, when compared, will come with 16/32 GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 32GB microSD card.

Battery: Galaxy Note will come with a standard Li-ion 2500 mAh battery. Meanwhile, Droid RAZR Maxx has 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 Wireless contract. Galaxy Note, when compared, would be available from Feb. 19 for $299.99 with a two-year AT&T contract.

Additional Features: Galaxy Note will have accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer sensors, assisted GPS, GLONASS, Adobe Flash, Java MIDP emulator, S Pen stylus, 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, image/video editor, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, and Picasa integration.

Droid RAZR Maxx, when compared, 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.

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