For everyone actually rockin the second coming of the Droid (Droid 2), why don't we share our stories here.
I'm coming from WinMo (Raphael) so this is my first android. I figured 2.2 was a good place to start.
First good impression is that the voice commands rock. This phone rocks.
Bought at Costco, had to beg the sales dude to go back to receiving to get it. Bought my dear wife one as well. She's worth it.
My Droid 2 arrived yesterday morning and so far I'm pretty pleased. As some background, I've owned the following phones over the last 12 months: iPhone 3G, myTouch 3G, Droid, Nexus One, Droid Incredible, EVO 4G, iPhone 4, and the Samsung Captivate. So far, the Droid 2 is the fastest out of the box; however, I I think the Captivate has the best display (even against the iPhone 4). I also really liked the EVO, but I didn't like paying an extra $10/month for 4G coverage that was non-existent here in Colorado.
I find the Droid 2 to be very responsive with little to no lag - even with whatever software Motorola has running in the background. I ran Quadrant and scored a 1381, which was higher than I expected. Watching Quadrant run through the graphics tests, however, was pretty sad. The frame rate appears to be the worst of the bunch. Overall, the display is good, but looks a little washed out compared to the Captivate.
The keyboard is SO much better than the one on the original Droid. Typing is lightning fast! The onscreen keyboard is pretty darn accurate and fast, too.
The build quality (so far) ranks up there. The phone feels solid and I like the navy blue color w/ the dark chrome bezel.
And of course, Verizon's network speed makes the online experience so much more enjoyable than the others. Even when I could get a good connection on AT&T, I could never get anything faster than 1.5Mbps down, and I swear they capped the upload speeds - both the iPhone 4 and Captivate had crappy upload speeds around 150Kbps.
No buyer's remorse here.
I also came from WinMo - Herman. So far the Droid 2 is awesome - blazingly fast, great experience so far. Only downside is that the android integration with exchange leaves something to be desired.. like tasks and contact photos..
New Driod 2 Purchased 8/15/10 for my wife. I have a Driod Incredible. the Driod 2 is only pulling about half of her contacts from Exchange. My Incredible works perfectly. The clock is ticking on the 30 day exchange policy... ball is in Motorola's court on wether we keep it or move to an HTC device. Except for the very nice hardware keyboard on the Driod 2 I like the Incredible much better.
I actually switched to a Droid 2 from a Droid X. I do a lot of ssh'ing and while the Droid X was wonderful in every other respect, trying to ssh with a virtual keyboard is not pleasant. The keyboard takes up half the screen and trying to send control codes is not fun.
So, I handed off my Droid X to my wife and picked up a Droid 2 on release day and I've been really happy with it. The only problem is when I use my wife's Droid X now, I find that I REALLY miss the screen on that monster.
I'm not too much of a big fan of mid-size phones. I'm coming off the Motorola Cliq, which had the Android 1.5 on it. I rooted and packed on the 2.1 leak. I went through various customizations and even flashed a new radio on it. I fell in love with my Cliq all over again. The only problem with the Cliq that made me switch was the processor was slow, and the new games for mobile phones weren't able to play properly on it.
I like the Droid 2 because of the speed. I admit that the unlock screen kinda bugs me cause the slider freezes before it unlocks, but eh, who cares? I mean the only good thing for me so far with this phone is the speed, and ability to play newer games on it without a lag. I think I'm just missing root and the option of custom roms and themes...
i came from owning my 3 yr companion Xv6800 to this droid2
without a doubt you guys know im impressed and happy to finally own a qwerty phone that is up to date...
sure my 6800 had WM6.5 ...but it was oldie and started failing me, not to mention i could no longer get replacements from verizon...so be it...
anyways, on my trip to san francisco, this thing was amazing, gps, yelp, google maps, was the shiznets...
My experience is horrible coming from a nexus one. This phone may still be one hell of an upgrade if you are new to the android scene. But really this is poor performance. The hardware is there. But it runs at one third of the speed my previous android phone ran at. The music skips dragging through my contacts lags and its just dissapointingly slow. I am returning this phone when I get a chance labor day weekend. Motorola has spilt the beans on this one and should have either not locked the bootloader or not put this motoblur crap on it.
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
jrmars07 said:
My experience is horrible coming from a nexus one. This phone may still be one hell of an upgrade if you are new to the android scene. But really this is poor performance. The hardware is there. But it runs at one third of the speed my previous android phone ran at. The music skips dragging through my contacts lags and its just dissapointingly slow. I am returning this phone when I get a chance labor day weekend. Motorola has spilt the beans on this one and should have either not locked the bootloader or not put this motoblur crap on it.
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you apply the recent update? Do you have a task killer app running?
bobby_v said:
Did you apply the recent update? Do you have a task killer app running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes. yes. lag.
I am also coming from Windows Mobile.
I can say that the Droid 2 isn't as functional out of the box.
I love the voice navigation, speech to text, the fluid movement of the screen, and the live wallpaper.
However, I miss the Windows Mobile voice command app reading my incoming text messages thru my BT headset. I miss being able to sync with Outlook notes, tasks, and calendar on my PC.
I miss being able to fully customize my home screen, I don't really care for the icons and widgets.
I didn't like having to create a Google account just to be able to have an email app where I can create folders (labels) and have the ability to delete the emails from my roadrunner pop3 server. In WM I could also create folders in the text messaging app and save them there.
I didn't like having to pay $15 for Documents to Go because quick office didn't allow me to delete cells in excel.
WM did all of that right out of the box.
Last night I was playing around with the Spark app which is just a plain black screen and wherever you touch lighting bolts streak out from your finger and vibrate the phone.
Well I was poking it rather fast to see how well it could keep up and the phone got locked up on the vibrate and kept vibrating for about 5 minutes (and it wasn't just going through all the touches in a queue, I didn't touch it /that/ much) and it would go from just solid vibrating to pauses in between. Had to reboot to fix it...was pretty crazy, it vibrated the whole time it was powering down too.
Anyways it was probably the app and not the phone, but still a funny story worth sharing.
I think I am going to swap my Droid 2 for a Droid X, what do you all think?
I got my Droid 2 today after big V finally realized that three defective Eris sets in a row was unlikely. I think the defect was selling that phone to paying customers... anywho, here's what I've noticed:
The Good
1. Callers on the other end can hear me much better than with my last phone
2. A few of the Motorola widgets are pretty nice
The Bad
1. Phone runs much slower than I expected. I figured a phone with double the clock and RAM of my last phone, and Froyo would run better. This could be because I had Android System Info installed, which can be used to kill apps. I'm going to remove it and see how it works.
2. Sound quality of incoming calls is no better than it was with the Eris. I'm frequently asking people to repeat themselves.
3. I've talked to two people and had two dropped calls. 1:1 ratio? I hope it gets better.
4. Phone froze for a moment or two when I tried to add a dialer shortcut
5. It seems like apps refuse to die. If you close the program, they're relaunched. This might've been another result of using Android System Info.
6. Phone is preloaded with too much crap that you can't remove. I was happy to be able to remove the NFS demo, but why can't I get rid of the CityID demo? And why do I need Blockbuster?
7. I launched the YouTube app while connected to my wireless network and it warned me that I had no data connection. Ok?
I'm resetting to defaults since it applied an OTA update, and I'm going to avoid installing Android System Info and see how it works out for me.
D2 is my first Android phone. Previous phones included BlackBerry Storm2 and Tour. Two of my best friends have owned (or still own) iPhone, Nexus One, Droid, EVO, and Incredible so I knew what I was getting into. I walked into the Verizon store knowing I was going to purchase one of the three: DX, D2, or Incredible.
I obviously loved the screen on the DX but after shattering the screen on my Storm2, I will not own a phone with a glass screen again without a case and a DX with a case is just enormous. The four buttons on the front also felt extremely cheap/flimsy.
The Incredible is an awesome phone. HD recording, HTC Sense, and Snapdragon processor are big selling points. I am not big on the virtual keyboards. I probably would have gotten used to it on the Incredible but having owned the EnV, EnV2, and BB Tour, I love typing on a real keyboard and the D2's is 100x better than the D1's.
In the end I went with the D2 for several reasons but mostly the keyboard. I rarely used the camera on any of my phones for pictures and I think I have taken exactly 2 videos in the 6 years I have owned camera phones so the HD recording on the other two just wasn't a big deal for me. I also knew that I would be tinkering with this phone so issues related to the OS/GUI I could solve myself. I have since rooted the D2 and started to remove a ton of the bloatware that came installed on the phone. It made for a huge improvement in performance all around. Responsiveness, smoothness, battery life, etc. Looking at the specs on the D2, I am convinced that the poor performance is thanks to the hacked up 2.2 from Moto/VZW.
Maybe someday I will have to suck it up and deal with a virtual keyboard but not yet.
Sounds like a support group! Lol
Hi, my name is chet and I used to love windows. That is, till I got my wife a droid x. The sheer awesomeness of the screen amazed us. So when my laggy keyboard-ed htc touch pro fell victim to water, I had to get a droid 2.
I love the responsiveness, non laggy keyboard, that it doesn't freeze for a sec after sending a text msg while it goes 3g to 1x to 3g. The bigger screen. Louder speaker. Easy to make a call (tho that could be bc the htc was gimped and it was just hard to run anything). All the internal memory. Software keyboard. I barely ever flip out the u one.
And google navigator! Super awesomo and the gps connects in seconds, not 4 minutes.
3.5mm jack. Need i say anything about htc ext usb?
Bad...micro usb. Had to get new cables or adapters. U know how many minis I had? Even the dollar store had those
But besides needing a phone now what made me switch? Winmo7phone wouldnt have been backwards compatible. If i had to start new, why not all new?
Sent via droid2
Droid 2 User (starting tomorrow)
I purchased a Droid in December of 09 & had it until today, mysteriously the screen went dark, luckily while still under warranty, VZW store had none so they told me to call in to warranty replacement. They told me there was a 72 hour wait on Droids, so I told them that I need a phone tomorrow the latest, so after being put on hold they offered me a refurbed Incredible, I held out for 20 minutes longer after that, and finally they sent me a Droid 2, arrives tomorrow
keep'em coming
Keep writting your reviews guys, this will greatly help me decide if I`ll buy the Milestone 2 when it comes out in Canada!
Cheers
With Android, you can modify software to the point that most high-end phones are virtually interchangeable. Blur sucks out of the box, but every day we find ways to make the Droid 2 snappier, have better battery, and more customized.
So the real choice is hardware - do you want the keyboard or not? Personally I love the rock solid build of the Droid 2 and tighter, staggered keyboard as compared to the Epic. If you have no need for the keyboard, get something else. It's all Android at the end of the day.
I purchased an HTC Eris in November, because I liked it a lot better than the Droid. Unfortunately, because it wasn't Verizon's flagship phone, it was plagued with bugs that they had no intention of fixing. After four replacements, Verizon upgraded me to a Droid. I could deal with the fact that it was a brick, decorated in cheap gold paint, after rooting and installing Sapphire 1.0 with the 1.2Ghz kernel. Then after two months, the keys started to fall off of the keyboard. So last week I called Verizon to try getting a Droid 2, they offered me one for retail price, but there was no way in hell I was going to pay that. After agreeing on a replacement Droid, FedEx brought me a shiny new Droid 2 two days later with an apology letter saying they were out of stock. Obviously, I was outraged by this "inconvenience" so I called Verizon to complain, and ended up with a $50 credit.
Not a bad deal. I just wish I didn't have problems with reception on the D2.
i havent had any call reception problems on droid2, but late at night (im an insomniac) and i'm jacking with the phone, i do seem to lose 3g here and there. which is weird, because ithappens only after 1am...
never happened with my old touch pro, but it does happen with the wifes droid x...
perhaps vzw is tweaking the towers i hope, getting ready for upgrades? *crosses fingers*
Related
I'm a current sprint customer with my upgrade available October 1st. I love a lot of things about the Epic, but the build quality is just absolute garbage. The spring-loaded screen feels like it could snap off with a slight breeze. For some, this might not be a cause for concern, but build quality is really important to me.
I decided to go play around with some other phones, and following my keyboard-desires, I came upon the droid2. I had played with a droid1 significantly a couple of months ago and really liked the build quality. It was rooted/rom'd/and overclocked and the phone ran great. Which is why I was disappointed when I arrived at the Verizon store.
The droid2, at least the one they had on display, was unbelievably laggy. Unlocking, changing screens, browsing contacts, everything ran slower than my current HTC hero, which is bad (because this phone lags hard).
What I'm wondering: is this lag a real issue? Was the floor model just suffering from overuse? I've looked through a couple of threads and found some people have lag, some dont. Is there a fix? I love love love the phone, love the slightly raised keys and layout, the slide mechanism is great. But I can't spend my days waiting around for a phone to catch up to me.
Any info is greatly appreciated...
I'm not usually one to change carriers unless I am dissatisfied with the carrier, or I feel that a carrier is better.
With that said, I don't find the Droid 2 particularly laggy. Some seem to complain, but I don't really see it. I don't think Motorola's unlock animation is smooth, but it unlocks just fine. Now I'm running "Widget Locker" which replaces the lock screen; now my lock screen seems very smooth (I don't load the lock screen up with lots of widgets, just a number of sliders).
Overall, I think the Droid 2 is quick and responsive. Keep in mind that I don't use much of Moto's widgets either, and there are always other poorly coded applications you can download that can bog down your phone as well.
I think it is a solid phone, but ultimately I would go with my favorite carrier (mine currently is Verizon).
I don't have any issues with lag. Anyone that does probably has some bad apps running, much like a store model likely does. Bottom line - it's a 1GHz OMAP processor and 512MB RAM. Any speed issues will be software based, which is something we can always fix.
I haven't experienced any lag issues the couple times I've used a Droid 2. I've seen that lag though with most display phones and it's probably just from customers screwing around with settings constantly.
Well I have the droid 2 but the epic 4g does have have 4g and a front facing camera, but verizon has a overall better coverage, the droid2 is very solid in the hand and if you get a case it feels like you can use it as a weapon
With that said, now you can root and droid 2 and put on "deblurred" rom and make the phone run so much better, and yes the phones you saw in the store is laggy because overuse and people download crap on it
Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk
Also, amazon's pricing for the droid2 is dropping like a rock. i wish the droid2 had a 5 row keyboard though =/
Just got the Droid 2 as an exchange for the Eris - was never on my radar as my next choice, but was happy to get it as a free exchange - I find no lag, calls are made and answered instantly, and build quality is great - considering the fact that 4g isn't fully implemented yet, and the front camera is still waiting for a universal video call application, the only real differences are screen size and I believe an hdmi output - verizon has the best service, which for me is always priority number one - I am super impressed with the Droid and see no reason to change anytime soon - my two cents
Sent from my DROID2 using XDA App
Im moving over to the Droid X, simply because im a "need the latest greatest" type of guy, but I really love my Incredible! So if Im not happy, i hope one of you will trade me back an incredible!
You'll be back.
I'm kinda in the same boat. I have the opportunity to upgrade to either a fascinate or a droid x (saying ill give my bro my incredible and $50 so I can snatch his upgrade) but I'm not 100% sure I want to do it. Sure id like a better screen but as it stands every phone on verizon has a quirk, so I feel that no matter what I choose I will never truly be happy. For example:
Incredible: lowsy battery life unless you fatten it up a little, creaky/squeaky backplate, relatively weak graphics
Droid X: terrible menu buttons, strange hump design for the camera, could be annoying to hold at times
Fascinate: GPS barely works
So in short every phone has flaws that will make you keep going "I wonder what life would be like if I went with phone x..." People like us are truly doomed
Sent from my Droid Incredible running SkyRaider Vanilla 3.0
Div033 said:
Incredible: creaky/squeaky backplate, relatively weak graphics
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait wat????
Hand76 said:
Wait wat????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From the two backplates I've used, they both exhibit a squeaky/creaky noise when held from time to time... doesnt give the strongest build quality feel. I know I'm not the only one who has experienced this.
As for the graphics issue you'll notice my use of the word relative. I'm not implying the incredible is weak, but when compared to the droid x or the fascinate it certainly is. It is still stronger than the iphone 3gs, and that's capable of running that epic citadel tech demo so ill leave it at that.
Sent from my Droid Incredible running SkyRaider Vanilla 3.0
You might be moving to the latest , but not the greatest .
I know the squeaky feel you're talking about, I forgot about it once I got a case. As far as the X, I would enjoy having a bigger screen but am not a fan of Moto phones, especially the crap Motoblur the X is running.. If I were you, I would save your upgrade for an LTE phone or something better, as the Droid X is by no stretch of the imagination the latest and greatest. rofl.
Agreed
I am not completely happy with the incredible but there are many htc phones in the works with world capabilities as well as the moto pro, that's without mentioning windows phone is dropping sometime in the next 4 months to verizon, in november to AT&T. I really don't care for anything else on the x besides the screen real estate. I have two lines available for upgrades, however, I don't see the point in upgrading right now because I love the rca outs for the incredible. I have my fiance drive me around everywhere in my titan so I can watch hulu from my dinc. Plus this is the only device I've ever owned that just works every time I call upon it. The moto droid was a big step but sometimes it would cut out in the middle of navigation, or skip when playing songs. My incredible works no matter how much I torture it I even had to scoop it from the sand with my feet underwater, I took the battery out, let it dry and it has been working for 3 months since without any issues. I am just a new tech junkie I suppose as long as their isnt a gay colored half eaten apple on it.
I agree. At this time, there simply isn't anything better out there.
... my $.02
Wait till November, the X was not a good phone IMO
There are some new phones coming to VZW in November. There is an EVO like phone coming to VZW, and it will probably be more beast then EVO.
http://www.androidguys.com/2010/08/27/evolike-android-device-breaks-cover-possibly-headed-verizon/
There is also this one, 4" HTC slider with nice keyboard.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/04/htcs-dual-mode-cdma-gsm-android-slider-hits-the-fcc-decked-out/
There was also rumor of the HTC Scorpion 1.5GHZ processor and Froyo coming to VZW.
Im sure ill be back, I really love the inc......I have a 30day grace period, so ill weight it all out
I'm hoping to get some help in making this decision by asking the expert community here at xda. I have a Fascinate now & while it's been fine in most aspects it seems to have connectivity issues with the stock email app. I live & work in a rural area & need this to work reliably. I'm coming from a Droid Eris that had no problem in this area. My 30 days isn't up yet so I can switch to something else if that will solve my problem. All Big Red has done so far is push new prls to the phone. Is the X better with 3g signal reception?
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Keep the fascinating ate. When its all said and done it will get much more attention from the dev community
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
I had an X and have a Fascinate and i am considering going back. It is weird.
I like the feel of the fascinate in my hand better. Both devices had/have lag issues but the X seems to be not as bad as the fascinate on lag. I am not sure what I want to do. The Incredible seems to be the least laggy of the 3. I might hang on to the fascinate in hopes of cyanogen coming.
I am torn.
I appreciate the input. How have you found the signal strength of each? For me, it has to come down to day-to-day functionality first and I need to have the best possible connection for data.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
I think the X may be slightly better on reception.
Droid x is a solid phone, but depending on what you want to be able to do with your phone is what you should look at.
Ie, modding custom roms - Fascinate
Solid feel -Droid x
Locked boot loader- droid x
E fuze- droid x
Can you tell that im a little preferential ?
But seriously, the droid x is solid phone if you have no interest in running custom roms.
jarlaxle said:
I had an X and have a Fascinate and i am considering going back. It is weird.
I like the feel of the fascinate in my hand better. Both devices had/have lag issues but the X seems to be not as bad as the fascinate on lag. I am not sure what I want to do. The Incredible seems to be the least laggy of the 3. I might hang on to the fascinate in hopes of cyanogen coming.
I am torn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that about answers my question before even being asked
id go with fascinate
X vs Fascinate
I work in an office where everyone was on Berries or various iOS devices and have slowly been making converts of them all. Most of the guys here carry either Xs or Galaxy S variants for the different networks.
I have a Fascinate and honestly the biggest difference I have found between the two is peripheral support. Moto seems to do a much better job of getting "extra" hardware out and known.
Software wise it is WAY easier to work in and on the fascinate because there is no fear of tripping that fuze or fuse or whatever it is officially called. As far as performance goes, none of us really see much difference although the S seem to have brighter\crisper screens in a wider range of tests.
I've owned both phones, and I prefer the Fascinate. I like it better because it feels better in my hand, and in the end, I think it's going to be a lot more customizable.
Thanks for all the advice. Has anyone noticed any other issues with the Fascinate? How's call quality been? Battery life? Display? Camera? All these areas have threads in the X forums as well & what I'm seeing so far is alot more ex-X owners here than ex-Fascinate owners there. I guess that should tell me something.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Well, to be fair, the Droid X has also been out longer than the Fascinate so it follows that there are fewer ex-Fascinate owners.
Another tricky thing to consider--the Droid X is going to be EOL'd (end of life) in March of 2011 according to an internal Verizon document leaked via droid-life. Presumably, Motorola will be releasing a refresh or replacement model around that time. However, Moto released updates for the original Droid well after Verizon stopped selling it, whereas Samsung is infamous for halting software support altogether once carrier(s) EOL a device. Whether or not they'll do that with their high-profile Galaxy S line at the cost of their own credibility/brand equity in the global smartphone market remains to be seen.
The consensus in the market is that the X has superior voice call quality and a more accurate GPS. If either of those factors is decisive for you, you might want to just go with the X. Also, its LCD screen displays text more crisply than the SGS' S-AMOLED screens (out of the box anyway), although the still underway Project Voodoo is aiming to help remedy this, but it's not available yet and there's no guarantee that they'll be able to make it superior, just less fuzzy than it currently is. Having said that, if you can live with the text resolution, the display on the SGS devices is truly impressive for image/video and also useable outside in sunlight! Oh and Galaxy S devices are compatible with more codecs and, despite lacking an HDMI outlet and Moto's fancy noise cancellation for phone calls, have a dedicated audio chip that makes for exceptional sound quality for music.
Samsung has promised to get Froyo and other fixes for the Fascinate out by the end of the month. A comprehensive GPS overhaul doesn't appear likely anytime soon, but the form factor is still dreamy and the fact that the bootloader is unlocked means many of the device's shortcomings may find custom ROM solutions more easily than the X.
Essentially, you'll have to decide what your priorities are and trust your own judgment. Good luck!
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
I just got my Fascinate this past Sunday and these are some of the things I noticed:
- My GPS works really well in my opinion. Once in a while, it might take like 30 seconds to lock, but the GPS I was using before took just as long, if not longer (although granted, it wasn't a top of the line GPS). In any case, I really don't find any issues with the GPS.
- I don't like where they put the lock/unlock button. I keep accidentally pressing the volume rocker on the other side of the phone. Does anyone else find this annoying?
- I have noticed that reception always seems rather low. Now, I generally don't care much about how many bars of reception are displayed, but when using Google Voice to send text messages, I often get the error "Message could not be sent" and then I'd have to try again and it'd work (and I may end up sending the message twice by accident). This happens many, many times in a day, even when I appear to have good reception or am outside, etc. Does this happen to anyone else?
Anyway, after doing a lot of research between the Fascinate and the Droid X, I agree with the other person that the Fascinate is the best choice if you want to do a lot of customizing, and if you trust in the community, the Fascinate's future has more potential. I think my biggest concern for the Fascinate is the reception, which is the main thing that makes me wonder about switching to the Droid X. Other than Google Voice constantly not being able to send a message, I don't have any major issues with reception (i.e. no dropped calls in unusual places or anything else I can remember). If you don't care too much for customization and control, I'd say go with the Droid X. It is definitely a solid phone, right out of the box.
Other things about the Droid X that may factor into your decision:
- Reported to have a low speaker/ringtone
- Has an LED notification light
- Official Froyo release
I just played with both at a local wireless store. For some reason, the droid x has a lot better reception/signal. It had 5 bars, while the fascinate only had 3. Also, I ran that Speed Test App to see how fast Verizon's 3g was in my town, and the droid x got around 600, while the fascinate only got around 350. Strange. If I had to pick, I would get the droid x simple because: bigger screen, 8gb internal storage, and better signal.
"You are holding it wrong."
I had the Droid X from launch and I have them both sitting here as I type this. One of them has to be shipped back. The Droid X was meant to replace the Fascinate that replaced the Droid X.... lol ... Since the Droid X launch
Droid X (important to add I have a 32GB sd) Rebooting issues
Evo Solid Phone only drawback was space, and that was not serious.
Droid X long fight to get VZW to send me battery, back chargers ( 2 FCC complaints resulted)
Vibrant (2x on $99 dollar day) The best of them all in my opinion. Lol I still have the Avatar movie in hopes of getting past the drm on it. 16gb + 32gb. Only problem T-Mobile Customer service! Sales in English / Customer Support I don't understand English! (FCC to get refund and cancel service)
Droid X minor issues once I recieved a new one
Fascinate 1st brick, 2nd strange shut offs could be setcpu issue in hindsight.
Droid X Froyo update, working well, but (see below)
Fascinate (currently using)
As you can tell I've had some experience on this debate. I mentioned a couple other phones because they do play into my choices.
I wanted to decide between Epic, Vibrant, Fascinate or Droid X. Customer service is a big deal to me. I work for Verizon (not wireless) and this is the first time I'm using my discount on the VZ network.
Epic very nice phone, but small rom. I did have a nice discount and 4g was nice. Very hard not to take this phone
Vibrant ... Customer service killed it
Droid X amazing hardware on this phone. I can even live with the screen not being Super Amoled, but the software is terrible!
locked bootloader
No DLNA support to stream to device. Moov Atom different than most DLNA devices so Mezzmo who would create a profile is useless! Bootloader prevents cifs so not possible to mount drives (or I never found a solution). Only real option is Androstream in my opinion.
The Droid X does shine when it comes to syncing. Moto's Link tool is very nice to be free. I had no problem finding something that worked out of the box.
Fascinate small rom, but codec support is amazing! 5.1 audio. I want the option to listen to music and or watch tv shows on the go like I did with my iPhone through AirVideo. Cifs manager I can mount shares and watch anything! If I needed to I can use Twonky, Tversity, Playon and Mezzemo (they have a profile and it works well). I couldnt send a simple 5 second movie on the DX through mms, just would get an error. Fascinate converts and sends. Once this phone gets flash, native Playon support it will be perfect.
My real complaint is the fact this Version does not have the Kies option in the sync settings for Samsungs sync software. Media Monkey is the best option I've found.
The media hub now works (something happened in last couple days). Able to use my iPhone armband to workout with it as well as my
http://www.amazon.com/Acoustic-Research-ARWH1-Bluetooth-Headset/dp/B00195HS28
I just read that HTC is going to start locking down their phones, so I might stay with Samsung a while.
I put alot of thought into this decision and if not for my just getting an iPad I would have more to say about the media issues.
It's been mentioned before. You want a solid multimedia phone for the average user. Droid X is the way to go.
Honestly buy the Fascinate it comes with a Droid X free! Buy one get one of the same or equal value promotion will always trump the Droid X on its own, I have two this way! You would laugh if you knew how many screen protectors I went through in the last couple of months. Not that I'm hearing the Samsung Tab might be 399 with 2yr or 500-600 instead of the 1k first rumored, I believe that is where my next gadgit fix will go. Google Voice + Whistler = free phone anyway on my iPad, so its going to be interesting what options I have with the Tab.
[/rambling]
INeedYourHelp said:
I just played with both at a local wireless store. For some reason, the droid x has a lot better reception/signal. It had 5 bars, while the fascinate only had 3. Also, I ran that Speed Test App to see how fast Verizon's 3g was in my town, and the droid x got around 600, while the fascinate only got around 350. Strange. If I had to pick, I would get the droid x simple because: bigger screen, 8gb internal storage, and better signal.
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there is some talk that the DX inflates its signal strength. i have seen a couple of reviews on the web with the DX and the SF next to each other and the SF showed less bars(not only cell but WiFi as well) and the SF was faster. this was also one of the problems with the iplop's signal strength before they claimed they "fixed" it with an update. i messed around with both at the local VZN store and the SF was faster opening apps and on the web. one thing i didnt like about the DX was when swiping to the next screen it always seems to over slide then slide back to center. the SF did not do this, it had a nice smooth slide from screen to screen. as for the screen, yes, the DX is larger but i see that as a down fall. there are times i slip my cell in my pocket and the larger phone is a PITA. i dont want to have to have it in a holster all the time. one shining point of the DX is the miniHDMI out. as it sits the SF doesnt do video out via a cable. of course, i dont have HDMI on my TV so its not that big of an issue. i would have preferred tthat it had the video out like the SF should have once 2.2 comes out(at least im hoping). right now, from where im sitting the SF edges out the DX but not by much. its all in what the end user wants to do with there phone.
I now have voodoo on my Fascinate and I would not go back to the X.
Battery life is on par with the x. The screen and multimedia features se much better than the x. The camera and video quality are much much better on the fascinate. And the fascinate will be much easier to customize. I've had the DInc, X, D2, and now the fascinate. Of all three the only thing I dislike the most about the fascinate is the lack of froyo. We will have that too, soon enough. Not to mention is has the best CPU/GPU combination in the mobile market anywhere. The iPhone 4 is know as a heat gaming phone. Ell guess what, the x has the powerVR SGX 530, the iPhone 4 has the powerVR SGX 535, and last but not least the Fascinate has the POWERVR SGX 540. Not to mention the sixaxis accelerometer. Its a great phone.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
I had a droid x for about a week before i switched to the fascinate. Honestly i wanted to like the droid x but everything just felt slower on it. I had an epic before i dropped sprint for verizon and moving to the droid x felt like a step backwards. Even running the blurless roms for the droid x i still noticed little hitches all over the place where my epic had been totally smooth. To be fair though the gps and battery were better om the droid x for me, but i just felt like the entire system was slower in comparison to the galaxy s phones. I am really enjoying the fascinate so far though, gets better batery life than my epic did plus its so damn thin i've had a lot of peole comment on how nice this phone looks and i agree.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
I have an upgrade due in November and want to get a good phone that could supply my needs for the next year. I'm looking at the Droid X and the Samsung Fascinate and wanted to ask those with Droid X if the real life performance is good. I want to know:
1. Is opening applications and exiting applications fast?
2. Is there any significant lag during day to day use?
3. Is the GPU good enough to produce smooth gameplay on 3D games such as Angry Birds, NFS Shift, or other demanding games?
I just want to know if the Droid X is good enough to be my next phone (my current one is the Eris).
Sent from Eris with Froyo
i cant speak specifically for the fascinate, but i have used the captivate before switching to the droid x.
1. there is terrible lag on the captivate in some applications. unlocking the phone, and even just answering a phone call gave me terrible lag. there are lag fixes, but you have to root to use them.
2. see #1
3. i think that the galaxy s units have a superior gpu, but i have had no issues whatsoever playing any of the games that you mentioned at all.
i have been completly happy with my x, and to me its much better than the galaxy s line of phones. the galaxy's have better screens, but thats about where it ends. good luck!
I can't speak on behalf on the fascinate but I can tell you that the droid x tends to be a bit laggy when performing regular tasks like scrolling through apps and screens. As for everything else it's amazing. No lag with games, speedy browsing, and amazing pictures. It would be the best phone ever made IMO if the lag was fixed.
I have both of these phones and the one I use 99% of the time is the Droid x. I have 2 numbers and have all calls from the samsung line forwarded to the droid x line. The x is built better; the samsung is mostly plastic and feels cheap. The x has 4 times the onboard memory; 8 gb to 2 gb. The x has a larger screen; the samsung has a nicer looking screen. The samsung is a google phone with microsoft software; that makes alot of sense??? The samsung is definately more "laggy" than the x. The x seems to get better reception. The x has 3 more megapixels in the camera. I'm not saying the samsung is a bad phone; if I had never tried the x I would be more than happy with it. Especially coming from an eris, I think you'll be happy with either one of them. Oh, your hand size might pay a role in the decision as well. Some people can't hold the x with one hand and touch anywhere on the screen. I don't have this problem, but I could see how it would be annoying. I hope that helps.
Thanks for these tips! I'm pretty sure this will be my next phone now, unless Verizon comes out with something mindblowing.
Sent from Eris with Froyo
TheSonicEmerald said:
Thanks for these tips! I'm pretty sure this will be my next phone now, unless Verizon comes out with something mindblowing.
Sent from Eris with Froyo
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The HTC Merge is coming next mid-month...
Might be worth it to wait a month or two to see what else comes out.
The x is a pretty good phone to go with minus the locked bootloader.
LTE and a front facing camera would be sweet to see. Those two things in addition to current features of the x would be the perfect phone in my opinion. Still waiting for the double rainbow of phones though.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
you could wait, but as fast as phones are coming out, you would always be waiting for whatever was new. i say get what you want now. it'll be outdated in a month anyway regardless of what you get!
Cobra302 said:
you could wait, but as fast as phones are coming out, you would always be waiting for whatever was new. i say get what you want now. it'll be outdated in a month anyway regardless of what you get!
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True, true.
Sent from my Eris using XDA App
Before anything, Go into a corporate store and ask to play around with both phones, most sales reps have the droid x or the fascinate as their personal phone and they will let you use them.
with that being said. I bought the Samsung Fascinate first and brought it back a week later to get the Droid X. Fascinate has a GREAT battery life compared to the droid X.
Reason I did this is not because the phone is not a good phone it is because the phone has some thing integrated that I did not like.
1) Bing is every where on the phone, so you must tweak it to where you can use google via an app on the home screen instead of a search bar ( some of us don't mind but I did.
2)On the car dock the default navigation system to use is VZNavigator which is run by BING and you must subscribe to it, so again to use google maps which is free btw you must use another short cut key.
These are the two biggest things I did not like on this phone. Other than those two things the phone has a beautiful screen and the camera quality is equal to greater than the Droid X, but without a case for the phone the phone feels very light and cheap.
Droid X has some issues of its own but nothing a little rooting can't help. When I had the stock Droid X I had a few freeze ups and lag but haven't had it happen since I rooted and did a few other tweaks.
Issues
1)Camera even though is 8MP is not the best but still does the job.
2)Do not know if this is a 2.2 issue or not but when you record video and then try to play it back on say a computer the audio gets messed up and has a delay
3)Battery life doesn't do to well
Other than those are minor ones and they can be fixed in time but you should also wait to see what they have coming out when they roll out LTE Network because I have seen a few I would love to get my hands on already.
I can't say anything about the fascinate but I have no major complaints about my x I mean sometimes the camera takes grainy pictures, but that's about it I've never had a freeze or anything of the sort im runnig completely stock 2.2 ota im always running live wallpapers and the battery lastes me 12-15 hours and that's with wifi use and emailing facebooking testing calling. Heavy use lol
The only thing that mainly depletes my batery is pandora when I have it hooked up in my car but that still takes 6-8 hours to kill it.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
conradd said:
I can't speak on behalf on the fascinate but I can tell you that the droid x tends to be a bit laggy when performing regular tasks like scrolling through apps and screens. As for everything else it's amazing. No lag with games, speedy browsing, and amazing pictures. It would be the best phone ever made IMO if the lag was fixed.
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it's because of the default Blur software. After I removed bloat and installed launcher pro, the phone is as smooth as butter with 100 MB free memory
My plan was to try the Fascinate 1st then get the Droid X if I didn't like the Fascinate. The Fascinate had a beautiful screen. The Fascinate is plastic and felt plasticky. Touchwiz was not bad. I didnt like the Bing presence and was holding off on modifying the OS.
The deal breaker for me was the abominable GPS and an issue with 3G instability (frequent dropping) after the Fascinate update. My roomie has an original Droid and she had great GPS and 3G by comparison.
I exchanged the Fascinate for the DroidX (after opening a trouble ticket for the 3G issues which VZW acknowledged was a problem with that phone).
Needless to say, I am totally happy with the Droid X. It's super responsive and everything works great (GPS, wifi, bluetooth, 3G). I appreciate the large, clear screen.
Battery performance is about 17-21hrs. I disable data when i dont need it. Generally have phone on for calls and text. I enable wifi at home or 3g out-and-about when it's needed. I dont need frequent updates of twitter,weather,email etc. (Once got 27hrs...). The GTD apps have always been my primary use of a smartphone.
My DroidX is pretty much where I want it to be (GTD apps and launcherpro, not a gamer per se). And it is unrooted.
I'm a girl with girl sized hands (you know what I mean) and I am totally comfortable with the Droid X. Unlike the Fascinate, the DroidX feels solidly built.
sheth1nks said:
I'm a girl with girl sized hands (you know what I mean) and I am totally comfortable with the Droid X. Unlike the Fascinate, the DroidX feels solidly built.
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glad you like it. At first I thought the X was too big for my big hands coming from eris, let alone a girl carrying it. But now I have learned to carry it comfortably and operate it with one hand.
rlacsamana1989 said:
3)Battery life doesn't do to well
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Define "doesn't do to[o] well," because my phone often lasts me 9 hours of rather moderate use (numerous phone calls, ~75 texts, ~3 hours of music streaming, and probably ~1 hour of browsing the internet) and still keeps 50% left.
Get Setcpu if you don't already use it and learn how to set up profiles, especially one for when your screen is off.
Currently rocking a captivate, love the phone but thinking about getting a galaxy tab and downsizing my phone to aria with CM and overclocked to 850. I can make about 200$ towards the tab purchase selling my cappy and picking up a aria.
Any input? anyone make the move from a bigger screen?
The Aria's size and build is really great, with a lot of nice hardware features.
I'm not sure about overclocking though, it's reasonably fast without it, and would likely result in about 26 minute battery life.
I actually just posted a big long comparison on another forum for a debate between the two. I'll copy & paste the whole thing for ya, if you care to read it.
----------------------------------
So I'll lay my full opinion on the table, as its a pretty recent experience for me. It's a long story, so if you're patient enough to read it, here it goes:
I pre-ordered an iPhone 4, and when I got it, it was defective. Not one of the reception issues or other things people were complaining about at the time... it was just defective. Being that stores hadn't even filled all of their pre-orders, there wasn't a chance in hell I was getting a replacement any time soon. I decided, since that had been my 3rd iPhone (had an original 2g, and a 3G-S before it) that I'd head to the Android side and try it out.
I don't remember how I found out about the Captivate, but I think a friend mentioned it and we started looking into it. It seemed like a great phone, but it wasn't being released until about 2 weeks down the line at this point in time. I spoke to some folks at Best Buy where I had bought the iPhone 4 and expressed my interest in the Captivate. I was able to get the Aria for the time being, and return it with no return fee and exchange it for the Captivate when it was released.
My first reactions with the Aria were mixed. I was blown away by Android from the start, but knowing (spec's wise) that the Captivate was a better phone I never took the time to fully appreciate it. I was also naive to many things about it since I was new to Android and hadn't fully wrapped my head around it yet. So, then I got my Captivate and dove head first into Android. At first I loved it. It's a powerful phone and does a lot of things real well. It has its downsides, though. My biggest gripe at first was the GPS. I use a GPS pretty frequently for various things, and I hadn't bought a new standalone GPS unit because I had this phone. So it not working mattered to me. It rarely connected at all until the over the air update. Then I randomly had problems with it turning itself off. My first one was fine for months, then one day I pulled it out of my pocket to check the time and it was off. Then it happened again the next day... and then twice the next. I got a warranty replacement. That one did the same thing after a month. Got that one replaced... lasted about 2 weeks, same problem. I charge the phone once a night when I get home from work until it's full, and unplug it afterwards. The battery usually lasts me to at least 40% even with heavy use on the average day... so can't see it being that I messed up all 3 batteries some how. Also, when I'd turn it back on the battery was never dead. I've never had a similar problem with any of the smartphones I've had in the past.
So, I went back to AT&T and told them I want an Aria instead. I had done some research on the Andriod phones available on AT&T currently and I thought it would be my next best option. I went on different forums, read reviews, went into stores and played with the different options, etc. I knew I would be making some concessions and giving up some things, but at this point I just wanted a reliable smartphone.
So I've had the Aria for a few days now (less than a week), but I already realize so many things that I hadn't noticed in comparison to the Captivate at first because I was new to Android and didn't know better. Here's my list:
1. I love Sense. I was ready to load up ADW right away because I was use to using it, because TouchWiz sucked. I can't see myself replacing Sense anytime soon.
2. The GPS works perfectly. Connects just about instantly, and is way more accurate than any of my Captivate's were.
3. I actually appreciate the small size more now after having a big 4" screen for a while. While it was weird to type on the smaller screen at first, SwiftKey made that all better. Now I don't want a big screen phone anymore.
4. Based off of the dBm and asu numbers, I actually get a little better reception on my Aria at the places I frequent most.
5. A lot of my favorite apps run generally less buggy on the Aria then on any of my Captivates. Handcent is one of them, for example.
6. Now, I don't know or care why, but stock vs. stock my Aria seems smoother, snappier, and faster navigating around general apps and such. No, games don't play better on it for obvious reasons. Everything else that I use, though... not laggy at all.
The bad:
1. Storage... not a lot of room for apps (though, I haven't run out yet). I stuck my 16gig stick in it for pictures and such, but without Froyo on it yet, the low internal storage thing kinda sucks. Yes I know I can put a froyo rom on it and store apps to SD. I may, but right now I don't have any need to.
2. The camera doesn't compare. The only thing it matches up to is megapixels, which mean nothing really. The Captivate camera, even without a flash, is amazing. The Aria camera still does the trick for simple stuff, though.
3. The optical wheel can be finicky, but maybe I'm just not use to it yet.
4. I wish the screen was a little bigger for certain websites and things... but its really not as bad as I'd thought it would be.
In all honestly... those 4 things are the worst I can say about it so far. It's a great phone, and its changed what I thought I "needed" in a smartphone.
sportedwood said:
Currently rocking a captivate, love the phone but thinking about getting a galaxy tab and downsizing my phone to aria with CM and overclocked to 850. I can make about 200$ towards the tab purchase selling my cappy and picking up a aria.
Any input? anyone make the move from a bigger screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Captivate and my wife has the Aria.
Captivate rocking Cognition FroYo
Aria rocking Cyanogen FroYo
The Aria is a great little phone and I'm always tinkering with it BUT the difference in screen size and resolution is so many worlds apart that I don't think I could ever downgrade on the screen. It's like the difference between high and standard def tv. Now that I have a nice HD TV I cannot stand to watch standard definition anymore. The Super Amoled screen cannot be beat.
Besides the screen size, from a Captivate point of view, the keyboard can be a little cramped but i can still use but just not as easy.
It sounds like you will be using the Aria for normal phone stuff and your Galaxy Tab will become your surfing and gaming machine. That would be a pretty cool setup if you didn't mind carrying 2 devices. The ultimate setup if you could afford it would be the Captivate and the Galaxy Tab!
I know the Captivate has gotten a bad rap, but I have not had any issues with mine. GPS is weak but it does work but then again I have GPS in my vehicles so I don't really use it.
Thanks for the replies guys, I just want a smaller phone.. I think im going to pick up a Aria on craigslist and give it a go for a few days, can always sell it again.
Thanks again!