New Razr phones Motorola unveils 3

Motorola unveils 3 new Razr phones

Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside on Wednesday unveiled three new members of the Razr phones or smartphone family. It was the first major act for the handset maker and its new leadership since Google completed its acquisition of the company in March.

Each phone comes with fast dual-core processors, runs on Verizon phones Wireless' speedy LTE network, and operates on the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, though they'll be upgradeable to the newest flavor, Jelly Bean. The phones also have memory card slots for upgrading onboard storage.
The first to go on sale is the $99.99 (with contract and after rebate) Razr phones M. Motorola, which arrives in stores next week. It has squeezed a handsome 4.3-inch edge-to-edge screen in a handset that's just a bit longer and roughly the same width as the iPhone 4S.

Coming later are the bigger models, for which Motorola and Verizon phones have not yet announced pricing:

• The Razr phones HD will offer a 4.7-inch high-definition display that Motorola says can deliver up to 10 hours of battery life when you're watching a movie or TV, or up to six hours of turn-by-turn GPS navigation.
• The Droid Razr phones Maxx HD, if Motorola's claims are true, pushes the battery to even greater extremes. It promises 13 hours of video playback or a hefty 32 hours based on what the company says is "average use." It, too, has a 4.7-inch screen.

The new phones arrive during a period of fierce competition for handsets. Earlier Wednesday, Microsoft and Nokia showed off the latest Lumia smartphones based on the Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system. Apple is expected to introduce the iPhone 5 on Sept. 12. A week later, handset maker HTC is holding an event to show off its latest wares. And then there's Samsung, which continues to push its Galaxy devices even after losing a patent-infringement case to Apple.

Woodside says Motorola is not getting favorable treatment from Google though it's now part of the Google family. "Motorola is treated the way every other (manufacturer) is treated," he said during an interview. The company receives the Android software code the same day that rival handset makers get it. And Google doesn't get any special exposure to Motorola engineers.

By Edward C. Baig, @ USA TODAY