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In this day and age you pretty much expect the likes of Samsung, HTC, Motorola and others to attack Apple — and vice versa — but it’s become a bit taboo to see the aforementioned Android-loving OEMs attacking each other. Well, Motorola’s taking the charge against the biggest Android player in the game.
The OEM has gone after Samsung in its latest advertising efforts, though don’t expect a fifth round knockout type of scenario here (sorry, Pacquiao). This episode is a bit more mild than that, but no less interesting. Motorola claims “it’s not easy downloading from another galaxy” on its Facebook page, boldly displaying a Galaxy S3 trying to get through a download of Angry Birds Rio while the Motorola DROID RAZR HD already has it installed.
The image used to portray this suggests the Galaxy S3 only gets half signal bars while the Motorola RAZR enjoys full strength signal bars at any given time, but that is terribly misleading, no? For starters, location location location — that plays a bigger part in signal strength and download speeds over 4G LTE even if Motorola’s radios happen to be more solid than the ones Samsung use (though these two use virtually the same circuitry so we’re not sure what to make of that one).
It’s no surprise Motorola didn’t publish how it came about this particular result. The OEM could have tested the Galaxy S3 in a low coverage area, then proceeded to perform the same test on a RAZR MAXX HD in a full coverage area. We wouldn’t know that, of course, because Motorola is not required to tell us, but more power to them if they can get a few more sales out of it. And although Motorola’s image doesn’t show any branding, the simulated software image certainly suggests they’re comparing this to the version of the S3 that’s on the very carrier that has exclusive DROID RAZR MAXX HD rights — Verizon.
Motorola took things a tad further on its website, though the marketing plan there is less tricky than the one they deployed on Facebook. They claimed that the RAZR MAXX HD has 20% more battery life than the Galaxy S3 — this is true as the MAXX HD has a 3,300mAh battery compared to the S3’s 2,100mAh battery. They also boast the MAXX HD’s superior build quality — can’t really get mad at that with all the Kevlar sitting on the back of this thing.
Finally, overall innovation and impressive design are touted over the Galaxy S3, though this is highly subjective and we’d argue that Samsung’s S3 is in the same class as the DROID RAZR MAXX HD in this regard.
We can’t say what compelled Motorola to get a bit more bold in its marketing tactics, but we kind of like it. Even though the speed claims are a bit fishy they do have a couple of points over Samsung’s Galaxy S3. Sure, Samsung has another device that completely outclasses any of the RAZR devices, but the Samsung Galaxy S3 is still Samsung’s primary bread and butter and Motorola has no problem letting you know that it has a device that can stand toe to toe with it. What do you guys think?
[Motorola via Facebook, thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
tough time when comparing signal strength. What a dumb ad campaign, talk about easy to spoof…good thing we have visuals to call BS
Indeed. But a ton of uninformed people will still eat this right up without any question whatsoever. Sad, but true.
Motorola is going down in the drain~ ahah.
Nice hardware MOTOROLA, now get your head out of your a** & make your phones available on all carriers.
That’s the carrier’s call. It’s not Moto who has their head up their a**
Uh uh… If moto really wanted to, they could negotiate deals with all the carriers.
lol bet at&t would take the razr over the atrix anyday,
SAMSUNG sells the SGS III on no fewer than 7 carriers in the U.S. alone, so, yes, MOTOROLA does have some control over which carriers get their phones.
Samsung is also the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer.
They didn’t get that way by making exclusive deals w/carriers either. So what’s your point?
APPLE sells their phones on no fewer than 6 (soon to be 7) carriers in the U.S., so why make apologies for MOTO?
I like their phones as much, if not more, than the average person, but, I’m sure not gonna sign up w/an overpriced carrier to use their flagship phone.
All their marketing in the world can’t convince enough people to switch carriers just to use the their phones. Wasted effort & money that could be spent more wisely.
i see what you are saying, but Samsung and apple have ridiculously high selling phones. Motorola does not. That’s like saying why cant ZTE get the same phone on 7+ carriers. Maybe Moto doesnt try hard enough, but maybe other Carriers are just more interested in other devices (although i dont see how a phone with a MAXX sized battery would be unappealing)
LG managed to get the original OPTIMUS on every carrier on the planet, so, any excuses for MOTOROLA not delivering the goods to the masses is no more than that, a sorry excuse.
I hope MOTO appreciates the latest marketing of the HTC DNA on VERIZON. The latest TV spots for the phone would have the general public believe that the DNA is yet another MOTOROLA phone. If one doesn’t pay close attention to the entire ad, this conclusion could easily be mistakenly made.
Serves MOTOROLA right for having exclusivity w/VZW……..
1) Motorola doesnt have exclusivity with VZW, photon, atrix, etc are on other carriers. They just dont have the same phone on all carriers.
2) Optimus is on multiple carriers… but its not the same phone on every carrier. They are changed depending what carrier its on… so it might be better but not all that different than what Motorola already has now.
3) Motorola isnt the only company that makes droids. HTC have been making “Droid” phones for years.
4) Almost all android ads (outside of the new GS3) are lacking. So Moto has nothing to be envious of when it comes to HTC. I have an HTC Evo LTE, and i will say they suck at marketing. People are surprised when i tell them my phone can do pretty much everything a gs3 can do (like S beam for example). Why? Because HTC almost never markets any features. Kudos to Sammy for remembering that this is a business, not just a manufacturing company.
1) MOTO’s phones for the most part are exclusives w/each carrier & ARE different.
2) The original OPTIMUS was the same phone (less radios)across all carriers.
3) True enough about the DROID statement,however,most associate the DROID branding w/MOTO,even if they are mistakingly doing so.
4) I definitely agree w/your marketing statement.To add to that,if I were to ever even consider getting an iPhone,their latest marketing (TV spots) definitely convince me to look elsewhere.The ads are beyond CHEEEEEEEEEEEEESYYYYYYYYYYYY & would lead me to believe that their products are equally so.
i dont know about the original optimus, but the current optimus isnt, Sprint n ATT have the optimus G (with different cameras), Verizon doesnt even have an optimus at all i dont think, and tmobile has the Optimus L or some crap. So its quite possible times are different now with the carriers.
Whatever the reasons people/carriers make for exclusivity is garbage.Regardless of carrier,people want a good phone.LG,SAMSUNG & APPLE have all proven this.So,for MOTO or any manufacturer to make such an exclusive arrangement w/one carrier is bone-headed,unless the marketing geniuses @ MOTOROLA think that their job is to sell as few phones as possible.
Any other excuse for making an exclusive deal w/a carrier just doesn’t make sense.W/all the choices available today,people are not going to flock to VZW for a phone like they did w/the iPhone-at&t arrangement a couple years ago.
I stick to my original statement,MOTO marketing/sales needs to get their head out of their rear-end.
To be fair, the Optimus One was rebranded several times along the way. For instance, take a look at the Optimus T, LG Vortex, and Optimus S/Optimus V.
GREAT POINT on the battery size.DITTO on MOTOROLA’s marketing efforts.
Apple sold their phone on exactly ONE carrier for years until they were well established. Moto needed to reestablish itself with the move to Android. Their best shot was high end phones. The best shot at that was exclusivity. Pick the best network (VZWs early committment to LTE made it a good choice) and stick with it. Once you’re back on solid ground, branch out.
What are you talking about? MOTOROLA has been in the ANDROID scene since SEPTEMBER 2009,11 months after the 1st ANDROID was sold by HTC.
Make all the apologies you want, but, the exclusive arrangement w/VZW is pointless. They will not reap the same rewards as APPLE did w/at&t. There’s just too much competition on VZW alone, much less the entire U.S. market.
Are you implying that Motorola Mobility is a small company?
Samsung is in a better position to tell a carrier to take it or leave it. Moto is rebuilding. If a carrier wants an exclusive, they are likely to get it.
Downloading from another GALAXY would sound even better if it was Angry Birds SPACE.
better yet… Angry Birds: Star Wars
Bottom line, they could have made a much better advertisement.
Really Motorola? I wonder if you even sold 1 unit of that! :P
What’s also interesting is that Angry Birds Rio is usually a WiFi-only download because of its huge file size. So if someone was downloading it over 4G, then yeah, it’s gonna take a while no matter what device you’re on.
Not exactly. I get 30 Mbps on LTE on my S3. Wouldn’t take long at all. Hell I downloaded a 4 GB movie in 30 mins (not sure of the exact time because I walked away.) last night.
How about starting with making decent phones before making nonsense ads Motorola. No wonder your devices suck and nobody buys them.
I went from GS3 to Razr HD – the Motorola is a very superior phone, it’s faster hardware/ui wise, faster connectivity and better HD quality. Very DECENT phone. Gave my GS3 away once ingot it.
This is worse than useless without them giving a lot of detail on how they ran these tests. Looking at this, with no disclosure, I just see desperation.
It does legitimately show how they’ve managed to out-ugly the SGS3, which is impressive. Every smartphone I’ve had has been uglier than the last and I’ve had 4 Android ones now. Perhaps it’s the size, they’ve each been bigger too. My chinned HTC Hero was beautiful but if it had a 4.7″ screen rather than a 3.2″ screen, it would probably look odd. I don’t like Apple much, but at least their phones look pretty (again, perhaps that’s to do with their adorable little size).
Not sure how those battery figures work either – if they’re only getting 20% more life out of a 50% bigger battery, they’re doing something wrong.
I was thinking the same thing about the battery. Or the 20 may have been a typo (haven’t checked the Moto website.)
I’m sorry but I completely disagree with everyone bashing Moto for this. I’ve owned 4 Samsung Gnex’s and 2 Nexus S’s and they ALL had major radio issues. As a matter of fact a few of the Gnex’s went back on warranty for radio problems. I have several friends that also struggle with reception on there vzw galaxy S3’s where others around them on vzw with HTC or Moto phones have solid data. Radios are a MASSIVE weakness for samsung and I can say for sure it’s the single reason I will never buy another samsung phone.
This is only true on verizon. On at&t, samsung’s phones have been great. On verizon, yeah, samsung’s radios were shiite
My experience with a Verizon Galaxy Nexus puts me in bob’s camp. So, how does a carrier affect radio performance?
Verizon is CDMA, AT&T is GSM… they’re totally different radios. And their LTE are on differnent frequencies (I think).
That said, while I had problems with the original 4.0.2 radios, I’ve had no issues at all with the radios from 4.0.3 onward on my Verizon Galaxy Nexus.
Can’t argue w/individual experiences. MOTOROLA definitely has had a great reputation for superior radios. However,my experience w/the SGS III vs the MOTOROLA PHOTON on 3G has been about the same(both on SPRINT in the same coverage area).
MOTOROLA coulda sold a boatload of these on SPRINT/VIRGIN/BOOST.
Kinda funny how my pos charge gets better reception then my Co workers razr m… We are in a weak area but he never has signal when I do..
I found the radio on the M got much better with JB update. But even so it is only marginally better than my old Tbolt,which is almost 2 years old.
I have Razr HD but I don’t see much difference in signal strength compared with GS3 of my friends. But I agree that Gnex radio is weak on verizon.
I have the basically equivalent Atrix HD on AT&T, and the radio performance is really inconsistent – for one thing, it can’t seem to switch from one type of signal to the other (i.e. EDGE to HSPA) without dropping off the network completely. I also have times that calls and texts simply don’t come through, and they (or the resultant voicemails) reach me an hour later. I don’t know if the latter is a radio issue, but I have enough frustrations with the Atrix to have me switching to a GS3 as soon as I find a good deal on upgrade. I’ll see if it’s better…
I thinik Manny got knocked out in the 6th round…just sayin
Moto needs to be on all networks before talking trash
Gonna have to say i’m a bit baffled that they took this approach. Yes I am a bit bias but this is ridiculous… Just a silly marketing ploy. Sure battery size and screen resolution are better than the s3, but that is only relevant to the end user experience
When a close friend of mine, who’s been with iPhone since it’s
appearance bought himself a Samsung Note, I was glad to have one more
friend in Android campus. But guess what – Samsung turned him back to
iPhone, just because Samsung makes Android look and function unbearably
complicated and overwhelming.
I’m sure your iPhone toting friend has an easier time on iOS composing an email with multiple and different types of attachments. One example of many possibilities.
He’s in no way preaching superiority of iOS. Every time he sees ICS on my OG RAZR his interest re-ignites. But Samsung so completely screws the experience, on which Google’s been working restlessly, with their Korean view of customized interface that I will not recommend it to a rookie Android user.
He could just install a stock like launcher, such as Nova, the settings menu on the S3 isn’t to far different types than stock Android.
Touchwiz also does some things better than stock. For instance, when my S3 was running stock firmware you would be able to swipe down the notification panel from within any app. So if your phone beeped and vibrated and you were playing a game of Robotek you could see what it was without leaving the game. That’s something that’s sorely missing from stock Android
Sent from my Asus Infinity
Might want to find some new friends that aren’t mouth-breathers.
Trust me, Jason, he’s a lot smarter than you, and unlike you and me simply doesn’t have time to fu6k around web-blogs. He grew his own business from a single-man ISP into 20-people web-design and publishing company with thousands of happy clients, so he’s in no way a socker mom showing off in front of her aging girlfriends.
Myself, I just called him “lazy”, when I heard the bad news, but he is not an iDummy.
Doesn’t take a genius to start & run a company; it takes luck, and soul-sucking dedication.
Ha ha ha, that’s all I can say to your childish argument.
Great to see that your NON-REMOVABLE battery has more juice, and when that battery fries… Then you have a “better built” paper weight
And when exactly does that happen? In 3,4,5 years? Dumb statement. I could understand the argument for swapping a depleted battery for a charged spare one, but this?
Warranty will take care of that. 2 years should be enough.
Fantastic argument, you deserve a model for this -_-
Hey Quentyn, the Motorola RAZR HD has 20% more battery life not the MAXX. Its on their webpage. Also to all you people knocking on the RAZR HD, whats wrong with having better radios, a much much better build quality and a near as you can get nexus experience??
It being only on Verizon and being Motorola.
Moto was unwise to show a side by side image since RAZR looks like a big clunky brick next to the GS3
Aesthetics are subjective. I think the GS3 looks too much like an iPhone.
Oh wow… If anything I always thought the LG G2X resembled an iPhone. It was the most “square” and close in shape.
Of course there was no physical button, but physical buttons don’t make the iPhone. So…?
I think I just confused my self. =.S
It looks nothing like an iPhone imo.
I can agree that Motorola has better radios when it comes to voice, but as far as data goes I can’t help but be undecided. There are so many factors to be taken accounted for. Why didn’t Motorola test the download speed of both phones at maximum signal quality? That’s like seeing who is faster in a race; the person with two legs or the person with one leg tied to their hand.
Samsung shouldn’t even bother to retaliate. Not worth their time.
i took it as a comparison of the Verizon network to non-verizon S3s. even if it was, i just purchased a maxx hd, a s3, and a razr m for the 3 lines on my family plan. my phone is the maxx hd. The build and battery is much more substantial than the other two. signal strength wise, where the maxx hd reads -89db for a 4G signal, the S3 gets aroung -94db and the razr m around -96db. tested in same place in queens from all three phones. they all bounce aroung +/- 5db but the maxx hd consistently pulled in a stronger signal than the other two. i did this to test out the “weak 4g on razr m” issues but was surprised with the S3. my Tbolt for comparison was about -98db.
yes the camera is better on the S3, and the screen is larger, even more so because of the on screen buttons of the Maxx. but the points about build quality, feel, and the battery are right on. While the S3 doesn’t look or feel cheap, it doesn’t compare to the Maxx hd. also, Maxx hd battery is 36% larger than S3.
Not to mention signal bars don’t mean anything. Just a graphical representation of signal strength that can easily be modified to appear inflated (cough*apple*cough) and varies greatly from OEM to OEM.
Motorola is cool and all but since it’s not developer friendly yet.. Imma stick with my gs3.
Samsung
I don’t think signal quality alone is going to be enough to persuade me from the GS3
I’m still locked into my vzw Galaxy Nexus for another year. Compared to that they both have terrific battery life :)
Comparing which loads cached and uncached webpages would be a more meaningful comparison for me. How often does one actually install new applications anyways? I do an update-all once a day while I’m not looking at it (e.g. driving), so installing/upgrading time isn’t meaningful.
The Moto phones are closer looking to the stock Google Experience than TouchWiz, but I’m not sure how you can market that to your advantage.
As much as Motorola is going in the right direction recently I still prefer Samsung at this point.
Motorola makes some butt-ugly phones.
Whats a motorola ? :P
i loved them, they make good phones but locked their bootloader, no removable battery or lack of SD card. keep me far away from. . clearly they dont get why sammung is so successful.
worst ad ever and I never have any signal problems with my samsung
What I get out of this.
Motorola doesn’t think that Apple is as big of a competitor as Samsung. The god had been dethroned.
It’s not easy downloading from another galaxy, that’s why wii use the Samsung Galaxy S3. Oh was it not suppose to be interpreted that way? =.P
if motorola want to show how strong there phones are the need to stop selling trough verizon and open up to every company like samsung does. samsung gs3 is in almost every major company while the razor maxx is only find in verizon
Motorola should be going after other companied that are non-android.
Id’ been weighing up ordering a motorola droid for a couple of weeks. I read plenty of reviews and this one was useful http://search4reviews.net/ , I received my package last month and am very happy. I Would highly recommend to anyone still unsure:
Well, the good thing, I guess, is that it implies that Motorola is doing stuff independent of Google, which is positive for other Android vendors and for Motorola… keeping a distinct personality.
I have played around with the GS3, RAZR MAXX, RAZR MAXX HD, Galaxy Nexus, and the Charge on Verizon’s network.
The Motorola phones have always come out on top in reception and network speeds. Testing was done using 4G with full bars. The charge was the worst followed by my Galaxy Nexus. The GS3 was very close to the RAZR MAXX. My friends RAZR MAXX HD was the fastest hands down.
All of them are excellent phones excluding the Charge. On a side note the design of the GS3 sits very well in the pocket.