not sure how they can tell the difference between tethering and phone-used data in any case...i suppose an update could put something on there, but as mentioned by pttyndal, the mod community will just work around it within a couple of days and verizon will be blind (again)

Quote :

"Side by side, I would have bought a thunderbolt over a bionic."

that's surprising...and good to hear, since the bionic was my biggest regret purchasing the thunderbolt

[Edited on September 8, 2011 at 2:19 PM. Reason : .]

9/8/2011 2:18:38 PM

Quote :

"But the screen was distracting. Side by side, I would have bought a thunderbolt over a bionic. Motorola ruined what could have been a great product."

care to explain?

9/8/2011 2:27:21 PM

probably because pentile = crap even with the qhd display. They say it's a little less noticeable on the bionic though.

9/8/2011 2:30:34 PM

haha, get this instead.

9/8/2011 2:35:57 PM

I played with my moms d3 and noticed it less on that than the bionic. Part of the issue is its glaringly obvious when you move things or scroll. In a static state it isn't horrendous.

If you can get over the screen the bionic is a great phone based on my initial impression and knowledge of its specs.

To elaborate on the tbolt vs bionic comment... this was based soley on the user experience... I wouldn't actually buy a thunderbolt right now, being an educated consumer, but if i didn't know any better, and just wanted lte... thunderbolt was it. If I had bought a thunderbolt in April, I wouldnt lose sleep over the bionic being out. The charge wasn't even a consideration. Shit looks like an abortion.

[Edited on September 8, 2011 at 2:48 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on September 8, 2011 at 2:49 PM. Reason : .]

9/8/2011 2:45:16 PM

Quote :

"not sure how they can tell the difference between tethering and phone-used data in any case...i suppose an update could put something on there, but as mentioned by pttyndal, the mod community will just work around it within a couple of days and verizon will be blind (again)"

I'm looking to add a more capable cell phone to my life, not a new hassle. I have basically zero interest in keeping up with the latest mods. I'm just about to pull the plug with Verizon and say hello to Sprint. I might wait a couple days to see if I still feel that way though. Seems like Verizon has the better network, but Sprint is cheaper (and they are offering me a bigger employee discount.)

[Edited on September 8, 2011 at 3:46 PM. Reason : s]

9/8/2011 3:45:01 PM

^^

Quote :

"Popular Science has a few doubts This morning a magazine staffer tweeted, "Reactions to Motorola Droid Bionic: Definitely the sleekest 4G phone we've used, and Moto's keyboard is awesome, but man, that screen." The tweeter went on to describe the phone's display as "grainy and blurry at once.""

goddamnit. I didn't even notice anything until you mentioned it. eh, I still don't notice it unless I'm trying. other than the screen, I am very happy.

What kills me both here and in reviews is I see people saying "this phone would have been perfect 3 months ago"... even though they can't name viable alternatives. Half the reviews I read seem to end this way: "there is a marginally better phone arriving at some undetermined future date." Well, no shit.

Are you guys living in a different universe? Because I have to keep my phone for upwards of 18 months and I can't wait forever to upgrade either.

[Edited on September 8, 2011 at 4:20 PM. Reason : afasdf]

9/8/2011 3:52:30 PM

Been on my of Droid since Dec 09. I want a new one, and would have bought the bionic if it wasn't for the screen.

There's no viable alternative, but HTC is putting out a thunderbolt replacement in October, and the prime is slated for October or november. If i was up for the bionic, i probably was going to wait two weeks to see what issues pop up, but that basically puts me into October at that point.

9/8/2011 4:21:58 PM

http://www.droid-life.com/2011/09/08/how-to-root-the-motorola-droid-bionic/

Quote :

"*Note – Our buddy @P3Droid is under the impression that a fix to this rooting method is on the way in the near future for both the D3 and Bionic. If you want to be rooted going forward, you may want to do this now and then deny any OTA updates that may pop up in the next week or so."

9/8/2011 4:27:25 PM

Quote :

""there is a marginally better phone arriving at some undetermined future date.""

The date is September 16

But I guess for Verizon it's undetermined.

9/8/2011 4:28:15 PM

so what type of screen is considered the best as of now

HD?

9/9/2011 1:50:28 PM

Display tech, or resolution? Or both?

9/9/2011 3:11:36 PM

elephino

i just see people saying the bionic screen is shit, and that the htc vigor screen is gonna be HD

9/9/2011 4:07:13 PM

Samsung's screens are pretty highly reviewed by everyone, even though they have lower resolution than most top tier phones these days.

9/9/2011 5:10:35 PM

Right now resolution wise, the bionic has one if the largest, it's just shit because of their display technology. The vigor's display uses a better display, hd resolution might be nice, but I don't think that's what will make it a better display.... it's just a more standard tech that we're all used to.

Though, maybe Motorola's pentile displays would be better at higher resolutions, checkerboard effect would be smaller due to having a higher pixel density. I guess we'll see when the droid HD comes out.

^vibrant colors... samsung uses a pentile type display, where it shares green pixels. some knock it, but it's more asthetically pleasing than motorolas pentile which adds a white pixel (which theoretically sounds brilliant, but not so much in practice at the moment)

[Edited on September 9, 2011 at 5:18 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on September 9, 2011 at 5:19 PM. Reason : .]

9/9/2011 5:16:01 PM

Anybody know the outgoing server settings for windows live email addresses on Droid, just got the bionic and have the incoming server setttings, just can't send anything out with WL address..?

9/11/2011 3:55:10 PM

If you cant set up a simple email address, maybe an android isnt the phone for you

9/11/2011 7:06:57 PM

I hate to say it, but Google it. I set it up for a buddy a while ago, had to Google it then.

9/11/2011 8:51:28 PM

Those Galaxy S 2 commercials are getting me all moist in the britches

9/12/2011 1:17:20 AM

^ If it weren't for the promise of the Nexus Prime on Verizon, I'd be switching to the iPhone out of spite

9/12/2011 1:33:18 AM

Quote :

"dumb question from an (obvious) android/phone noob: is it realistic to hope for an ICS rom for the thunderbolt? android releases are so frequent (compared to computer OSes) that i'm not sure if each new version is very backwards compatible or if phones are designed to run only one (maybe two) different versions of android (and vice versa, that each version of android is geared toward a specific hardware configuration) [Edited on September 8, 2011 at 1:38 PM. Reason : i know computer OSes are more complex, but you get my point]"

9/12/2011 7:59:22 AM

It's possible since ICS isn't said to require dual core but with we don't even have an "official" Gingerbread build so who knows. Google tried to get the carriers and manufacturers to agree to an 18th month update plan but not sure if anything ever came of that.

9/12/2011 8:28:42 AM

bmel's brother got the Bionic, and its pretty sweet. The display is super crisp, don't know what the thing above is about. I didn't get a magnifying glass out to check for issues with lines though.

He did a speed test in Fayetteville and topped out at ~20 mbps, I think an average of 18 mbps. I'm pretty sure that's more than my home internet...fuck you Time Warner.

Anyway, fuck Google for forgetting about the Droid 2. Droid 2 Globals have gotten the Gingerbread update, I still haven't . I'm also about to factory reset my phone, piece of shit keeps freezing and doing wonky stuff in general.

I did pick up a pretty awesome app, TiKL. Its a touch-to-talk/walkie talkie app between people who have the app.

[Edited on September 12, 2011 at 9:33 AM. Reason : lkj]

9/12/2011 9:26:00 AM

Its usually the manufacturers, not Google, that hold up updates... Not sure if the Droid 2 is special.

9/12/2011 10:11:00 AM

^^ITT, we learn peter needs glasses.

I think you're the only person I've heard call the display "super crisp." But if it works for you, go for it.

9/12/2011 1:26:37 PM

I already have glasses

9/12/2011 1:29:08 PM

No.

The screen looks great until you start to look for the problem.

In fact, every review I can find (except the specific one I quoted above) says the screen is awesome and fails to mention pentile. This phone has been lingering in redesign hell this entire year. If the issue was that glaringly obvious, I think they would have gone with something else.

9/12/2011 2:54:52 PM

the unit i got my hands on it was obvious, and i went into it wanting the phone... it was utterly distracting. i dont see it unless i look for it on the d3, as a comparison. but, that screen is a 4" at the same resolution. the stretching they did to the pixel size to make it 4.3 on the bionic crossed the threshold of distracting for those with eyesight.

it's a battery life trade off. i'm willing to bet they said fuck it and went with battery savings. because everyone bitches harder about the battery.

ive said it before, if your eyes suck, go for it.

[Edited on September 12, 2011 at 3:19 PM. Reason : .]

9/12/2011 3:13:53 PM

i really need to root my phone, but i'm lazy about it

9/12/2011 5:11:46 PM

bmel told me that she worked with her brother's phone a lot the past two days and it was completely fine, and she sold another phone today that looked perfect

Guess its just you

9/12/2011 9:29:05 PM

not just me. friends have checked it out and made the same comment. maybe we checked out the same demo unit and it was shit for him. i'll go to a different verizon store when im out tomorrow and look.

9/12/2011 9:46:26 PM

Quote :

"Guess its just you"

unlikely since pretty much the entire internet feels the same.

9/13/2011 8:19:25 PM

just picked up the droid bionic yesterday. Its my first driod, and I have no problems with it.

I did go in and root it so I can freeze some of the bloatware (i was verry cautious in what I froze). However after doing that, my 3G/4G connectivity went away. I went in and unfroze everything, but now its not connecting to 4G as much as it was before.

9/13/2011 8:45:40 PM

Played w/ all 4 LTE handsets on my lunch break today. I can see the screen issues with the Bionic but it's far and away the best of the group overall, to me.

9/14/2011 2:33:24 PM

Got the Bionic yesterday... loving it, so far.

9/15/2011 11:00:07 AM

^^^,^

guess these people are blind too, right?

9/15/2011 11:50:06 AM

yeah, had to go to Verizon today and didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary when playing with the Bionic, granted I didn't look all that close. Damn thing is fast though but don't think I'd trade it for Thunderbolt with GB and Sense 3.0.

9/15/2011 1:06:44 PM

Are new phones out/coming soon? Still waiting to cash-in my Verizon upgrade..

9/15/2011 11:27:38 PM

HTC vigor/thunderbolt2/incredible HD (all rumored names) mid October. Should be an HD screen, 4.5", front facing camera, lte, dual core snapdragon at 1.5ish GHz (I think these were the specs that leaked). Possibly beats by Dre integration of some sort, or packaging bundles.

Samsung prime/Droid prime/nexus prime... anywhere from late october to thanksgiving on verizon, then other carriers in december. dual core omap4 (should be the next step above the bionics omap4). HD screen, samoled, 4.65", but no capacative buttons so it will be a longer screen adding the extra size. NFC capable. This should be the first ice cream sandwich android 4.0 device, and naturally run vanilla android, and get the first updates from Google as it would be the developer model. Think Droid 1, nexus 1, nexus s, xoom. (Until Google's next nexus device).

The next Motorola device will likely be the Droid HD. Which, HD screen, far slimmer than bionic (there's tons of pics of this device). No internal spec leaks, but Motorola is going omap4 I think in future devices. Tegra lost some steam. It looks like a great phone to be quite honest, form factor wise. Battery is huge, like the whole back of the device, but slimmer. Oddly, the phone with leaked pics had att branding on it. But the name was Droid HD, which the name is a Verizon property. Two things could happen... Verizon could get it, but it could also be one of att's first lte phones, under a slightly different name. There's also the Motorola slimline leak from back in april, but theres been no buzz. Then the name Droid razr popped up the other day. Could be the slimline. But there's no specs, target dates, carriers or anything.

This is the current state of the rumor mill, off the top of my head.

9/16/2011 12:58:01 AM

so my BB gave up and died, which is fine because my company is gradually moving everyone to droids or iphones. I've looked around on the verizon website and need to go check them out, but if you had to walk in the door today and pick out a phone what model would you get? I'd really like a physical keyboard which seems to limit my options to the Droid Pro and the Droid 3 (slide out keyboard). Anyone own either of these? Thoughts?

9/16/2011 9:31:28 AM

I'd probably go with the Droid 3 since it already has GB and is dual core. There should be an LTE Epic coming soon but that's old hardware and Samsung so meh.

9/16/2011 9:53:57 AM

Anyone picking up an Epic 4G Touch today?

9/16/2011 11:17:17 AM

oh look, another carrier changes policies prior to iphone launch

http://gizmodo.com/5840630/sprint-changes-upgrade-policy-before-maybe-probably-getting-the-iphone

Quote :

"The not so good news is Sprint also dropped its Premier program at the beginning of this month, claiming it needed to to invest in unlimited data and being able to offer new devices (like the iPhone). Premier gave longstanding customers benefits like discounts on accessories and plan checkups. It's also reduced the return period for handsets from 30 days to 14. Which kind of sucks, but if you're a Sprint customer, you'd probably take that over a compromise on unlimited data."

9/16/2011 12:51:31 PM

Unlimited data with sprint is fucking stupid. I've always been a long time supporter and defender of them as a company because it's going on 8 or 9 years now, but the current state of their network is terrible.

They own a substantial T1 network and my 3G speeds are consistently beat by Verizon's on the same phone in the same area. 200-500Kbit vs 2000Kbit.

It's easy to offer an unlimited plan when you cap the shit out of your customers to the point that it would be almost impossible to incur overages with any normal to moderate usage.

Even on my femtocell with 15Mbit backbone; I can only pull ~ 1.2Mbit.

9/16/2011 12:59:02 PM

^this has been irking me lately

9/16/2011 2:35:08 PM

So now I should wait till October??

9/16/2011 3:33:47 PM

i'm waiting for the prime... just to see what it's like... then i'll decide if I want to upgrade and then to what.

9/16/2011 3:36:30 PM

I only ask such noobish questions because I posted here in August and everyone said "Wait till September". Now, it's September and everyone is talking about the stuff coming out in October.

technology

9/16/2011 4:28:47 PM

Yea i still can't figure out the outgoing port for hotmail on my bionic. Looks like others are having the same issues with hotmail on android. Anybody use hotmail/windows live with their droid and able to send email?

9/16/2011 6:17:41 PM

Well, if you would like ice cream sandwich when it comes out, buy a phone with it. Otherwise, you're going to end up waiting for Motorola to blur the fuck out of it for the bionic, and you might get it in march if you're lucky.

9/16/2011 7:21:57 PM