New Droid Maxx Is My Next Phone, Sorry Moto X

In small presentations given nationwide today – no doubt adorned by cow skulls and the dancing light of pure hellfire – Motorola and Verizon unveiled their new Droid lineup with a trio of new smartphones. If you’ll remember, I’d been searching for a replacement to my aging Galaxy Nexus and all the leaking rumors about the Moto X seemed to place it right in my wheelwell. While these new Droids seem to benefit from those leaked Moto X features, it appears the Droid Maxx may have won my heart in the end.

Titled the Mini, Ultra and Maxx, these are the small, thin and battery-ripped versions, respectively, of the new Droid line. All are due out in the final weeks of August, which coincidentally happens to be when my upgrade becomes available.

All three phones share a new “X8″ SoC designed by Motorola to power their devices, are accompanied by OLED displays and best take advantage of how Android operates for different processes. These new phones will also benefit from the revealed Moto X feature to perform Google searches and without having to activate the phone. At $99.99, the Droid Mini is a 4.3″ device; for $100 more you can get the 5.0″ big brother, the Ultra, and for $100 beyond that, you can get the Maxx, which Motorola touts will get 48 hours of battery life. I’m sure it’ll get 48 hours if you casually glance at it and never use it, but if I can make it through a whole day and night without having to recharge, I’m a fan. The trade-off is that the bigger 5” screens will only be 720p resolution compared to the 1080p displays of flagship phones like the HTC Droid DNA and the Samsung Galaxy S4. At that resolution though, who cares?

So why a Droid Maxx over the Moto X? Well, if rumors (and all of the leaked material coming out) is to be believed, the phone will be a midrange device designed to be cheap and available on all carriers. For all its interesting little features, it doesn’t appear to feature the battery life and screen size that I really want out of a new phone.

Rob replaced his aged and dying Thunderbolt with the RAZR MAXX HD and he has had nothing but good words to say about it. Since this version is running close to stock Android, I can’t really say I have many complaints either. The Maxx and Ultra debut on August 20th, the Mini just over a week later on the 28th.