Review: Motorola Droid Razr

I was recently fortunate enough to get a brand new phone. My boyfriend was offered a free product upgrade from Rogers, and there weren't any phones that he liked, and so he offered one to me. The best two phones that I could choose from were the Samsung Galaxy II and the Motorola Droid Razr. I had played around with both models in Best Buy and had been somewhat pining for the Razr as it seemed to be the sturdiest and best-looking of the Android flock: different, but not too kooky or awkward. And the fact that it had dual cores was enticing.

Nice, right?

However after using this phone for a month, I've fallen out of love with it. Let me tell you some of the reasons why.

1. The camera software. My previous two phones were the Xperia X10 and the Xperia Arc, both made by Sony Ericsson, a company renowned for it camera-phone technology advancement. The Sony camera phones were among the first really good quality camera phones, which paved the way for the Sony cyber-shots which were almost always used in Ericsson phones. Their long legacy of camera capabilities was extended into SE's smartphone camera software design and it showed with the Xperia line. Their cameras and lenses were of stellar quality, and even if sometimes the hardware of the phone couldn't quite keep up (resulting in laggy functionality sometimes in the X10) the pictures were still good enough to give the iPhone a run for its money. Both Xperia phones I owned were great at taking pictures, and the Droid Razr falls short in comparison. The primary issue lies in the auto-focus. When the camera app opens on the Razr, it doesn't auto-focus--I have to press and hold my finger on the screen to force the lens to focus on whatever it is I want to capture. I never had to do this with the Xperia phones. Their auto-focus was powerful and effective, and I was up and snapping away in seconds. The Razr doesn't allow me to do that, and in this day and age where we all need to capture that fleeting moment with whatever we have in our pockets, it just doesn't step up to the plate. I can't tell you how many blurry photos the Razr has given me in the past month. What's more is I can't press anywhere on the screen to activate the shutter anymore like I could with SE's phones. I've been demoted from screen capture capabilities to pressing a little shutter button like the iPhone, and it feels weird and restricting. I hate it. Hate hate hate hate it. This is such a deal-breaker for me that I've decided to sell this phone and get one of the new Xperia line of phones. I love taking photos on the run and sharing them. My SE phones made that easy and enjoyable, while with the Razr it's completely the opposite, to the point where I've hardly been sharing any pictures lately because I feel like it just isn't worth it to try to dig out my crappy phone and fail at taking a picture.
   
2. The battery life. Again the Razr falls short here. There is something seriously wrong with this phone when it loses 40% of its charge overnight. That's from the moment I turn off the screen and put it down while I sleep, to the moment I wake up and look at it for the first time. With mobile data and wireless off, as well as background data disabled, it routinely drops from 80% to 40% which is absolutely ridiculous. Where does that 40% charge go? Does it just leak out the sides of the phone? I am not impressed. Both of my previous Xperia phones were amazing at keeping their charge during downtime, sometimes only losing 1% or 2% overnight with no use... which is how it should be. Even now, it's lost 10% in only 30 minutes--it was just fully charged and I've barely used it. I'm charging this phone twice a day and I shouldn't have to.
   
3. Speaking of battery, the battery indicators on this phone only give me the battery charge level in 10% increments. It's not huge, but it is a bit odd--this is the only phone I've seen recently that does this. What's the reasoning behind this? The charge drops off so quickly that 1% increments don't even matter? Or did Motorola just want to make their horrible battery charge hemorrhaging less noticeable? That must be it.
   
4. And it takes for EVER to charge, too! My Xperias could fully charge from 10% to 100% in under an hour, while it takes the Razr at least two. This is just silly.
   
5. Near-impossible one-handed use. The power button is required to unlock the phone as there are no other physical buttons on the front, and it's extremely difficult to depress no matter which hand you use, and with whatever finger. It should be easier to get into your phone. Also it's just so freaking BIG. It's a wide phone. My previous SE phones were the perfect width for using one-handed. I miss pressing the middle button on the bottom of my Arc to unlock my phone. It was so much simpler.
   
6. The way it looks and the UI. Maybe I was just spoiled with getting ICS on my Arc before it was officially released. It was gorgeous, beautiful, and functional. And going from ICS back down to 2.3 just feels like such a significant downgrade. I now realize for myself just how clunky and weird the Android OS on the whole looks and feels to use. I'm glad this fumbling OS is changing its tune with ICS and the upcoming Jelly Bean, because the potential for greatness has always been around, it just hasn't been realized yet. Until now.

It's not all terrible with the Razr however. There are some good points:

1. The screen is beautiful. The brightness is off the charts and the colours look fantastic.
   
2. It's fast, most of the time. Loading YouTube videos is a sinch and pretty much instant.
   
3. It's durable, with Gorilla Glass for the screen and Kevlar coating the back and wrapped around the insides of the phone. My Arc's lovely thin silhouette was ultimately its downfall, as the plastic screen cracked when it was dropped a few too many times.
   
4. It's pretty smart, with its Smart Actions: it suggests "rules" for you to make involving settings as attached to constraints like location, time or charge level. For example, I can set a rule that dictates that when I'm at work, my mobile data gets turned off and the sound is muted. And I can set it to send a text message to a person of my choice when I leave, which is something I always do anyways. This would work for me if I had access to a wireless network where I work, since the location-based rules can only be activated by wireless networks. This is ridiculous, as I'm not sure why they couldn't set it so that location can be detected by either wireless networks OR mobile networks via my phone's GPS capabilities. And if my days were a bit more reliable, with a steady schedule of job / class times, I could set my phone to turn data and sound off, for certain time periods like when I'm in class, and dim the screen when I'm going to bed. The best of these rules is for battery life; when it gets below 20% and it isn't charging it will go into lifesaving mode by turning off background data and other functions.
   
   
5. And little things, like the fully-charged notification tone along with the in-pocket detection add some nice touches. Basically if the screen is unlocked, and you put the phone in your pocket it will automatically lock the screen for you if you forget. It's nice that it has a front-facing camera; we Androiders can finally take advantage of apps like Skype with free video calling. The sound that comes out of this phone is also pretty impressive, and call quality is crisp and clear. 

All in all, this is a great phone for multimedia consumption. Your movies will look fantastic and your music will sound pretty good too. Just don't forget to bring your charger with you, as well as your digital camera in case you want to take any pictures while you're on the road. This phone gets a dislike in my books, because what good are high-end specs if your battery life is crap? I can't watch a movie if my phone wants to die halfway through. The end.

UPDATE: I sold my Razr almost immediately after writing this entry and was able to get an Xperia U on the very same day. Review coming soon!

Review: Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream

This stuff is so great that I just had to write about it as soon as possible. A few days ago I splurged and got a little something for myself. I had recently seen some ads while flipping through Elle magazine for a couple of new makeup products labeling themselves as "BB cream." "What was this mysterious new product?" I thought to myself. After comparing two ads that looked extremely similar, claiming mostly the same benefits, I decided to try them out next time I got the chance. I imagined them as translucent, colour-free balms such as Benefit's the PoreFessional pore minimizing balm. Luckily my local Shoppers Drug Mart carried both of these products and had testers out for both as well, and I discovered that I was wrong. One was the Maybelline Dream Fresh BB cream, the other was Marcelle's BB Cream. I put one of the products on one half of my face, and another on the other side, and the difference was immediately clear--Marcelle's was heavier and more obvious-looking, and also looked darker (which is a problem when you're already testing the lightest shade they have.) Maybelline was the clear winner, and let me tell you why.

The product itself is more or less a tinted moisturizer. This kind of thing is appealing to me because 90% of the time I dislike the look of regular liquid foundation; it's too obvious, looking heavy and makeup-y and far too much coverage for daily use. This type of makeup is only appropriate for very few situations and should be saved for a fancy night out, or a photoshoot, when your skin needs to look absolutely flawless as a backdrop for dramatic eyes and lips. But for more casual occasions, like heading to class or out for a meal with friends, I hate feeling over-done and too made up. I hate feeling like it looks like I'm trying too hard. I'm fortunate to have pretty good skin; save for some minor imperfections it behaves pretty well most of the time.
In the past year or so I'd been gifted a few tester tubes of Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer, and really loved the medium coverage they provided. I could put a little of it in the main areas of my face (nose, cheeks, chin) and other spots if needed. Then I would apply a bit of powder to set it all (PurMinerals, which by the way is awesome). My tester tube was on its last legs, forcing me to squeeze the living daylights out of it to get the last remaining bit, and thus I needed to find a replacement. Maybelline's Dream Fresh is that replacement. It is smooth, light, and feels fresh upon application. It blends easily and doesn't set too quickly. It proclaims itself as an "8-in-1 beauty balm" with the eight benefits listed on the back of the tube:

1. With SPF30 helps prevent sunburn.
2. Helps blur the look of imperfections.
3. Creates a natural looking glow.
4. Skin looks visibly smoother.
5. Compliments skin-tone.
6. Hydrates all day.
7. Feels fresh.
8. Oil free.

The last four of these eight benefits can pretty much be thrown away; they're basically useless, but eight is a higher number than four, and thus they are listed as benefits. It is lovely that it's oil-free, but so are most things we put on our face nowadays. The one that was a clincher for me was the SPF30. Until now, the highest SPF factor I had in my makeup bag was SPF20, and that was my Laura Mercier tester tube of tinted moisturizer. The only facial SPF30 product I own is a daily moisturizer by Aveeno which claims to calm redness by way of deep daily hydration. This is a lie. This product is so extremely greasy that there is absolutely no way anyone could use it as a daily moisturizer. It feels just like regular sunscreen, and smells like it too. For this reason it has been living in my purse as a last-minute bit of sunscreen in case I end up in the sun for longer than I planned, or if I'm going to the beach. (Even then, it's so thick that it barely absorbs into my skin, and it usually just wipes off with the slightest amount of moisture on my face, which in the scorching summer heat is pretty common.) So I had been looking for something better. My best option seemed to be an expensive SPF serum that was upwards of $50 for a teeny tiny bottle. Until I discovered this stuff. It's fantastic and comes in I think 4 or 5 shades. It's extremely reasonable at about $15 per 30ml tube. And if you're like me, you'll only need a little dab about half the size of the tip of your finger to cover the important bits of your face. You can wear it alone or under a powder. For day or night. And even out in the sun. This stuff definitely gets my seal of approval for value and quality. It has been added to the short list of products that I buy over and over again because they're so great.

NOTE: there was no entry in the GoodGuide databases about this product at the time I wrote this article, likely since it's such a new product. I will however keep checking back occasionally and will update with new information as it becomes available.