Droid BIONIC

[zamboni]

Anyone know anything yet about it? Comes out thursday, and I am at upgrade time.

[Nick Kuhn]

It's essentially a Photon 4G for Verizon. Reviews for the Photon were generally good, although most point out Motorola's UI is not nearly as good as HTC's.

[pureinsanity]

I use to have a HTC, and my girlfriend does now, and I prefer the motorola UI over HTC... but that is just me.

I think both UI's are great however.

[zamboni]

HTC's battery life is horrid, is Motorolas better?

[Nick Kuhn]

It's not horrid if you use it like a normal human and disable a few things/lower screen brightness. The Droid Bionic has a 1735 mAh battery (which I believe will be the largest on the market). It will last a long time if you use it carefully. Most phones have about a 1400 mAh battery.

[RuKiddingMe]

Personally I would wait, we are coming in the holiday season real quick and the there is generally some secret devices that come rolling out in the Nov time frame.

Plus lets be honest, the 4.3 screen is too small. (coming from a Dell Streak owner, that is)

Now the Samsung Note with the 5.3" screen, that phone is where it's at.

[Scott K]

Personally I would wait, we are coming in the holiday season real quick and the there is generally some secret devices that come rolling out in the Nov time frame.

Plus lets be honest, the 4.3 screen is too small. (coming from a Dell Streak owner, that is)

Now the Samsung Note with the 5.3" screen, that phone is where it's at.

I thought small was best? We had large phone 10 years ago, now we are going back to them? Why not just carry an ipad with Skype?

[CJH]

Why not just carry an ipad with Skype?

Does that fit in your pocket? I'd like to see a picture of that!!!

[Nick Kuhn]

Personally I would wait, we are coming in the holiday season real quick and the there is generally some secret devices that come rolling out in the Nov time frame.

There are no secret devices in the mobile world. There are various places they must be registered before they can even be warehoused in the US, and some of those are available to the public. Also most phones are tested using common benchmark software. Every once and a while codenamed devices are seen at this benchmarks.

The current leader in the "future" devices for Verizon would be the HTC Vigor. If the specs are correct this will be a monster of a phone. Otherwise the LG Revolution 2 looks to be coming with a 4.5" screen. Whether it matches the 720p resolution of the Vigor is unknown at this time. If these phones do in fact sport a 720p display, it would be hard to justify anyone getting an iPhone 5 as it will be technically inferior right from the get-go.

[RuKiddingMe]

I thought small was best? We had large phone 10 years ago, now we are going back to them? Why not just carry an ipad with Skype?

That is brilliant, only problem is I'm sure my wife and all my firends will tell me to get bent when I ask them to get iPad and load Skype and carry that around so we can talk... LOL

In all seriousness, used to think the same thing and thought the iPhone screen size was the sweet spot, until they released the 4.0" and 4.3" screens, that made web browsing on a mobile phone far superior. I caught wind of the Dell Streak and that replaced my Samsung Captivate which replaced my tiny iPhone. Yes the 5" screen is large, but I can put it in my pocket no problem, it's as thin or thinner then a lot of the stuff out there right now and pretty lite weight to boot.

To be honest, my phone has taken place of my laptop in a lot of ways.

[RuKiddingMe]

There are no secret devices in the mobile world. There are various places they must be registered before they can even be warehoused in the US, and some of those are available to the public. Also most phones are tested using common benchmark software. Every once and a while codenamed devices are seen at this benchmarks.

The current leader in the "future" devices for Verizon would be the HTC Vigor. If the specs are correct this will be a monster of a phone. Otherwise the LG Revolution 2 looks to be coming with a 4.5" screen. Whether it matches the 720p resolution of the Vigor is unknown at this time. If these phones do in fact sport a 720p display, it would be hard to justify anyone getting an iPhone 5 as it will be technically inferior right from the get-go.

Secret for you or me? No - secret for someone asking about a newly released phone on a fishing board - you bet...

All the flash of the new 720p phones with dual 1.x procs, or even the quad procs that have been generating some buzz, are all things that will be a tough sale for an individual like me I hate the thought of being tethered to an external power source because I want to use that the the tools that make the phone great. The manufacturers finally got it done with the laptops and I'm guessing the phones aren't far behind, but that is and will always be a consideration.

Power consumption of a 4g (LTE) antenna vs a 3g antenna is crazy now add in GPS and WiFi, same goes for the screens - LCD vs AMOLED vs Super AMOLED... and if your answer to that is turning down brightness and turn off 4g and GPS whats the point? is it just to say you have it?

[LMITOUT]

These new phones are too big. I have an EVO it's more than plenty big enough, yet now there is a race to go bigger for some ridiculous reason. I really wish they would offer more at that 4" mark as that would be the perfect all around size for a smart PHONE. Yes, the primary use is still a PHONE. If you need something bigger than 4.5" get a tablet. Otherwise we're back to wearing belt holsters to carry these bricks around like we were 10 years ago when the race was to go smaller and smaller.

I despise Apple and everything they stand for, but if the iPhone 5 is anything like what is being rumored that would be exactly the size that I would like to see in more devices instead of going big, bigger, and finally asinine-sized...only to repeat the process that started 10 years ago.

[DTro]

I'm due for an upgrade and the Bionic looks like a good phone. I've always been a fan of Motorola and love my DroidX.

But, I've heard some bad things about battery life about 4G phones and wonder how it can be worse than what I have already (charge twice a day). That scares me.

[LMITOUT]

I'd just turn it off until you really need it.

Same goes for bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc. Why turn it on if you aren't using it? Just like a Swiss Army Knife, do you walk around with every blade or tool open on a SAK? Nope. But it's there when you need it.

[Nick Kuhn]

And if you are on a lake where you get no signal (this happens to me once in a while) put the phone in airplane mode when you aren't using it.

[CJH]

It's not horrid if you use it like a normal human and disable a few things/lower screen brightness. The Droid Bionic has a 1735 mAh battery (which I believe will be the largest on the market). It will last a long time if you use it carefully. Most phones have about a 1400 mAh battery.

Have read some really good reviews on this phone, including how much better the battery life is compared to the rest of them. It would be the one I would buy, if I were in the market right now.

[vikingmeatwad]

I have the Droid Charge and like it so far with the bigger screen. It is no fun with all of these new ones coming out. We will see what the people say if the Bionic is any better.

Good Luck as they say in GL

[Matt C]

Buying a Bionic for my wife this weekend as she is due for an upgrade. I went and touchy feelyed it...I like it.

The vz rep said the major downfall is some take up to an hour to get all registered and whatnot.

I'll post my findings on the phone after she has it a few days.

[Matt C]

So far with the Bionic, its a SWEEEEET phone. Zero issues, and constant patches from Motorola for new bugs they find.

[LMITOUT]

How is the battery life? Read an article yesterday that said it was pretty much like all Android phones...poor compared to the competition. However, with any new device you're typically using the thing much more than you would after the newness wears off and fall back into the regular routine of things, and I got the feeling from this article that they were really putting it through the paces in testing which is why they made the battery comment.

Have to wonder how much extra juice these larger screens take compared to one that is, say, 4" at the same brightness level.

[zamboni]

Battery life is getting worse, IMO on these phones these days. Everything else is improving but that. Remember the Nokias that could go 3 days without a charge? I miss those batteries. To me, they are trying to make them needle thin, I don't mind putting up with a thicker battery if you get more time out of it

[Matt C]

Its the same screen that's in my Droid X. Seems to be about the same on the battery as well. I have 4G turned off unless shes heading to the cities.

What I told her, and seems to have worked for me, when in the car, plug it in to and from work and what not. Home at night, plug it in at bed time.

The speed is amazing, and I really can't wait to try out the 4g. We live in Shieldsville, so about 8 mi. NW of Faribault. 4G is hitting the outskirts on Northfield already, so I assume within a year it will be to us.

I know Owatonna just did a tower upgrade (where her and I work), guy at the VZ store said about 6months to full operational in Owatonna.

[Nick Kuhn]

Batteries are much larger than in those old Nokia phones. The screens are simply much larger, the processors much more complicated, and the communication protocols eat juice a lot faster now than they used to. Starting sometime next year you will start to see 28nm phone processors, which should start to help battery life. However, I doubt display efficiency and communication efficiency will improve much before then.

[CJH]

Straight from CNET:

The good: The Motorola Droid Bionic has a nice slim and sleek design, with a 4.3-inch qHD display and the double whammy of a dual-core processor and Verizon 4G LTE support. Multimedia features are plentiful, and business users will be pleased with its enterprise abilities like the Webtop application and solid security. We were also pleased with its long battery life.

The bad: The Motorola Droid Bionic is saddled with Motorola's custom UI, which might not be for everyone. The camera has a slight shutter lag, the display is not as sharp as we would like, and it's also quite expensive. The Webtop accessories aren't cheap.

The bottom line: The Motorola Droid Bionic is everything you want from a high-end smartphone. It's sleek, fast, and powerful, with features that will please both consumers and business users--if you're willing to pay the high price.

Read more: http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/moto...l#ixzz1YanWwlJb