[petes67bird]

Well my fedex guy must of known I had to work at 2 so the phones arrived at 2:06 today, six minutes after I left. Guess I wont have them till midnight.

Quick question, is it best to run down battery to 0 then fully charge it, or fully charge right away. My wife and I charge our old phones every night regardless of how much battery is left, is this a poor practice or ok to do on a smartphone? Thanks

[n8ter#AC]

That battery stuff is a myth. It's better to charge as often as you can than to run the battery out, especially with an embedded battery you can't even replace yourself if you degrade it doing that.

EDIT: Actually, if you look at Sony's support documents they say exactly what I say above. Never let your smartphone battery run out. Sony gives a Rapid Charger with the Ion, so it charges fast.

[n8ter#AC]

I am currently a Motorola Atrix user. Almost 2 years of persevering with this phone I am upgrading and this Sony has what I want in specs. The Atrix has taught me to look before I leap, it wasn't a bad phone but the issues are major. When I look on this board I see few complaints and no real issues, it makes me wonder if sales are slow or there really are no issues and no legitimate complaints. Anyone have any issues or find any major flaws?
Thanks everyone.

There are reviews up on YouTube, some quite expansive/thorough.

[drogers81]

I am definitely getting this phone with my upgrade this coming Sunday. It has all the specs I'm looking for. I'm not worried about it not having ICS b/c I know it will be getting it.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk

[petes67bird]

how do you guys feel about mixing and matching chargers on this phone. I have a pantech pursuit II that is being replaced tonight by the ION, and they have the same charging connector. I was hoping to use the Pantech charger as a work charger, am I stupid for thinking that or will I be ok? Also what about those no name car chargers that I have, is it ok to run this phone on one. Thanks

[n8ter#AC]

I got it a few hours ago.

I retract my earlier post. Don't even bother looking at those reviews. Go in the store and try it yourself. The phone is a lot better than those people give it credit for.

I'm keeping it.

Also, it DOES attract a lot of fingerprints, so get your microfiber ready!

[n8ter#AC]

how do you guys feel about mixing and matching chargers on this phone. I have a pantech pursuit II that is being replaced tonight by the ION, and they have the same charging connector. I was hoping to use the Pantech charger as a work charger, am I stupid for thinking that or will I be ok? Also what about those no name car chargers that I have, is it ok to run this phone on one. Thanks

Sony Gives you a rapid charger with the phone, so unless you're away from a plug that's the only charger you should be using. It's probably 2x faster than most ordinary chargers.

Outside of that, you have to use what you have to use.

Just buy an extra Ion charger and carry it with you, and charge it when you get near a plug when possible. That's probably going to be better than gimping along with a car charger anyways. Car chargers are usually quite low mA output.

The stock Ion charger is 1500mA output. For comparison our Samsung Vibrant chargers are 850mA output and the LG chargers I have are 750mA output. I doubt many manufacturers are shipping chargers above 1000mA output in the box. Rapid chargers should, IMO, be the norm for large HD-screed LTE devices. Just my opinion.

[petes67bird]

Thanks N8ter. I am excited, I get off in a couple hours and my phones have been waiting for me at home. Then I have to transfer pics, ringtones and contacts to the new Ion's for both my wife and I. I am REALLY excited. Our Incipio Silicrylic cases should be here on friday sometime according to fedex. I hope all goes well with transfering the contacts tonight. The only way I know how to is to save to my old sim, put it in the new phone and save to phone, then pull out old sim and put new sim in new phone and save to new sim. Usually then I end up with double contacts or something else. Oh well, I cant wait. Pete

[paul-c]

Sony Gives you a rapid charger with the phone, so unless you're away from a plug that's the only charger you should be using. It's probably 2x faster than most ordinary chargers.

Outside of that, you have to use what you have to use.

Just buy an extra Ion charger and carry it with you, and charge it when you get near a plug when possible. That's probably going to be better than gimping along with a car charger anyways. Car chargers are usually quite low mA output.

The stock Ion charger is 1500mA output. For comparison our Samsung Vibrant chargers are 850mA output and the LG chargers I have are 750mA output. I doubt many manufacturers are shipping chargers above 1000mA output in the box. Rapid chargers should, IMO, be the norm for large HD-screed LTE devices. Just my opinion.

The rapid charger is really great. I agree, every phone should ship with one. Nice touch by Sony.

[n8ter#AC]

Thanks N8ter. I am excited, I get off in a couple hours and my phones have been waiting for me at home. Then I have to transfer pics, ringtones and contacts to the new Ion's for both my wife and I. I am REALLY excited. Our Incipio Silicrylic cases should be here on friday sometime according to fedex. I hope all goes well with transfering the contacts tonight. The only way I know how to is to save to my old sim, put it in the new phone and save to phone, then pull out old sim and put new sim in new phone and save to new sim. Usually then I end up with double contacts or something else. Oh well, I cant wait. Pete

I was just looking at those cases, but I think I wanna keep it naked and get a Sena case but they don't have one specifically for the Ion yet. The case at the AT&T store was like an Otterbox and after using one with the Vivid I'm just not cool with having something that bulky/heavy on my device. This phone is actually pretty damn light considering the materials they used for it...

I want to keep it that way.

I think a lot of the reviewers simply had no clue where the settings were for certain things (like xLoud, Stabilization for the Camcorder, etc.). The buttons aren't really an issue, IMO. I mistakenly press buttons a lot less on this phone that I have on any other Android device, so I hope they keep it that way...

Screen is gorge.

Only thing I don't like is that a few of the AT&T bloatwares can't be uninstalled or disabled (cause no ICS yet). Not really missing ICS+Sense 3.6 really. This phone runs circles around the Vivid for performance and software quality (the Vivid ICS stock ROM was the buggiest thing I've experience since my Samsung Vibrant). You will love the dedicated camera button (two stage).

Also make sure you install PC Companion and Media Go, the latter of which is one of the best Android Media Synching applications ever. Easier to use than iTunes and Zune, IMO and doubles up as a player. Also can auto-sync pictures and stuff you take on your phone to your computer - in the correct folders! (unlike HTC Sync/Zune).

[petes67bird]

Do you have a list of the bloatware that can/should be uninstalled? Also should we turn off the localization tools, I never had a smartphone before. Thanks Pete

[paul-c]

I kept the myAT&T app and Power Saver. Got rid of pretty much everything else that I was able to uninstall. Personally, I leave the location settings turned off until I need them.

[erwaso]

I got it a few hours ago.

I retract my earlier post. Don't even bother looking at those reviews. Go in the store and try it yourself. The phone is a lot better than those people give it credit for.

I'm keeping it.

Also, it DOES attract a lot of fingerprints, so get your microfiber ready!

I've been using those random Amazon 3 pack screen protectors (sticker ones) on my aria and blackberry since March of last year and the first one is finally showing wear. Only spent $4, barely shows prints, got 2 left and about to trade in my phone already.

[petes67bird]

I am having problems deleting apps. How do I get rid of ATT navigator and such? Also should I allow Background Data Traffic to continue to be enabled? Sorry noob questions. Thanks for all the help. Pete

[paul-c]

I am having problems deleting apps. How do I get rid of ATT navigator and such? Also should I allow Background Data Traffic to continue to be enabled? Sorry noob questions. Thanks for all the help. Pete

Once you're in the app drawer, tap the square that's next to the home icon. The apps that can be uninstalled will have an x next to their icons. Tap and delete. Not all the preloaded apps can be uninstalled, though. And I leave the data traffic enabled. Really just comes down to how you want your apps to behave.

[n8ter#AC]

I am having problems deleting apps. How do I get rid of ATT navigator and such? Also should I allow Background Data Traffic to continue to be enabled? Sorry noob questions. Thanks for all the help. Pete

You cannot uninstall AT&T Navigator, but it doesn't seem to Auto-Start or get cached on boot. Just NEVER open it - ever - and you should be fine. It's not like you really save much space anyways, since it's in the FW even if you uninstall it. When ICS comes I guess you'll be able to disable it. This phone consistently has about 100MB more RAM free than the Vivid I had did (sometimes upwards of 200+ MB more free even after using a ton of apps and closing them with the HOME button (cause HTC and Sony/Samsung have different soft button layouts :-) ).

YP Mobile you cannot uninstall. It seems integrated with the contacts app so even if you could disable it I'm not sure what effects it would have (would not be nice to have your Phone/Contacts app auto-crash if you removed something tied into it).

Most of the other stuff you can uninstall (AT&T Messages, etc.). Some other apps like AT&T Ready2Go you also can't uninstall. But I don't see that auto-starting either.

I think I'm gonna get a case. I'm not used to handing devices so thin (I've always cased my phone). It feels awkward :P

Battery Life is suspect. I'll give it a day or so. I'm not even in an LTE area. I thought something was wrong with the WiFi in the phone (signal does jump around a lot) cause the speeds seemed 1/4th what they were supposed to be... Well, I just noticed Verizon downgraded my DSL connection from 5-7mbps to 1.9mbps without even telling me. I'm calling them to complain about that right now. What were they thinking? Idiots...

Gonna go try the camera outdoors in a little bit.

If you want a browser that Syncs with a desktop browser, you can use Firefox. It's faster than Chrome Beta and Syncs with Desktop Firefox. That will hold you over as far as that goes until ICS comes and you can use Chrome. I noticed some apps are incompatible with the Ion at the moment:

Google Wallet doesn't show up in Market (even though NFC is functional on the phone) - Maybe requires ICS?
Serve Mobile App is stated as being incompatible with the Ion.

[experiment 626]

Is it possible to toggle-off AT&T's LTE, like you can with Verizon,and just run on HSPA+ ?

[paul-c]

Is it possible to toggle-off AT&T's LTE, like you can with Verizon,and just run on HSPA+ ?

I'm looking, but I don't see that option. I believe it's stuck on LTE, with HSPA+ just being the fall back.

[petes67bird]

Thanks for the help. For a browser I enjoy dolphin hd. It has gestures and sonar and is pretty darn quick opening desktop webpages. Thanks will review once I get to use it a bit.

[n8ter#AC]

Battery Life is really bad for me. Died on me after under 5 hours off the charger. Probably did < 1 hour of calls and maybe sent/recieved 35 texts or so. Barely no surfing or anything, and no music/video. Have til tomorrow, but I'm not sure I can risk waiting to see if it gets better. Might go exchange for the Skyrocket and deal with the WVGA screen if the battery life on that phone is better (which is what I have read).

[Will1524]

My skyrocket gets about 8-10 hours off the charger with moderate use in an lte area

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Android Central Forums

[paul-c]

Battery Life is really bad for me. Died on me after under 5 hours off the charger. Probably did < 1 hour of calls and maybe sent/recieved 35 texts or so. Barely no surfing or anything, and no music/video. Have til tomorrow, but I'm not sure I can risk waiting to see if it gets better. Might go exchange for the Skyrocket and deal with the WVGA screen if the battery life on that phone is better (which is what I have read).

That's too bad, n8ter. The battery drain you're describing definitely doesn't sound normal. The ion lasts through the work day for me with about 25% to spare. I send less texts than that, but I surf and listen to music throughout the day. Maybe exchange it for another one before you jump to the Skyrocket?

[n8ter#AC]

My skyrocket gets about 8-10 hours off the charger with moderate use in an lte area

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Android Central Forums

8-10 hours is 60-100% more than 5 hours. It means when my Ion on WiFi/HSPA+ died your Skyrocket would have shown 40-50% charge on LTE.

The Skyrocket's screen looks like trash compared to this. I might just deal with it. I don't want a One X or GS3. Plastic is not cool, I don't care how "premium" they try to pass it off as.

EDIT: Maybe it's the TimeScape Auto-Sync O.O Only thing I can really think of other than maybe the email client is doing something odd...

[erwaso]

You cannot uninstall AT&T Navigator, but it doesn't seem to Auto-Start or get cached on boot. Just NEVER open it - ever - and you should be fine. It's not like you really save much space anyways, since it's in the FW even if you uninstall it. When ICS comes I guess you'll be able to disable it. This phone consistently has about 100MB more RAM free than the Vivid I had did (sometimes upwards of 200+ MB more free even after using a ton of apps and closing them with the HOME button (cause HTC and Sony/Samsung have different soft button layouts :-) ).

YP Mobile you cannot uninstall. It seems integrated with the contacts app so even if you could disable it I'm not sure what effects it would have (would not be nice to have your Phone/Contacts app auto-crash if you removed something tied into it).

Most of the other stuff you can uninstall (AT&T Messages, etc.). Some other apps like AT&T Ready2Go you also can't uninstall. But I don't see that auto-starting either.

I think I'm gonna get a case. I'm not used to handing devices so thin (I've always cased my phone). It feels awkward :P

Battery Life is suspect. I'll give it a day or so. I'm not even in an LTE area. I thought something was wrong with the WiFi in the phone (signal does jump around a lot) cause the speeds seemed 1/4th what they were supposed to be... Well, I just noticed Verizon downgraded my DSL connection from 5-7mbps to 1.9mbps without even telling me. I'm calling them to complain about that right now. What were they thinking? Idiots...

Gonna go try the camera outdoors in a little bit.

If you want a browser that Syncs with a desktop browser, you can use Firefox. It's faster than Chrome Beta and Syncs with Desktop Firefox. That will hold you over as far as that goes until ICS comes and you can use Chrome. I noticed some apps are incompatible with the Ion at the moment:

Google Wallet doesn't show up in Market (even though NFC is functional on the phone) - Maybe requires ICS?
Serve Mobile App is stated as being incompatible with the Ion.

Can all the unwanted apps be tossed into one folder? That's something i miss from blackberry.

[n8ter#AC]

Nope. You can do that on Motorola phones I'm pretty sure, but not this one.

In ICS you can disable them and it stops them from running period, and removes them from the App Drawer. Something to look forward to? :-P