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By Craig Richetti, May 2014
The new Droid MAXX from Motorola renewed my dwindling love for Android smartphones. One of its most important features is a 3500 mAh battery, which claims to deliver almost 2 days of battery life -- with a 5" display! Have you ever experienced a smartphone with cutting edge features and stellar battery life? Let's look at why I think this is the best Android phone on the market.
Bigger is Beautiful
The MAXX is a premium built phone, assuming you like the Kevlar material, which gives the Droid line its industrial and robotic vibe. For a phone with such a large battery and Qi wireless charging capabilities, I find the MAXX easy to hold and pocket. Surprisingly, with my small hands I’m able to hold it and type a message with a single hand (although, it’s much easier to use both hands). The device weighs 5.86 ounces, which is not easily going to slide out of your hands, especially with the soft-touch material. It weighs less than the Nokia Lumia 920 (6.53 ounces), which I use as a benchmark for a device that pushes being too heavy. The MAXX fits relatively comfortably in my jean pockets, but you will definitely notice it more if you’re coming from a Galaxy S3 or a HTC One X phone. Anyone migrating from an iPhone may be appalled at the size and weight of this device, but they don’t know what they’re missing!
The MAXX sports a Super AMOLED 5" display with a 720p panel. The lack of 1080p is disappointing considering the MAXX’s $299 price tag on a two-year commitment with Verizon Wireless. However, I found video and high-resolution images rendered beautifully - bright and vivid. Compared to my previous daily driver, the Samsung Galaxy S3, the display is brighter and color reproduction is more accurate on the MAXX. Also, I find text to be very clear.
The MAXX deviates from its predecessor by having dedicated capacitive buttons below the display instead of being an on-screen feature. I'm happy with either of these setups as I have found the Galaxy S3's mix of capacitive and physical home keys to be annoying. The front panel omits the carrier and manufacturer branding, a pleasant deviation from the norm. However, turning the device over will show the "Droid" logo, along with Motorola's emblem and a Verizon imprint - all of which are tastefully located.
Innovation
Motorola brought some innovation to the MAXX -- you won’t find the SIM card tray as you rotate the phone. Instead, the tray is cleverly built into the volume rocker. While I give Motorola credit for the unique design because it streamlines the exterior, I'm concerned about its durability over time. Will the volume rocker become loose and cause problems with the SIM connection? Examining the phone's perimeter you will only find a USB charging port, headphone jack and the volume/power keys as you hold the phone – very clean!
Unique (and useful) Features
I'm going to touch on new features developed by Motorola/Google. The MAXX runs Android 4.2.2 and contains the Droid Command Center, one of the best widgets I’ve seen. One of the Command Center features is a clock with quick access to configure the alarm clock -- isn't it the worst when you're half asleep and struggling with your alarm settings? To the right of the time module is an animated weather widget, which can be tapped to view the forecast of multiple cities selected by the user. The weather widget was designed with tasteful and clean graphics. Lastly, there's a battery widget that draws your eye when you activate the screen for a quick check of your phone’s vitals. The Command Center is the best use of space, design and utility I've seen from any manufacturer’s stock widget.
Active Notifications
Motorola developed a new feature called Active Notifications for its new fleet of devices - the Moto X, Droid Mini, Ultra and MAXX. The feature replaces a notification LED by displaying a glowing circle on your display with icons of the application that triggered an event. The display gracefully fades in and out with this information while in standby. Of note, the feature apparently shuts off while in your pocket - smart! Motorola claims this feature is battery friendly since it only powers a limited amount of pixels while the remainder of the display remains off. You may also disable the feature while sleeping by setting a specific timeframe. I loved the LED notification light on my Galaxy S3 and I was weary switching to this new Active Notification system, but I must say this is my favorite feature. You will definitely have people asking about your phone when they see the notifications.
Other Goodies
The phone includes voice activated Google Now. I'm not going to elaborate on all the features of Google Now, but you can have your phone perform actions by saying "OK, Google Now." I was able to use the feature to get driving directions by saying "Okay, Google Now -- Get me directions to Harrisburg, PA." The phone effortlessly pinged my location and pulled directions to Harrisburg, PA. I haven't mastered the other commands yet, but the most shocking part of this feature is that it works when the phone is in standby mode. Motorola has dedicated a CPU core to listening for these commands while maximizing battery life.
Another feature I'm impressed with is the built in Qi wireless charging. I ordered a Nokia charging plate because it is compatible with any Qi charging device, and it works very well. I think wireless charging is an overlooked feature as it’s extremely convenient for when you’re in and out of the home/office all day – just plop it down and it’s charging!
48 Hours on Battery
The MAXX's battery life is stellar. I consider myself a moderate user since I stream music for about an hour each day in addition to surfing the web, checking social media, making a couple calls and sending a plethora of text messages - lots of on screen time. This phone gets me through 48 hours on one charge with this type of "mixed usage" that Motorola promises. However, I find this statistic to be true only when I have the auto brightness enabled - I'm not a fan of auto brightness because it can adjust too frequently, but this device has it fine-tuned.
It's wonderful having a phone with a 5" display and not having to worry about the battery dying after 5 hours off the charger. A word of caution - I don't recommend going to the full 2 days without charging, unless you know you won't be using it heavily. To put it in perspective, I know I can get through a day with about 45% of a charge remaining and not have to worry - that's amazing!
Why You Should Get This Phone
If you're about to jump ship from Android to a different platform such as the iPhone, Blackberry, or Windows Phone - I suggest taking this phone for a test drive. I always balked at the fragmentation among Android devices and the silly overlays each manufacturer imposes, but this solves many of my gripes. The Droid MAXX gives you the best of all worlds - battery life, beautiful design, wireless charging and a clean Android experience.
Best of luck in finding your favorite phone!
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