So who's getting the Ion?

[drogers81]

My upgrade was yesterday so I ordered mine yesterday...now I just have to wait until Thursday for it to arrive..the suspense is killing me..lol

 

[experiment 626]

Best Buy also sells the Xperia ION, and best of all its only $49.99 w/2yr contract. The trick is not every BB stocks the ION. You have to search local store inventories thru their website.

 

[erwaso]

Sams club and Target has it for $40 themselves as well.

 

[erwaso]

Apparently there's a screen protector pre installed on the ion. I saw this over on xda and in the store today.

Forgot to ask, what are your impressions of it? Good enough to keep on or buy a better one?

 

[petes67bird]

I noticed the screen protector as well. The Incipio Silicrylic case I purchased came with a screen protector, so I applied that one as well. It is a bit better with anti fingerprint and cleans easier. Pete

 

[paul-c]

Apparently there's a screen protector pre installed on the ion. I saw this over on xda and in the store today.

Forgot to ask, what are your impressions of it? Good enough to keep on or buy a better one?

The screen protector is not very good. It picks up alot of debris and smudges very easily. If you're trying to go that route, I suggest getting a better one. I'm going to take it off altogether. Screen is plenty durable, and I can't stand all the stuff the pre installed protector picks up. Oh, and you're upgrade date will be here before you know it, stay strong.

 

[erwaso]

Thx guys. I've talked to a target, best buy and the ATT store, all have no problem upgrading me within a week of my actual Aug 7 date lol. Best buy manager said 15 says is the earliest he's seen for ATT.

 

[petes67bird]

Hi Paul,
Do you mean you are gonna peel the one that came on the phone off? I didnt realize that was possible and just applied the screen protector that came with the case over what came stock on the phone. So in essence I have 2 screen protectors on there. I never knew the one that came from sony could come off. Hmm, wonder if I should peel off both now and buy a new one or just leave it. It doesnt seem to affect the touch sensitivity and I dont notice any majory difference in screen quality with the stock vs the added one. Also what brightness settings do you guys keep your phone at? Thanks Pete

 

[petes67bird]

Thx guys. I've talked to a target, best buy and the ATT store, all have no problem upgrading me within a week of my actual Aug 7 date lol. Best buy manager said 15 says is the earliest he's seen for ATT.

Erwaso, if you call the 800-331-0500 and speak to sales, they will upgrade you most definately. They did for me and I was more than 6 months from my upgrade date. I had to pay the 99 dollars per phone, but they waived activation and gave me free next day shipping. This was on 2 Sony Ions both upgraded at the same time with having more than 6 months left on contract. I have never had any issues donig early upgrades and I have been with ATT since they took over Cingular since about 1996. Every 1.5 years or so I get a new phone. If they didnt I would pay the early termination fee and go someplace else as its cheaper than buying a phone outright. As long as they keep upgrading my phones yearly, they keep a customer for life. If sales doesnt do it, ask to speak to retention department. Good Luck, Pete

 

[buckwild]

After having the phone for almost a week, I'm finding out that alot of the apps I had on my blackberry 9860 there's one similar for android. The one that I'm missing the most is an app to change the led. I've tried a couple and they didn't seem to work. If anyone has any ideas I'd be glad to hear them.

sent from my Sony xperia ion

 

[paul-c]

Hi Paul,
Do you mean you are gonna peel the one that came on the phone off? I didnt realize that was possible and just applied the screen protector that came with the case over what came stock on the phone. So in essence I have 2 screen protectors on there. I never knew the one that came from sony could come off. Hmm, wonder if I should peel off both now and buy a new one or just leave it. It doesnt seem to affect the touch sensitivity and I dont notice any majory difference in screen quality with the stock vs the added one. Also what brightness settings do you guys keep your phone at? Thanks Pete

I'm trying to find out if taking the stock protector off is problematic. I'm not crazy about screen protectors, and would rather not have it. Just a personal preference there. If it's going to leave a residue or something on the screen then I won't do it. Still looking for a straight answer on it. And in regards to screen brightness, I've been leaving it at 25%.

 

[erwaso]

Erwaso, if you call the 800-331-0500 and speak to sales, they will upgrade you most definately. They did for me and I was more than 6 months from my upgrade date. I had to pay the 99 dollars per phone, but they waived activation and gave me free next day shipping. This was on 2 Sony Ions both upgraded at the same time with having more than 6 months left on contract. I have never had any issues donig early upgrades and I have been with ATT since they took over Cingular since about 1996. Every 1.5 years or so I get a new phone. If they didnt I would pay the early termination fee and go someplace else as its cheaper than buying a phone outright. As long as they keep upgrading my phones yearly, they keep a customer for life. If sales doesnt do it, ask to speak to retention department. Good Luck, Pete

Thx Pete. Things were so much easier when Cingular ruled and the best phones were made by Nokia lol.

 

[danimal069]

For in call speaker volume try:
http://www.androidcentral.com/crank-your-volume-11-volume

Dont know if it works with Ion but its worth a shot..
PEAZ

 

[erwaso]

For in call speaker volume try:
http://www.androidcentral.com/crank-your-volume-11-volume

Dont know if it works with Ion but its worth a shot..
PEAZ

It says it might not work with stock gingerbread but I'll try it with my cm7 gb Aria.

 

[paul-c]

It says it might not work with stock gingerbread but I'll try it with my cm7 gb Aria.

Yeah, that app definitely doesn't work on stock Gingerbread.

 

[petes67bird]

I use Volume+ on my Kindle Fire and it works superbly. The minute I got my phone, I downloaded the app much to my dismay that it did absolutely nothing. I was wondering since the Kindle is gingerbread, if the kindle version may work on the phone if I used the APK file.

 

[darylgo]

Yeah, that app definitely doesn't work on stock Gingerbread.

Didn't work on my ION, tried the free version and uninstalled. Didn't try the paid version.

 

[sniktawm]

You're right about ATT employees not knowing anything about the Ion. They are well versed on the Samsung products. They seem to push Samsung devices more than any other. Makes me wonder if they get incentives selling them.

 

[darylgo]

You're right about ATT employees not knowing anything about the Ion. They are well versed on the Samsung products. They seem to push Samsung devices more than any other. Makes me wonder if they get incentives doing selling them.

When I arrived at the ATT store it reminded me of car dealerships of yesteryear, many employees and all eyes on the customer walking in the door. I was handed off from first employee to the manager, handed off to another employee and the line before any help offered was "are you ready to upgrade?". These people are well trained to offer assistance but the training in salesmanship is foremost.

Not sure how the commission works, could be incentives from ATT or Samsung. Lesser (known) products carried higher commissions from the manufacturer when I was in retail. Some items carried large commissions by the store to clearance a product they purchased at a good price and made good profit.

 

[JudgeMAN#AC]

I have had my Ion for two days now. The screen is pretty bright, and there is really no need to crank it up to 100. I have actually found it pretty tough to drain. The first day I spent several hours setting up the phone I wanted (Phone was at 60% battery), and about 4-5 hours laters of pretty heavy use, I was down to about 5%. My second day, which I finally had full charge, I had to get creative on how to run down my battery. I know it's not a good thing for your batter to die, but I only plan to condition the battery two times. My second day was even tougher to kill the battery. I played music for roughtly 4 hours at work while surfing the web and texting (150 texts or so; I am a heavy texter), played games when I got home, played words with friends throughout the day, set my screen brightness to 100% for roughty 2.5 hours when I got home, and the battery didn't die until around 7. So I got around 10-11 hours of use for moderately heavy use the second day. Android is a power hungry OS so don't expect to get ridiculous battery life like on a Blackberry. To conserve battery life, just check how often things sync, set your screen to a reasonable brightness, turn off gps and bluetooth, and get on a wifi network when you're near one.

I agree with every owner who says that the reviewers are a bit harsh on the Ion in their reviews. I think it is a superb phone, and one that will last me a lot longer than my little Aria did. That thing was a fighter though. Loved CM7 on it. The call quality on the Ion is good, the call volume is significantly louder than my Aria (it could be a tad louder but I dont mind), I have hardly had any hiccups on the phone, and it feels pretty dang smooth compared to the Aria. There's always going to be a next best thing out there. The One X and SGSIII will probably be "outdated" no more than 3-5 months. Know what you're paying for and you can be happy with your purchase. I know I am. I bought the Ion at Best Buy for $50, it comes with an 8 GB microSD card, albeit class 2 but its free, and you are eligible for 50GB of free cloud storage through Box (not dropbox). The camera is phenominal! Don't expect to compare the pictures to the quality to that of an actual camera, but it is crazy good for a phone. The quick launch of the camera is nice too. My only concern is if no one will find a way to unlock the bootloader. I can live with it, but I would rather have an unlocked BL and root. That's my two cents. Definitely a steal of a phone.