About to upgrade - Motorola Droid Bionic

I am about to upgrade my phone. Currently on a Touch Pro 2 and Xrom. This will be my first Android phone and obviously I am considering the Bionic. I know nothing about Android and since Microsoft seems to have abandoned the smartphone world and very few phones are on 7, it seems like a good time to make the move.
I have read the reviews, scoured this forum and it looks like the Bionic is everything it is supposed to be. I am a noob, just an old one, this phone is my b-day present to myself, will be 48 in a few days. I do have a few questions...
Is the Bionic really the shiznit phone or should I wait for a while for a better phone on the horizon?
I can get this phone for $220 bucks through Amazon or $250 through Verizon. Is there any reason to not get it from Amazon?
I am not quite ready to get into flashing new rom's on Android as I have a lot of learning to do first, but I hate bloatware. With the TP2 getting off the stock rom was a good thing, I can go two days on a battery charge, but is it as important with Android? I know the Bionic can be rooted and bloatware removed, but does it slow the phone down if it is left there?
Thanks in advance, this forum rocks!

I upgraded from the TP2. Couldn't be happier. Didn't have many problems with the TP2, but it's old and outdated. This thing is just a beast. You could wait for something better, but I decided that it was time. If something else comes out and I want it, I'll just use a different upgrade.

Thanks, actually I have had zero issues with my TP2 that I got right after it's release. I wasn't sure I wanted to give it up, but I will have it as a backup phone so that works out. My only apprehension is the Motorola phone, I swore I would never have another after the MotoQ that got replaced 4 times in 4 weeks before I demanded a Touch Pro 1 and Verizon coughed it up to keep me happy.
I like new and learning Android will be fun. I just don't want to go through what I did with the MotoQ, what a pc of crap that was. Motorola used to be awesome, but I haven't had a good Moto phone since the StarTac.

Regarding buying it thru Vz vs. Amazon....a couple things come to mind
1) Who has a better return/exchange policy? Vz has 14 days to return and $30 restocking fee. If the phone is defective in the 1st year I believe Vz would give you a Factory Refurbished Phone. How does Amazon stack up to that? Brick and mortar store gives you same day service, pretty important if you can't live w/out your phone.
2) Are you planning to get any accessories? I don't know if it's still going on but when I bought my Bionic with the HD Dock, the dock ended up being $54. Normally I get a corporate discount of 25% on accessories, but this must have been some other promotion. So you may want to shop your complete purchase and get a total out the door price.
I had some buyer's remorse initially with the Bionic but overall I love the phone. I came from the HTC Incredible. The colors were more vibrant on the Incredible, but the Bionic looks OK. Reds, blues, and greens all reproduce nicely, yellow and orange leave something to be desired tho. But if you spend any time at all outdoors, the screen on the Bionic is amazing...it's very visible outside, something I'm not used to with my Incredible.
So far my only serious complaints with the phone is the issues it has switching networks, this is a known issue as you're probably aware and should be fixed with an OTA. Also, I haven't heard this from anyone else so it may be an issue specific to my location, but I exchanged my 1st Bionic b/c the voice quality over 4g was horrible. I could hear fine, but others couldn't hear me very well. The new phone had the same issues so I leave 4G off unless I know I need it. It very well could be an issue with my being on the outer fringe of 4G reception but I'm not sure. When doing speed tests over 4G I was getting 20Mbps down and around 6-8Mpbs up...so it would seem like I have OK signal.
Testing the demo at the store the pentile screen was very noticeable for some of the things I wanted to demo on the phone. I still see it from time to time, but it doesn't bother me, the text is clean and crisp and easy to read so that's good enough for me.
I have a little heartburn over the HD playback capabilities. Being that the phone comes with an HDMI output and offers an HD Dock to connect to your HDTV, I expected a little more with HD playback. I was hoping to throw a bunch of 720P movies on an SD card for when we travel and be able to play back the movies at the hotel. However the only HD playback I've seen from the phone that's smooth is video shot thru the onboard camera. Now I'm trying to figure out how to convert my existing movies to playback better on the Bionic.
None of these issues were dealbreakers for me. I keep in touch with what's on the horizon as far as other devices and aside from 720p resolution screens coming out, there's nothing that's really going to make the Bionic seem outdated. The only other phone I considered holding out for was the Nexus Prime. I like the idea of a brick phone that's just a large touch screen and the function buttons are built in to the app instead of being phsyical buttons...but I'd rather wait until we have a plethora of Ice Cream Sandwich O/S phones to choose from...I didn't want to put all my eggs in Samsung's basket only to be left disappointed.
Also something else to consider regarding 1280x720 screen resolutions...all of Verizon's 4G phones have struggled with battery life, I'd have to imagine a 1280x720 screen is only going to eat that up faster.

I would recommend against the Bionic, but only because of the locked bootloader situation. Not being able to load what I wanted was the reason I left the iPhone -- I don't want to settle for a half-baked solution with a rooted-but-unlocked Bionic.
Overall, the phone performs well (with the exception of random data connection loss and battery drain). But, for $200 or more, I ought to be able to do with the phone what I want.

There is no difference in buying from Amazon or Verizon directly, except with Verizon you have 14 days to return it for a 30% restock fee, Amazon will let you have 30 days. After 30 days you get a refurb from Verizon for the remainder of a year.
I understand battery life, the TP2 I had to charge after about 8 hours until I went with a custom ROM. I don't see much that it can do that I want to do that I can't already do with my TP2, except a better camera and movie playback. I do take pics with my TP2, but I am not sure I would take or play many movies with the Bionic, so that isn't much of an issue. I have a real camera and blue ray players all over the house. I know I would miss my physical keyboard, and every new phone I have touched with a physical keyboard feels like lightweight junk and nothing has the solid feel I am used to. The current Droid phones from Verizon leave little to be desired, with the exception of the Bionic. At least I can say the Bionic has a good feel, I will just have to learn to type on the touchscreen. The screen is large enough that my fat fingers can, I demo'd the phone at a VZ brick and mortar. I will miss my Bing Navigation but can adapt to Google, my old 7 series BMW is not BT capable, but does have Navigation that works, though I am so used to my Bing voice app that I rarely use it. I may get the Nav cradle for the Bionic, it has some appeal.
As far as unlocked phones go, the current trend from Moto seems to be locked bootloaders. I do believe that the awesome people here will crack that code or Motorola will give it up. Though I don't really see much reason to upgrade, my phone is getting old and I am a tech junkie at times. I think the time is now.
I am still interested in other peoples opinions, your experience has value, at least to me.

Related

Considering a Nexus

So I started my android life with a G1, then eventually got a Mytouch. Now I am considering getting a Nexus one, I have the money saved up but I am not 100% sure... I want some experienced users (mainly the people who's root) and tell me, does the battery last good? And are you truly happy with it? Because I can't make up my mind rather to get the Nexus, or the Droid..Or some other new android phones coming to t-mobile soon..(rumors)
But then again I hate the fact that every time I buy a phone a new one comes out.. lol.
Side note: If anyone is selling a nexus, let me know.
G1-evolve said:
So I started my android life with a G1, then eventually got a Mytouch. Now I am considering getting a Nexus one, I have the money saved up but I am not 100% sure... I want some experienced users (mainly the people who's root) and tell me, does the battery last good? And are you truly happy with it? Because I can't make up my mind rather to get the Nexus, or the Droid..Or some other new android phones coming to t-mobile soon..(rumors)
But then again I hate the fact that every time I buy a phone a new one comes out.. lol.
Side note: If anyone is selling a nexus, let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tough situation. You have to realize that at some point, the trigger has to be pulled and when it is, another device will be coming out. That is just how it works. Look at Apple users...they buy a laptop to find out 6 months later something even better is arriving. Technology never waits, so when you want something, jump on it.
If you are on T-Mobile, you can look at the Desire. If you are interested in Verizon, the Incredible is landing soon which is basically a Desire with a boost.
The Nexus is a very open platform with amazing community support and having owned two, I regret nothing. This phone is amazing.
deprecate said:
Tough situation. You have to realize that at some point, the trigger has to be pulled and when it is, another device will be coming out. That is just how it works. Look at Apple users...they buy a laptop to find out 6 months later something even better is arriving. Technology never waits, so when you want something, jump on it.
If you are on T-Mobile, you can look at the Desire. If you are interested in Verizon, the Incredible is landing soon which is basically a Desire with a boost.
The Nexus is a very open platform with amazing community support and having owned two, I regret nothing. This phone is amazing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+infinity!!!!
I have good battery life now with some setting changes in custom rom I run. I have the extended battery so the feeling is comfortable for 1 hand texting. I still have and toy with my G1 but when I leave the house the I have the N1. I wouldn't trade my N1 for any phone out. It took me a few days to get adjusted to not having the physical keyboard but the size of the screen really make it easy. I just didn't get it when I had a mytouch. These are just a few of my options.
Definitely get a Nexus. Like deprecate said, technology will keep moving. You just gotta take the plunge. Battery life has been decent for me but that is most probably cause mine is still a brand new battery. Once it's broken in a little, it should be good.
The processor is ridiculously amazing. Things just work, and work very fast. Trust me, once you use the Nexus for a day and try to go back to G1/Dream, you will wonder how you lived all this time. The HTC Desire Rom for Nexus is actually very good if you like Sense. It also has Flash Player Lite if you're into that. Cyan's Rom, of course, gets better all the time. Honestly there aren't a lot of Rom options yet but that's because there isn't very much that could be improved at this point. Everything just works.
All in all, I say go for it.
the desire seems ok, idk I really might get a nexus I just don't want the battery to suck for a $500+ phone.
Well you gotta be reasonable. It has a 1ghz processor. The thing is gonna be a bit of a juice monkey no matter what. There are undervolted kernels available that help with battery life though.
After a month playing with my rooted N1 (previously had a iphone 3g) i can only say: Wow, this beast is fast. You can multi-task, load custom ROMs, browse fast and soon we will have flash support. Battery life is accetable, so great performance with a so thin design is acceptable. And android is a powerfull and flexible OS. Im very happy with my nexus1.
Sent from my Nexus One using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk
I went through the same thought process as well before buying my Nexus One. The thing that really sold me was the fact that I have a few friends with Android phones and they all seem pretty frustrated that they see all these new Android releases coming out and their phones remain stuck at 1.5. Since the N1 is Google's showcase phone it's pretty much a given that it will always get timely updates to the latest version of Android. I don't think you can say the same for ANY other Android phone (a lot even have boot loaders that can't be unlocked like the Milestone and Rogers HTC Magic) and I doubt any that might come out in the next few months will be that lucky either. Plus this thing is just mind blowing fast.
I came from an iPhone 3G so initially I was slightly disappointed with the touchscreen (it doesn't reject spurious input from fingers and palms that might wrap around the phone) and the less than stellar reception. Every time I put my hand on lower part of the phone and see 2-3 bars of reception disappear I feel shame.
Coming from a Magic I doubt I would ever notice this because these problems exist in those phones too as I believe it uses the same touchscreen and the radio placement is identical.
As for battery life, I actually get pretty good life now that my usage has settled down.
For the Battery if you run one of the UV kernels as well as setcpu with profiles. Also do some of the main things you do with your Mytouch like turn off wifi, GPS, screen brightness to low, only use 3G when you need it other wise leave it on Edge, as well as the many other battery saving ideas. You should should get great battery life. I can go about 16 hours of ok usage and have about 50 to 60% battery life left. Check my Sig for what i am running. Over all i paid full price for my N1 and i am love with phone in every way.

"Upgrade" to a Nexus S and sell my N1?

Hopefully someone here can better explain the differences, pros, and cons of each.
I've been doing some quick research and looking around, even played with the Nexus S at Best Buy, and it seems the main (and ONLY) difference is that the NS has a bigger screen than the N1.
It's my understanding that they both share the same processor, both have the same amount of RAM, both have the same camera, etc.
The only "advantage" to the Nexus S would be the bigger screen and more on-board memory for apps and such, correct?
I can get the Nexus S for $200 through Best Buy and could in turn sell my N1 with it's dock for $400 (already have a buyer lined up). My biggest question, however, is what does the N1 do that the NS does NOT do? Would this be a logical thing to do or is there something that the NS would be lacking by comparison?
Well the NS does not have an SD slot so your stuck with the 16GB of storage.
The NS does have a FFC.
The CPUs are both 1GHz but the NS' is of a newer architecture and is a bit faster especially with games.
The NS touchscreen is better.
I only have an 8GB SD card in my N1 and it's been more than enough, so the "limited" 16GB that the NS has shouldn't be a problem for me.
I'm not sure what "FFC" is...can you define/explain?
Faster or even equal speeds in the processor is fine. I just knew it was close and wasn't inferior to the N1 like a lot of other phones that have come out recently.
And what exactly makes the touchscreen better on the NS? Better resolution or just better responsiveness?
EDIT: I think I just figured out "FFC" means "front facing camera", correct? Not something I'd use, but doesn't hurt either.
It seems that there really isn't a reason NOT to do this exchange. Everything that the N1 can do the NS does and then some. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything that I'd be missing out on if I got rid of my N1 after having gotten used to it for so long. Seems like it would be an easy and smooth transition.
How easy is it to obtain all Google Market apps that have already been purchased when switching devices like this? They're all tied to the account, correct?
Tenacious Steve said:
How easy is it to obtain all Google Market apps that have already been purchased when switching devices like this? They're all tied to the account, correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much, yes. You can get some exceptions - eg CoPilot Live is fiddly to transfer, but the Android licence is valid cross-device (you need to deactivate the old device first). In general, if you've purchased from the market and use the same account on the new phone your apps should be available without issue.
I've transferred from G1, to Magic, to N1 without losing any apps to date (although I've sworn a bit at CoPilot )
Keep in mind the Nexus S doesn't have a notification led.
Apart from the glossy plastic i think the Nexus S is a good device. If it doesn't have the screen inaccuracy or power button failure issues of the N1 it could be a worthwhile upgrade.
Depends how affluent you are feeling right now
I asked myself the same question and I came up with these answers.
N1 is better built
upgradeable sd slot
has a notification led
has less a tendency of sliding out of your hand
same specs
and samsung is notorious about never releasing any updates for any of their phones.
Don't forget the nexus s does not have 2 Mic's. There have been some reports of bad call quality on it in noisy environments with background noise.
Having owned them both...
NS has the NFC (near field communication), which one day may be nice.
The 16gb limit does not really present a problem.
The screen is bigger and is supposedly better, but I didn't see anything that really made the new screen stand out, it is nice. It is curved slightly, which is kinda nice.
NS does not have the same build quality, and does not have the unibody, metal design. The Nexus S does feel cheap next to the N1, but it is not showstopper. N1 has a much cleaner design and looks much 'sexier' IMHO.
NS does not have the trackball, much less the lighted trackball of the N1. NS does not even have a charge indicator.
NS does not come with a case or dedicated charger (has the brick and a data cable)
NS with gingerbread is fast, but does not yet have the dev support of the N1.
I felt the cameras were about similar.
NS does not have the second mic (as someone else pointed out). Not sure about call quality of the listener on the other end. I had problems with reboots, but Google knows there is a problem and is working on it.
Why o Why did they change the order of the home/search/menu/back keys in the NS -what a pain.
NS no SD slot.
NS does not have the dock pins on the bottom to use with a car/desktop dock.
NS has a front camera and more RAM
I would wait until Gingerbread comes out for the N1 before you jump ship. You have 30 days to send the phone back to best buy if you don't like it...
Just felt that the new NS was not 'Google' enough for me. Just missing too many little things. It is like they were trying to make a new Nexus that is *more* like the iphone. Kinda a sellout thing to do in my opinion.
My opinion is to keep your N1, the NS is not a real upgrade in my mind.
EDIT:
another difference... Both have 512 of RAM. N1 has 512 of "ROM", while the NS has 16gb of storage, 1gb reserved for apps and OS.
Thanks for all the replies, guys! After reading some and doing quite a bit more research, including watching comparison videos on YouTube, I have decided to wait.
The only "new" feature that I'd use with the NS is the bigger screen, but I don't really feel that should stand alone as a reason to "upgrade".
The speed differences in the comparison videos were very, VERY minimal and it appears that the N1 has better graphics handling than the NS. It's possible that the minimal speed differences were simply due to the NS having Gingerbread, so hopefully I'll see an increase with the upcoming update for the N1 although if I don't, it's no big problem since it's still the fastest phone I've messed around with.
Another reason is the battery. I've gone as long as 36 hours on my N1 with a single charge and normal use and usually have 60-70% battery life left after a full 15 hour day of being in use. I hear the NS is barely lasting a day for most people which is more than likely in account for the larger screen.
The MAIN reason I've decided to wait, however, is simply because I don't want to be locked into a 2yr contract for the same phone with a bigger screen when the inevitable dual-processor and expanded function phone(s) come out. The N1 does absolutely everything I want/need out of a phone so I'll be waiting until something comes out and totally blows it away and makes it obsolete.
Tenacious Steve said:
..The N1 does absolutely everything I want/need out of a phone so I'll be waiting until something comes out and totally blows it away and makes it obsolete.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too
Hopefully it'll be a new Nexus, made by HTC, with great specs!
I sold my nexus one last week and got a nexus s the same day. I loved my nexus one but my logic for selling my phone is deprecation of the phone when i sell it. Sold the nexus one and dock for 370, not great. So that means I payed $200 for the nexus s. If you are in the market to sell it later you will get less for it. In the next couple of months dual core and 4g is coming out and the value will drop for both phones but i feel that the nexus s will be valued higher. It also seem that the resell market for Galaxy S is bigger then the nexus one, due to the fact that more people know what a Galaxy s phone is.
Some thoughts about the nexus s. The phone seems the same on paper but in actuality its much faster compared the nexus one running gingerbread, this could be that the roms didn't have the drivers. The screen is amazing and i like the look of the nexus s, but miss the dock. NS is a lot lighter in the hand but feels cheap when you're pressing the volume and power buttons. The BIGGEST difference is the responsiveness of the touchscreen.
I have ZERO REGRETS on my purchase of the nexus s.
I have purchased the Nexus S and am still on the fence of whether or not to return it. My previous phone is the Nexus One. The reason that I am on the fence is for the same reason why some people are still trying to decide whether or not to purchase the phone such as there is no led notification, missing sd slot, NFC not really popular at the moment and probably will not be for the next year or two at least in the US, not a dual core phone.
But I will admit it is a nice phone, does have a nice feel, beautiful display, sexy all black face giving it that stealth look, the touchscreen is responsive I don't get all of that wonkiness I used to get with the Nexus one and even with the capacitive touch buttons, those work the way they should. Very responsive in terms of apps seem to respond and open more quickly compared to the N1. It would be nice for google to explain why they chose the phone they chose for there N1 successor, instead of trying to come up with reasons for them.
I have 30 days to decide whether or not to keep the phone. Since I am a T-mobile customer, from as long as I can remember they never really had the hot phones, it was always places like verizon or sprint that had phones that seemed more appealing. And even if t-mobile did end up getting a hot phone it would be like months later after the other networks had that phone for a while ex. razr.
If i had neither an n1 or nexus s and both phones were for sale, I would go for the Nexus S.

[Q] Experience of WIFI tethering, SIP call quality any BAD?

My main usage of the phone will be as an USB modem for my laptop and for SIP, Skype calls.
Anyone try WIFI tethering and USB modem for the whole day long?
and does that stable enough? (heat, disconnection, reboot...)
Can anyone talk about the experience of making a SIP or Skype call. (handfree, loudness, volume adjustment...)
Anyone experience any stability problem? (freeze, reboot...)
=================================================
My review model of the Droid 3 seemed to have reception issues. . . Call quality on the Droid 3 also had its share of problems. . . The phone also does a poor job at filtering out background noises.
mages taken on the 8-megapixel camera came out dark, and all had a blue tint to them.
I've never seen a dual-core phone take so long to open apps or had so many preinstalled applications just crash on me
<from PCWorld review>
It seems to get warm even though I'm not running any apps and I would assume the battery life suffers since it's warmer than it needs to be.
<pekosROB>
Camera Tint? Blue?
<Izeltokatl>
My only major gripe is the batterylife, with all of my social streams, twitter, gplus, facebook, and a couple other i go through the battery in about 10 to 12 hours.
<androidphan88>
I love my droid 3....it crushes my previous phones hands down....and it isn't a weak list.....D1, D2, D2G, X, and X2....all rooted and none compete
Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk
Trust yourself. Go to the store and mess around with one.
Heelfan71 said:
Trust yourself. Go to the store and mess around with one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What he said. I got mine Day 1 without any real reviews. I love it.
People here will give you real-world reviews as well as feedback to any questions you have so I trust the feedback.
As already noted the best thing to do is try before you buy.
I got mine about 3 days ago. The first day I had a few problems to start off on. After a little tweaking here and there everything is working great.
Pentile display on the Droid X2 made me wonder about the Droid 3. The Droid 3 is MUCH better imho.
I had a problem with was sliding the keyboard open. Felt really really tight, but playing around with it loosened it up nicely. The keyboard is one of the best I have used. The Epic keyboard is the other.
The device is SOLID. Feels like a well built phone, and doesn't have the light plastic feel to it. I actually love the feel of it better than the Droid X2 which I also own.
Blur - It not so bad... I actually kinda like this "version" though we really don't have it. Some features of blur I wish I had though. remote wipe, and find your phone. Not that I can find similar in the market... I just don't like loading them, and the blur version CAN'T be removed with a factory reset. So you can track them regardless of where they go.
As the people before me will told you it's always going to be based on YOU and not some review. Each person has different tastes and following a review based on not knowing what the reviewer preferences are what get people into trouble. Test it out yourself for a few hours in the Verizon Store.
Phone Arena has a good review of it,
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Motorola-DROID-3-Review_id2786
For the keyboard check the back of the diisplay when sliding it out for a plastic covering. This was something I had to deal with on the Droid1 and the Droid3 also has it. Removing it helps the keyboard slide a bit. Still quite stiff but nothing that bothers me.
<My review model of the Droid 3 seemed to have reception issues. . . Call quality on the Droid 3 also had its share of problems. . . The phone also does a poor job at filtering out background noises.>
<Images taken on the 8-megapixel camera came out dark, and all had a blue tint to them.>
<I've never seen a dual-core phone take so long to open apps or had so many preinstalled applications just crash on me.>
<Quote from PCWorld review>
The basic phone function sounds worrying?
That's what I can't play with in the shop and why I ask.
abnoob said:
<My review model of the Droid 3 seemed to have reception issues. . . Call quality on the Droid 3 also had its share of problems. . . The phone also does a poor job at filtering out background noises.>
<Images taken on the 8-megapixel camera came out dark, and all had a blue tint to them.>
<I've never seen a dual-core phone take so long to open apps or had so many preinstalled applications just crash on me.>
<Quote from PCWorld review>
The basic phone function sounds worrying?
That's what I can't play in the shop and why I ask.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
to me call quality seems good. Better than my incredible. I don't think the pictures are blueish or dark. I've had no apps crash. I really like this phone. Its already super fast stock. Never lags. Even with pandora going and using handscent popup and on the internet. Its a super solid phone. My only complaint is the power button is almost to stiff.
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
Just for reference, here are my last smartphones since the "BlackBerry era":
Touch Pro/Fuze, Nokia N85, EVO, DX2, D3.
Also, I switched to Verizon to get unlimited data (but more than 30 days before the D3 came out) so I had a DX2. I am much happier with the D3. The primary reason is for the keyboard. If you must have a keyboard and Android device, THIS is the device to get, hands down.
My only nitpicks? It seems to get warm even though I'm not running any apps and I would assume the battery life suffers since it's warmer than it needs to be. Battery life isn't that great, but can probably get through your day. Screen is better than the DX2. Keyboard takes a little getting used to but is awesome.
Edit: since I got my D3 more than 30 days after the DX2, no return was done. I bought the D3 off contract (almost $500 with tax) and sold my DX2 with Otterbox case for $200. I still don't regret spending over $300 for this phone.
Does anyone try wifi tethering or as an modem via USB cable WHOLE DAY?
and does that stable enough?
I need the function everyday at work.
From my experience, many reviews out there are made with such high expectations. Half the time, they are made by humans - and we know humans aren't always perfect. There typically is biasing involved. If the unit is defective in some way, that screws it up entirely.
Honestly, the best consensus is from us here in the forums. We own the phone, many of which are happy with it. Some have had problems, either from incorrect settings and/or a defect in the device (it's possible).
So here is a proposal for you. Compose a list of questions that concern you the most - allow us to justify the answers to those questions based on our needs, usage, background, experience, etc. (Which, you've already posed some questions..)
I have had a the D3 since last wednesday and i love it.
I owned the OG droid and the DX then i moved to this.
As for the questions about call quality. I personally think that is moto's stong point even back to the days of the razr moto to me always has the best call quality and signal of any of the other manufactures.
The new blur is acutually nice. I hated blur on the dx and had it romed as soon as it was available but the blur on this is nice. There really isnt any lag there are a few instances where it does for example. The camera app takes a while to load, and if you get out of a full screen app it seems to take a second to redraw the home screens. But that is it so far much better than previous blurs.
The keyboard is amazing miles ahead of the d1 keyboard and one of the best i have ever used. I will say the screen is not the best if you are looking for color accuracy but it is still good.
My only major gripe is the batterylife, with all of my social streams, twitter, gplus, facebook, and a couple other i go through the battery in about 10 to 12 hours.
I would say go for this phone, deffently the best droid phone i have owned so far

Bionic - best of the 4G's? (phone + roms)

I currently have a Thunderbolt and managed to jack up the screen a bit + the bottom button lights don't come on anymore. No warrenty or insurance on it but Verizon offered to let me do a phone upgrade(even though it hasn't been 2 years yet).
I can get a Charge or Revolution for $200, Thundetbolt for $250, or a Bionic for $300(all new).
The TB's been the only 4G phone I've had so far and enjoyed regularly trying out new radios & roms(including some of the stuff Droid Th3ory had put out).
I figure since the Bionic is the most powerful one so far & DT ditched the TB to support it instead that maybe i'd give it a try also.
Is everyone happy with their Bionic? good roms? does it handle playing 720P .mkv video files well?
I guess there's always the iPhone 4S to....
With a locked bootloader and at only a month on the market the selection of ROMs is a bit thin. The good news is it's a very solid phone straight out of the box and between the fairly dedicated community (especially compared with, say, the Charge) and Motorola's promise to give users the option to unlock their phones "eventually" it will probably be a good choice for the forseeable future.
As far as performance... to put it through its paces, I tried playing a 720p AVI file in soft-decoding mode while running two downloads in tTorrent in the background over 4G. Downloaded at a total of 1.5MBPS and played without stuttering. I was pretty impressed to say the least. Also killed 20% of the battery in 15 minutes, but I wouldn't try that on my i7 EliteBook without the charger, so hey.
MillionManMosh said:
With a locked bootloader and at only a month on the market the selection of ROMs is a bit thin. The good news is it's a very solid phone straight out of the box and between the fairly dedicated community (especially compared with, say, the Charge) and Motorola's promise to give users the option to unlock their phones "eventually" it will probably be a good choice for the forseeable future.
As far as performance... to put it through its paces, I tried playing a 720p AVI file in soft-decoding mode while running two downloads in tTorrent in the background over 4G. Downloaded at a total of 1.5MBPS and played without stuttering. I was pretty impressed to say the least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah i had the Incredible 2 for awhile and remember waiting until around the beginning of July when they announced the S-OFF we were all cheering.
i am assuming that PDANet works on the Bionic just fine to? other then that, do you or anyone else know if Skype works well on the Bionic?
I use Skype as my primary phone(to save on my monthly bill) on the TB. quality wise it's pretty crappy & a lot of the times you hear your own voice echoing back(even if you are somewhere with full 4G reception).
Haven't messed with hotspot a whole lot on this phone, but as for Skype, I can tell you that the most recent build (which came out about the same time as I swapped my Charge for the Bionic) introduced a whole ton of issues and I haven't used it much since. The first few calls I got the ringer kept on going through the entire call and I haven't signed in much since.

Atrix HD: Yes or No?

Okay simple question here, have a chance to buy a brand new sealed Atrix HD for $350. Just looking for some input on what you guys would do, to help me decide. Thanks in advance!
rtg293 said:
Okay simple question here, have a chance to buy a brand new sealed Atrix HD for $350. Just looking for some input on what you guys would do, to help me decide. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want a phone with Top of the line Hardware and ICS that runs smooth and looks pretty stock. Then yes, the Atrix HD is a sexy phone.
If you are looking for a development community and want to do some flashing and Rom'ing then look for another phone.
I'd write more on this subject, but you are asking a question we have gone over a million times since the phone was released.
Look through the Atrix HD General forum. You will see a lot of post from SGS3 owners and HTC One X owners who returned their phones for the Atrix HD.
Atrix HD Cons:
Battery life is acceptable. But weak.
No NFC chip. (oh darn)
No FM Tuner (meh)
Camera Quality is effected tremendously by lighting conditions.
Battery Cannot be removed, charge time is slow. (no options for extended batteries and no keeping spare around)
No Root access.
Locked Bootloader. ( because of this, we have no root, no custom firmware or tweaked Kernels, and no ROMS!!!)
Look through the rest of the forum please. There is so much on the subject already so check it out for yourself.
For that price? Definitely
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app
Kedakari said:
Atrix HD Cons:
Battery life is acceptable. But weak.
No NFC chip. (oh darn)
No FM Tuner (meh)
Camera Quality is effected tremendously by lighting conditions.
Battery Cannot be removed, charge time is slow. (no options for extended batteries and no keeping spare around)
No Root access.
Locked Bootloader. ( because of this, we have no root, no custom firmware or tweaked Kernels, and no ROMS!!!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Meh, the development side will come with time, both atrix(es?) had locked bootloaders, so I expected nothing less with this one. We all just get to sit around the campfire and sing kumbaya until the webkit is realeased . NFC or FM aren't really issues at the moment, I'm in rural (and when I say rural, I mean RURAL) Virginia, me and possibly 20 other people in this town even know what NFC stands for . About the ONLY issue I've read about so far is that darn battery! Come on now Moto!
colts187 said:
For that price? Definitely
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LoL my thoughts exactly, almost too good NOT to get.
rtg293 said:
Meh, the development side will come with time, both atrix(es?) had locked bootloaders, so I expected nothing less with this one. We all just get to sit around the campfire and sing kumbaya until the webkit is realeased . NFC or FM aren't really issues at the moment, I'm in rural (and when I say rural, I mean RURAL) Virginia, me and possibly 20 other people in this town even know what NFC stands for . About the ONLY issue I've read about so far is that darn battery! Come on now Moto!
LoL my thoughts exactly, almost too good NOT to get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didnt want to seem like a fan boy that would give you biased information. So I just gave you the cons and let you decide on your own.
I'm between Northern VA and Washington DC in the over developed Tysons area. So NFC and all that Jazz is picking up.
This area is like the east coast's version of Beverly Hills. EVERYONE around here either has the SGS3 or an Iphone.
Looking at the prices for off contract phones, I'd say you have a really good deal.
Get it, its a nice phone and it'll do what it was engineered to do.
As for boot loaders being unlocked, I think it was only the Original Atrix and the Atrix 4g that got unlocked. The Atrix 2 (The phone I upgraded from) Still has a locked bootloader, and STILL has no ICS.
My one and only complaint is that I had a lapdock that I could no longer use because Webtop OS was removed.
I could careless for the bootloader as I dont like messing with non-stock firmware and kernels.
I'd really like to see this phone being rooted because this phone has a lot of potential just in editing the build.prop to be a much better performing phone than the SGS3
Anyways, thats just my 2 cents.
colts187 said:
For that price? Definitely
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea for that price, it's too good to pass up. Plus Motorola is the best when it comes to RF and call quality. I keep hearing the build quality on
the Atrix HD is excellent. It's coming to Canada next week! You bet I'll be getting it.
If $49 is all you can afford the Atrix is a good choice. If you can afford $199 the Gs3 is the superior device. Bigger screen, bigger battery, double the RAM, superior camera in all lighting conditions, more dev support, NFC. If you dont like touchwiz, plenty of free launchers. If you don't like the plastic, easy to put a case on. Much harder to fix the shortcomings on the Atrix.
350$ is a great deal for this phone. I wouldn't miss it.
My opinion when i got the s3 i missed my 1x like no other then returned the s3 and went back to the 1x i sold my 1x to get this and havent missed it yet. The only thing im not liking that much is battery life but i can live with that. With the 1x i could easily make it through a day with 5 hour's screen on time with root 3 without root. So im getting about the same time without root. The screen is amazing to me i like it better than fhe 1x and s3 but thats just my opinion. This is an amazing phone for the price
Sent from my MB886 using xda premium
I was in the same boat. I was selling my Atrix 4G with lapdock, car dock, standard dock and a few accessories for $350, planning on upgrading to a galaxy S3 with the proceeds. I got an offer to trade straight up for an Atrix HD (no contract renewal required!) and I took it. I have only played with the phone for an hour or two so far and all seems great.
And... if push comes to shove, I should be able to get at least $350 out of it!
Kedakari said:
If you want a phone with Top of the line Hardware and ICS that runs smooth and looks pretty stock. Then yes, the Atrix HD is a sexy phone.
If you are looking for a development community and want to do some flashing and Rom'ing then look for another phone.
I'd write more on this subject, but you are asking a question we have gone over a million times since the phone was released.
Look through the Atrix HD General forum. You will see a lot of post from SGS3 owners and HTC One X owners who returned their phones for the Atrix HD.
Atrix HD Cons:
Battery life is acceptable. But weak.
No NFC chip. (oh darn)
No FM Tuner (meh)
Camera Quality is effected tremendously by lighting conditions.
Battery Cannot be removed, charge time is slow. (no options for extended batteries and no keeping spare around)
No Root access.
Locked Bootloader. ( because of this, we have no root, no custom firmware or tweaked Kernels, and no ROMS!!!)
Look through the rest of the forum please. There is so much on the subject already so check it out for yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, HOX and GS3 users returned to get Atrix HD?! That is the perfect example of insanity. I wouldn't return my Atrix 2 for a AHD, let alone an HOX or my beloved GS3. Unlocked bootloader, removable battery, superior camera, incredible dev support, JB coming very soon, ridiculous aftermarket support.....who'd give that up for a device with pretty much the opposite of that?
I returned my hd and got another one x cuz the battery sucketh
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
I got the AHD cause I had to... All in all, I'm kinda sorry I traded in my RAZR (which was basically a small tab, since I couldn't afford Verizon's wallet raping) for this phone... If I can afford to, I'm returning it, and getting an S III. I don't want that one either, but the options are far better...
I chose the red pill... Now I'm in the mAtrix and I know Kung Fu...
http://android-gz.com
This phone seems like a good value, nice build quality, great screen and nice design. Hope you don't mind me asking a few questions since I've been an iOS user for years and am an Android noob.
1. If music is imported from iTunes to this phone using the Welcome Home apps that AT&T provides, will it play in its current file format, or do I need to change the mp4 to mp3 in iTunes before transferring?
2. I have several email accounts (Yahoo, Comcast, Go Daddy) including Gmail where my contacts are stored. Is the stock email app on this phone unified and capable of adding all the accounts or do I have to use individual email apps? And does it offer both POP and IMAP types?
3. I understand the boot loader is locked but it's important to me that whatever phone I get that it can be updated to JB. Is it at all possible that Moto will update the OS?
4. Is it possible to move apps to the microSD or just photos, videos, etc?
Thanks.
nuance4u said:
This phone seems like a good value, nice build quality, great screen and nice design. Hope you don't mind me asking a few questions since I've been an iOS user for years and am an Android noob.
1. If music is imported from iTunes to this phone using the Welcome Home apps that AT&T provides, will it play in its current file format, or do I need to change the mp4 to mp3 in iTunes before transferring?
2. I have several email accounts (Yahoo, Comcast, Go Daddy) including Gmail where my contacts are stored. Is the stock email app on this phone unified and capable of adding all the accounts or do I have to use individual email apps? And does it offer both POP and IMAP types?
3. I understand the boot loader is locked but it's important to me that whatever phone I get that it can be updated to JB. Is it at all possible that Moto will update the OS?
4. Is it possible to move apps to the microSD or just photos, videos, etc?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. not sure, but aiff files definitely don't work on android phones
2. Yes, and yes, but gmail decides to also add any gmail email you add which can be annoying sometimes (turn off notifications on one of the two apps)
3. it's debateable
4. as far as i know not from stock, but if anyone knows an app that can do this, i would love to know about it.
Well, been away for a couple of days, so I figure everyone needs an update on my original thread topic. I ended up buying it because, well, I am a sucker for a good deal. Initial impressions were about like everyone's experience. Silky smooth, almost vanilla-"like" UI, so-so battery life. I've got to say though, after letting the battery cycle a couple of times, and installing Juice Defender (first app that goes on ANY new phone I get), the battery life has improved significantly. I've been unplugged since about 5:45am, charged about 15 minutes on my hour lunch break in the car, it's now 11pm and I am at 70% with about an hour and a half or so of internet use, about 35 minutes of Backstab HD , and about 15 minutes of Angry Birds.
nuance4u said:
2. I have several email accounts (Yahoo, Comcast, Go Daddy) including Gmail where my contacts are stored. Is the stock email app on this phone unified and capable of adding all the accounts or do I have to use individual email apps? And does it offer both POP and IMAP types?
3. I understand the boot loader is locked but it's important to me that whatever phone I get that it can be updated to JB. Is it at all possible that Moto will update the OS?
4. Is it possible to move apps to the microSD or just photos, videos, etc?
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2. I can answer this partly. The stock gmail app will let you add multiple gmail accounts, so I am assuming you can multiple email accounts also. And it does offer both POP3 and IMAP types.
3. I'm willing to step out on a limb and say yes it will receive an official JB update. If Google hadn't bought Moto, then I wouldn't be near brave enough to touch this topic lol, but I feel pretty secure saying it will receive the update.
4. I know you can do it with TI Backup on other phones, but that requires root, like all "good" android apps , so I'm assuming it may work when someone finally roots this thing. Don't let the "free app2sd" apps fool you though, I've tested about 7 or 8 of them on my AHD so far with no luck.
---edit---
Scratch that answer for 4, apparently app2sd was a feature taken out in ICS.
Yes or No
Thanks folks.. it appears nobody here has been a recent iOS user hence the unclear answer around whether I need to change the iTunes music format.. Am also wondering about ring tones since I created about a dozen using music from iTunes.
Meantime, I ordered a white AHD from Amazon and evidently due to lack of proper box labeling on Moto's part, I was shipped the wrong color twice, so we decided it was best to cancel the order until Amazon could get things figured out. It appears they have now, and showing some proper business etiquette they gave me two credits amounting to more than I paid for the phone
In the interim, I did some more research and read and watched some more reviews of which several reviewers thought the build quality was marginal and complained of flimsy power and volume buttons that were also loose. Has anyone here experienced this? Good to see that Juice Defender helps with the battery issue too since that is obviously another weak link.
And as you may know too, due to slower than desired sales of the HTC One X, the price is dropping to the same as the AHD on Sunday, making this is even more difficult choice, though the One X does not have a microSD slot and from what I've seen, has had some pretty major hardware issues along with a poor job with how Sense screwed up multi-tasking. Any thoughts or recommendations here? I have to wait a few days until my upgrade is reset anyway, so I'm going to take my time. Thanks.
rtg293 said:
Well, been away for a couple of days, so I figure everyone needs an update on my original thread topic. I ended up buying it because, well, I am a sucker for a good deal. Initial impressions were about like everyone's experience. Silky smooth, almost vanilla-"like" UI, so-so battery life. I've got to say though, after letting the battery cycle a couple of times, and installing Juice Defender (first app that goes on ANY new phone I get), the battery life has improved significantly. I've been unplugged since about 5:45am, charged about 15 minutes on my hour lunch break in the car, it's now 11pm and I am at 70% with about an hour and a half or so of internet use, about 35 minutes of Backstab HD , and about 15 minutes of Angry Birds.
2. I can answer this partly. The stock gmail app will let you add multiple gmail accounts, so I am assuming you can multiple email accounts also. And it does offer both POP3 and IMAP types.
3. I'm willing to step out on a limb and say yes it will receive an official JB update. If Google hadn't bought Moto, then I wouldn't be near brave enough to touch this topic lol, but I feel pretty secure saying it will receive the update.
4. I know you can do it with TI Backup on other phones, but that requires root, like all "good" android apps , so I'm assuming it may work when someone finally roots this thing. Don't let the "free app2sd" apps fool you though, I've tested about 7 or 8 of them on my AHD so far with no luck.
---edit---
Scratch that answer for 4, apparently app2sd was a feature taken out in ICS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was an ios user (ipod touch 4) recently, but i never bought songs from itunes, though all of my songs except the .aiff files uploaded to google music easily, so i say go ahead and try that on your computer first, if it works you should have no problem.
I'm a former iPhone user and currently have a HOX. I was able to use google play music on my mac to transfer my songs to google music and then sync with the phone the google play music app allows to store music on the device or cloud (similar to how the iTunes cloud worked).
As for which device is better, I have had no hardware issues with the phone. Actually the hardware is pretty impressive even without the microSD card and the camera is second to none (that includes my wife's iPhone4s). My only gripe is multitasking but that is fixable by flashing various ROMs and rumored to be fixed in the next software release based on a leaked update. And now that HTC had released source, development is likely to only pick up.
So why am I hanging out in the MAHD forum? I'm intrigued by this device and the slightly smaller screen, the unlock button on the side versus the top and new Motorola skin. In fact I'm using the MAHD launcher and widgets on one.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
I had the hox and it was osm but something about this phone i dont miss the hox. I love the size and screen is osm. Prolly just my prefference
Sent from my MB886 using xda premium

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