The New New Phone
Posted on July 11, 2012 Posted by John Scalzi 32 Comments
Here it is. It’s a RAZR MAXX, which means that I have a phone which is misspelled twice. Nevertheless, since I had the Galaxy Nexus crap out on me, I decided to give this one a shot, primarily because it has a magnificently large battery which means that I might not actually run out of power during the day, which has been a problem with the Nexus (I did like the Nexus overall, but was not impressed with the battery life). The Nexus was under warranty, which means they are shipping a replacement Nexus to my home, but as it happens I really need a phone while I am in San Diego. So I shelled out the cash for this one. Such is the life of a nerd.
It’s like an infinite loop of Scalzi’s. It’s Scalzi all the way down.
I like the Scalzi recursion. recursion. recursion
I’m currently trying out the upcoming 4.1 Jelly Bean ROM on the Galaxy Nexus – it’s buttery smooth (and the Google Now voice commands out-Siri Siri).
I have one of those! I quite like it so far, especially the battery. You’ll also be pleased to hear you can let it fall out of your back pocket while running full speed and have it skid several feet on pavement without loss of function. >.>
I have had a Razr Maxx for a few months now. I think it’s the best phone on the market. I love mine.
I have the standard Razr. Apart from battery issues (which only seem to become a pain in 4G service areas), I love it. Can’t wait for the ICS update…
Dang it John, PAY ATTENTION. YOU are wearing a RED SHIRT! Are you trying to make the fates notice you? I see you need a professional handler. Send me a plane ticket and I will start packing my bags. I will distract fate by wearing the red shirt and you can do your Scalzi thing knowing that Fate is distracted by me. :D
Speaking of battery, anyone ever try carrying around one of those backup booster deals? Not a second battery. It’s like a jumper box about the size of the phone that you can re-up your phone’s battery with in your pocket.
I’m considering it, but I have no idea how much of a (non) pain in the ass it might be…
I’ve got a droid bionic. Good phone, but it does make me jealous to see people getting all fancy with ICS when I’m still blathering on with gingerbread.
no wonder you keep frying your electronics, those infinite recursion photos pretty much will burn out the stack on the little processors of most consumer devices. The higher end DSLR cameras have a recursion arrestor which prevents stack burnout. Highly recommended.
If John Scalzi is tail recursive, you can unroll him into a Scalzi loop.
@dmf: I recently bought one of those universal battery boosters, and mine didn’t seem to work at ALL! It would stop charging the battery about 30 seconds after the screen went blank. Several tries to keep the phone battery charging from the device had failed. I’m returning it as soon as possible.
@dmf – I’ve used the Mophie case/extra battery for both the iPhone 3 and 4 for years, swear by them, they’re wonderful. Mophie also makes the backup boosters batteries that you ask about, which I’ve used both when running marathons (GPS & software & music & phone all running at full tilt on the iPhone 4 will kill the battery after about five hours and I don’t finish 26.2 quite that fast yet) and while on trans-Pacific (LA to China or Japan) flights to recharge the iPad. They all work very well indeed, I never travel without a spare.
@tmbeem & @MomDude Ahh, so it seems to be all about finding the right one…
Comeon John, you make the coin!!
Huh. Nice glasses — either the angle is just right, or they’re pretty strong lenses. But they look small and unobtrusive.
I love the phone, with a few minor quirks, mostly for the long lasting battery. But remember to use a case for your Razr Maxx-I had taken mine off becuase it muffled the vibration when I had the sound on vibrate only during the business day and got so annoyed I pulled it off. I then promptly dropped it in the parking lot and shattered the front. I had dropped my old droid at least 50 times without any damage (and why yes, I am a clutz.) Thank goodness I insured this one.
Sigh. Mobile phones have surpassed Star Trek TOS phones, and are now entering Next Gen Tricorder territory…
And with that, the universe collapsed into a singularity of Scalzi
Red-shirted Scalzi holding up the phone was troubled to discover that he was merely a red-shirted Scalzi in the phone of another red-shirted Scalzi.
How can you misspell a brand name? Seriously, when you buy one you’re not buying a “razor”, i.e. an item for slicing and shaving, you’re buying a “RAZR” phone.
Here’s a stupid question (maybe)…but you couldn’t have just taken the phone in to the local Verizon/T-mobile/whatever store, said “my battery is dead, can you charge it/replace it, it’s under warranty” and have them take care of it for you on-site, so you wouldn’t have had to shell out the money for a new phone?
How far you’ve come from the ambivalence about getting that first free cell phone shortly after I started reading this blog. Now you can’t go a day without one.
John,
Not only are you wearing a Red shirt, you are technically on an “away mission.” Keep checking your 6 dude and travel in a group that has at least one person that is slower than you are.
More advice since you are wearing a red shirt: never be afraid to trip someone who is slightly faster than you are, thus leaving them behind for whatever pursueth.
I would guess that the name is intentionally misspelled. Really. They have people for that.
It has more to do with what words can be a trademark these days. Common words like “Razor”, and “Max” are never going to be protected.
Scorpius: How can you misspell a brand name? Seriously, when you buy one you’re not buying a “razor”, i.e. an item for slicing and shaving, you’re buying a “RAZR” phone.
Oh my god. Thank you so much for explaining that. I’ve called customer support a dozen times because their RAZR phone doesn’t shave worth a damn. And I’ve had to return more phones than I can remember because they don’t react well to shaving cream and being rinsed off under the faucet.
I have an original RAZR and find that the battery goes all day without any problem if I set it to use the 3G network. That’s plenty fast enough for email and web browsing. If I want fast, for example when using it as an access point, it just takes a moment to enable it.
Did you get a case with a belt clip or a loop with which you can handcuff it to your wrist? Given your track record with portable electronic devices, after all … better safe than sorry.
I’m also on a razr maxx. Mostly quite happy with it, except that Angry Birds sometimes hangs on it. which is annoying when I’m trying to show them egg-stealin’ pigs what for. Angry Birds also seems to eat the battery for breakfast. I’ve had it go from full charge to low power in less than an hour of slingshoting birds through the air.
But I also spend, um, somewhat more time on that game than the average person. So these concerns are probably less than universal.
Hey cool! I got a replacement RAZR MAXX the same day you did. we’re twinners.
Heads up tho: you can’t keep it in your shorts pocket while playing neck-deep in the ocean for an hour.
I have learned.
As a Razr Maxx owner, I must say the battery life on this thing is wonderful. There’s a nifty preloaded app called Smart Actions, which allows the setup of various rules to automate tasks based on certain conditions. You can also set it up to get even more life out of the monster battery automatically. If that appeals at all, there’s a truly programmable app available called Tasker that can manage what appears to be every single aspect of the Android system.
I’ve had a RAZR MAXX for several months now, and even managed to get my unlimited data plan grandfathered onto it. Combined with a lapdock, it does everything I need a laptop to do on the road as well, aside from serious databasing. With the car mount, I have GPS and music and internet radio and hands-free calling as well. I am MOST pleased with it.
However, I have noticed that using it as a GPS on road trips with Google Maps while also playing my tunes actually manages to suck more power out of it than the charger can shove in. It drains, if slowly.