Droid Razr smartphone to China's largest mobile

Motorola is bringing the concept for its Droid Razr smartphone to China's largest mobile carrier in a new handset, but has done so with a thicker casing in order to contain a more powerful camera and higher resolution screen. On Friday, Motorola announced details to its MT917 smartphone, a device meant to operate on the network of China Mobile, which has more than 600 million customers. The MT917 is 8.5 millimeters thick. But while the phone is slightly thicker, its 1280 by 720-pixel screen is larger, at 4.5 inches, than the Droid Razr's 4.3-inch screen. The MT917 has a 13-Megapixel camera, while the Droid Razr has an 8-Megapixel camera.

Motorola built the phone as a localized version to work on China Mobile's 3G network, which uses a standard called TD-SCDMA (Time-Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access). (See also "China Overtakes U.S. in Smartphone Shipments.") Motorola also plans to release its current Droid Razr phone on China Unicom's network. The country's third carrier, China Telecom, will also be offering a Droid Razr-like variant, with slight alterations, said Motorola spokesman William Moss.  One standout is an HTC Droid Incredible 2 smartphone in a loud red, offered free with a 2-year-data plan. The Incredible 2, which launched in May, isn't the newest handset from Verizon to run Google's Android operating system, but it's still one of the nicest phones available from the carrier.

The handset runs on Verizon's 3G network. One downside is that the phone comes with only eight gigabytes of storage via an included microSD card. Other devices on sale include the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play smartphone, free with a 2-year contract, and the Motorola Droid 3 for $149.99 on a 2-year plan. Amazon’s latest Black Friday deal has the online mega-retailer selling all non-iPhone smartphones for a cent. Amazon is also running a deal where consumers can get a $100 gift card to Amazon.com when they buy a Verizon or Sprint mobile phone with hotspot capability and get a hotspot plan. Both carriers are also offering exclusive deals through Amazon.