The Motorola RAZRi is a neat, stylish though not tremendously exciting little phone, with a decent screen, a good battery and the advantage of being able to resist a direct hit from a snowball...
When it was first announced, the Motorola RAZRi received not a little derision from the tech press for its assertion of being the first "edge-to-edge" phone. And in a certain pedantic sense, that was all well and good. For not only is every screen by definition edge-to-edge, even if the edge in question is its own edge, the RAZRi's screen wasn't even that, er, edgy.
Yes, it has a 4.3-inch bezel-less AMOLED display with bright colours and deep blacks, but with a 540 x 960 pixels resolution it's not overly impressive technically. Compared to the iPhone 5, Google Nexus or any other top handset it's actually a bit ropey - reading isn't easy, and - shock horror - you can even see the pixels if you look hard enough.
That aside, the phone is a solid, mid-range device with above-average industrial design.
It's about the same size as the iPhone 5 - with a bit of extra weight around the edges - and it's made with a Kevlar casing that makes it feel strong and expensive in the hand. It's not a minimalist device - it has an odd 'diamante' patterned back and the six screws around the phone's edge are ugly - but the tapered shape is pleasing. The effect is of a decently made, high-quality phone but one that might age a bit quickly as the years go on.
Specs wise the RAZRi has a good-enough 8-megapixel camera on the back, a basic VGA sensor on the front, 1GB RAM, a 2GHz single-core Intel processor and Android Jelly Bean OS. It charges via Micro USB, has an easily accessed Micro SD card slot for expandable memory and a good 2000 mAh battery that promises 20 hours of standby time.
The RAZRi is also splash resistant, which was handy because we tested it during both the recent UK snowstorm and a prolonged snowball fight in the Alps. Make no mistake - it's not waterproof - but it dealt well with a few direct hits, and made it through a week of skiing unscathed. The recently released White model is also quite natty for the winter weather, though hard to find in a snowdrift. (Believe us.)
The RAZRi isn't able to match the top premium handsets in features or screen quality, but at a mid-range price designed to match the HTC One X and iPhone 4S, it's a tempting entry point into the Android eco-system.
So no, it isn't that edgy. But it's well made and can handle a snowball.