Difference Between

HTC Velocity 4G vs Motorola Razr | Speed, Performance and Features Reviewed | Full Specs Compared
 

The Pareto’s principle says that 80% of people only use 20% of the products they invest in. In relation to the field we are talking, this is a valid statement. When we are to invest in a smartphone, we look at a variety of factors ranging from the processor to the optics and the display panel to the network connectivity. We don’t really give much of a thought into what percentage would we be using it after the purchase. Sometimes you get bored with the feature set, sometimes you don’t really need a certain feature, and sometimes you don’t even know such a feature exists. At the end, the majority end up using only 20% of the features in a smartphone. So we may well keep this in our minds and pose the question, do we really have the need for a specific feature? In any case, the two handsets we are going to talk about today will have plenty of excess features you can identify with respect to your usage. But that’s not what we are going to do; we’ll make an objective comparison of the feature sets, and then you can identify what’s suitable for you.

HTC Velocity 4G is a smartphone with 4G connectivity whereas Motorola Razr features HSDPA connectivity. They are super-fast, and ideally considered as high end smartphones. The HTC Velocity 4G will be the first 4G smartphone appearing in the Australian market launched by Telstra while Motorola Razr is available with Optus. With the introduction of the 4G smartphones, Australian market is bound to be on a boom towards 4G smartphones, so we wouldn’t be surprised if we are to see many other 4G handsets are announced in the near future. We will stay tuned for updates and till then, let us compare these two handsets.

HTC Velocity 4G

This is the time we face right on with handsets having dual core processors and super-fast LTE connectivity, high end optics and an operating system like Android, iOS or Windows Mobile. That’s how we perceive a modern smartphone and HTC Velocity 4G matches exactly to that definition. It is powered by 1.5GHz Scorpion dual core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 220 GPU and 1GB of RAM. That’s the top notch configuration you can find in a smartphone right now, until a quad core processor surfaces (We had a rumor at the CES about Fujitsu announcing a quad core smartphone). The Android OS v2.3.7 Gingerbread might not be the ideal version to take control of this beast, but we are positive that HTC will provide and upgrade to v4.0 IceCreamSandwich soon enough. We also like the HTC Sense UI, because it has a clean layout and easy navigations. As the name suggests, Velocity 4G has the LTE connectivity and records consistent rate of high speeds. The powerful processor enables it to seamlessly multi task with all the opportunities the LTE connectivity provides.

HTC Velocity 4G has 4.5 inches S-LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels at 245ppi pixel density. The display panel is good, but we would have preferred more resolution from a high end smartphone like this. It is somewhat thick scoring 11.3mm and on the hefty side of the spectrum scoring a weight of 163.8g. The smooth edged Black smartphone looks expensive, but you might have trouble in holding it for extended amounts of time due to its weight. HTC has included 8MP camera with autofocus, dual LED flash and geo tagging that can capture 1080p HD videos at 60 frames per second, which is awesome. It also has a 1.3MP front camera for video conferencing bundled together with Bluetooth v3.0. Although Velocity defines its connectivity through LTE, it also has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, which can also act as a hotspot, to share your super-fast internet connection. It also has DLNA for wireless streaming of rich media content to a smart TV. It comes in 16GB internal storage with the option to expand using a microSD card. It would have 1620mAh battery that has juice for 7 hours 40 minutes of constant usage.

Motorola Razr

Do you think you have seen thin phones? I beg to differ, for we are going to talk about one of the thinnest smartphones. Motorola Razr features a thickness of 7.1mm, which is unbeatable. It measures to 130.7 x 68.9 mm and has a 4.3inches Super AMOLED Capacitive Touchscreen featuring a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels. It has comparatively high pixel density and it sure scores good compared to other smartphones in the market. Motorola Razr boasts a heavy build; ‘Built to take a Beating’ is how they put it. Razr is shielded with KEVLAR strong back plate, to suppress onslaught scratches and scrapes. The screen is made up of Corning Gorilla glass that defends the screen and a water-repellent force field of nanoparticles are used to shield the phone against water attacks. Feeling impressed? Well I sure am, for this is military standard safety for a smartphone.

It doesn’t matter how much it’s reinforced outside, if it’s not reconciled inside. But Motorola has delicately undertaken that responsibility and come up with a set of high-end hardware to match the outside. It has a 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 processor with a PowerVR SGX540 GPU on top of TI OMAP 4430 chipset. The 1GB RAM boosts its performance and enables the smoothness of operation. Android Gingerbread v2.3.5 takes the full throttle of the hardware offered by the smartphone and binds the user to an awesome user experience. Razr has an 8MP camera with autofocus and LED flash, touch focus, face detection and image stabilization. Geo-tagging is also enabled with assisted GPS functionality available in the phone. The camera can record 1080p HD videos @ 30 frames per second, which is great. It also accommodates smooth video calling with the 1.3MP camera and Bluetooth v4.0 with LE+EDR.

Motorola Razr enjoys the fast network speeds of HSPA+ up to 14.4Mbps. It also facilitates the Wi-Fi connectivity with the built in Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n module and has the ability to act as a hotspot. Razor has an active noise cancellation with dedicated mic and a digital compass. It also has a HDMI port, which is a very valuable edition as a multimedia device. It does not boast of completely redesigned sound system, but Razr does not fail to exceed expectations in that too. Motorola has promised an amazing talk time of 10 hours with a 1780mAh battery for Razr, and that certainly exceeds expectations in any case for a large phone like this.

Conclusion

We started the comparison by mentioning that we’ll be comparing the feature sets of the two handsets, and then you can identify what you’d be using and what you won’t really need. Before you balance the probabilities, let us draw your attention to our final remarks on both handsets. At a glance, HTC Velocity 4G may seem to have better processing power and thus smooth and seamless operation. But in our experience, on the perspective of usability, we rather doubt that you would feel any major difference to cloud your judgment although if you run the benchmark tests, you will find a difference. Other than that, they have almost the same features except Velocity offers the 4G connectivity. This can be a game changer, but being the first 4G smartphone means the infrastructure is yet to be perfected, and the availability of 4G connectivity might vary, in which case, Velocity 4G will also gracefully degrade to feature HSDPA connectivity. We prefer the display panel and resolution of Motorola Razr because it has higher pixel density although the user won’t notice a difference. Also, Motorola claims Razr to be one of the thinnest smartphones, and it’s surprisingly light compared to Velocity 4G. This would make it the ideal candidate if you’re to hold it in your hand for extended amounts of time. We are rather impressed with the heavy built of Razr, as well. It also promises a talk time of 10 hours while HTC Velocity 4G only does 7 hours and 40 minutes. So in the light of the discussion, Editor’s choice would be Motorola Razr, but then, that’s just a guideline. Let’s hope other 4G smartphones would land in Australian market so that they will have more choice in selecting one.