"Old" Motorola Droid offered to me for free... - Motorola Droid and Milestone General

So a guy I know has this "busted" Motorola Droid, the original model, with an apparently shattered glass/digitizer that I'd need to replace (as I understand it the LCD is fine), and while I'm a huge fan of getting myself yet another HTC HD2 and working with it, since this is gonna be a complete freebee I figured I'll do some experiments with it.
Is the original Droid still useful for many people, since it came out well over 2 years ago? I am not expecting ICS on it (although I see a few people making claims they're working on it), and with the low end specs - compared to today's high end "pocket rockets" with dual cores and 3x the speed or more, I figure I'll end up using the Droid (after I get it functional again) as a PMP actually; a makeshift "Droid touch" of sorts (iPod touch pun) since I don't plan on using it as an actual cellphone anytime soon. Already have 2 phones with NET10 and I can't do anything to the Droid to flash it and make it compatible so... it's basically going to be a PMP for me.
I'm guessing if I can get Android 2.3 on it then I should be able to run all the apps that I've used with my HTC HD2 in the past running Gingerbread, shouldn't be any issues aside from them just running slower overall because of the Droid's far slower clock speed.
I'm sure overclocking is a potential but I need to do a lot more research to see what's possible there without causing damage to the device. Just because it's free doesn't mean I have intentions on destroying the damned thing.
Just wanted to ask if other people still have their Droid 1st gen and what they're using them for if anyone cares to say. Also, what kinds of cases, docks, accessories might you be using, especially with battery life too and any recommendations for something with more capacity/time available.
Thanks, and have fun, always...

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Related

Is it unlikely the Nexus One will be overtaken soon?

As I said in another thread, I am probably going to sell my Desire and get an N1.
But I am wary of buying a 6 month old phone - especially with the rate android is moving forward at.
My question is - will the N1 be surpasses anytime soon with another google phone?
I know there are other phones out their with better specs (eg EVO) but I am talking about a real google phone, like the N1, which gets updates straight from google without anyone in between getting in the way.
It's probably a stupid question asking seeing as no one knows what companies are planning, but I guess I'm just looking for someone to convince me to take the plunge!
my guess is that the nexus one wil lbe the flagship phone, google's phone, for a full year. so look until january before a replacement comes along. even though the incredible and evo are here, the nexus one remains the developer phone. and i dont think that is going to change until january. just my opinion.
there is no doubt that eventually the N1 will be surpassed. I love my Nexus One, but one of the MAIN reasons I got the N1 was because I was gambling that Google would treat it like its own personal baby. Favoriting it, giving updates sooner then the rest of the phones, and hopefulness that because it was their baby they would suite Android to work around the Nexus One, ie. If 2.2 did not work on the Nexus One, they would have MADE it until it worked on the Nexus One.
Blueman101 said:
there is no doubt that eventually the N1 will be surpassed.
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Click to collapse
+1.
To OP:
You're not buying a computer that "will not be surpassed", right? Because you know that new technology is out on a monthly basis.
So why do you expect anything different in a smartphone that is essentially nothing else but a mini computer?
Yes, in a year or maybe even 1/2 year you'll no longer be on par with the top dogs, and in 3 years your phone might probably be scrapped. So? That's how things work.. They develop.
Jack_R1 said:
+1.
To OP:
You're not buying a computer that "will not be surpassed", right? Because you know that new technology is out on a monthly basis.
So why do you expect anything different in a smartphone that is essentially nothing else but a mini computer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the replies guys.
Well as all I am looking for is a phone direct from google, then it is quite reasonable to expect it not to be surpassed each month.
I don't really care if a better android phone comes out, I will only have buyers remorse if a Nexus Two came out soon, but I suppose when that happens is anyones guess.
The guesses that are currently out say that there's no other Google phone planned for this year (at least), so if you want to buy Nexus because you want Google's Android Development Phone platform - you can count of trouble-free 1/2-year.
(but at the end of the year 1.3GHz phones might appear, and the next year can bring dual cores... So if you want to stay in the top pack, I guess 1 year is the phone's lifespan).
Am I the only one that isn't completely wowed by the Evo?
The front facing camera is nice, but there isn't a lot of software support and I can't see myself using it much. My laptop has a web cam built in, and I don't know if I have ever used it. None of the people I would be talking to would have a camera on their phone anyway.
The screen is nice and big, but the resolution is still the standard 800x480 so it's not displaying any more on screen than the N1, Desire, Incredible. Plus processor isn't any better. 4G is great, but availability is obviously limited.
I just don't think it's the huge improvement over the Desire and Incredible that everyone seems to believe. Plus the more I use Sense UI, the less I like it.
The way I see it is you need to look at 2 things in regards to these types of phones... the hardware... and the availability of updates to the software...
Hardware wise, The Nexus is completely sufficient. 1ghz processor, 512mb of RAM, a great camera, a nice AMOLED screen, and a very durable build quality...
Software wise, it's vanilla Android and is first in line for updates from google... All the competing phones have that (sense, blur) crap built-in that severely hinders the release process of updates ... they will ALWAYS get updates later than any phones with vanilla Android...
If you get an EVO or an Incredible or whatever else comes out in a few months... you will gain a few minor things as far as hardware spec differences, unless u want an over sized bulging screen in your pocket. The camera? Who cares it's a friggin' phone... 5mp is PLENTY. You already have to optimize even 5mp as a standard to even send as MMS. Anything over 1ghz is pretty much overkill for android in its current phase... it's a phone... it runs fast as hell it doesn't need a dual-core processor geeze.
I dunno... I really think the nexus is still the best bet people who want a touch-based phone and always want to be on the bleeding edge of android os developments.
Have to say, you have a Desire, which is essentially the Nexus One with a different skin, why look at the Nexus? I get your main point, the N1 already has Froyo, everyone else is waiting, but Froyo is being ported to the Desire as we speak. If you know a bit about modding and don't mind being a month or two behind, save some money and let the devs cook up a Froyo rom, and be assured that whatever comes out for the N1 will make it to the Desire. Hell, if the Dream and Magic can handle Eclair, anything is possible.
Side note, I have an N1 and installed Froyo, really liked it but went back to Cyanogen's 5.0.7. Many other N1 users have done the same. Once you get used to a custom rom, its hard to do without many of the bells and whistles you're used to, so I don't mind sitting and waiting for a customized Froyo.
kitsunisan said:
Have to say, you have a Desire, which is essentially the Nexus One with a different skin, why look at the Nexus? I get your main point, the N1 already has Froyo, everyone else is waiting, but Froyo is being ported to the Desire as we speak. If you know a bit about modding and don't mind being a month or two behind, save some money and let the devs cook up a Froyo rom, and be assured that whatever comes out for the N1 will make it to the Desire. Hell, if the Dream and Magic can handle Eclair, anything is possible.
Side note, I have an N1 and installed Froyo, really liked it but went back to Cyanogen's 5.0.7. Many other N1 users have done the same. Once you get used to a custom rom, its hard to do without many of the bells and whistles you're used to, so I don't mind sitting and waiting for a customized Froyo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A few reasons really:
1. I now really dislike sense.
2. HTC have gone to unnecessary lengths to prevent root access. We don't have a full root yet and we may never have it. Also they're are over 60 people who have bricked their desire and the cause is not known, this is slowing development.
3. I don't want it to end up like the hero, that was their last flagship device and its still on 1.6 for most people.
4. Fast updates - always good.
I'd just like to have vanilla android without having to risk bricking my phone really.
samac92 said:
A few reasons really:
1. I now really dislike sense.
2. HTC have gone to unnecessary lengths to prevent root access. We don't have a full root yet and we may never have it. Also they're are over 60 people who have bricked their desire and the cause is not known, this is slowing development.
3. I don't want it to end up like the hero, that was their last flagship device and its still on 1.6 for most people.
4. Fast updates - always good.
I'd just like to have vanilla android without having to risk bricking my phone really.
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Click to collapse
i've used Sense so much and i totally hate it as well. i'm so much happier with my nexus vanilla android experience. i do get why some people like sense, but for me personally, i dont like it.
In my opinion, the closest phone to 'overtake' the N1 will be the Samsung Galaxy S. The triangles that thing can push out is supposed to be very impressive. Other phones, to me, come down to preference (Evo for screen size and network, Desire for Sense). The N1 will probably be the first phone to get Gingerbread and even the update after that at least.
We'll see 1ghz phones become more common before a bump in processor speed happens, I feel. The N1's a nice phone and worth the money.
PrawnPoBoy said:
Am I the only one that isn't completely wowed by the Evo?
The front facing camera is nice, but there isn't a lot of software support and I can't see myself using it much. My laptop has a web cam built in, and I don't know if I have ever used it. None of the people I would be talking to would have a camera on their phone anyway.
The screen is nice and big, but the resolution is still the standard 800x480 so it's not displaying any more on screen than the N1, Desire, Incredible. Plus processor isn't any better. 4G is great, but availability is obviously limited.
I just don't think it's the huge improvement over the Desire and Incredible that everyone seems to believe. Plus the more I use Sense UI, the less I like it.
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Click to collapse
you are not alone. the EVO just doesnt wow me either. when 1.5gHz phones come out, then maybe i'll ditch the nexus. but the current hardware (evo and incredible) are so similar to the nexus, they are all cousins and in the same league. nexus gets the newest updates and has best build quality, so some would say its actually the better of the 3.
If you haven't bought one by now, I would hold off. Expect HTC leaks to start up again for their new lineup for next year.
It also depends on how you plan to use the phone.
I am not too worried about cpu muscle. Everything I do on the N1 happens pretty much instantly. That a more potent cpu might load something faster as can be measured by testing equipment doesnt matter to me. Now if those new dual cores bring optimizations to improve battery life that might catch my eye but brute stength, nah. I really dont see what the evo or incredible bring to the table for me outside of the larger screen on the evo. Even there I recently handled an X10 and to my mind that is about the perfect screen size, I find the evo just a wee bit clunky in the hand. To be honest there is no announced handset in the works that even slightly peaks my interest. I'm guessing there will be nothing that catches my eye until the hollidays at the earliest. Personally I was hoping that the N2 (following in the fully unlocked steps of the N1) might be seeing the light of day around then.
edit.... I'm basing my feelings on the size of the evo on handling the HD2, I have not had an evo in hand.
krabman said:
I am not too worried about cpu muscle. Everything I do on the N1 happens pretty much instantly. That a more potent cpu might load something faster as can be measured by testing equipment doesnt matter to me. Now if those new dual cores bring optimizations to improve battery life that might catch my eye but brute stength, nah. I really dont see what the evo or incredible bring to the table for me outside of the larger screen on the evo. Even there I recently handled an X10 and to my mind that is about the perfect screen size, I find the evo just a wee bit clunky in the hand. To be honest there is no announced handset in the works that even slightly peaks my interest. I'm guessing there will be nothing that catches my eye until the hollidays at the earliest. Personally I was hoping that the N2 (following in the fully unlocked steps of the N1) might be seeing the light of day around then.
edit.... I'm basing my feelings on the size of the evo on handling the HD2, I have not had an evo in hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, some people are too obsessed with benchmarks imo. The phone does everything you want pretty much instantly, and there's not many processor intensive apps for android anyway.
evo is great except:
1) sprint only
2) contract only
What would make it better than the nexus:
1) simple way to root.
2) runs standard Cyanogen or AOSP, no proprietary stuff like sense.
3) supports GSM
I waited three years before jumping in, loved android right from when it was announced. The Nexus one pretty much has no challengers for the throne yet. A true open phone.
Take it with a grain of salt, but when I went to a local TMo store to get a SIM for my wife's new N1, I was asking about when they think they might be getting the N1 in (seeing as there's already some 3rd party places selling the N1).
I was told they probably won't be getting a google phone in until the Nexus TWO, sometime in November of THIS year.
My take on it is this; If it's something you want, get it now and enjoy it. There is ALWAYS something better, faster, sleeker and that will cost less coming right around the corner.
If the N1 had a touch screen that wasn't so terrible I'd really want for nothing. Maybe some better battery life..
If you're talking about a straight Google phone unlocked, then yes, one will be out this year. Earlier in the year, someone high up in Motorola announced they were working with Google to create a straight-to-consumer phone. I assume this will be the Nexus Two. I'll look for links to it and reply with them.
A quick Google search for "Motorola straight to consumer phone" and you come up with exactly what I was talking about. First link here:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/motorola_developing_straighttoconsumer_google_phone

After a year, is the Nexus One still a good buy?

I've been toying with the idea of buying a Nexus One for some time now, I'm no stranger to Android, having owned a Droid 2, Droid Incredible, and now a Samsung Captivate that I use with work. I currently also have an iPhone 4 as my personal phone, and I was just given an HTC Surround and Samsung Focus to replace the Captivate with, so I have to decide which I like more. I love Android, I've always been more drawn to it than my iOS devices, although I do love my iPhone. Now that the Nexus One has been out for a year and has its "successor" (depending on who you ask), is it a good buy still? I'm tired of waiting for AT&T to come out with something new that's a real killer phone, I've been hearing whispers of the HTC Desire HD being in testing, and the Moto Olympus being announced at CES. I'd get a Nexus S if I had T-Mobile and it had a microSD slot, but other than a larger screen and NFC capability, I don't see any real upgrade the S brings. What does everyone think, if I get this Nexus One is it a great buy and I'll enjoy it for awhile, or should I save my money and just wait longer?
PS, I know I own too many phones I can't help it! 3 phone lines will do that to ya
I barely got my nexus one so I would give you my own personal feedback.
Cons:
1.battery is some what horrible under medium to heavy use you can always tweak the phone to make last longer but sometimes is a pain in the butt.
2. 512mb of storage is a step back having to always watch what you installed, once again you can tweak it and make it less of an issue.
3. touch screen feedback is not the best like other phones that are out there. also having some multitouch issues on all models but I hardly notice the issue.
4. My personal issue not having a call and end keys is a pain but that just me been picky.
5. another personal opinion camera its not the greatest in my opinion.
Pros:
1. I got the phone for 295 under no contract that's a awesome deal I think.
2. will get gingerbread soon.
3. Having stock android makes things so much better I could of bought many android phones but the lack of updates made think twice of spending 300 plus.
4 this is a big one for me having to tether and having hotspot internet without rooting makes me so happy.
5. Adobe flash I love having flash for the same reason I didn't buy the nokia n8.
I know for a fact next year will be a big year for android if you wanna wait.
I have my nexus a year now, bought it when it just came out. I can agree with josemedina1983. Nexus is mine longest phone because it never got bored, there is always something new to find out, and google bringing the always the new android version makes the N1 up to date. All the new HTC phones are almost like the Nexus, some have more space to install apps on but that's it.
The only thing that bothers me a bit is the touch screen, it works great with apps but soon as you want to play games that require multi touch it's a nightmare.
I like mine N1 it has a great design works great love the trackball (miss it on new models) the dock station is great. i think i wil keep using mine N1 till something really great comes (didn't find a phone to replace it). I don't like the looks of the Nexus s it really feels cheap.
I think N1 is still a good it has it's flaws specially if you want to play games on it.
I've had my N1 for a few months, here's my take:
OS: Froyo with eventual Gingerbread
- Huge community support on the current OS with 'in-view' plans for OTA update to latest OS.
- Lots and lots of ROMs for this puppy, you can hack this baby four ways from Friday.
- Rumors that Gingerbread on latest Nexus S still a little green - will hopefully be ripe when it gets to N1
Phone cons:
- POS multitouch support (doesn't mean it's not responsive to single thumb touch).
- only 512MB of internal memory (but you can root and get Apps2SD to make up for that) [on a side note, isn't 16GB of internal memory on the Nexus S enough!?!]
- Bad design on the power button, will most likely fail after a few months if the design hasn't been fixed (see link in my signature)
- No Gyroscope - but it's not like you don't have other phones to play games on
- No NFC - but how soon are people going to start using that anways?
Phone Pros:
- Been around for a while, huge support community (XDA FTW!).
- Lots of hacks and tweaks for the phone as well.
- Anything wrong with the phone has already been discovered.
- Lots of developers have it, but you don't see it out in the wild that much (unique 'special' factor).
- Still a high end processor for the next few months until the Tegra 2s come out.
- Probably get it cheaper now that the Nexus S is out.
If you can get it cheap without a contract then sure its still a good phone.
But I would not pay full price for it or go on a contract in order to get it at this point.
Its not a bad phone at all but the phone market moves soooo fast its blinding.
I'll be keeping mine another year and then getting whatever is newest once my contract is up.
All really good advice, I feel like I'm still getting a phone that's relevant in today's market, but at the same time I know that something else is going to come soon and just put it to shame. I would like to know what's wrong with the N1's multitouch, is it just unresponsive or does it really not work? It's taken me quite some time to track down one that's sub $500 with the AT&T 3G bands, so I'm weighing the options very carefully here. After playing around with the Nexus S for some time a few days ago, I personally didn't find anything on Gingerbread that really stood out to me from Froyo, and I have it running on my Incredible now. It would be really nice to get something that was completely free of any carrier or manufactor influence as far as updates go, and easily hacking other roms onto this thing seems to be really easy. The power button issue I've heard about from other people, but some say it's not too hard to fix, so that isn't too bad for me. Decisions, decisions.
Just get the S
If you own another android phone and still using it i dont see the point of buying another one especially having the incredible its a damn good phone I think the incredible,evo,nexus,hd2,droid x,g2 are the classic android phones of 2010. I would wait alittle bit and stack up those 300 for the next phone. I feel next year windows 7 nokias meego and android tablets i love having alot of OS options.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
I have had my Nexus One 6 months and think it is a great phone. IMO one of the best looking phones made. I also have a Desire as my main phone and have used the Nexus to learn about rooting and custom roms. Its copped a hammering from experimenting but it has always come back to life. Google is defiantly your friend here LOL. If you have the spare $ and not to concerned with whats around the corner with the next gen Android its a good buy. But maybe that its 12 months since release a more current phone may be better. Try Nexus S. When it arrives in Australia I surely will get one. Good luck with your decision.
Steve.
It's a good phone, but I wouldn't buy it now after a year it came out, unless you get it really cheap. With CES happening right now, you should definitely wait and see.
If I need to recommend a phone I would still recommend the N1 provided its cheaper than the NS
Definitely a phone worth getting, more ROMS then you'll ever know what to do with. I've been back and forth between MIUI, cyanogen and enomthers ROMS and have never been.disappointed. battery life is amazing with these ROMS. My nexus at 1.113 Ghz outperformed my friends droid X at 1.465 Ghz and his rooted Evo
Sent from my mighty nexus one
I've also had gingerbread for about two weeks already and loving it
Sent from my mighty nexus one
llaufhutte said:
All really good advice, I feel like I'm still getting a phone that's relevant in today's market, but at the same time I know that something else is going to come soon and just put it to shame. I would like to know what's wrong with the N1's multitouch, is it just unresponsive or does it really not work? It's taken me quite some time to track down one that's sub $500 with the AT&T 3G bands, so I'm weighing the options very carefully here. After playing around with the Nexus S for some time a few days ago, I personally didn't find anything on Gingerbread that really stood out to me from Froyo, and I have it running on my Incredible now. It would be really nice to get something that was completely free of any carrier or manufactor influence as far as updates go, and easily hacking other roms onto this thing seems to be really easy. The power button issue I've heard about from other people, but some say it's not too hard to fix, so that isn't too bad for me. Decisions, decisions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU0R9tdodw8
Its not the best but the biggest problem I have is axis flipping and the snapping to match the axis of the other finger (Don't know what that's called officially). It's not the best video and neither of these problems really bother me in day to day use. I vote it's a great phone to own and will be for a few years yet. As for the power button i've had mine since last march and still no issues.
I still think you should wait the nexus one AT&T version are pretty rare and they still go for around 50 + bucks, more than the t-mo version.
Comes this february then I officially own a phone that lasts for a year. Lol I used to change phones a lot. I just tried to find the perfect one for me. pam there it is
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Amazon.com deal on N1 too good to be true?
Been a long time follower of this forum but only just registered.
Looking to buy a Nexus one. It's going at $298 on Amazon from one of their eSellers. It is listed as new but most of the feedback on this seller refers to refurbished products - and sometimes when the buyer was expecting a new one. So I am really sceptical though it is very tempting to be able to get the phone for <$300.
Anyone here Ble to advise? Any better ideas on where I could look?
There are a lot of killer phones out there but....I like having one of the only phones that has Gingerbread without rooting (2.3.4). Exclusivity; I haven't seen one in the wild. Hotspot and tehering without rooting. Vanilla Android. While the touchscreen is buggy at times, I love my N1. I have had it for a year and never regretted my purchase. This is one of the phones that will be remembered for quite sometime IMO. A classic, as it were.

[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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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...

What do you fellow bionic owners think of this?

About the RAZR being offical annouced so shortly after the "king of machines" was released. I know there are other better phones being thrown out in the open, but I'm talking about the moto realm strictly. Makes you wonder since the Bionic was so delayed already, why not beef up the specs even more? Not trying to start a flame/troll war, just want to see other people's opinions. Thanks .
Well my opinion on this is simple.... there will always be something better coming out... regardless of what specs a certain phone has.. the next one will have something more... personally I love my Bionic... and I would like to see an ota or two out before I get another phone... but the Razr is something I think is being released to compete with the nexus prime or galaxy nexus or whatever its going to be called... its all marketing IMO. I just hope that the Bionic isn't forgotten or written off just because all these other devices are coming out.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
Yeah I understand their need to "compete" with the nexus prime it is a beast of a phone. I mean they could of just bumped the Bionic up a bit more since it wa s already so delayed. I'm sure the Bionic could of handled the extra 200 mhz base and the superamoled vs pentile. Regarldess I still think the Bionic is nice, but it feels like another "place holder" phone for moto. Feels like they just did it to do it, and get over with.
There probabily is a reason such as an example is the targa version went into production a long time ago there were problems with somthing maybe hardware maybe softare but than you start to develope the razer but have a bunch invested in the bionic and a lot made. I just mean the bionic was meant to probably just be the first lte duel core. I teally think they did not mean to do that but couldnt delay the razer because tech gets old fast. And compitition is fearce. I think right now as soon as they can come up with the nitch phone with the best specs and put it together it goes to market. Htc is worse at it. Motorola is jyst evolving the droid x seris. What is missing is the droid with keyboard series. There my faverite phone for battery life nut like back to the bionic and razer i am thinking the razer is going to have battery drain issues worse than the bionic. I think the nexus prime is gona be worse on battery. With the htc being the worst battery hog as usuall
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium
phullofphil said:
There probabily is a reason such as an example is the targa version went into production a long time ago there were problems with somthing maybe hardware maybe softare but than you start to develope the razer but have a bunch invested in the bionic and a lot made. I just mean the bionic was meant to probably just be the first lte duel core. I teally think they did not mean to do that but couldnt delay the razer because tech gets old fast. And compitition is fearce. I think right now as soon as they can come up with the nitch phone with the best specs and put it together it goes to market. Htc is worse at it. Motorola is jyst evolving the droid x seris. What is missing is the droid with keyboard series. There my faverite phone for battery life nut like back to the bionic and razer i am thinking the razer is going to have battery drain issues worse than the bionic. I think the nexus prime is gona be worse on battery. With the htc being the worst battery hog as usuall
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium
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Yeah Bionic was meant to just be the first dual core/LTE phone. The market is evolving too fast to the point where "offical" shelf life is like 6 months now. Wonder what it will be in a few years. They probably could of bumped the core speed of the processor to 1.2 for the Bionic before release. Oh well it is what it is I suppose.
For anyone that has purchased one for full contract/upgrade pricing ($200), I feel kind of bad. Sure there's always something new coming, but if it's being announced in a week and likely to come out in the next few weeks, the wait is probably worth it. At the very least, there's a chance to get the same phone (bionic) for cheaper, once the newest phone is released. That said, I'm getting my bionic tomorrow and I picked it up with the amazon deal for $0.01. If I had waited, I basically would have needed to pay $200 more (at least) for the razr or any of the other upcoming devices, so I don't really feel bad about my purchase. It was absolutely the best deal I think I'll see for a while.
If the production device looks like the pictures, I do envy the look and casing. It's definitely a beautiful device... very sleek and the fact that it's slightly thinner does have a bit of an appeal. In terms of actual specs and features? It's slightly better, but I wouldn't have paid an additional $200 for it. ICS would be the biggest appeal for me, and there's a decent chance that might make it to the bionic anyways. For those with a bionic already, it's probably not worth it. Once it comes out, depending on the pricing, the bionic will probably still be the better value and have more appeal for those that are value-oriented while the razr will be close enough in price to appeal to those that need the latest and greatest.
The one thing I'm curious about will be the pricing... it seems quick for them to be dropping the price on the bionic, but not impossible. Will the razr be slightly more expensive? Or will the razr cause a nice price drop on the bionic?
I think these few devices coming up are only being pushed out so soon to compete with the new iphone, especially with the holiday sales coming up. Phones like the bionic and galaxy S2 are kind of considered "on par" with the iphone, so the slight improvements to these phones will create more of an appeal. The release does seem to be very close to the bionic, so I'd guess they intended the bionic to be released quite a bit earlier.
CC Lemon said:
For anyone that has purchased one for full contract/upgrade pricing ($200), I feel kind of bad. Sure there's always something new coming, but if it's being announced in a week and likely to come out in the next few weeks, the wait is probably worth it. At the very least, there's a chance to get the same phone (bionic) for cheaper, once the newest phone is released. That said, I'm getting my bionic tomorrow and I picked it up with the amazon deal for $0.01. If I had waited, I basically would have needed to pay $200 more (at least) for the razr or any of the other upcoming devices, so I don't really feel bad about my purchase. It was absolutely the best deal I think I'll see for a while.
If the production device looks like the pictures, I do envy the look and casing. It's definitely a beautiful device... very sleek and the fact that it's slightly thinner does have a bit of an appeal. In terms of actual specs and features? It's slightly better, but I wouldn't have paid an additional $200 for it. ICS would be the biggest appeal for me, and there's a decent chance that might make it to the bionic anyways. For those with a bionic already, it's probably not worth it. Once it comes out, depending on the pricing, the bionic will probably still be the better value and have more appeal for those that are value-oriented while the razr will be close enough in price to appeal to those that need the latest and greatest.
The one thing I'm curious about will be the pricing... it seems quick for them to be dropping the price on the bionic, but not impossible. Will the razr be slightly more expensive? Or will the razr cause a nice price drop on the bionic?
I think these few devices coming up are only being pushed out so soon to compete with the new iphone, especially with the holiday sales coming up. Phones like the bionic and galaxy S2 are kind of considered "on par" with the iphone, so the slight improvements to these phones will create more of an appeal. The release does seem to be very close to the bionic, so I'd guess they intended the bionic to be released quite a bit earlier.
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I got the Bionic through a fluke got some e-mail saying that I was eligible to upgrade. Called in vzw they had no records, rep asked me to forward (since they didn't see the offer in their system) so I did and they're like okay we'll honor it, but you should do it now just in case. So I did and sold my D3 for like 350 so pretty much no cost Bionic for me. Hell I paid like 100 for my x2,which got turned into a D3 (brand new not clnr)via warranty, cause of all the stupid music skipping which pissed me off. Then today I got an email which made me lol, vzw was like whoops we f'ed up you're not eligible for any type of upgrade. I was like too late already got my upgrade pznerd. So for "free" it's definately not bad, I do have the 14 days if I do find out one of those devices are coming out fairly soon idk if I want to go through all that hassle though. Or if I return the Bionic if my upgrade date will be reversed cause of this special circumstance.
Edit: I'm sure both devices will be $299.99. The prime is pretty damn sexy curved glass, and the Razr being thin w/ a super amoled on moto. My main concern for both of those devices would be battery life. I also do feel that the Bionic is better than the iPhone for the most part. iPhone 4s for sure, iPhone 5 no clue, but it'll be atleast another 6 months I'd think before we see the iPhone 5 launched.
zetsumeikuro said:
About the RAZR being offical annouced so shortly after the "king of machines" was released. I know there are other better phones being thrown out in the open, but I'm talking about the moto realm strictly. Makes you wonder since the Bionic was so delayed already, why not beef up the specs even more? Not trying to start a flame/troll war, just want to see other people's opinions. Thanks .
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I think that the phone manufacturers have very long product design, development and manufacturing cycles. The Bionic's delays probably screwed up what was expected to be the release difference between the Bionic and Razr, but it would be dumb on Moto's part to delay the Razr just for that reason.
But, how much could the Bionic's specs have been beefed up? Faster clock speed on the dual-core processor? I think that Bionic has pretty high-end hardware already.
We'll see later today, but there will probably be specific reasons why some people would want a Razr over a Bionic, and vice versa for other people.
Motorola really dropped the ball with the bionic. Don't get me wrong, its an awesome phone, but with how long it took them to bring it to the market, it shouldn't have the bugs that it does have.
Also, with how long it took them to bring it out let the competition outdo them. They did announce this phone 10 months before it came out. If they could have gotten it out by May, this phone may have been a huge success for them, but since they didnt, competition had the time to outdo them. But that's the life of an android owner, something better always around the corner. Unfortunately, Motorola allowed that corner to be too close when if they released it during late spring/early summer, they would have gave themselves time before that corner came.
I will say that if your waiting for the next batch of high quality Androids to be released, that there will be something better following them so you will still feel like you should have waited. The technology is moving faster than the wallet can afford.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App
People tend to forget that the original Bionic was a Tegra-powered device with 512MB of RAM and running Froyo. It wasn't even a ground up redesign, they just slapped the Bionic name on the Targa, a phone which I suspect was originally intended to be the Droid X2.
The only thing that really impresses me about the Razr is the chassis- but I suspect the Bionic will hold up just fine. I'm more interested in the possibility of Ice Cream Sandwich, as many of the issues I have with the Bionic have been shared with every Froyo or GB device I've owned, and it would be nice to see a few of them fixed.
The Motorola RAZR event just concluded and frankly I'm not seeing any differentiating factors between the Bionic and the RAZR apart from form factor. The rumored NFC wasn't announced, and nothing about ICS was mentioned. The screen is supposedly different, with Super AMOLED, but if memory serves me, that's STILL a PenTile display, just a different pixel arrangement. This may in fact end up being a non-event.
Specs:
4.3″ Super AMOLED Advanced qHD display.
Dual-core 1.2GHz processor
1GB RAM
Gorilla Glass
weighs very little
1800mAh battery
TempestDash said:
The Motorola RAZR event just concluded and frankly I'm not seeing any differentiating factors between the Bionic and the RAZR apart from form factor. The rumored NFC wasn't announced, and nothing about ICS was mentioned. The screen is supposedly different, with Super AMOLED, but if memory serves me, that's STILL a PenTile display, just a different pixel arrangement. This may in fact end up being a non-event.
Specs:
4.3″ Super AMOLED Advanced qHD display.
Dual-core 1.2GHz processor
1GB RAM
Gorilla Glass
weighs very little
1800mAh battery
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It's GB 2.3.5 vs. 2.3.4, for what that's worth. The battery is 1780, not 1800, to be specific - so, close to the Bionic. They apparently have some battery usage tweaks that could easily be done on the Bionic as well. It's quite a bit thinner and lighter, but it is also longer and wider. Why are these guys doing this?
It'll be interesting to see how the super AMOLED display does outdoors. That is one thing that the Bionic's display does very well.
I just hope that Google taking over Motorola that they help clear up the mistakes Motorola has made. While the bionic is a beast, i have to say that the thunderbolt would have to be the winner up to this point with the Verizon LTE phones due to the fact it didn't have to worry about rumors of it being outdated within 2 months of being released like the bionic has. When people bought the thunderbolt, they knew it would be a while before something better would be released. I never imagined Motorola was going to release a somewhat better phone right after they released one of the most anticipated phones of the year. If Motorola would have got the bionic right, they would have buried htc, lg, and samsung already and wouldn't need to release another super phone until the spring. Unfortunately Motorola fumbled the bionic and feel they have to release another super phone to make up for their mistake. Maybe they need to stop focusing on releasing so many different phones and concentrate on a select few phones and get it right and release them across multiple networks.
I know for as long as I waited for the bionic, i shouldn't have issues with my data going out and having to reboot the phone. They had plenty of time to work the bugs out and didnt. It's not like this phone wasn't pushed back, but if its going to get pushed back, fix the bugs while your at it.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App
I dont WANT a super thin phone, I'm a tall guy in the Navy, we break things left and right! Now the water repellent, meh. Spills. Again though, NAVY. My spill is the ocean haha.
Now the Nexus prime on the other hand. We shall see... Either way however, I LOVE my liberated Bionic, and now that the kernal source code has been released (See: Android Development) Ill be happy at least for the next few months *depending on development*
Just saw the the info for the RAZR. Gotta admit it's one sexy ass beast as in terms of how it looks. But in the end it's still the same processor bumped up 200mhz? It probably will be pentile for the subpixel display I believe? Friend trolling saying zomg its kevlar and corning and faster makes it only a "bit better". He's pretty much stating that it blows the bionic out of the water. Oh well I have my 14 days and pre-orders for the RAZR start on the 27th. But I'm not sure if I want to try to push returning it cause of the fluke w/ the email and vzw support that gave me a free upgrade on the spot. Since the center was the one that honored that E-mail even with no records on their part derp. The world of Android outdated the minute you're out the door.
smokedkill said:
I just hope that Google taking over Motorola that they help clear up the mistakes Motorola has made. While the bionic is a beast, i have to say that the thunderbolt would have to be the winner up to this point with the Verizon LTE phones due to the fact it didn't have to worry about rumors of it being outdated within 2 months of being released like the bionic has. When people bought the thunderbolt, they knew it would be a while before something better would be released. I never imagined Motorola was going to release a somewhat better phone right after they released one of the most anticipated phones of the year. If Motorola would have got the bionic right, they would have buried htc, lg, and samsung already and wouldn't need to release another super phone until the spring. Unfortunately Motorola fumbled the bionic and feel they have to release another super phone to make up for their mistake. Maybe they need to stop focusing on releasing so many different phones and concentrate on a select few phones and get it right and release them across multiple networks.
I know for as long as I waited for the bionic, i shouldn't have issues with my data going out and having to reboot the phone. They had plenty of time to work the bugs out and didnt. It's not like this phone wasn't pushed back, but if its going to get pushed back, fix the bugs while your at it.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App
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The t bolt was delayed a good but also and released with many bugs (which still haven't been fixed) the hardware of the bolt was also crap, its the reason I have a bionic now. I agree that if its going to get pushed back this much it shouldn't have many bugs, I guess I got luck cause I don't have many (far less than I did with the t bolt). As far ar I'm concerned the bolt was outdated by my old X, it ran just as good with liberty froyo as my t bolt ever did, and it had far superior call quality and build quality.
One more thing: I hope that Moto solved the BSOD, because good luck pulling the battery out of the Razr. (I assume it will have some sort of iPhone-ish like key combos to power it down if it hangs, though.)
zetsumeikuro said:
The market is evolving too fast to the point where "offical" shelf life is like 6 months now. Wonder what it will be in a few years. They probably could of bumped the core speed of the processor to 1.2 for the Bionic before release. Oh well it is what it is I suppose.
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Exactly the reason why I don't understand the decision carriers made to eliminate the "new after one" options for existing customers. I guess it makes sense to keep existing customers locked in while they entice new customers.
eraursls1984 said:
The t bolt was delayed a good but also and released with many bugs (which still haven't been fixed) the hardware of the bolt was also crap, its the reason I have a bionic now. I agree that if its going to get pushed back this much it shouldn't have many bugs, I guess I got luck cause I don't have many (far less than I did with the t bolt). As far ar I'm concerned the bolt was outdated by my old X, it ran just as good with liberty froyo as my t bolt ever did, and it had far superior call quality and build quality.
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Most of the bugs i had with the thunderbolt were eliminated when i installed a custom rom, other than the random reboots. I ended up trading it in within 2 weeks for the lg revolution because it had an unlocked bootloader. Big mistake. The revolution is one of the most unusual androids that i've seen (ive had 5 of them now myself, plus my girl had 2 different ones than me). It's almost as lg through a bunch of garbage files in it to throw off the development community.
Ive never owned a samsung, but the type of plastic they use is a turnoff for me.
I am intrigued by a Nexus coming to Verizon though. Didn't think i would see that happen.
Back to what I was saying earlier though. I feel that up to this point, that the thunderbolt is the biggest winner of the LTE phones on Verizon. I believe it is the only 1 that didn't get followed up by a superior product. It was followed by the revolution, which isnt as good. The revolution was followed by the charge, which was an improvement. In my opinion, the bionic is better than the charge. While the thumderbolt isn't the best 1, it is the only 1 that didn't get surpassed the very next time Verizon released a LTE phone.
While the razr looks nice, i don't regret buying the bionic at all. Unless the razr has a built in fm modulator, i don't think i ever will. Maybe add a solar panel to help with battery life would be nice also.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using XDA App
How much faster can the Razor really be? Until either phone gets ICS we won't know how much a difference it'll make. The screen and weight are the only differences. The Bionic is already a light phone so I'm not really bothered. I did buy from Costco though so I could throw a fit over the bugs this phone has and get a different phone.

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

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