Razr vs GNex mini review

rushmore · Dec 16, 2011

Tested the Gnex today:

Build:

Razr wins, no contest.

Ergonomics:

Gnex wins.... curvy always does. Still a tad awkward like the Razr, but the rounded design makes a tad better too.

Display:

Gnex wins, but both have similar traits and look good, but the extra resolution nulls the grain. Touch response great on both, but Razr seems better, but I am used to it. Did not do the emulator tests. Added: Could not, since no card slot to put my card into.

Speed:

Tie. Both are very zippy with content.

Sound:

Tunes sound great on both through 3.5mm, but Razr speaker is better IMO.

Camera:

Subjective, but prefer the Razr

Call quality:

Razr wins, no contest.

Radio reception:

Razr wins, no contest. Though I could only test around the store vicinity, the dBm level averaged a 14 point difference and the wifi is weaker.

Razr ranged 68 to 74 and the Gnex 79 to 90. There was always a double digit delta, with the biggest being 20 points.

The Gnex had the weakest signal also of all Moto devices on demo, the Revolution, Rezound and the Charge.

Seems the Gnex might not be a device for people that venture into the boonies.

Summary:

Strong point was the display, none the less. Seems best of both worlds of the Razr and Rezound displays. Still, the Razr display is very good and the call quality and reception is FAR better than the Gnex.

Razr wins, IMO. Gnex radios seem too wimpy. This could be an issue for some users, once the new device pixie dust washes from their minds.

Did not bring up storage, since seems a no brainer that the Razr wins. Added: No mention of ICS either, since Razr is getting it too.

shadrap · Dec 16, 2011

Rushmore, I am with you on it. I got a feeling Sean will chime in with the same thing if he picked it up.

ICS is the Gnex, end of story. ICS is great, I mean really great.

But everything Rushmore said is the truth. Especially the signal part. I have been sitting here all evening running speed test vs my wife's 4s. She pulls more than double the speed.

rushmore · Dec 17, 2011

I was a tad stunned that the reception was so poor on the Gnex. It is about 9 dBm points weaker even than the Charge that has the same radios. The signal delta is real.

For folks claiming great signal on the Gnex, they must be in close proximity to a tower cluster, or (respectfully) hubris is speaking for them.

Another observation after more use is the build is CHEAP. The most common issue stores are having is people popping the battery cover off while pulling the Gnex out of the display mount, due to the security tether (happened to me too with one of the units I first tested that was tethered). Tape seems to be the fix for some.

Razr and Rezound owners, though there will always be new phones a few months away it seems- The Gnex should NOT be one that you dwell on. What you have NOW is BETTER.

Added:

BTW, the reason I did not do the emulator tests is no sd card slot to put my micro sd into.

Raftysworld · Dec 17, 2011

rushmore said:
For folks claiming great signal on the Gnex, they must be in close proximity to a tower cluster, or (respectfully) hubris is speaking for them.

Or they're getting great signal strength? I returned my RAZR because the screen just pales in comparison to the Nexus, and because the camera on the RAZR may be the worst camera i've ever seen in a smart phone. But I made sure to run signal strength comparisons first. In the verizon store, the two devices (store units) were within 2 dB, and in all the places I frequent (including out in the boonies) the Nexus does no worse than the RAZR, and a little bit better than my old Incredible, which would frequently drop to 1x.

Don't assume that just because your experiences are a certain way that everyone else's will be too.

JBH · Dec 17, 2011

Own both, and my experience is that gnex always has a a double digit deficit with regard to signal strength (dBm) compared to razr. At least based on what gnex is reporting.

Bottom line is after the "pixie dust" wears off I have to have a phone that functions as a "phone" and would be unhappy with a phone that is losing service in strong signal areas no matter the OS. So far that hasn't happened with gnex yet. But, I've only had it since Thursday and have not been back to work. I work and live in dense signal territory. No boonies here.

The real test for gnex will be when I return to work. Will it lose signal in parts of the building where razr hangs tight?

ICS is the star of the show. As long as gnex continues to function, no matter what the signal strength says, I will be pleased with it if I had to choose. ICS is nice. Not that 2.3 doesn't get the job done. Just a shame it takes so long for V and OEMs to get a new OS out.

rushmore · Dec 17, 2011

Raftysworld said:
Or they're getting great signal strength? I returned my RAZR because the screen just pales in comparison to the Nexus, and because the camera on the RAZR may be the worst camera i've ever seen in a smart phone. But I made sure to run signal strength comparisons first. In the verizon store, the two devices (store units) were within 2 dB, and in all the places I frequent (including out in the boonies) the Nexus does no worse than the RAZR, and a little bit better than my old Incredible, which would frequently drop to 1x.

Don't assume that just because your experiences are a certain way that everyone else's will be too.

Fair point!

I ASS.U.ME nothing

Two units tested, a sales person and plenty of comparison reports posted. Unless a sample anomaly on a broad scale, the Gnex needs some mW love for better reception. Assuming the antenna array is not the issue (since Charge has same radios).

If you are having great signal, cool. My little review is not a litmus by any stretch of the imagination.

Added: The battery life seems an issue too, but the extended battery helps. That big screen seems a culprit and perhaps the struggle for reception (if true).

Raftysworld · Dec 17, 2011

Yeah I'll admit the RAZR had better battery life for me

Hoping the Nexus battery life improves but realistically, it probably won't.

you2 · Dec 17, 2011

Phonescoop (a site i trust) panned the lte version of the galaxy nexus:
Samsung Galaxy Nexus (LTE) Specs, Features (Phone Scoop)

rankman · Dec 17, 2011

Anyone know if the nexus used low power ddr2 ram like the razr or is it mobile ram? I haven't seen it on any spec sheet.

wysilverado · Dec 18, 2011

Had IP4,4S,Rezound,Razr and Nexus. Back to 4S,as soon as the Razr Maxx is out I'll be back.I love ICS on the Nexus and most everything about the Razr except battery life .Nexus Battery life is really bad,and thats being kind!

Gravytrain · Dec 18, 2011

wysilverado said:
Had IP4,4S,Rezound,Razr and Nexus. Back to 4S,as soon as the Razr Maxx is out I'll be back.I love ICS on the Nexus and most everything about the Razr except battery life .Nexus Battery life is really bad,and thats being kind!

Good LORD, and I thought I've been through some phones!

wysilverado · Dec 18, 2011

Gravytrain said:
Good LORD, and I thought I've been through some phones!

And Before those....... Droid X, Droid 2,Droid Inc, Samsung Fascinate..... IP4 for 9 months,by far the longest followed By Current 4S then Droid X..... Gadget Addiction !

wysilverado · Dec 18, 2011

wysilverado said:
Had IP4,4S,Rezound,Razr and Nexus. Back to 4S,as soon as the Razr Maxx is out I'll be back.I love ICS on the Nexus and most everything about the Razr except battery life .Nexus Battery life is really bad,and thats being kind!

Ment signal is really bad,battery is not good but livable .....

rushmore · Dec 18, 2011

Looks like Phonescoop picked up on the radio and battery issues. Radio reception appears to be an overlooked subject in a lot of reviews. They will test in a stronger signal area and use the signal bars as the measure. Need to test in weaker areas as well and use the dBm signal rather than bars.

shadrap · Dec 18, 2011

Yeah, it's good Phone Scoop picked up on it, but how did so many miss it? Even when I was in a good area with the GNex it rarely saw full bars.

rushmore · Dec 18, 2011

Magic pixie dust!

pm1066 · Dec 18, 2011

If you look over in the Gnex forums, there are a lot of people seeing this, but not seeming to have too many problems with it. Some are for sure, but many report no bars or worse than -90 dbsm, yet still having good call and data connectivity. So, maybe it just isn't showing up much in practical usage.

Or, they are all AT&T rejects who are used to truly crappy service, so this is still a step up!

rankman · Dec 18, 2011

I've been playing with a gnex at work and I don't get why it performs so low on benchmarks like vellamo, quadrant, and antutu. The javascript portion is the only thing I find it beats everything at which is expected but does ics lower the performance any with all these features or are these apps not ics friendly? I am still curious if it uses mobile or ddr2 ram?

rushmore · Dec 18, 2011

The Gnex reception makes me appreciate my D3 and Razr. My tests were in a good signal area and got 12 to 20 points weaker dBm. Fellow geek buds are hitting 1X and 3G in places where they were getting 3g and 4g. Indoors and outer fringe areas are an issue, but no issue when in good to great areas for reception.

Seems the battery life may be linked to this, but if they up the power level for better reception (if possible), it will probably offset the improvement of better reception.

Maybe all of this was part of the root cause for the delay and vagueness from VZW in the first place, but VZW felt pressure to release anyway.

you2 · Dec 18, 2011

I think it is (and should be) rather boolean; it works well or does not work (well).
-
Most people (by %) live in a good coverage area; so it might take a few days for people to realize there is an issue. It is also relative; if you are more likely to notice it if you trade in a phone with good reception for one with bad recpetion (lots of people thought they would outsmart the system by renting razr or rezound (both have decent reception) and trade them in.
-
I've noticed that a lot of reviewers are in or near major cities - only a few of them actually mention that they try to test for poor signal - most just try to test it in good coverage area to see if it works well (not if it has good signal acquisition). A few sites that I think will pick up on the issue:
mobilburn; pocketnow; (maybe but probably not) phonedog; droid-life (maybe).
I really like mobiltech review but they do not excel in signal acquisition in their testing.

shadrap said:
Yeah, it's good Phone Scoop picked up on it, but how did so many miss it? Even when I was in a good area with the GNex it rarely saw full bars.

pm1066 · Dec 18, 2011

rankman said:
I've been playing with a gnex at work and I don't get why it performs so low on benchmarks like vellamo, quadrant, and antutu. The javascript portion is the only thing I find it beats everything at which is expected but does ics lower the performance any with all these features or are these apps not ics friendly? I am still curious if it uses mobile or ddr2 ram?

The better question is does the phone seem to be slow? Many of these benchmarks seem to be aimed at froyo devices and may not be up to date.

ridaz650 · Dec 18, 2011

I have both devices & the Razr seems more snappier to me when doing day to day tasks. The Nexus seems to lag every now & then. Razr >> Signal & battery life. Hopefully the Nex will get an update to help the signal issue.

mansart · Dec 19, 2011

I have to say I'm pretty disappointed with my Verizon Gnex. I waited a long time to replace my OG Droid and was expecting a real improvement. Didn't get it. I love the form factor and screen of the Gnex and the fact that it has the latest version of Android without any overlays, but other than that...It has poor build quality, it's extremely buggy, I don't receive half my calls (and it doesn't even let me know that I've missed a call), there doesn't seem to be a desktop dock available for it, etc.

I'm very tempted to return it and get a Razr. I only have two reservations about the Razr. 1) I don't like Moto-blur (the original Droid was pure Android). This wouldn't be a problem if there were custom ROMs for it, but so far no Cyanogenmod. 2) I don't like the fact that you can't get at the battery. I always keep a spare battery with me when I'm in the field and swap out when necessary. I can't imagine not being able to do that.

Oh what to do, what to do?

pm1066 · Dec 19, 2011

Blur, or what passes for it on the Razr, aint no thing. It really is light years ahead of the crap they had back even in the Froyo days.

As for battery, I accepted carrying an external battery pack in exchange for the removable (hotswappable) SD card access.

mansart · Dec 19, 2011

Thanks for the input, pm1066. Maybe I need to head to my Verizon store and play with the Razr a little more. Btw, have you had any "real-world" issues with the Razr? I really wanted to love this Gnex and it looked great in the store, but after a few days of real-world use it just isn't living up to its $300 price tag.

I loved my OG Droid (until it started really slowing down in the past few months) and the Gnex is reminding me just how much Moto got right with that phone.

Razr vs GNex mini review

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