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Experience with the Bionic (so far)

So I've owned the Bionic for about a week now and I just want to share my current experience with it so far.

First off, I basically upgraded from the original Droid (and I do mean the ORIGINAL) so going from that to the Bionic is like night and day. I live in Omaha where the 4G just came around about a month or so ago.

The phone itself reminds me of the X2, with exception with the back where the protrusion is not as sharp. The screen is nice and large and relatively vivid. I've read some reviews saying that the display is not as good as some of the other phones out right now, but coming from the old Droid, it reminds me of when I first made the step from SD to HD with my television. Also, speaking of television, it may be such a small thing, but one of the coolest things to me is when you put the phone to sleep, it's like turning off one of those old tube TV's. As I said, it may be a small thing, but it puts a smile on my face every time.

Holding the phone feels comfortable and even after I put in the extended battery, the added weight and bulk really didn't make much of a difference as I thought it would. I did notice some audio issues. Even with max volume, audible key presses will vary from fairly soft to quite loud and the volume difference is inconsistent. Also, at certain points, there are audio distortions when a sudden change in volume (depending on what the sound is... noticeable while I was using Pandora) occurs. This is even when the phone is plugged into an external speaker. As for the calls, the audio from incoming calls were nice and clear, but there seems to be some sort of an echo when you speak to the other person on the other line. It is fairly unnoticeable unless you listen to it carefully. The 4G connection is currently hit or miss, but because it's relatively new here, I'm not going to be too picky about it. When in 4G, upstream and downloads are nice and fast. Even when in 3G, the phone seems to have a relatively fast connection, but is definitely slower on 4G. I was able to stream High Def videos with no buffering while in 4G.

Running apps on the phone is mostly a great experience. Apps load fast and react very quickly, thanks to the dual core processor, and having multiple apps running doesn't tax the phone much. There are the occasional force closes, but it's more from apps that have been around before the phone's inception. I did experience some slowdown or timeouts while going back and forth in the Android market and it took a little bit of time for the phone to reset itself.

The big negative I've experienced so far was when I transferred apps into the Media Area. I actually thought I messed something up transferring my old files from my old phone but came to find out there were other folks that had similar issues. It seems that it has something to do with when you plug the phone onto a PC from my observation. As I am typing this, some of the apps that I had in the Media Area disappeared again. To a lot of folks, this can be solved by just leaving the apps in the phone's internal storage, but for folks that has a lot of apps and such, it can fill up that space quickly, and not having the Media Area as a storage option is definitely an big issue, especially since that is what that was it was supposed to be intended for. I don't believe there is any sort of fix out there for this right now, which is kind of a let down in my opinion.

Overall, I love my Bionic and I'm super glad to own it, but the issue with the disappearing apps has me very concerned. I hope that this gets fixed very soon, or someone figures out what's causing it. This alone can turn a relatively positive experience with a very, very good phone into a negative one. I still have some more fiddling to do with this, but I really love the phone.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to re-download those apps that went poof.

Comments

Wildman

Good to hear you are enjoying the device... Have you tried a apparently called Equalizer from the market, it improves sound audio so much..

VZWExpert

I noticed many of the same things you did, but when I realized how the phone is organized, things made more sense.

For starters, there is 4GB of memory dedicated solely for application space. As long as you are uninstalling apps you're not using, it would be very difficult to fill 4GB with just application files as nearly all of these files are only a few hundred KB or a few MB in size. That's enough space for 5,000 average sized applications. I would recommend not moving any of them to the memory card or media area, as it's simply not needed.

The odd thing that takes some getting used to is that instead of the typical "internal" and "external" memory options of other Android phones, now you actually have two "internal" storage areas - 4GB for applications and 8GB for storage. Then you also have the 16GB (14.83GB) SD card space.

I find that the qHD display renders video beautifully, especially streaming Netflix movies on my phone. ZumoCast is awesome also, because I can access and stream music, pictures, videos, documents, etc. from my 1TB hard drive on my computer at home without having to clog up memory on my phone. That's a HUUUUUUGE plus and the streaming has been absolutely flawless.

Good to see you're happy with your phone! Hopefully the suggestion about the memory will alleviate your issue.

Wildman

Ok I went to store and got to compare the screens on the Bionic with TB and I can say the screen appears to be a very ckear and vivid screen but after I got bast that I just cant see any major diffrence for me, it also has its pluses over my original Droid X.... Who knows what I may do when the Droid X hits its update time... :smileywink: :smileysurprised: :smileyvery-happy:

gina7289

When u wireless access ur computer from ur phone dont u have to save it to ur phone to use it or stream it?

mlknez

What is your definition of HD video? The accepted one is 1920x1080i @19.2Mbps or higher.

VZWExpert

gina7289 wrote:
When u wireless access ur computer from ur phone dont u have to save it to ur phone to use it or stream it?

ZumoCast is a real-time streaming app. You don't have to save anything. If you want to, however, you can hold your finger down on the file and select "Download" to download it to your phone as well if you want it on your phone too. For lack of a better way to phrase it, ZumoCast is just pure awesome.

VZWExpert

mlknez wrote:
What is your definition of HD video? The accepted one is 1920x1080i @19.2Mbps or higher.

One of the biggest selling points of the Bionic is that the screen resolution is exactly 1/4 of a 1080p High Definition screen. That makes scaling of 1080p HD videos near flawless. The video playback on this phone is very clear, very smooth, and doesn't suffer from "stretching" issues of other handsets when scaling.

TomT1949

regarding disappearing apps, it definitely has to do with moving to media area. I've got a call into tech support on this and will post what I find out.

For now I'm not moving them.

Wildman

gina7289 wrote:
When u wireless access ur computer from ur phone dont u have to save it to ur phone to use it or stream it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deQs8zQWbrs

dmad1rulz

Not sure if anyone has the same issues, but I can't seem to stream my music using ZumoCast from my computer. Kinda weird since it has no issues streaming my movies and stuff.

Also, playing my music through my bluetooth headset seems to be skipping when I'm only like 3 feet away. I didn't have this issue with my original Droid, but then again, it might be the headset itself. Needs more testing...

Still love this phone... but now I gotta figure out how I can make it work overseas since I'll be heading out in a few months.

vidguy7

mlknez wrote:
What is your definition of HD video? The accepted one is 1920x1080i @19.2Mbps or higher.

Actually the 'accepted' definition of HD video is also 720p, not just 1920X1080i

lilspirit

After a horrid experience with the Samsung Fascinate (a lengthy story in itself), thanks to a compasionate Verizon, I ended up with the HTC Droid Inc 2. Not a bad phone, but I was not happy with the HTC interface. Suprisingly, being the primary line on the family plan, I got an early upgrade and headed to the Verizon store. While the salesman tried to talk me into waiting a few more weeks for the new iPhone 5 or the new Samsung on the horizon, I love android and decided to stick with it and have vowed never to buy another Samsung phone again (they proved to me they don't care about their consumers and thank goodness Verizon does). Enter the Droid Bionic!

There was only one left in the store (authorized Verizon retailer with great customer service), and the owner took his time explaining some of the bugs that have come with the launch of a brand new product. I knew that it could never be as horrid as what I had just gone through with the Fascinate so I made my purchase. Brought the phone home, plugged it into the wall charger (as per the store owner's instructions not to use a car charger on the first complete charge) and waited impatiently to play. About an hour later it was good to go. My apps were restored from google, my contacts came through from backup asst., and the set up was quick and painless. I live in a 4g area and I define my phone usage as light to medium. I make about an hours worth of calls a day. About ten to twenty text messages. I check three email accounts on a 4 hour sync schedule. I play about an hour and a half of word games. Use wi-fi for about 4 hours, blue-tooth for an hour, take one to two pics to send about, and just mess with the settings for about 20 minutes getting used to the new interface. That is my average phone usage day, and I am here to tell you, that one week later, my battery life has been great. I purposely put it through a couple complete charge cycles the first three days, and now I haven't charged it in 2d 1h and 32m and am at 30%. I definitly cannot complain. I have had no activation issues, no dropped service with the 3g/4g exchange, great reception, fast data, loud speaker, and nice camera. Yes, lemons do make it to the market, but I definitly didn't get one.

Now, bonus for Ford owners who rely on their Sync, as I do, Bionic works great with your Ford!!! I have a 2010 Ford Edge and the Bionic is fully funtional with your Sync system including text message read-out and reply!!! Way to go Motorola, this is a big plus in my book!

I haven't used the Zumocast app yet, and am excited to give it a try. Streaming my audio/video files directly from the computer will be great. Waiting for a little chunk of time to play with this feature uninterrupted and just haven't gotten to it yet. I will be sure to update this when I get to it.

Overall, the Bionic has been wonderful for me! Even the screen is good, so don't let the reviews scare you away on the screen resolution and pixel quality. The screen protectors themselves make even amoled screens look pixelish too. I hope this helps someone with their purchase decision. Thanks again, Verizon and Motorola, for taking care of your customers and putting out great products!

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