So who's getting the Ion?

[paul-c]

Awesome, great choice. Welcome to the Android side of life, buckwild.

 

[paul-c]

Glad to see more users popping up! Please put up a week or 2Week thoughts if you can. I'm still a month out to upgrade

I was thinking the same thing, it's great that the ion corner of Android Central is picking up some steam. And I'll put up some first week thoughts soon, for sure.

 

[buckwild]

Awesome, great choice. Welcome to the Android side of life, buckwild.

Thanks paul!

 

[petes67bird]

I just ordered 2 Silicryllic cases directly from Incipio. They were the only ones who actually had a decent case out for the phone. They were 29.99. If you use promo code SUM2012 it takes off 6 dollars per phone. I scoured the web for a code that finally worked. So minus the 12 dollars I saved for 2 phones I upgraded shipping to 2nd day Fedex. I will update as I should have phone tomorrow, and cases the following day.

Next decision is should I buy insurance from ATT on these phones or not. They want 6.99 a month per phone and 125 deductible. Pretty insane numbers there. Will be back with a review soon. Thanks to everyone who has helped. Hope I provide you guys some insight. Pete

 

[iN8ter]

Anyone who can, post some full resolution image and video samples. Also, can you do both 720p and 1080p with the camcorder? I usually just do 720 to save space on my storage and need to know if it's locked down to the highest setting like an iPhone, Lol. I might bring this Vivid back and get it tomorrow.

 

[erwaso]

Next decision is should I buy insurance from ATT on these phones or not. They want 6.99 a month per phone and 125 deductible. Pretty insane numbers there. Will be back with a review soon. Thanks to everyone who has helped. Hope I provide you guys some insight. Pete

I've always had insurance for my smartphones ( since 2005) and I've used it once every phone. My reasoning now is I have a 4 year and a 10 month old, so I'm sure one day they'll get to my phone and break it haha. That's just me tho. An example of losing phone after a year, $7 x 12months = $84 plus $125 deductible = $209 versus the full priced $400ish.

 

[experiment 626]

Paul-c, or anyone else with an ION, how's your Sony performing phone-wise? How's your signal reception? It's been so long since I used a SE device I can't remember what their reputation was for phone performance.

 

[paul-c]

Anyone who can, post some full resolution image and video samples. Also, can you do both 720p and 1080p with the camcorder? I usually just do 720 to save space on my storage and need to know if it's locked down to the highest setting like an iPhone, Lol. I might bring this Vivid back and get it tomorrow.

You can record video in both full HD and 720p, its not locked down. Here's a picture I took with the default setting of 12 MP. Sorry it posted sideways, it's my first shot at posting a picture on the forum.

 

[paul-c]

Paul-c, or anyone else with an ION, how's your Sony performing phone-wise? How's your signal reception? It's been so long since I used a SE device I can't remember what their reputation was for phone performance.

The reception on the ion has been stellar so far. I haven't had any issues with calls. And after a few days I feel better about the sound on the earpiece. It could be louder for sure, but it's not awful. I think it was just jarring at first, since I'm used to the RAZR. Sony is no Motorola in that department, but they do a pretty good job.

 

[darylgo]

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.

 

[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

 

[iN8ter]

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.

 

[iN8ter]

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

 

[iN8ter]

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!

 

[iN8ter]

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.

 

[iN8ter]

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).