Have Photon Questions? Ask 'em here

[techgeek32#WN]

I have my Photon and definitely keeping it over my 3D. Here's why:
Better in hand feel. Good build quality.
Louder and better call quality
Brighter screen with better viewing angles (very similar to a superamoled but brighter)
Silent option for calendar notifications
UI works in landscape unlike HTC Sense
Better signal strength, twice the 3D. WiFi and Btooth as well.
Stronger vibrate alert
16GB Onboard storage
World phone
Fast GPS and loud media

EVO 3D wins:
Screen crispness (like Phil said, you can tell a slight difference but won't keep someone from Photon)
Narrower
Better front camera
Sense (Motorola ui is pretty bare bones and not as pretty)
Widgets

 

[luvbug]

I agree I had the 4G Evo then had 3D. Took 3D back just didn't like it as well as 4G when I first got that 1. So going to try something different. Besides every one has an Evo. So now I can be one of the first people with an Photon. So far so good thumbs up.

 

[gdmacdo]

Second vote for this.

Also, does it play Netflix?

I have not seen a way to change the font, but it does play netflix AND, if connected to a HDMI cable, it plays on your TV in mirror mode. Actually, it mirrors the entire device. I could not get HBO GO to play on the TV (did on the Photon) as it kept saying something about checking the HDMI cable.

 

[sandtiger]

Can someone with the Photon download the Justin.TV (Live Streaming Application sort of like Ustream) and see if the front facing camera is selectable for a source.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[stu5797]

can we do live video chat with Skype?

 

[ranova]

Without having owned a Motorola phone before, how do they treat notification lights? A notification light is available on the Photon, yes?

With the atrix, notifications are one color: green.

Blue is BT connected
Red is low battery

But you can use Light Flow to customize the colors:
https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Rage+Consulting+Limited

I set mine up as follows:
Gmail: red
Google Voice: Cyan
Missed call: white
Voicemail: Yellow
Google Talk: Blue

And a ton other for other apps

 

[ranova]

Is there HDMI Mirroring?

 

[stu5797]

cAn we set text messaging ringtones for each contact?

 

[anon(15438)]

BGR Said Calls weren?t crystal clear,

And PCworld said Camera was not that great

 

[bonanzabucks]

I don't see that anyone else has answered this, but how's the battery life??

 

[Puzzlegal]

Boy Genius Report says battery life is great under 3G, but you will want to recharge if you use 4G a lot.

 

[VDub2174]

I don't see that anyone else has answered this, but how's the battery life??

The battery life is great, especially compared to my EVO. I charged my Photon for a few hours and had 4G on as soon as it was activated then started downloading apps and playing around with it then turned it off for the night. When I checked the battery % when I got up this morning, I was at 60%.

My EVO would have been drained if it was on 4G for that long and that's even with it being rooted with a custom kernel.

 

[emilm]

Hi Phil,
I live in Bangkok, Thailand and listen to your fantastic podcast all the time. I really would like to get the Photon through Amazon and have it shipped here to Asia because i read that it is a world phone GSM capable and UNLOCKED! So if this is true i could just put my Asian sim card in and it would work? Could you please kindly answer to this question before i buy one? I am also a good client of your site for all sorts of cases (that i don't even use!
I have now a bunch of phones, such as the Galaxy S2, HTC Sensation, Galaxy (at&t) infuse (unlocked),
The Veer, and just bought today the LG 3D..... Now i just turned 50 and feel silly with all this stuff that i am loving since the Android event. I am not a tech person! Love your show and all the guys.
Thank you,
Emil

 

[heymista]

The battery life is great, especially compared to my EVO. I charged my Photon for a few hours and had 4G on as soon as it was activated then started downloading apps and playing around with it then turned it off for the night. When I checked the battery % when I got up this morning, I was at 60%.

My EVO would have been drained if it was on 4G for that long and that's even with it being rooted with a custom kernel.

How long does it take the battery to charge on the photon? My epic takes over 3 hours to fully charge forcing me to always carry a spare.

 

[VDub2174]

How long does it take the battery to charge on the photon? My epic takes over 3 hours to fully charge forcing me to always carry a spare.

When I got it in the mail I plugged it into the charger and the green light wen on after about 2 hours.

 

[jbuggydroid]

any tech savy folks out there working on rooting this bad boy?

 

[tomy2001]

So, I am comparing my new Photon to my Samsung Epic. All software upgrade crap aside.... The screen on my EPIC blew the Photon screen away. Colors are more vivid and the difference between the pentile screen and my epic's AMOLED is evident.

Now for the good part... The Photon is obviously faster, and the UI is snappier. I've had little or no lag doing anything. Haven't delved into everything, but currently my integration with Google Voice isn't working as it did on the Epic. I hope to correct that soon enough.

The Music application has a cool feature I didn't know about. It prints the lyrics to known songs as you listen to them so you can Karaoke along.

Overall I am quite happy. I switched mainly because of the World capabilities.... We'll see if I stick around.

I understand why you switched. Nonetheless, you could have made your Epic very fast by rooting and stalling a graet custom rom like I have been doing in the last 8 months. I travel outside US. I have another phone for this. It is a phone from the country I go. The big No for me on the photon is the phone can't be rooted

 

[VDub2174]

any tech savy folks out there working on rooting this bad boy?

I hope so

 

[tomy2001]

See, I'm tempted to jump to the Photon from my Epic once my upgrade windows opens up in a few days. I really liked a lot of things on the Epic. That AMOLED is just gorgeous compared to the LCDs on every other phone out there. However some things with the Epic infuriated me (dismal battery life, pathetically slow OS updates from Samsung, completely non-functional compass, spotty GPS, hardware keyboard misses many keystrokes, etc). I wanted to love the Epic and while I really liked it, there were too many things that kept me from loving the device. The fact Sprint never pushed the phone hard and therefore didn't sell as many as say the Evo means that the community is small and no devs have been able to get CM7 on it as of yet. Having been turned off to Samsung by the Epic I don't see the need to wait for the Within which is why I'm awfully tempted by the Photon.

Hoping that the higher res on the Photon makes up for subdued colors and poor black levels compared to the Epic's screen.

I agree with you. If I had an Epic4 with the stock rom (the way it comes from Samsung
) I would have left this phone long time ago. However my phone is rooted and it has the latest Gingerbread EG22 leak with a excellent custom rom thanks to the XDA Devs here it is the link:

[ROM] RandomROM 2.3 TEST [Journaled] EG22 | 7/31 - xda-developers

Try it and let me know. I belive Samsung made the epic that way so it will have the chance to sell more phones in the future money talks. :-$

 

[susuki12002]

my biggest gripe is when using the kick stand you cant charge. That is kind of a turn off for me