[Comparison] Droid RAZR vs. Galaxy S2

Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S2 back in January 2011 and since then, every other phone that has launched or announced till date, ahs failed to impress me in the way S2 did. But that devil deal with the S2 seems broken now — even though Galaxy Nexus is still in wraps. The device to catch, grab and then steal my interest like the S2 did is Droid RAZR by Motorola, which packs in 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display at qHD resolution, 1.2 GHz processor, 4G LTE, 32GB storage space, 1GB RAM and 1780 mAh battery, all in a body that’s just 7.1mm thin. AWESOME!

Only some days I was discussing with some friends of mine when the world will see a device that’s even thinner than the current slimmest smart gadget, the iPod Touch, at 7.2mm. At first we thought the S2 was too much of a challenge to better at 8.5mm, but when we knew that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7 was just 7.89mm and in fact, Toshiba’s Excite was even slimmer than that – 7.7mm. So, the gap between iPod Touch’s 7.2mm and Excite android tablet was just 0.5mm — which caused us to believe that maybe Samsung’s Galaxy S3 in mid-2012 will undercut iPod Touch’s display bringing the thickness to less than 7mm.

Yes, Samsung can do that, we’re quite sure but here we are, surprised by Motorola’s Droid RAZR which unleashed a new war on thickness, or rather thinness, managing every modern high-end spec (which are currently the best to be found on any phone) in 7.1mm thin body — and guess what, it’s still 2011!

Droid RAZR is a big deal of a phone in terms of specs. But S2 is still a beast and would remain so even after Galaxy nexus gets unveiled some 6 hrs from now. And comparison between Droid RAZR and Galaxy S2 is a the most worth thing we can do for now. So, here you go:

Droid RAZR vs. Galaxy S2

Display

S2’s got world’s best display — we’ve said it countless times. But, add ‘till now’ to that verse now. S2 boasts Super AMOLED Plus display, an advanced version of Super AMOLED display found on last year’s smash hit Galaxy S. Droid RAZR’s Super AMOLED Advanced display is the third version of Super AMOLED display and until we see it we can’t say whether its better than the S2’s Super AMOLED Plus. We know that Droid RAZR got qHD resolution (that is, 540 x 960 pixels) as against Galaxy S2’s 480 x 800 pixels resolution, so we think Droid RAZR beats S2 when it comes to display and anyway, ‘Advanced’ seems more advanced to me than ‘Plus’ variant of Super AMOLED display. Btw, this competition isn’t really between Plus and Advanced variants, but it will be between Advanced and HD variant of Super AMOLED display, because Google and Samsung are about to unleash Galaxy Nexus with Super AMOLED HD display. Anyway, between S2 and Droid RAZR, we think the latter will win when it comes to display. Oh yes, both are sized 4.3 inches.

Processor

Galaxy S2’s 1.2 GHz dual-core Exynos processor has already proved it’s world’s best but it would get very strong competition from the Droid RAZR’s 1.2 GHz dual-core chips, of which details aren’t available in many. We think it’s the OMAP processor by TI and would hold good like the Samsung’s own Exynos processor. But only time will tell which one is better. On videos we’ve seen, Droid RAZR looks very very fast, like the S2, at least.

Android OS Version

Galaxy S2 is already running Android 2.3.5 and Droid RAZR will be running the same on launch. The catch is, Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus will run on Android 4.0, so both S2 and Droid RAZR has something to play catch-up with here, quite seriously and quickly.

Form Factor

Well, even tough I’ve no complains whatsoever from S2’s design, back cover buttons layout and everything, after using it since June, I think Droid RAZR beats it. The Droid RAZR’s back got Kevlar coating around the edges and in between lies the fabric material, much cooler than plastic — and without making it prone to normal fall-down. Not only back, but Droid RAZR’s front and overall body design is pretty cool, and refreshing too.

Camera

Both devices feature an 8MP camera with single LED flash and capable of 1080p video recording. As for the front camera, S2’s got the best thus far grabbing 2MP images and videos from the front but Motorola’s press release says Droid RAZR has got an HD front facing camera while being silent on the MP count.

Thickness

Droid RAZR wins — it’s just 7.1mm, as against our dear S2’s 8.5mm. I am still in awe of that — and really thought only S3 will best that, even though I heard a lot that Droid RAZR is supposed to be very slim and which is why the RAZR brand. I thought, at best it would be 9mm but how wrong I was.

Data Speeds

Droid RAZR’s 4G LTE compatibility is laudable but S2’s not behind — the Sprint version of S2, the Epic Touch 4G has 4G speeds. Though, the international S2 has to make do with 21mbps HSPA+ speeds, which in itself aren’t bad at all, and are in fact much higher than what iPhone 4S gets you, at 14.4mbps. Yes, Droid RAZR wins!

Other Features

Well, Droid RAZR got more powerful 1780 mAh battery than S2’s 1650 mAh and got more storage space, at 32Gb, than 16GB. RAM is equal at 1GB in both devices.

So that’s it. If you preferred a comparison chart or sth, we’ll get you that another time — after all, Galaxy Nexus is on the horizon now, and we’ll be back with comparison stuff pretty soon.

Posted by
Kapil Malani

A die-hard Liverpool FC fan, Kapil is a big fan of Batman, Android and street Cricket. In that order, probably. Email: [email protected]

5 Comments

  1. “we think” the DROID beats it?  Wth is the point of a comparison when you haven’t even gotten your hands on the one phone.  Save it.

    1. See, I’m a big fan of Galaxy S2 but really, Droid RAZR and Galaxy Nexus are two phone which can better S2, I mean even the S2, easily.

      Anyway, a point just occurred to me after I had written the post. It’s regarding software update — Android 2.3 update was best done by Samsung. Not only the company was the first one to update its Galaxy S phone before Motorola even updated its Atrix or Droid X or any other phone. And it was done pretty right too. Plus, Samsung has used hardware acceleration pretty nicely on S2 and if Moto is unable to do that on RAZR, S2 might still be faster than RAZR. But, Moto is almost now a Google’s company and given the competition with iPhone 4S, Google and Moto would leave no stone unturned with RAZR — which bests S2 be design and form factor, anyway.

      So, I believe RAZR will best S2 if Moto is able to do the integration right, which they should be able to thanks to Google. Also, Motorola has used 1.2 GHz dual-core OMAP4460 processor — the same used in Galaxy Nexus — which is the flagship processor for Android 4.0, which means OMAP will have a slight advantage over Exynos chip used in S2.

      We’ll see how it goes and I respect your view that giving a verdict even before the phone is out is non-sense. But just I felt S2 will best other devices (including Sensation 4G when it releases), I felt Droid RAZR will do the same to S2, although the margin won’t be that much as was between S2 and all android phones for massive 4-5 months — and that’s very big deal.

      I think I will update the post too with all that I said above.

      1. I want to buy ”
        Motorola DROID RAZR XT912, but am waiting to see what they’ll make changes in it hardwarely and softwarely in future, if they’ll do that it will sure be the best beast in android mobile market.

  2. Lol, the Razr has 16 GB, not 32, and the Sg2 has a 32 GB version as well.

  3. in my personal opinion,  the galaxy nexus is nowhere near the S2. nor is RAZR. they have grandpa GPUs. S2 should get ICS before the RAZR. December/January if i am correct. The Mali 400 is the best android GPU at the moment. but, could be beaten by powervr SGX544 in the future, i think its an enhanced version of the SGX543. but, the successor of the Mali 400 could offer some competition.

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