This is great. I almost pre-ordered the day it was announced (since I've been following the leaks on this phone for a while now mainly from this site), but held back after seeing the specs on battery and non-expandable storage...
However, the accessories mentioned by other members here are convincing me more and more to go with this phone over the GN II. Which even though they're not direct competitors, I think it's the closest phone that matches up to the DNA (the Nexus 4 doesn't cut it IMO). However, I'm waiting to see the reviews on battery life before I take the plunge. Any ideas when you guys will release your official review of the phone?
To me, as long as the phone lasts from the time I get up in the morning to the time I go to bed (~15-16 hours) with moderate-to-heavy use, then I'm happy. But I'm still a bit concerned on that 11GB of usable storage (which can be more with a cleaned up or slimmed down custom ROM). However, since I'd have to pay the full retail price since my "upgrade eligibility" is not until July of 2013, the DNA would cost $100 less... and I guess that makes up for the smaller battery and no microSD slot... :-\
Even with it's somewhat lower power consuming screen, you really expect a 5" display, LTE phone with a 2020 mAh battery to last 16 hours of moderate to heavy use?
I don't think any LTE phone with under a 2500 mAh battery is capable of doing that. I guess it depends on what you call moderate to heavy use. I consider greater than 50% screen on time to be moderate to heavy use (your definition may vary). That would be greater than 8 hours of screen time in a 16 hr day.
Also, please let me know the accessories that made your decision. I don't usually decide phones on the basis of accessories.
Maybe you are referring to items that can mitigate the DNA perceived shortcomings of battery life and internal data storage.
Personally, I wouldn't want one of those battery boost cases or some type of external storage device to use the phone the way it was intended.
If you need to be consistently off charge for more than 10 hours everyday with moderate to heavy use I doubt that this is a good phone option.
The internal storage is not as big an issue unless you don't have consistent easy access to wifi or need to have huge amounts of data on hand at all times. Music, video, and data can be moved pretty easily back and fourth from external sources with hard wire or wifi but can get expensive if it has to be done by cellular network.
Finally, the GN2 is a totally different class of device from the DNA and is hard to compare. It is a matter of form factor and function more than features and performance. The GN2 beats the DNA in virtually every feature and performance category (except screen and camera) but you have to want a phablet instead of a phone.
I'm interested in how the DNA performs with regard to battery life because it is an impressive machine. I think it is near the top of it's class with the iPhone, RAZR HD and GS3.