Brief review, issues list

[roid]

I'd primarily come by to check on some issues I'm having, but as I don't see many users I figured I post up a quick review after about 5 days with the unit.

I also have a Droid Incredible so this is my basis of comparison. I picked up the Commando as a personal/weekend phone largely for it's durability characteristics.

Let's get the issues bit out of the way first:

Bloatware- loaded with it for my use case. Maybe some of it useful for those planning to boat, trek, etc. with the phone. I do these things, but tend to rely more on my wits and purpose built devices rather than a phone.

Bluetooth

Lots of connection interruptions when listening to music. The cellular radio or WiFi radio accessing the network creates skips and drops. Even with WiFi turned off and data turned off it continues to happen. Bluetooth can't be actuated in Airplane mode so no way to do other testing.​

-- Honestly, this may be an issue with this unit and not indicative of a firmware error. I can't seem to find any other user experiences yet, so I'm not inclined to go through the hassle of switching out the unit until I know if it's something that will be fixed by getting a new one.​

Behaves quite oddly when connected to the handsfree in my car ('07 Acura TL). when making or receiving a call it dumps then reconnects the BT 2 or 3 times quickly before it holds stable. Very irksome, but not a deal breaker.​

Stability and day-to-day operation

It's not as snappy as the Incredible, which is to be expected with the slower CPU​

The touchscreen is not as responsive- again not too surprising as I expected some compromises to accomplish the durability attributes​

It's been random rebooting every now and again but I'm not certain that isn't software related as I have a couple of alternative launchers and tasker running. hasn't happened during use yet, rather while sitting idle but that may just be coincidental​

Positives

-- Relatively slim, small
-- certainly durable, waterproof (I've tested by submerging, using in the shower, low level drops).
-- Good speaker for calls and podcasts. Not so great for music, but I don't see the built-in speaker being of much use for this anyway.
-- It's Android, and Froyo on a Mil Spec phone.


I'm not married to one particular platform and, to be honest, if the LifeProof folks would have produced a product first I might have picked that up and paired it with an iPhone 4 to achieve a similar end result. While the capabilities would, arguably, be less and perhaps not quite as durable as the G'zone it would likely be a bit more stable and reliable.


So- now that I've hopefully made a contribution if anyone has a Commando or has thoughts on the issues I've presented above please put 'em here.

I'm also open to questions, apologies if I don't respond more than once a day.

 

[kat89447#AC]

Hubby's phone has had some issues with his screen freezing. He moved apps to the SD card and this seems to help. He is trying to figure out the "bedside mode" it seems to kick off and go to the blank screen. Anyone have these issues?

 

[cbreze]

Hubby's phone has had some issues with his screen freezing. He moved apps to the SD card and this seems to help. He is trying to figure out the "bedside mode" it seems to kick off and go to the blank screen. Anyone have these issues?

No freezes yet, but only two days in so far. Learning curve is large for me coming from a BB. I hear alot of freezing issues tho with the various different droid devices. The T-bolt seems to have alot. I think it boils down to being watchful what we add in the way of apps. If it's one thing I've learned is go slow with them and see how they do before going on to the next. App removal is always an option. Lets see now I better figure out how to do that, 'cause sooner or later......

 

[bassplyr]

I received my Commando yesterday. Coming from an Eris, the transition has been pretty easy. The only problem I have had so far is the native email client would force close as soon as I opened it for one of my pop3 accounts, the other was fine. Loaded K-9 and am using that as an email client. Seems to work OK.

One thing I miss from my Eris is the dialer. You could just start dialing the letters of a persons name and the contacts would come up and the list would narrow as you typed more letters. Stoc dialer on the Commando is not so handy. I downloaded Go Dialer from the market and it works great except I can;t seem to make it the default dialer. Any suggestions?

Moved several apps to the SD card. Seems to work fine.

Phone calls are very clear, no BT issues so far. Like the device. Ordered accessories today. Anyone tried to get an extra battery?

Thanks,
Roger

 

[callmecolt]

Hubby's phone has had some issues with his screen freezing. He moved apps to the SD card and this seems to help. He is trying to figure out the "bedside mode" it seems to kick off and go to the blank screen. Anyone have these issues?

By bedside mode, do you mean the Desk Cradle application? I just got my desk cradel for it today. When you put it in there, it makes the phone stay sideways no mater what screen you are on. If you don't have it in a cradel and go into it, it will show the main cradel screen, then when you tap home or anywhere else, it goes back to normal, with a black screen for a second or two. Hope this helps.

 

[richcxx]

Anyone having issue trying to do a screen capture? My phone makes the shuuter noise but the screen goes black and no pic I can find is stored.