|
I feel stupid for buying the Droid Charge and I'm just going to hold onto it for 2 weeks and then return it - pay the $35 get back to my OG droid for a week and get the bionic (or the HD if possible) when it comes out on the 8th. I still feel cheated as gently caress, and that is partially my fault - but my Droid is falling apart (probably because its a refurb) and I just couldn't handle it anymore. This was a good learning experience that I will just have to deal with and $2/a day to not have to use a lovely phone seems worth it - especially with all the games I have played.
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 19:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 07:23 |
|
|
Well, I guess now there is a leaked Samsung road map that has what is supposed to be the Nexus coming out in December (or a phone with almost identical specs, which wouldn't be unheard of I guess, Nexus One and Incredible). All I know is that I'm happy with my phone right now and the next phone I get will have a 720p screen, 1 gig of ram and run on LTE. It seems the Nexus or the Vigor will be the first to fill all of those roles.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 19:20
|
|
|
I have my fingers crossed that whatever Motorola has up their sleeve for 4G and battery life will make me drop my Thunderbolt and pick up the Bionic at full price.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 19:21
|
|
|
JayKay posted:I have my fingers crossed that whatever Motorola has up their sleeve for 4G and battery life will make me drop my Thunderbolt and pick up the Bionic at full price. I've read a number of positive things about Bionic battery life. We'll have to actually wait and see, but reports are that it is pretty impressive.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 19:26
|
|
|
NewcastleBrown posted:I've read a number of positive things about Bionic battery life. We'll have to actually wait and see, but reports are that it is pretty impressive. Performance in general as well. There's been comments from testers that they couldn't see themselves ever going back to any of the three single core LTE phones after using the bionic. The overall general performance difference is too great.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 20:17
|
|
|
bull3964 posted:Performance in general as well. This is really awesome!! I'm really happy to hear this, the Bionic has been so long in coming that if it turns out to be anything but ballin there are going to be a lot of disappointed people. I carry extra batteries around with me everywhere I go anyways so battery life isn't a huge thing for me, then I've never had to try and work with a Thunderbolt before too. Very excited to see what comes out this fall/winter. Good time to be a fan of Android or mobile tech in general.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 20:19
|
|
|
As much as I keep telling myself "You should just wait another month and see if the Nexus Prime rumors come true" I then realize that any phone released this year is going to be eclipsed by Spring of next year. It may SEEM like we are getting to a leveling out point after dual core is launched, but it really isn't. The next focus is going to be battery life. You have thing like Samsung's new display technologies that claim better battery life than even RGBW pentile LCD screens with decent yields. Then you have both qualcomm and nvidia saying that their next generation processors will be faster than the dual cores we have today while consuming MUCH less power and TI has already stated the focus for OMAP5 is going to be power consumption. Heinlein wrote about the 3 stages of technology in 1952. quote:"Every technology goes through three stages: first a crudely simple and quite unsatisfactory gadget; second, an enormously complicated group of gadgets designed to overcome the short comings of the original and achieving thereby somewhat satisfactory performance through extremely complex compromise; third, a final proper design therefrom." I would say smartphones are going start moving from stage 2 to stage 3 somewhere in the latter half of 2012. We have the performance now and they're quite usable, but the next two years are going to take the usability to a whole new level with battery life, form factor, and OS/Cloud/Framework improvements. Pretty much anything I could buy this year is going to be a stopgap and isn't going to last me two years from a usability perspective, so I might as well get the first eligible candidate.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 20:44
|
|
|
bull3964 posted:Pretty much anything I could buy this year is going to be a stopgap and isn't going to last me two years from a usability perspective, so I might as well get the first eligible candidate. Also, in my opinion LTE/dual core/ice cream sandwich > improved battery life + whatever else they dream up for 2012. For those of us who are buying into 2 years worth of phone, we'd like to have all of those things before we pull the trigger.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 21:38
|
|
|
My wife and I were planning a trip to Europe this fall and we would like to bring my HTC Trophy with to use for calling home/emergencies. It is global-enabled, so I should only need to pick up a SIM card when we get there and install it, right? The Verizon FAQ on Global Phones only mentions the pre-installed SIM cards and nothing about non-Verizon SIM cards. (Which isn't surprising.) Has anyone else used a global-enabled Verizon phone overseas? Are there any tripping-points I should be aware of?
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 22:20
|
|
|
tismondo posted:For those of us who are buying into 2 years worth of phone, we'd like to have all of those things before we pull the trigger. As someone who always has his phones for 2 years this fits my sentiments pretty much exactly. For me to get a phone now that wasn't dual core, 4g LTE would be pretty crippling. My area doesn't have 4G right now, but it is likely that it will within the next 2 years. I don't know if this has been discussed, but will phones with physical nav buttons be able to use ICS, or will they max out at Gingerbread? If that's the case it would be a pretty compelling reason to wait two months for an ICS phone.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 22:58
|
|
|
ICS will work with or without buttons. It's going to be pretty much a non-issue.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 23:05
|
|
|
I'm with Verizon, I have the Original Droid and I also have an upgrade ready right now. What makes the Bionic so much better than the other phone that are offered right now? Is there any reason I should wait until the 8th?
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 23:21
|
|
|
Dual core, higher resolution screen (though it's Pentile so that bothers some people), and possibly better LTE chipset. All three combined with a massive battery are pointing at best in class battery life AND performance over the other three. Honestly, I'm kicking myself because I really should have just jumped on the thunderbolt when my upgrade became available. Why? Because they are going between $450-$500 on eBay right now. That would have had me breaking even with selling it and buying the bionic at full retail when it came out, but I would be two months closer to a new subsidy (and I would have been using a new phone for the past two months.) Remember, every month you go without using a subsidy on Verizon, you are costing yourself around $12. bull3964 fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Aug 19, 2011 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 23:33
|
|
|
That looks like the one I'll get then. I can wait another 3 weeks for a new phone.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 23:38
|
|
|
bull3964 posted:Remember, every month you go without using a subsidy on Verizon, you are costing yourself around $12. How does this work? I'm not questioning you, I'm just ignorant.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2011 23:48
|
|
|
NewcastleBrown posted:How does this work? I'm not questioning you, I'm just ignorant. You pay the same monthly amount whether your phone is fully paid for, or whether you took a phone with a subsidy. If you're not "working off" a phone, you're basically throwing money away. So if you're actually planning to stay on Verizon for 2 years it makes sense to take the discounted phone.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 00:19
|
|
|
kitten smoothie posted:You pay the same monthly amount whether your phone is fully paid for, or whether you took a phone with a subsidy. If you're not "working off" a phone, you're basically throwing money away. Makes sense. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 00:26
|
|
|
Yeah, typical subsidy is between $250 and $300 and you can get a new one every 20 months. Even if you like your phone, you are better off reupping your contract on the day you are eligible, get the phone with the highest resale value and turning around and selling it right away and pocket the subsidy. Then you just buy what you want when you want at full retail.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 00:51
|
|
|
bull3964 posted:Yeah, typical subsidy is between $250 and $300 and you can get a new one every 20 months. Even if you like your phone, you are better off reupping your contract on the day you are eligible, get the phone with the highest resale value and turning around and selling it right away and pocket the subsidy. Then you just buy what you want when you want at full retail. I'm just lazy enough that a potential $24 in lost subsidy is not worth the hassle of flipping a phone 2 months after buying it. This thread has piqued my interest enough to consider the potential of flipping phones once a year if they retain enough value to keep me from losing too much to depreciation, though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 00:57
|
|
|
I've actually been really happy with the Droid Charge. It runs fast as hell with GummyCharged, and judging from what we've seen with the Nexus S phones (same internals) it'll really fly once the AOSP builds start trickling out. I think the decision between Droid Charge and the hypothetical Moto Bionic isn't really cut and dry in favor of the Bionic. The Bionic's going to be a better choice if you've absolutely gotta have every last ounce of performance (potentially at the expense of battery life) which admittedly will be a lot of people, but the RGBW PenTile screens on all of Moto's products lately really are just ludicrously ugly, and the Wolfson DAC in the Charge (and all GS1 phones) offers better audio output than anything we've seen from any other Android phone. I guess what I'm saying is that it isn't a done deal: Charge vs. Bionic is a decision of wonderful display, great audio fidelity, and "good enough" performance vs. horrible display, presumably-mediocre audio fidelity, and hypothetically-"futureproof" performance. It's a game of which sacrifices will you make, basically. One thing that's not up for debate is that LTE 700 is the motherfucking truth. Boy howdy. They just deployed it in my city this week, and I'm about 1,000% more satisfied with Verizon than I was before. I don't really care as much about LTE vs. WiMax, but when it comes to 700 MHz vs. 2500 MHz, man, Sprint's really selling people a raw deal. The 700 band is so good I'm getting decent LTE coverage in places that I was barely getting a 1x signal before. Can't wait for them to go all-LTE. In any case, a hypothetical Nexus Prime release is legitimately worth waiting for. If the NPrime came to VZdub in its rumored form, the Charge vs. Bionic discussion is all going to seem a bit silly. At that point, there will be two Android options on Verizon: "Nexus Prime" and "sorry, you did it wrong."
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 01:49
|
|
|
kalibar posted:In any case, a hypothetical Nexus Prime release is legitimately worth waiting for. If the NPrime came to VZdub in its rumored form, the Charge vs. Bionic discussion is all going to seem a bit silly. At that point, there will be two Android options on Verizon: "Nexus Prime" and "sorry, you did it wrong." You mean the Prime will have a keyboard? ...Oh. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 02:24
|
|
|
Alright, both the X2 and the Droid 3 are $199.99 buy one get one free. Which one would be the best value for the money? They seem to be pretty similar spec-wise from everything I've checked out
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 04:35
|
|
|
Am I just half-blind already or do a lot of you guys have some kind of supervision and can pick out pentile screens from a mile away and when they're in your face see nothing but a screen pattern? On my Droid Inc, or on the Droid 3 in stores I can't see the pattern at all unless I hold it perfectly perpendicular to my line of sight and look for it. On the 3 its more difficult than on my Inc too.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 04:40
|
|
|
Fitzy77 posted:Alright, both the X2 and the Droid 3 are $199.99 buy one get one free. Which one would be the best value for the money? They seem to be pretty similar spec-wise from everything I've checked out I've actually had both (currently have the X2 and love it). The only reason I returned the Droid 3 and got the X2 was because I was getting poor battery life; I exchanged it for an X2 and have been extremely happy ever since. However my friend actually just got a Droid 3 a couple of days ago and has been getting similar battery life to my X2, so this leads me to believe that maybe something was wrong with my particular D3. Either way, both are fantastic phones really. The Droid 3 has a slide out keyboard (as you probably know) as well as a front-facing camera. The X2 does NOT have a front camera, but personally I couldn't see myself using one of those anytime soon so It wasn't a big loss to me. If you really need a physical keyboard (the Droid 3's is great) or plan on playing emulators on your phone, than get the Droid 3. If not, than the X2 is thinner and has a bigger screen. It's really all down to personal preference, both are fantastic phones really. Fuzzy Pipe Wrench posted:Am I just half-blind already or do a lot of you guys have some kind of supervision and can pick out pentile screens from a mile away and when they're in your face see nothing but a screen pattern? On my Droid Inc, or on the Droid 3 in stores I can't see the pattern at all unless I hold it perfectly perpendicular to my line of sight and look for it. On the 3 its more difficult than on my Inc too. Eh, I think some of it is justified and some of it is just internet bandwagon hate/hype train stuff. I personally have no problem with pentile screens, I think they look great and personally only notice the pixles/patterning when i consciously look for it, which is almost never because im not a huge human being and don't constantly look for things that are wrong with my phone.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 05:30
|
|
Fuzzy Pipe Wrench posted:Am I just half-blind already or do a lot of you guys have some kind of supervision and can pick out pentile screens from a mile away and when they're in your face see nothing but a screen pattern? On my Droid Inc, or on the Droid 3 in stores I can't see the pattern at all unless I hold it perfectly perpendicular to my line of sight and look for it. On the 3 its more difficult than on my Inc too. Not super-vision...super-spergin'
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 06:06
|
|
|
chocolateTHUNDER posted:Eh, I think some of it is justified and some of it is just internet bandwagon hate/hype train stuff. I personally have no problem with pentile screens, I think they look great and personally only notice the pixles/patterning when i consciously look for it, which is almost never because im not a huge human being and don't constantly look for things that are wrong with my phone. We've been over it before, but it's worth mentioning again: for text to remain legible on a WVGA PenTile display, you have to blow it up nearly as large as the text on an HVGA display (think iPhone 3GS, HTC Hero, etc.). Even with the boosted 540x960 res on recent Moto PenTile releases, you're able to fit more legible text onto a non-PenTile WVGA display. That's not "sperging" or "being a human being looking for things wrong with your phone," that's a tangible, objective advantage. And the bros at Samsung toss in Super AMOLED to boot, though I personally find the Thunderbolt's S-LCD display pretty passable as well. Owning a Verizon smartphone isn't cheap; some of you guys are literally paying $100/month after tax to do so. Do your research, and know what you're getting. kbar fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Aug 20, 2011 |
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 07:39
|
|
|
kalibar posted:snip Looking at the comparison photos in that link I fail to see anything glaringly obviously different other than the colors. And honestly I dislike Samsung's stupidly saturated colors with SAMOLED+.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 09:10
|
|
|
Hello Verizon goons, I need some phone help. My Droid 2 which I have been generally very happy with suddenly has a hosed touchscreen that makes it very difficult to use. I am limping by but often the screen simply won't unlock or it experiences random inputs that make it unusable. In any condition of increased temperature or humidity (e.g. outside in Florida) I can just forget about using it at all. Of course this is happening one year and a week after I bought it and thus I have no warranty coverage so I'm probably stuck buying a new phone. Any suggestions? I want to wait for the Bionic since that appears to be exactly what I want in a phone (4G, sliding keyboard), but I don't know if I can make it another two weeks with a busy personal/professional life and a half-working smartphone. And it's not like a SIM carrier where I can just borrow a phone from someone.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 13:45
|
|
|
Buy a screen and digitizer off ebay and replace it. Also the bionic does not have a physical keyboard.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2011 15:28
|
|
|
digitizer replacement on a droid 2 is not something i'd recomend to anyone. Even the guys who do it all day screw up around 1 in 10.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2011 04:26
|
|
|
Fuzzy Pipe Wrench posted:Am I just half-blind already or do a lot of you guys have some kind of supervision and can pick out pentile screens from a mile away and when they're in your face see nothing but a screen pattern? On my Droid Inc, or on the Droid 3 in stores I can't see the pattern at all unless I hold it perfectly perpendicular to my line of sight and look for it. On the 3 its more difficult than on my Inc too. Some people also don't see flickers on computer screens, when their refresh rates are too low (or high, I forget). It has to do with eye sensitivity, in that case; it might be the same for this. I can't speak for anyone else, but I noticed it right away. Jagged edges, blah colors, and worst of all, ghost trails whenever I scrolled too fast (or when the screen redrew itself, like when I tried playing Angry Birds). I don't have supervision. I have bad eyesight, strong prescription glasses, and subsequent problems with eyestrain. Maybe it's the other way around -- your eyes are better than mine at filling in the blanks, and mine can't keep up? I wish I didn't see it. I was planning on buying the D3 on launch day as a trade-in for my OG Droid, which has been due for an upgrade since May. Verizon doesn't have any other keyboard Android phones out at the moment (beyond backtracking to the Droid 2) so I'm SOL for the time being. Kyrosiris posted:You mean the Prime will have a keyboard? 
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2011 07:07
|
|
|
Ghosting is the biggest issue I have with my screen, it is really bad. I can see the pixels only under certain circumstances and not often enough to bother me, though I can definitely see how it could bother someone. I feel like that article is overly harsh though, just me.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2011 18:37
|
|
|
Auuauagh. I got my phone stolen and ended up using an upgrade for the replacement. I wanted to hold off till October for the Nexus Prime but now I've got a Droid X2. It's not a bad phone, a non-amazing step up from an original X, but... ugh. Guess I'll use the other upgrade on my family plan for the Prime??
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2011 11:19
|
|
|
How lenient is Verizon on early upgrades? A co-worker has a busted phone, but isn't eligible for an upgrade til October. If he calls and tells them he's debating going to someone else so he can get a phone now, what are the chances they'll take care of him?
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2011 16:23
|
|
|
Boffo Beach Babe!!! posted:Auuauagh. You could try selling that then making up the difference, would save you from having to use an upgrade.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2011 16:50
|
|
|
Hey folks, any chance you could give me some advice? I am planning to buy my first smart phone ever tomorrow and I'm been pretty light on the smartphone knowledge. I went to the Verizon store today and liked the Samsung Charge (beautiful screen) and the iPhone 4. I'm part of a family plan and I am getting a $100 discount to the 2-year contract price, which I'll be using. Like the Charge, they also had a Thunderbolt and Revolution 4g phones. I'm not sure what to buy. I've used my friends' iPhones a number of times and they've been pretty easy to use, but I've also heard Android phones are pretty good. The phone will be for personal use, linked to my Requirements: Good gps/maps/ direction giving capabilities. I'm about to go on a cross-country road trip and GPS could be a lifesaver. Good for e-mail and web browsing video sources like youtube and more textual ones like the New York Times or other news sources. Googling things, obviously. Yelp app (both have this) Clear screen, bright colors, high resolution for viewing pleasure I think these requirements cover pretty much any smartphone. I would also love to be able to use my new smartphone as a device to keep lots of my music and some videos. I'd love to use it as a similar music device to my old iPod color and watch movies on it. Being able to read ebooks would be swell, but I think the screens may be too small for that. Both the iPhone and Charge had the option of 32 gigs memory. I use itunes on my home pc, but I'm open to switching that up if I need to. It'd be nice if the phone convenient for jotting down notes. Does anyone have any advice? Edit: Gaming- I haven't even thought about this since I've been stuck with such crappy cell phones for so long. Gaming capabilities is definitely a plus. Delthalaz fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Aug 22, 2011 |
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2011 18:53
|
|
|
I am a child and need help in making decisions. I'm on an OG droid right now and it has been great, but it's struggling with speed and I need to replace it (and want to go LTE). I'm about to come into some cash in the next week or two, but my upgrade doesn't hit until December. I am debating: 1) Buying a used thunderbolt and bridging the gap until December, then using the upgrade to get whatever looks best and reselling the bolt. 2) Waiting until the Bionic comes out and buying it for whatever price I can get (full retail I guess, unless I can get some discount for renewing the contract?). Then either doing nothing with the upgrade or selling the Bionic and upgrading it, if there is even anything in December that would be an upgrade. Please give your opinions thanks.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2011 19:25
|
|
|
Delthalaz, I'd recommend getting an iPhone unless: 1) 4G capability is important, or 2) You really like widgets on your home screen rather than icons, or 3) You need turn-by-turn directions (like, say, a Garmin unit) and don't want to pay ~$30 for an app, or 4) It's going to upset you that the iPhone 5 may be released in a couple of months.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2011 19:26
|
|
|
Delthalaz posted:Hey folks, any chance you could give me some advice? I am planning to buy my first smart phone ever tomorrow and I'm been pretty light on the smartphone knowledge. I went to the Verizon store today and liked the Samsung Charge (beautiful screen) and the iPhone 4. I'm part of a family plan and I am getting a $100 discount to the 2-year contract price, which I'll be using. Like the Charge, they also had a Thunderbolt and Revolution 4g phones. If you go for the Charge (I like mine), don't get it at a Verizon store. If you get it online via Amazon Wireless, you'll get it for under $170-180 with a 2yr renewal or $70 with a brand new 2yr plan.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2011 20:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 07:23 |
|
|
Delthalaz posted:Hey folks, any chance you could give me some advice? I am planning to buy my first smart phone ever tomorrow and I'm been pretty light on the smartphone knowledge. I went to the Verizon store today and liked the Samsung Charge (beautiful screen) and the iPhone 4. I'm part of a family plan and I am getting a $100 discount to the 2-year contract price, which I'll be using. Like the Charge, they also had a Thunderbolt and Revolution 4g phones. Either an iPhone or a Droid X2. They both get fantastic battery life (something you have to watch out for with android phones, some have good battery life some don't). An iPhone is easier to use from a pure "Newbie" user experience standpoint but Android allows you to do more things in terms of customization. Android (Droid X2) also has free GPS navigation, though you have to have cellular data service for it to work properly if you go of-course and cause it to recalculate. Both are very capable music players. My iPod just broke actually so I've been using the Google Music beta+ my Droid X2 to listen to music. The Droid sounds really good, so no worries on sound quality there. As far as apps, they both have them. Not an issue. So yeah, either one of those two are fine. Just go to the store and play around with both to see which one you like better 
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2011 20:48
|
|