Our friends over at Verizon have sent us the Droid Maxx for us to review. Verizon has launched its latest Droids and they are now exclusively being made by Motorola. These new devices are the Droid Mini, Ultra, and Maxx. Today we give you our full review of the Droid Maxx, this is the headliner of the new Droid lineup. The Maxx brings 48 hours of battery to the table, this is the longest battery in a smartphone currently on the market. It continues the tradition of the Kevlar design in the Droid series and the great hardware the lineup is known for. But at $299.99 with a 2-year contract, is the Droid Maxx worth its large price tag? We will answer that in our full review which begins now!

Design

The Droid series has been known for a built-tough and classy builds, the Droid Maxx continues with this tradition. Unlike the Droid Ultra, you will not find gloss anywhere on the Maxx, it is a much cleaner design. You still have the Kevlar design, but it is not as pronounced. It is a soft touch back that still gives you durability from the Kevlar. While it is not as thin as the Droid Razr’s of the past, the Maxx comes in at 0.34 inches. Now, this is not that bad considering a 3,500mAh battery is on the inside. A very neat and unique part of the Maxx’s design is where they decided to put the SIM card slot. It is built-in to the volume rocker and you can pull it out, although it is a little hard to do.

Let’s do a quick tour of the Verizon Droid Maxx, the left hand side of the device is empty. On the back of the device you have the Droid logo, Motorola logo, and Verizon logo. The 10 megapixel RGBC Clear Pixel camera with a LED flash is on the back with a speaker grill. The Kevlar has a unique pattern on the back, but it does not wrap onto the sides of the device, except at the bottom of the device. For charging and changing data you get a micro USB port that lives on the bottom of the Maxx. The right hand side has the power/sleep button and volume rocker. For plugging in your headphones or auxiliary cable, you get a 3.5 headphone jack on the top of the phone. Below the device you have 3(three) touch buttons that are backlight, those being back, home, and multitasking. Lastly, above the display you have a earpiece and a 2 megapixel front facing camera.

Software

The Motorola Droid Maxx is running Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with a clean Motorola Droid user interface. For starters you get a great widget on your home screen that gives you access to your important information. The widget will give you insight on your battery life and quick access to settings. You can see the weather, date, and time as well. If you want to send your screen to your TV, simply flip the date circle and tap it to use “miracast” technology to mirror your display. For easy use you can save multiple displays that your Maxx can remember for later use as well. The feature is nice, but you do need a “miracast” compatible TV to use this feature. It would be nice if they could add this capability to a streaming player like the Google Chromecast. Touchless control is a big feature of the new Droid lineup and the Moto X as well. By setting up this feature you can say “OK Google Now” to start voice control without touching the Droid Maxx. You can say “OK Goggle Now, What Time Did The Sun Rise Today” and it will talk back to you with the time it rose. It is a very neat feature and it works pretty well. In reality, the user experience and software on the Droid Maxx is the same as the Mini and Ultra.

The Verizon Droid Maxx is a very clean experience, but you do get some pre-loaded applications. From Verizon you will get Mobile Hotspot, My Verizon Mobile, NFL Mobile, Verizon Tones, Viewdini, Voicemail, VZ Navigator, and VZ Security. Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Amazon MP3, and Appstore are on board from Amazon. Other pre-loaded applications on the Droid Maxx include Assist, Audible, Caller Name ID, Google Chrome, Google App Suite, Emergency Alerts, IMDB Ingress, Migrate, Movie Studio, Google Play App Suite, and more. In terms of storage you get 32GB of built-in storage, but no micro SD card slot is on board. In terms of other ways to store your data, there are many great cloud storage options. You can use Dropbox, Google Drive, or even SkyDrive.

Hardware

For connectivity the powerful and fast Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network is on board. This network will give you some crazy fast data speeds, this means super fast web browsing, video streaming, music streaming, and basically anything that uses the network. As expected it requires the SIM card for the data connection to the 4G LTE network and it is a CDMA device. For even more connectivity you get WiFi, Bluetooth, Near Field Communications, and Wireless Charging.

For even more speed and a great experience with the software you get the  Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System which is a 1.7 GHz dual–core application processor, 400 MHz quad–core GPU, natural language processor, and a contextual computing processor. This gives you a very fast experience and I did not see any lag with the software during my testing. Motorola did a great job with making sure the Droid Maxx has speed, keep in mind this is the same processor in the Mini and Ultra as well.

Some of the past Droid devices did not have the best displays, but the Droid Maxx changes this. A 5.0-inch 720p Super AMOLED display is on board. It has a resolution of 1280 X 720, that means it is a 720p display. It would have been much nicer to see a 1080p display on the Maxx, especially with the $299.99 with a 2-year contract price tag. This does not meant the 5-inch display on the Maxx is bad, it is a very nice display with bright colors. You get some nice viewing angles, but when using the device in direct sunlight the display becomes washed out.

Verizon and Motorola are saying that you get 48 hours of battery life from the 3500mAh battery built inside. While it does give you a great battery life, I was not able to get 48 hours of battery life. It got an around a full day and a quarter of the next day. While this is still really good battery life, it is not the full 48 hours that they say you will get. This is still some of the longest battery life of any smartphone on the market.

Motorola’s new Droids and the Moto X features Clear Pixel technology. This technology allows for more pixels and more light to come into the camera. This technology is found on the 10 megapixel back camera. The camera gives you plenty of different options for shooting. You can choose from HDR, Slow-Mo, Panorama, and more. Auto focus and auto flash is on board as well. You can simply take a photo by tapping anywhere on the display. The 10 megapixel back camera can record videos in up to 1080pHD as well. The 2 megapixel front facing camera works great for taking selfies and for video chatting. It allows in a lot of light and takes some really nice shots. It records video in 720pHD and video chatting over 4G LTE from Verizon is a great experience.

Bottom Line

The Verizon Droid Maxx is a power house of a smartphone. At $299.99 with a 2-year contract you need to make sure the Maxx is really the device for you. You get a very nice design that includes nice soft touch Kevlar back. It even replicates the nice woven pattern from the Ultra to a more classic pattern on the Maxx. Hopefully Android 4.3 is coming to the Maxx soon, but in the mean time you have Android 4.2.2 with a very clean and simple user interface. With software features like Touchless Control and QuickCapture you really get a unique experience with the device. A X8 processor and Verizon 4G LTE are on board for a very fast experience with the Maxx. A nice 720p 5-inch display and a long 3500mAh battery are here as well. If you are looking for a powerful device with a longer battery, then you might want to take a look at the Verizon Droid Maxx. For More Information On The Verizon Droid Maxx, Please Click Here. We would like to thank Verizon Wireless for providing us with a copy of the “Verizon Wireless Droid Maxx By Motorola”.