So, I spent about an hour in the VZW store today, played with one Rezound for about 25 min, the RAZR MAXX for 20ish, then another Rezound at another display for 10. Ran each through similar tests (updated apps over 4G, downloaded a couple free apps (nothing huge), HD YouTube videos (Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, Snow Patrol's Called Out In The Dark, and The Civil Wars' Barton Hollow), sent fake texts, made phone calls to my phone, took pictures (no video), and messed with settings. Here's what I found:
- The first Rezound was EXTREMELY laggy. Switching between screens, apps, and clicking on items had a noticeable delay, and was very annoying. Thus why I took a few to play with the 2nd Rezound, which ran much better and much smoother. Didn't seem like much was different between the two, but I didn't really examine them that closely.
- Even compared to the 2nd Rezound, the MAXX handled downloads, app updates, and playing YouTube A LOT quicker/snappier. Barely any lag at all, which was very cool.
- Both Rezounds had the recent OTA installed, but NEITHER had Verizon Location Agent installed on them, which I found interesting considering it seemed to be attached to the latest OTA and has been causing massive amounts of issues.
- Both Rezounds got quite warm at the bottom, around the antennas/radios, in putting them through the paces (games, HD YouTube videos, texts, camera use, etc). The MAXX, on the other hand, stayed cool to the touch with similar testing.
- The Rezound's camera shutter speed was a hair faster than the MAXX, but, IMO, the MAXX seemed to take better quality photos, especially with the flash (HTC seems to have trouble with flash brightness for photos, getting too bright for pics that need minimal flash...same issue on my DInc).
- Screen wise, the Rezound wins hands down. The bluish tint on the MAXX plus the qHD wasn't nearly as good. With that said, would this be noticeable/an issue for most? Not at all. The blue is noticed only when compared to another screen, and the qHD looks decent in most applications, but not as sharp as the Rezound HD LCD, but could probably only be picked up with a discerning eye. Also of note, didn't notice any burn-in on the MAXX (even with the display screen being constantly on), so take that for what it's worth.
- The MAXX is large/wide in the hand, but didn't feel cumbersome at all (in my average sized guy hands). The Rezound fits nicely in the hand, but even in the just 25 minutes of playing with it, I started to notice the weight of the phone, and, not going to lie, I was annoyed by that.
- LOVED the Swype keyboard on the MAXX. Wish HTC would play nice with Swype at some point, but it seems to be too buggy, and that HTC 'Trace' option is absolutely no match.
- The 'This-isn't-MotoBlur' actually seemed pretty cool and intuitive to me. I do like Sense, but Sense 4.0 just seemed, well, boring to me. Very similar to 3.Whatever I have on my DInc. But, this could simply be due to be so familiar with Sense.
That's all for now. If I remember more I'll add them here. I must say though, especially with all the issues the OTA is causing, its making this upgrade decision really difficult for me. I think a lot of it, for me, is the newness factor as well. The Rezound seems like a slightly better version of my DInc. Not bad, but not great either. The MAXX would feel like a new toy at Christmas. I know that shouldn't weigh on my decision, but it is, partly at least.
On another note though, the store service rep let slip to me that both phones may be seeing a price drop relatively soon (I asked if it was month-end, and she said she didn't have exact timeframe, but its possible). I assume it'll be about $50 each ($150 on upgrade from Rezound, $250 for the MAXX), but could be more (I wasn't given figures, just taking an educated guess). I know this can be filled under the 'Sun will rise tomorrow' type of news, but I thought it was noteworthy.
- The first Rezound was EXTREMELY laggy. Switching between screens, apps, and clicking on items had a noticeable delay, and was very annoying. Thus why I took a few to play with the 2nd Rezound, which ran much better and much smoother. Didn't seem like much was different between the two, but I didn't really examine them that closely.
- Even compared to the 2nd Rezound, the MAXX handled downloads, app updates, and playing YouTube A LOT quicker/snappier. Barely any lag at all, which was very cool.
- Both Rezounds had the recent OTA installed, but NEITHER had Verizon Location Agent installed on them, which I found interesting considering it seemed to be attached to the latest OTA and has been causing massive amounts of issues.
- Both Rezounds got quite warm at the bottom, around the antennas/radios, in putting them through the paces (games, HD YouTube videos, texts, camera use, etc). The MAXX, on the other hand, stayed cool to the touch with similar testing.
- The Rezound's camera shutter speed was a hair faster than the MAXX, but, IMO, the MAXX seemed to take better quality photos, especially with the flash (HTC seems to have trouble with flash brightness for photos, getting too bright for pics that need minimal flash...same issue on my DInc).
- Screen wise, the Rezound wins hands down. The bluish tint on the MAXX plus the qHD wasn't nearly as good. With that said, would this be noticeable/an issue for most? Not at all. The blue is noticed only when compared to another screen, and the qHD looks decent in most applications, but not as sharp as the Rezound HD LCD, but could probably only be picked up with a discerning eye. Also of note, didn't notice any burn-in on the MAXX (even with the display screen being constantly on), so take that for what it's worth.
- The MAXX is large/wide in the hand, but didn't feel cumbersome at all (in my average sized guy hands). The Rezound fits nicely in the hand, but even in the just 25 minutes of playing with it, I started to notice the weight of the phone, and, not going to lie, I was annoyed by that.
- LOVED the Swype keyboard on the MAXX. Wish HTC would play nice with Swype at some point, but it seems to be too buggy, and that HTC 'Trace' option is absolutely no match.
- The 'This-isn't-MotoBlur' actually seemed pretty cool and intuitive to me. I do like Sense, but Sense 4.0 just seemed, well, boring to me. Very similar to 3.Whatever I have on my DInc. But, this could simply be due to be so familiar with Sense.
That's all for now. If I remember more I'll add them here. I must say though, especially with all the issues the OTA is causing, its making this upgrade decision really difficult for me. I think a lot of it, for me, is the newness factor as well. The Rezound seems like a slightly better version of my DInc. Not bad, but not great either. The MAXX would feel like a new toy at Christmas. I know that shouldn't weigh on my decision, but it is, partly at least.
On another note though, the store service rep let slip to me that both phones may be seeing a price drop relatively soon (I asked if it was month-end, and she said she didn't have exact timeframe, but its possible). I assume it'll be about $50 each ($150 on upgrade from Rezound, $250 for the MAXX), but could be more (I wasn't given figures, just taking an educated guess). I know this can be filled under the 'Sun will rise tomorrow' type of news, but I thought it was noteworthy.
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