Motorola Can Do Big Things With the DROID RAZR HD [Opinion]

I know what you are thinking, “What kind of crack are you smoking? You really think another locked down Motorola RAZR variant can help them crawl out of the Android gutter?” Yep, I actually do believe that, but only if some very specific things happen at launch. One of which we haven’t seen in a long, long time from this company, but maybe will now that Google is in charge.

Motorola has had a rough year and a half, but with the DROID RAZR HD, they have a chance to do some big things. Sure, the Galaxy SIII may be out before it and will gobble up all sorts of market share, however, this phone has a chance to be Moto’s best in years if done right. Here are my thoughts. 

Bootloader – Unlock It Already

We have probably talked more about unlocking bootloaders than any publication on the planet, but we are going deeper with our reasoning this time than just the regular fanboy, techie garbage. We actually believe that with this phone, if Moto decides to unlock it, that the world will care. You see, for 2 years now, we have talked nothing but negatively about Motorola phones because of Moto’s incessant need to appeal to Verizon’s “security” policies. However, with one little change, the world will have a field day talking about it, bringing their shiny new RAZR HD to the front of the field in a positive manner for the first time in a while. You see, everyone in the tech industry cares about bootloaders (or at least has to write about them), so if Moto (or Google) does the right thing this time around, it will be praised up and down. “The phone that finally brought about a change.”

And after that, the fanboys come in and buy it in waves. (If you do not believe that the dev community will flock to a Motorola device that is unlocked and on Verizon, then you don’t read Droid Life enough.) The importance of this crowd, is that through them and then through sites like us, this phone lives beyond a simple release week. Rather than a brief mention about the day it becomes available and then here or there until it sees an update, it instead gets featured when it’s rooted, when the first ROM is developed for it, when the first AOSP ROM is developed for it, when CyanogenMod is released for it, and so on and so forth. It continues to live in the spotlight for months, if not years just like the original Droid did and now phones like the Galaxy Nexus do.

There are those out there that like to discount the dev community, rooting and ROMs, but their importance is as great as anyone’s. It’s time that everyone starts to realize it.

Battery – Better Toss in the 3300mAh Beast

This seems like a no-brainer, but if this phone doesn’t come with the RAZR MAXX’s 3300mAh battery, Motorola is making the biggest mistake of the last few years. The RAZR HD could essentially be a complete device as long as this battery is inside it. It will have an HD screen, a top-of-the-line processor, high-end camera, on-screen navigation keys, enough RAM, Ice Cream Sandwich, and 4G LTE. Unlock the bootloader and include a battery that lasts for days and you’ve sold me and who knows how many others on it. What else could you ask for?

HD – Sell That Non-PenTile Screen Like You Mean It

We took a look at the HD screens that Motorola is putting in their Chinese phones back at CES, and from what we can tell they are non-PenTile and gorgeous. With Samsung still using a PenTile display in the new S3, we want Motorola to tell people about it. Tell people that your screen is as clear, crisp, and natural as they come. It may seem like a silly spec to sell, but look at the selling power of a display in the iPhone and new iPad. People to this day cannot stop talking about the “retina” this and that.

Old – Be Your Old Self, People Want You Back

From what we can tell, people want more than anything to have the old Motorola back. And when we say “old” we are talking about the original DROID days – the glory days. Still to this day, people look back to that device as the one that got them started in this Android game and kept them in it. Motorola did everything right there. They pushed specs to their limits, left the device open to developers, and supported it like it was their first born child. Please Motorola, do that with the RAZR HD and you will have another winner. We want to love your products again, but we need you give us some love in return. Why is it so difficult to go with the formula that brought you out of the grave the first time?

So I ask you DL Community, are you with me? If Motorola brings us back to the days of old, are you ready for it? Would you drop your current device for the RAZR HD?