The RAZR is back, and this time, it’s a lot smarter than the RAZR of last decade that you and all of your friends once owned. Today Motorola announced the super-thin Android 2.3.5 smartphone, due to land on the Verizon LTE network sometime in November. How thin is thin? Motorola claims it is 7.1mm, making it a full 1.4mm thinner than the already-super-thin Galaxy S II.

We got some hands-on time with the Droid RAZR, and here are some first impressions:

1. While the phone does indeed feel uber-thin, it’s extra tall and wide, making it feel like a mini-tablet in the hand.

2. Build quality is above-average for Motorola. Metal, glass, Kevlar, and plastic provide a variety of textures.

3. The screen is gorgeous: as good, if not better than Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus used on the Galaxy S II. In fact, it’s likely that Motorola sourced the display from Samsung. The viewing angle on the Droid RAZR is extreme, and the contrast is very high. It’s just a shame that the resolution is qHD 960×540 and not full 720p at 1280×720.

4. It seems a lot faster than previous dual-core Motorola devices like the Droid Bionic and Droid X2.

5. More than ever, Motorola is at attempting to “focus on the details” which is a hallmark of Apple’s industrial design. Did they succeed? In my opinion, no–despite the focus on build quality, the Droid RAZR still feels like an inferior smartphone when compared to the iPhone.

6. The 12.5 hours of talk time is achieved through a lot of battery management: get used to configuring the “SmartActions” system if you want you battery to last as long as advertised. The tweakers among us won’t mind this, but those that “want it to just work” will take issue with the adjustments required to get maximum battery life.