I had the 4, 4S and now own the Razr Maxx.
I am EXTREMELY happy with the choice to move to the Maxx. One driver was battery life...even though the 4S is better than any previous Android phone I had used, I was having issues getting through a full day with the introduction of 5.0. I also missed my widgets a great deal. I like being able to see my calendar for a week ahead on the home screen...makes sure important things like birthdays don't sneak up on me. I like my weather widget display for similar reasons...I know when I get up what the weather will be without having to open an app.
I can.not.kill.this.battery! My number one reason for trying the Maxx and it has not failed me. Yesterday I had screen on time of 6 hours, spent 1.5 hours on the phone, used Digifit for a workout, and did a bunch of other little things throughout the day. It was on for 16 hours when I finally went to bed, and I still had 30% left.
Smart Actions are awesome...my phone automatically connects to my car bluetooth and when it does it turns off my wifi, changes my screen off time to 15 seconds, and opens Slacker Radio for me. When I get to work and the bluetooth disconnection to my car happens, it turns on my wifi, connects to my work wifi which in turn makes the phone go to silent mode/vibrate and changes the screen off time to 2 minutes. When I leave work it all puts itself back accordingly when I disconnect from work/connect to my car. When I get home it connects to my wifi here, ringer volume turns up to full and my wallpaper picture changes. And when I go to the grocery store I turn my phone on and there is my shopping app loaded for me and ready to go, and my screen off time is set to 10 minutes.
I love that I can share out any given thing as many ways as I have apps loaded. I can open a picture and share it out to Dropbox, text, email, photo editing apps, read it later lists...it's endless.
It IS a much larger phone than the iPhone which was another huge deciding factor for me, and I had some "growing pains". I can't stand the small screen of the iPhone, retina display or not, however it took me some time to adjust to the larger size of the Maxx and to stop trying to do certain things one handed. This is definitely a "give and take" thing...you want a bigger screen? Then you are giving up one handed operation. It's as simple as that. Yes you can do some things but you also run the risk of dropping it. I, however am a woman and have normal sized hands. Perhaps someone with large hands wouldn't need as much adjustment as I did.
I love that there is an app that enables my phone to be a wifi hotspot and I am not rooted. I don't abuse it...but once in a while I just need to be able to tether. Now I don't have to go through the hassle of calling to enable it on my phone for one month when I only needed to be on for 30 minutes.
I love the customization.
Things I miss on the iPhone...the camera for sure. The maxx is acceptable but NOTHING beats the iPhone...when I bought the iPhone I had basically replaced my point and shoot camera with it. I don't have that same comfort with the Maxx camera. It's acceptable, but it's not necessarily going to replace a point and shoot. However I enjoy photography. If you just want to "capture the moment" the maxx may be just fine.
The iPhone also has better fluidity. The maxx isn't bad, and there is a soak test in place right now that has improved upon something that wasn't bad to begin with...but I can't deny the iPhone has a leg up.
Yes, there are suspect applications on the market for Android...but if you use some common sense, read reviews, and really make sure you understand what the app does, you can avoid any issues. I consider myself a bit of an app focused person...I think I have a total of 270 between devices. I've never downloaded a malicious one or been hacked.
The Maxx is a SOLID piece of hardware with solid software. Even without Ice Cream Sandwich I love it...and I think Ice Cream Sandwich will make things even better. There is give and take with each device. If you want a device that keeps YOU out of trouble, and as a result is more fluid, then the iPhone is the way to go. If you want to play around with customizing your home screens, doing things with your phone you can't do with an iPhone (social media sharing is much easier on android), and have what I consider to be more of a "computer", then go for the Maxx.
So you know I also have a Macbook Air and iPad 2...it was a big decision to move away from the 4S as I am invested in the Apple ecosystem. For me, this is a perfect match of technologies. It will be better when Ice Cream Sandwich is out as the Chrome Browser is available only on ICS. Once I can move to Chrome for everything the whole bookmarks across devices thing will be nice.
In the end it's a decision only you can make but as a 4S user that converted, I'm extremely happy. My 2 priorities were better battery and bigger screen and the Maxx delivers.
If you have any specific questions feel free to take this to PM.
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P.S. as far as build quality goes...this has always perplexed me. The iPhone is solid, no doubt...but call me weird...I actually prefer a more plastic phone. Why? Because it's LIGHTER which means gravity becomes less of an enemy to it. The heavier the phone the more possibility of dropping it. And dropping a heavier phone would probably (almost always) result in more damage.
The Maxx is solid feeling as well. I do have a slim case on mine, but the Maxx feels no less solid than the iPhone to me. The iPhone reminds me of a little brick. The max is a larger brick I suppose, though because it's larger overall it feels less square.
But given a choice, I'd prefer the Samsung Galaxy style with more plastic which means a lighter phone.