Database Develop

[Q] What's the best Andoid phone to use with the NC (CM7)?

I have a four year old Blackberry Storm. I like the phone but it will not tether to my NC so I can use the phones internet.
Now I am looking for a new phone.
4G is not a required but it would be nice.
Suggestions?

Please tell us who your carrier is.
Sent from my NookColor using XDA App

Sorry, That would be a big help....
Verizon

The Samsung Galaxy S II
is rather sexy.
But there are alot of great choices out there.
4G would be a good choice in general. Tether it to your Nook and you can easily stream all the media you want to your Nook and enjoy media on the 7" screen.
The Galaxy S II is coming to Version in July
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/08/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-said-to-be-verizon-bound-in-july/
Edit:
Oops, read the article closer, I guess Galaxy S II in July is not confirmed. read the update at the bottom of the article. Sorry.

Definitely...
The 3 best verizon phones out there are the:
Thunderbolt (HTC) Good speeds, android 2.3.4 with gingeritis (a rom) root, sense 3.0 on that rom, but bad battery life. 4G though.
Droid Incredible 2 (HTC) I believe its Froyo, but sense 2.1 on stock rom with good battery. 3g though.
Droid CHarge (Samsung) Bad UI, bad manufacture. Android is OK with the customizations. But 4G + Extremely good battery + tethering = awesome time with the Nook

Good battery life is a lot higher than streaming video. I almost never use my phone for this.
My phone is primarily for work. Email, phone, data.
I am a Submarine Combat Systems Electronic/Computer Engineer and I upload ton of Word/Excel files, PDF ect along with technical manuals and cheat sheets that I have developed myself to aid with any repairs that I have to do, in any part of the world. Having world phone coverage is NOT an issue. But the issue with that, is up until now 99% of all phone screens were too damn small.
The NC has fixed that issue.
I use Documents to Go on the Storm and now have it on the NC along with a bunch of other apps. I want to start to use my NC for email and such in conjunction with my new phone. Sometimes I get new schematics, PDF's etc emailed to me when I am out on some boat.
My long term goal is to make the phone and NC one integrated system. Transmitter/receiver on my belt, and NC in my hands.
Does this help?
Oh, rooting my new phone will have to be a must....
Thanks to all who have already responded.

ikingblack said:
The 3 best verizon phones out there are the:
Thunderbolt (HTC) Good speeds, android 2.3.4 with gingeritis (a rom) root, sense 3.0 on that rom, but bad battery life. 4G though.
Droid Incredible 2 (HTC) I believe its Froyo, but sense 2.1 on stock rom with good battery. 3g though.
Droid CHarge (Samsung) Bad UI, bad manufacture. Android is OK with the customizations. But 4G + Extremely good battery + tethering = awesome time with the Nook
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bad manufacturer? how so?
From the verizon porfolio, i would wait for more LTE phones to roll out. There is really nothing attractive coming out from them.

ph00ny said:
bad manufacturer? how so?
From the verizon porfolio, i would wait for more LTE phones to roll out. There is really nothing attractive coming out from them.
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I have never owned one, but the general consensus on this and most every other forum seems to be that Samsung is the worst manufacturer by a very large margin. I have heard various reasons why such as a horrible UI, bad build quality and extremely slow updates to current models. Having never owned one I can't confirm any of this but the XDA community as a whole seems to feel that Samsung phones are not a wise choice and I've learned never argue with them so I went HTC
Edit: Also do keep in mind that many newer phones are expected to have locked bootloaders. This means no custom ROMS or possibly no rooting... and that means that if you want tethering you will have to buy Verizons tethering plan. So, if you are wanting to do the free tethering provided by rooting your phone then you will want to make sure that whichever phone you buy can in fact be rooted! And in the case of many newer phones coming out this summer, that is very much in doubt I'm sad to say. But then again all these rumors may be just sky-is-falling panicky behavior by us newbs, the Chefs may be able to root and flash boot-locked phones in a month flat for all we know!

robertroland said:
I have never owned one, but the general consensus on this and most every other forum seems to be that Samsung is the worst manufacturer by a very large margin. I have heard various reasons why such as a horrible UI, bad build quality and extremely slow updates to current models. Having never owned one I can't confirm any of this but the XDA community as a whole seems to feel that Samsung phones are not a wise choice and I've learned never argue with them so I went HTC
Edit: Also do keep in mind that many newer phones are expected to have locked bootloaders. This means no custom ROMS or possibly no rooting... and that means that if you want tethering you will have to buy Verizons tethering plan. So, if you are wanting to do the free tethering provided by rooting your phone then you will want to make sure that whichever phone you buy can in fact be rooted! And in the case of many newer phones coming out this summer, that is very much in doubt I'm sad to say. But then again all these rumors may be just sky-is-falling panicky behavior by us newbs, the Chefs may be able to root and flash boot-locked phones in a month flat for all we know!
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Outside of the whole brand bias, general consensus including professional reviews are usually favorable for samsung's high end phones.
They did have some issues just like every other manufacturer and it may have seemed worse partially based on the fact that they had the single largest successful line up out of all the android handsets last year
Btw, galaxy s2 came with unlocked bootloader and received at least two updates since early may and 2.3.4 is supposedly under way. As for the carrier delayed roms, there is a real issue there when two identical devices on two different carriers ended up getting the froyo updates months apart.
Btw samsung released the gingerbread update before anyone else.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

ph00ny said:
Outside of the whole brand bias, general consensus including professional reviews are usually favorable for samsung's high end phones.
They did have some issues just like every other manufacturer and it may have seemed worse partially based on the fact that they had the single largest successful line up out of all the android handsets last year
Btw, galaxy s2 came with unlocked bootloader and received at least two updates since early may and 2.3.4 is supposedly under way. As for the carrier delayed roms, there is a real issue there when two identical devices on two different carriers ended up getting the froyo updates months apart.
Btw samsung released the gingerbread update before anyone else.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
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They also just sent free Samsung Galaxy S II's to many of the Cyanogenmod developers. Also, it seems that the trend NOW is that the manufacturers will be unlocking their bootloaders. (samsung has never locked theirs if I remember correctly)

Well that is good news. Maybe they are trying to buy their way back onto the XDA peoples good graces Hey as long as they have learned from their mistakes and are building quality phones now, nothing wrong with that! And I have no doubt that no matter what they buy the Devs, it won't get them any good press here that they don't deserve. Like I mentioned I never bought one. I've just heard hundreds of people posting about how "bad" they were for one reason or another. But I'm always glad to see another Android manufacturer step up their game, it's good for the community as a whole!

I have the Droid X and it play well with my NC using Wireless Tether.

I picked up a LG Revolution. Seems ok, but battery life is not great. Better than the Thunderbolt but still not great.
Using wireless tether on the phone, I was able to get my NC to the internet using Wi-Fi. Attempted Bluetooth tethering but that was a no go.
Thank to all for the recommendations.

my samsung galaxy s gt-i9000m is a fantastic bit of hardware that had lots of software issues that made out seem as though it was bad hardware. I found software fixes for everything that was wrong, e.g., microphone distortion, gps failure to lock, etc. & now it is a perfect device. Maybe HTC is better out of the box, but if you are a tweaker the galaxy is rewarding.

iolinux333 said:
my samsung galaxy s gt-i9000m is a fantastic bit of hardware that had lots of software issues that made out seem as though it was bad hardware. I found software fixes for everything that was wrong, e.g., microphone distortion, gps failure to lock, etc. & now it is a perfect device. Maybe HTC is better out of the box, but if you are a tweaker the galaxy is rewarding.
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+1
10chars

Thunderbolt, Droid Charge are the best options. If 4G is not a must, the Droid X2 has a dual core.
They all will do what you want. Just different styles which is up to your personal tastes.
I have now had htc samsung and moto phones (all Android) and there are pros and cons. Just go to a store and see what feels best when you hold it.
Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt with Das Bamf 2.0

There really is no "best android" phone IMO. There are different needs for different reasons and people. You mention that you want to make them work seamlessly, blue tooth or tethering both will work. As long as the phone is rootable and a selection is there for apps to work together from phone to NC, then the simple answer is with phone do you prefer? I always make sure my phones have a battery that can be removed..screen is easy on eyes and I have a good feel for it. Currently using my EVO which is sprint for both my nook, transformer and when also my netbook. I might upgrade to the 3d and even thought about samsung galaxy 2..from what a friend of mine told me who has a samsung...flash CM in it becuase of the update issues..he is TMobile..

4g
Well
i use evo 4g with cm7 latest nightly to tether to my nc... it compliment each other....
Donny

I owned a galaxy s on tmo before. I liked it a lot. Very light, great screen, decent power. No build issues other than flaky GPS (vibrant version only?) Hard to brick for those who flash a lot. Problem with file system early on(due to proprietary fs), solved by roms. I actually unlocked it and still switch to it from my inspire4g. No locked bootloader.
But really, any android (that is unlocked bootloader) will work... its all about preferences.
Sent from my Apple IIe

hololight said:
Sent from my Apple IIe
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Do you really still have a IIe? (yea, right) That would be awesome. I had two of them at one time...

Do you think the there are too many android phones

I really like my d3 but I feel like its old already with rumors of the d4 so quick and the samsung nexus coming out. It seems that the market is flooded with android phones. Even my friends that have the iphone ask " why are there so many android phones that come so quickly" and I agree with them. I love android and will always have one. When I read things that say android has the market share I can't but wonder if its do the the huge number of android phones. I wish google would grow a pair and stop this. I would love to see just a few android phones " all stock " come out and show people that don't reallly know what a stock android phone is. I think its moto and htc, and samsung messing it all up with there ui's. And because of this is why the d3 will get lost. And its a great phone. Their are a lot of great phones but you buy one and a month later 3 more that are faster bigger come out. The only good thing about all the phones is that they all try to out do the other. So the technology gets better faster. But I would love to see less and more stock phones. Im tiered of explaining moto blur to people. My friends that have the iphone are right when they say what's wrong with stock android that the manfactures have to hide it. They have a good point. But anyway I just thought this needed to be said and now I wait 8 months till my upgrade and then I will get my samsung nexus and im back on stock forever. Also I know that we have roms and your phone can be stock with these but its still not the same.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App

Google has little control over whether an OEM skins Android or not - Android is open source, and whuile I believe that they have specific requirements to get the Google market and apps, the OEMs are free to alter the framework. Of course, it is not the OEMs who simply make the phones - they are trying to sell to carriers, who also have specific demands for specific features (i.e., locked down bootloaders, so users will not be able to install apps that do things like offer hotspot service for free, plus carriers get money from software companies to pre-load specific software on the phones.) It is surely not Google who is controlling when specific makers are offering specific models (with the exception of the Nexus models.)
Google does contract with OEMs roughly once per year to make the Nexus devices, which are pure Android phones (Nexus One January 2010; Nexus S in December 2010; Nexus Prime November 2011.)
Are there too many phones? I would rather have too many great phones coming out frequently than too few phones coming out less frequently. Seriously, even with a Droid 4 coming out 6 months after a Droid 3 (if the release is indeed that tight), the Droid 3 hasn't suddenly become a terrible phone. It's a dual-core OMAP 1 GHz phone with 512 MB of RAM and a very high dpi high resolution display with reasonable battery life. This phone will remain usable for all of a typical 20 month Verizon contract commitment, just as the Droid Incredible remains entirely usable now 18 months or so after its first release.
That's my opinion, anyway. I think it's healthier to be happy that there are so many great phones pushing the envelope so frequently than the alternative - having to wait and try to guess the perfect time to upgrade to a new device. Choice can be hard, but I'd rather be able to choose between many, many models of cars than have Chevy, Ford, Toyota, etc. come out with a single model each every year.
Apple's way is very smart for them, but they do not have to compete with other OEMs making iOS phones. Android OEMs do need to be mindful of each other, and I think both ways are fine. If you are worried that too many phones are being released too fast, then by all means, switch to an iPhone and you'll be able to relax more, or simply buy whichever Nexus device is available at the time you are able or want to upgrade, as they are also now on an approximate yearly cycle. If you have to switch to another carrier to do so, that will surely send a message to the carrier that you are using that if they wanted to keep your business, they should have offered a Nexus device of their own.

Very good points. Just makes me a little mad that I get a phone and and one that I would rather have comes out a few months later. But then again I did not know that at the time. I just nee to maybe wait before jumping in. I do think that the samsung nexus will be the best selling phone of all time. I think that will send a measage to the carriers that stock it always better. I would like to think that stock it better now that 4.0 is out.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App

This is the point that technology is at man. Every company is going to make devices that cater to each type of person. These smartphones really haven't been out long if you think about it in relative terms. I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years we start seeing the smartphones get narrowed down into a few types of droids and of course 1 or 2 ugly step cousins made by that Apple company.
So to answer your question, yea, there may be a big selection of phones out there and by the time you get used to using one it is already outdated, but that's part of the fun of being at the edge of how far technology has gotten us.

I don't think the problem lies with too many phones but personally I think the carriers and OEMs are taking way too much advantage over the position that they are in.
When I bought my OG Droid, I went with a one year contract because I knew that soon enough a new phone would be out to replace it. This turned out to be incorrect as that was when Android phones were still in their adolescence.
In July, when I finally decided it was time to upgrade to the Droid 3, Verizon no longer offered a one-year contract and there was no sign of a QWERTY slider coming out for awhile. So I felt confident in choosing the Droid 3...
Here I sit, 4 months into a 2-year contract, the Droid 4 is on the horizon and my only option when it comes out is to buy it at full non-subsidized price. Which brings me to my next point...
Why are the non-contract prices SO high for these devices?! The cost of production and materials cannot be THAT high to warrant such a price. Add in the fact that the Operating System (Minus Blur/Sense/Etc) is "free" (to an extent).
To me it just seems like if we want to go with a prepaid, non-contract carrier we have to pay a really high price for a good phone. But when we go to a contract carrier, we are stuck for two years (unless you pay $300+ to cancel the contract) and when a new device comes out we must simply ignore it or cough up $600-700.
Am I wrong or is this the truth? Pardon my rant.

I think Android phones are being released insanely fast. There was a time when I'd read about all of them but now it seems like 3-4 new phones are announced every damn day. And they're ALL the same. Dual-Core, 4G, Gingerbread.

Ya they are all the same for the most part. That's what I don't like. Just wish the carriers would slow down, and focuse on one or two phones. Just can't wait till my upgrade comes. Just afraid that the different ui's will be not be good for android. People need to know what android looks like. Its not blur or sense and those ui's slow phones down a bit aswell.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App

spacecasespiff said:
Ya they are all the same for the most part. That's what I don't like. Just wish the carriers would slow down, and focuse on one or two phones. Just can't wait till my upgrade comes. Just afraid that the different ui's will be not be good for android. People need to know what android looks like. Its not blur or sense and those ui's slow phones down a bit aswell.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
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Google needs to put it's foot down and say no more skins. Skins should come as flashable roms from Moto or HTC, etc.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium

Androidsims said:
Google needs to put it's foot down and say no more skins. Skins should come as flashable roms from Moto or HTC, etc.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
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No it doesn't. It completely goes against what makes Android so good. Developers like being able to brand their phones, something they can't do under Windows Phone and obviously IOS. Flashable roms would just be confusing and potentially unstable for the average consumer.

Ya but people don't know what android looks like because of these skins. People think that blur is android and its not. Goggle should at least tell then to have more phones that are stock. Why hide android? Most people put roms on there phones to get rid of the skins. I know that's what I do.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App

spacecasespiff said:
Most people put roms on there phones to get rid of the skins.
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This is probably true of people who mod their phone, but definitely not true of Android users as a whole. I would guess that less then 10% of Android users actually mod their phones. While it's a small sample, out of the 9 people I know personally that own Android phones, only 2 of them have modded it, and they only did it because I did it for them because they complained of the phone being too slow (Droid 1's). Although both recently upgraded to iphones.
The bottom line is the majority of Android users don't care about what their phone looks like or what Android truly looks like. The same way I don't care about whats under the hood of my car. A car gets me from point A to point B, what makes that happen is irrelevant to me. All I care is if the car is visually appealing to me. And maybe more recently MPG, because of the cost of gas is so god damn high.

Well the nice thing is, as long as XDA exists then we will always have a more current phone. If my Droid 3 would have not crapped out on me because of the screen I would still be using it at 1 GHz with the latest Gingerbread. Once we figure out how to mod the D3 better and better and if we do ever get the unlocked bootloader then our phones will still be just as current as the Nexus Prime or whatever is newer and better.
The specs of this phone despite not being 4G are good because the CPU and RAM are up there with the currently released high end phones (except the RAZR). We already have some good custom ROMs out there and I'm sure we will get ICS soon enough thanks to Hash.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App

MrObvious said:
Well the nice thing is, as long as XDA exists then we will always have a more current phone. If my Droid 3 would have not crapped out on me because of the screen I would still be using it at 1 GHz with the latest Gingerbread. Once we figure out how to mod the D3 better and better and if we do ever get the unlocked bootloader then our phones will still be just as current as the Nexus Prime or whatever is newer and better.
The specs of this phone despite not being 4G are good because the CPU and RAM are up there with the currently released high end phones (except the RAZR). We already have some good custom ROMs out there and I'm sure we will get ICS soon enough thanks to Hash.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
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The processor is good but the RAM is definitely lacking. 512MB is just not enough, the phone with stock stuff installed has a pretty terrible multi-tasking experience. Honestly I think the 512 is the reason why Motorola hasn't flagged it for an ICS update yet, because other than that it's basically the same phone as the Bionic/Razr and probably wouldn't be too hard to port.

i4mt3hwin said:
The processor is good but the RAM is definitely lacking. 512MB is just not enough, the phone with stock stuff installed has a pretty terrible multi-tasking experience. Honestly I think the 512 is the reason why Motorola hasn't flagged it for an ICS update yet, because other than that it's basically the same phone as the Bionic/Razr and probably wouldn't be too hard to port.
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No the software is just that bad.

i4mt3hwin said:
The processor is good but the RAM is definitely lacking. 512MB is just not enough, the phone with stock stuff installed has a pretty terrible multi-tasking experience. Honestly I think the 512 is the reason why Motorola hasn't flagged it for an ICS update yet, because other than that it's basically the same phone as the Bionic/Razr and probably wouldn't be too hard to port.
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512 MB will be fine for ICS, I am sure, as the Nexus S will be getting ICS with worse specs than the D3 (i.e., single-core CPU).
It's very possible that Moto and/or VZW will not want to take the time to develop ICS for the D3, or push it out, but it won't be because it has "only" 512 MB of RAM.

doogald said:
512 MB will be fine for ICS, I am sure, as the Nexus S will be getting ICS with worse specs than the D3 (i.e., single-core CPU).
It's very possible that Moto and/or VZW will not want to take the time to develop ICS for the D3, or push it out, but it won't be because it has "only" 512 MB of RAM.
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The Nexus S doesn't have a ton of bloatware on it. Verizon will have to port all the applications that are stock loaded with the Droid 3 2.3.4 build over to ICS. I'm going to go ahead and assume that ICS probably uses more RAM than gingerbread. Couple that with the crap software Verizon loads on the phone and there is definitely a case for ram being an issue. I mean the stock phone blows as is, run maps and music and it slows to a crawl.

I think the over abundance of Android phones can be disheartening at first glance, but when you think about it, remember back a few years to when the original razr was the hot phone. After owning it for two years, you go in to get an upgrade to find that the best phone on the market is still a razr, but now it can play mp3s. If you use your head, you realize that all of these people who are worried about having the latest and greatest phone and go out to buy it as it is released still have a perfectly good "last month" phone. Hello Ebay. I saved my upgrade and bought a one month old D3 off ebay for $300. Use your upgrades when the RIGHT phone comes out, until then pick up the scraps from ebay at half price. Remember, even a used phone from ebay still carries a mfg warranty.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App

I agree with OP that there are too many Android phones and not enough variety. i think the main difference is that while the iPhone was originally locked to one market, Android phones were everywhere. Each carrier had their own version of each phone made by each manufacturer, not to mention their individual contracts for certain phones that ended up getting out to other carriers eventually (i.e. Evo). My issue is there isn't much variety, yeah they have small upgrades here and there and small differences but the main thing is once a 1ghz 4.3" screen came out, every company made one. Once dual core came out, every company made one. Not much innovation imo, just keeping up with the competition. And I still don't understand why there are barely any QWERTY keyboards, another reason why it seems like most of the phones coming out are the same.
For me it all has began to come down to the looks department. I know I want a QWERTY so i had limited options, but even if it was an all touch screen you look for one that you can live with looking at every day and bite the bullet. Chances are everyone else will have one with similar specs just different body design.

How important is a keyboard to you?

I'd like to know how important having a keyboard is to you guys. I'd like to buy a new phone soon and I'm picking between this phone, the Galaxy Nexus, and waiting for a Droid 4. The thing is, I use AT&T which none of these phones are available for. The Droid 4 is said to come with GSM bands, and I know the D3 does, so I can work with that. My question is whether it's worth giving up the Droids' keyboards for the Galaxy Nexus' superior specs.
P.S. I'm coming from a 4 year old HTC Kaiser, so anything is an upgrade.

I love my keyboard. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have one. I definitely would sacrifice a little on the processor and ram to have a keyboard phone,
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App

I chose the droid 3 specifically because of the keyboard. That and the fact that it needed to be new and android

My droid 3 was the best phone I ever used, the keyboard is amazing. But the phone sometimes lagged with only 512mb or ram, the boot loader is not unlocked, other than that stuff it is blazing! I would suggest waiting for the droid 4 if you love qwerty keyboards that much but go for the nexus if you cant wait for a phone and want specs now.

ourtut said:
My droid 3 was the best phone I ever used, the keyboard is amazing. But the phone sometimes lagged with only 512mb or ram, the boot loader is not unlocked, other than that stuff it is blazing! I would suggest waiting for the droid 4 if you love qwerty keyboards that much but go for the nexus if you cant wait for a phone and want specs now.
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The thing is, I have AT&T, not Verizon. I don't know if the Nexus will ever come to AT&T and the Droid 4 may or may not have GSM bands.

I always go for the best phone available with keyboard. My XT860, which is the nearly identical cousin of the Droid 3 (except 4G), unlocked, works with my AT&T sim card when I travel in U.S. might be worth your considering.
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium

Thank you, that's very useful to know. I hope it's possible to do the same with the Droid 4, because this phone will become obsolete when that comes out.

My advice is not to get the Verizon version as it is a pain to get unlocked for AT&T but the 860. But other then that yes this is a good phone. If Hash can get the kinks worked out for ICS (I know he can), then it will be an amazing phone. It is still new enough hardware wise it isn't a big deal.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App

You can get unlocked gsm nexus online. It means you pay full price instead of using a carrier upgrade. Check out www.negrielectronics.com (I'm in no way affaliated, I just know they have gsm nexus)
Sent from my XT860 using xda premium

The physical keyboard is really a person preference thing. Generally speaking, the recent phones that have physical keyboards are usually slightly lacking in other departments like screen size/quality and/or RAM. What I'm getting at is having a physical keyboard is usually a trade off, but those of us that are willing to make that trade will swear by them because we greatly dislike having only a virtual keyboard.
The advice mentioned earlier about getting a non-Verizon version is sound advice. It is my understanding that Verizon's GSM capable phones are locked for other US GSM carriers. You could probably avoid a lot of headaches by not getting a Verizon phone if you don't plan on using them as your carrier.

But I thought this would remedy all my GSM-related needs.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=20634546

There is that hack to get At&t working on the Verizon Droid 3 and if you are comfortable doing it then go ahead. It will require rooting and unlocking.
Otherwise you could look at getting the international XT860 since it will work on At&t out of the box. You could probably grab a Canadian one off ebay and to pop in your At&t SIM and not have to do anything else.
But if you don't mind doing that hack, the US XT862 is getting more dev attention it seems so it may be a better investment.

I'm using my Verizon D3 (xt862) on T-Mobile, which only allows me to use Edge. The process to hack it to use GSM isn't hard, and it's pretty reliable still, but does require unlocking the phone through Verizon. I've heard a ton of problems coming from people who think they can get it to work using paid for unlock codes, so I'd advise being sure you can get the VZW unlock code from the source.
This phone is compatible with AT&T 3G bands, so if RAM isn't too big an issue (works fine with 512 MB IMHO), then this phone works great. I would argue that the D4 coming out won't make this phone outdated unless it comes stock with ICS. That would mean it would get a lot more developer attention probably, but wouldn't necessarily make me switch right away
Sent while mobile using Tapatalk.

Without a doubt, i'd go with a keyboard. I picked this phone specifically because of that.

ChocolateShein said:
I'd like to know how important having a keyboard is to you guys. I'd like to buy a new phone soon and I'm picking between this phone, the Galaxy Nexus, and waiting for a Droid 4. The thing is, I use AT&T which none of these phones are available for. The Droid 4 is said to come with GSM bands, and I know the D3 does, so I can work with that. My question is whether it's worth giving up the Droids' keyboards for the Galaxy Nexus' superior specs.
P.S. I'm coming from a 4 year old HTC Kaiser, so anything is an upgrade.
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i got fat fingers soo a keyboard will be a must for me since i do heavy messaging with my phones, but bear in mind the Nexus do have a larger screen and there are keyboard apps that give a wide selection of layout for data entry, i dont know haha but i guess i am milestone used since the day when droid 1 came out, soo i have been buying every droid they ever released. i have a droid 1, 2, 3 now , i am waiting for the droid 4, but i like keyboard, cuz it feels better to type with a hardware keyboard, rather then poking at a screen.
if u are still iffy about the galaxy nexus then i'd say u wait a bit longer, new year they have to have new phones to be released

Keyboards are amazing, I have all Droid phones with keyboards (Milestone 1, Milestone 2 and finally Droid 3) and it`s impossible for me to buy a phone without HW keyboard anymore

keyboard is the major reason for me buying xt860

I'll be the dissenter. I lived for a couple of years with a virtual keyboard only and I am fine with that. I chose the D3 because I wanted a stable 3G phone, I wanted Moto because my house is in a weak cell area for Verizon and Moto has better radios, and the world phone capability I felt was a good idea for me - we are planning to do some travel in the next year and a half.
Ok, that said, once I tried the keyboard, I loved it. The original plan was just to ignore the hardware keyboard, but now I almost always use it.

I can't stand using a virtual keyboard, I am always hitting a wrong key. The Droid 3 physical keyboard is great and is a must in my book!

For me, it's the deciding factor in purchasing an Android phone. I waited and watched for the Droid 3's five-row keyboard as the first satisfactory upgrade from my HTC Dream.
My password contains numbers, so having to hit all those extra shifts on my iPod Touch poops me to tears. That and my continuous fat-fingering on the on-screen keyboard. I can use my fingernails on my Milestone 3's keyboard quite happily, with nary a mistake.

Would you recommend the Droid 3?

I recently bought an HTC Desire Z but was given the T-mobile model which doesn't suppport 850Mhz 3G, which is what my local network runs. The eBay seller has a Droid 3 XT883 that he can exchange my HTC for, would you recommend your Droid?
I really like the QWERTY keyboard on the HTC but there seems to be less in the way of ROMs for the Droid. Any other models you can suggest?

ashok_fernandez said:
I recently bought an HTC Desire Z but was given the T-mobile model which doesn't suppport 850Mhz 3G, which is what my local network runs. The eBay seller has a Droid 3 XT883 that he can exchange my HTC for, would you recommend your Droid?
I really like the QWERTY keyboard on the HTC but there seems to be less in the way of ROMs for the Droid. Any other models you can suggest?
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Its not a bad device, its got a solid cpu and ram which is still pretty speedy, the keyboard is one of the best available ( besides the droid 4's ), but in terms of roms and dev support its almost dead. They devs still around are still working very hard but sometimes a lot of things are outdated , and if you get brick it can be hard with limited support.

It is quite durable and reliable, easy to root as well, once hash develops the JB ROM it'll be a solid phone. I use mine day to day, on an ICS ROM, and it works well. However, doesn't mean I won't buy the fighter once is out, due to the fact that its a bit old. But I would recommend it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers

Never even approach to this phone. It is the worst smartphone I have ever not only owned, but even held in my hand. This phone has managed to disappoint me not even in Motorola, but in whole Android. I'm pulling the thread to get brand new flagship on WP8 - thankfully we will never see WP8 on Motos. F..k Moto, damn droid!

the biggest pro to this phone, the keyboard, sucks for me. i've had 2 now and both have had problems with double pressing keys and some keys (particularly the question mark) not wanting to register. plus there's very little support. stay away
edit: on the pro side i can use it to open my beer bottles because of the metal bezel

DROID 3 - good specs, terrible support/updates. biggest drawback at the moment is the locked bootloader. i'm currently trying to decide whether to keep it (hoping we can actually get an OS update) or sell it.
if you're looking for the QWERTY keyboard and full 3G band support, have a look at the Xperia Pro mk16a. It's a good piece of equipment already running Jelly Bean.

Droid 3 could be good for you
If the following apply to you, the Droid 3 is a great phone:
1. You are OK with not having the latest and greatest version of Android
2. You don't mind rooting
3. 3G rather than 4G is OK for your purposes
Number two kind of applies to all Verizon Android phones in my book. They are so incredibly full of crapware as they come from Verizon that the hardware seems basically crippled by it. However rooting it and installing Titanium backup and then freezing all the crapware so it can't run transforms the phone. Personally I don't much care if I ever get ICS or JB on it. Once de-crapified the version it has is fine in my book. Then again my needs are probably less demanding than others. For me my phone is just a glorified PDA for getting my email, providing appointment notifications and storing my contacts. I use Touchdown for those things and that is going to be pretty much the same no matter what phone I use it on.

The speakerphone is the best I've had so far, very clear sound. The camera is above par as well, crisp and little grain, certainly better than my Atrix.

Absolutely

What's the likelihood of a qwerty phone to replace the Droid 4?

I'm on the MyTouch 4g Slide, and wanting to upgrade to something a bit better. The Droid 4 seems to be the best phone on the market for me. Especially since I will NOT use anything without a real qwerty keyboard. The Manufacturers have had their chance to convince me, and have failed.
But the Droid 4 seems to be on its way out, and it looks like all the sales have ended. I also wonder about battery issues soem have mentioned here. So, what's the likelihood that VZW or anyone else will be coming out with a high-end, good qwerty phone on par with it? I may end up with the D4, I just wondered if there are any popular rumors or expectations since I've been out of the loop for quite a while.

Personally...
Falkner09 said:
I'm on the MyTouch 4g Slide, and wanting to upgrade to something a bit better. The Droid 4 seems to be the best phone on the market for me. Especially since I will NOT use anything without a real qwerty keyboard. The Manufacturers have had their chance to convince me, and have failed.
But the Droid 4 seems to be on its way out, and it looks like all the sales have ended. I also wonder about battery issues soem have mentioned here. So, what's the likelihood that VZW or anyone else will be coming out with a high-end, good qwerty phone on par with it? I may end up with the D4, I just wondered if there are any popular rumors or expectations since I've been out of the loop for quite a while.
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I think the chances are about an even 50-50 split. Motorola is well known for the quality hardware QWERTY keyboard phones. However, we've never seen Google make that kind of phone in their Nexus line, so I don't know the chances of them making physical keyboard phones via the Motorola brand. QWERTY keyboard phones have lost popularity due to their need of increased size and weight for said keyboard. So in the end, i think it's a toss-up.