X2 leaked 2.3.4 SBF Initial Impressions

[hkklife]

I have not seen anything outside comprehensive outside of the usual techical discussions and questions about rooting and alternate 2.3.4-based ROMs so I figured I'd post my experiences in a bit over 24 hours with the stock ROM.

Previously I had a stock, unrooted 2.3.3 install and I now have a stock, unrooted 2.3.4 install. I keep things pretty much stock since I have several coworkers with Droids that I have to "talk through" certain steps, so I try to keep my phone lean and mean but as close to stock as possible.

The Good:

-Installation was painless and like any other SBFing, requiring one battery pull to get out of the bootloop.

-I did have some minor issues early on with reactivating my phone with *228 but that was probably just a glitch with VZW's system. All is well now, I just had to do *228 3 times before I was able to press 1.

-The unlock slider has unfortunately not been changed to the higher position like it is on the D3 & Bionic but it's a LOT smoother now.

-So far I have noticed a handful of small graphical changes: Contacts icon is a bit more refined looking, as is the Moto Task Manager. Task Manager is quite a bit faster to process running apps than it was before. We definitely don't have the snazzy 3D Blur like the D3 or the Bionic but it's definitely faster and smoother all around with a few minor UI changes.

-The Moto Blue News widget doesn't fail to load new news items (from what I have seen so far)

-Stock Gallery is faster and more stable than it was before but it's still sluggish and cumbersome. I will continue with QuickPic.

-Free RAM hovers around ~80MB free. Previously with the same load of apps (I keep my phone pretty lean & mean) it was ~65 to ~75MB free. Overall system performance is definitely more sluggish than the Bionic but feels about on par with the original X now. Remember, I have not rooted it, debloated it or optimized the system in any way.

-The old Market was initially present but it automatically updated itself after about an hour.

-The screen-off CRT animation has been officially added. That's a cute and unexpected bonus but it only works if you leave screen animations set to "on". The "some" animations choice is now gone (maybe this was removed in 2.3.3) so you just have all on or all off.

-3G speeds are apparently a tad better, as is reception. I ran Speedtest 3x with 2.3.3 and immediately again after installing 2.3.4. With 2.3.3 I never exceeded 1200kbps but on 3 runs with 2.3.4 I regularly got over 1300. Upload speeds dropped from the low 900s to the mid 800s, however.
Web browsing definitely feels "snappier".

-Wi-fi connections to my Linksys router definitely are faster now. Before there was a rather annoying authentication period before it was fully up and running.

-The music skipping IS still present but it's GREATLY reduced. Tegra2 games play just as well as they did before.

-The stock camera app is the single biggest improvement in 2.3.4 IMHO. What a huge relief! This has been plaguing me since my first day with the X2! Camera is still quite slow to launch but both auto-focus and continuous focus appear a tad faster. More importantly, the flash FINALLY is in sync with the shutter!! I have been through two brand new X2's and they both exhibited this problem in 2.2 and 2.3.3. I would say that the X2 is still a bit below the old X in low-light situations but I can at least take a reasonable pic now with full flash illumination. Flesh tones still don't look great in low light but they are definitely less "splotchy" than they were before. I previously had to keep exposore on +1 just to have a hope of a halfway decent shot and now I sometimes have to dial it down a notch. Thank you Moto!

-The onscreen top-right record/stop/shutter icons in both camera and camcorder mode are enlarged and much easier to see and toggle. The right-side settings menu is also easier to toggle and responds much more swiftly.

-I have not done much video recording but a few quick 720p test vidoes (both to internal storage and a class 2 32GB Sandisk card) revealed no crashes or corrupted videos, though I got a few droped frames (nothing major). The live viewfinder image when in the camera app also seems a tad smoother than it was before. Basically, the X2 is now FINALLY up to X levels of camera performance or, perhaps even a bit better for video recording!

-I did not format my internal or external SD cards during the update but both are mounted faster after switching off USB mode when connected to my PC.


The Bad:

-I have had one random 3G drop in a bit over 24 hours of testing. I also had one instance where disconnecting from wi-fi kept me from going back into 3G. I had to toggle Airplane Mode on and off a few times before it finally reconnected. Also, any task involving radio switching (BT on/off or airplane mode on/off) is much smoother and faster than it was before.

-I still get major keyboard lag with haptic feedback turned on.

-The occasional SMS glitch using the stock app still occurs where I sent a message to someone and it sends but still shows the "unsent" text in the message creation box. Annoying, but not a biggie.

If anything else comes up with further testing I will report it here. Feel free to send in any questions if you have 'em. I can definitely say that if the upcoming OTA is based on this build it will be a huge improvement for us X2 users!

 

[Devinator]

Wow!! Thanks for the excellent and thoughtful analysis. It's great to have a heads up on what's coming down. I'm glad to hear of all the pros you mentioned, and, nervous about the cons.

As for the camera. I've found I take much better pictures with my flash off. I'm no photographer, but, I have two in the family, so, I think I must have inherited something. Personally, I think I've taken some really excellent pictures with the flash off.

 

[hkklife]

A few updates

-I just performed 7 Quadrant runs back to back. I got no less than the low 2300's and now I am getting consistent scores at 2893 to 2890.

-Vellamo score are 670 and 690 (2 runs) which puts it a good bit below an Evo 3D and right above a MyTouch 4G.

-Rebooting is definitely faster now. I never bothered to time it but my 2.3.3 X2 was slooow to reboot. This one easily shaves ~15 to 20 seconds or so off of the boot time, perhaps more.Again, I have basically an identical app load now that I did under 2.3.3 . 20 secs from power on to "Drooooid" and from power on to the launcher in approx 63 seconds.

-Have been doing some heavy text messaging this afternoon and I have not yet encountered the freezing or stuck keyboard glitch at all. This occured all the time on both Froyo and the older GB on my X2. No reports of duplicate text messages either.

-I will test HDMI dock mode functionality when I get home and see if there's any weirdness there.

-Right now, my ONLY major concern is potentially worse battery life. I swap between two BH6X batteries. I took my X2 off the charger at about 7:30 this morning. After 20 mins of phone calls en route to work and maybe 10 mins of web browsing and a few emails & texts, I was down to 60% by 12 noon! I then popped in my fresh BH6X around 12:30 and after a few more phone calls, ~20 mins (at most) of web browsing (watching the big Apple event news), 4 digital photos and a few FB activities I was down to 70% before 3pm!

 

[Devinator]

Thanks for the update!!

I'm so glad to hear about rebooting. That's been one of my biggest issues with the phone. I dread when I'm trying to do something and need to reboot.

Wow, those are scary battery numbers. I have a BH5X and am a heavy user, my battery life isn't that poor.

Thanks again for posting this info.

 

[hkklife]

More battery observations:

Charged my X2 up to 100% via USB before I left work (shortly before 6pm EST). Talked on the phone a bit on the way home (~20 mins tops), took a dozen pictures or so pictures of the dog to test the camera out some more, sent a few emails and browsed the web for 15 or 20 minutes or so (via wi-fi). Just put it back on the charger and I am already down to 40%! And this is with a BH6X extended battery! Screen is at 50% brightness and everything else has been turned off. This is really troubling!

I just re-rooted and now I will do another battery calibration in hopes that does the trick. There is a chance my BH6 battery is starting to crap out I suppose (they were bought in Dec/Jan and I usually swap BH6s every other day) but the decline in battery life from 2.3.3 to 2.3.4 has just been too alarming.

 

[Devinator]

Wow, that is crazy. I mean, I would assume since you are testing with two different batteries that it isn't a battery issue. I can't imagine what it's going to be like with my BH5Xs. :'(

 

[hkklife]

Whew! Thankfully, the battery calibration did the trick! I calibrated it and then let it run down all the way to 0 then put it back on the charger. To test it out, I unplugged my X2 off the charger then went back to sleep. I let it sit there idle all night and then used it all day today with heavier-than-usual "normal" usage (wi-fi on, screen brightness near max, more web browsing & phone calls than usual). The battery finally crapped out around 1pm EST, so I think things are back to normal. 11-12 hours of an average workday is pretty much what I would get before with my BH6X battery and this thing's got some wear on it by now.

So I would definitely encourage everyone to root and do a battery calibration if they flash this ROM! Otherwise, it's still doing great for the most part. I have had 2 freezes (unresponsive onscreen buttons) while using the camera app and I get about 1-2 instances per day where 3G will not reconnect when I switch off wi-fi and I have to fiddle with airplane mode to bring it back. Other than those two particular glitches, I have not had any random reboots or lockups and the phone also appears to be running less hot than it was before.

Signal strength is definitely better than it was. I tested it in the windowless basement of a friend's house where I got 0-1 bars before and I had 2 bars last night. RAM usage is also much better than it was before, though I still wish Moto had splurged on 16GB of internal storage and 768MB or 1GB RAM for the X2.

Overall, I would give this ROM a 8.5 or 9/10. Fix the 3G and camera bugs and give us the D3's Camera app and it'll be 10/10!

 

[fargles]

so if you had to guess/had any idea, know when this thing is goin OTA?

 

[hkklife]

Honestly, I have no idae at all. I just took the plunge to install the leaked SBF because I was having such a miserable with my X2 and the update has made it like an entirely new phone (well, almost!)

Anyway, the soak tests usuallly hit 2-3 weeks before the thing is readied for OTA distribution. And then VZW usually posts their release notes about a week to 10 days before the OTA rollout commences.

So I'd say we are looking at the later part of Oct at the soonest and early-mid November at the absolute latest unless a show-stopping bug is found (think the Droid Pro GB update). BUT, there is always the chance that this is an older build and that the upcoming soak test will be for a newer build .

At any rate, this is a big improvement over Froyo and the old 2.3.3 GB so I'm not complaining. I also would not be surprised at all if this is the final ROM update for the X2 and Moto and VZW sort of quietly put it out to pasture in the coming months.

 

[fargles]

Honestly, I have no idae at all. I just took the plunge to install the leaked SBF because I was having such a miserable with my X2 and the update has made it like an entirely new phone (well, almost!)

Anyway, the soak tests usuallly hit 2-3 weeks before the thing is readied for OTA distribution. And then VZW usually posts their release notes about a week to 10 days before the OTA rollout commences.

So I'd say we are looking at the later part of Oct at the soonest and early-mid November at the absolute latest unless a show-stopping bug is found (think the Droid Pro GB update). BUT, there is always the chance that this is an older build and that the upcoming soak test will be for a newer build .

At any rate, this is a big improvement over Froyo and the old 2.3.3 GB so I'm not complaining. I also would not be surprised at all if this is the final ROM update for the X2 and Moto and VZW sort of quietly put it out to pasture in the coming months.

you know you talk about soak tests, is this the soak test that a lot of people signed up for thinking it would be gingerbread? Cause if my memory serves me right I don't think that soak ever actually happened?

But I am looking forward to this, I want the T.V. animation lol. everything else is very nice too

 

[fargles]

btw you have a link to DL? I'll go check xda since thats where everything is lol

 

[Devinator]

I also would not be surprised at all if this is the final ROM update for the X2 and Moto and VZW sort of quietly put it out to pasture in the coming months.

I'd be surprised. My buddy has an original Droid X and he just got an update to his phone last weekend. How old is the X at this point? Close to 1.5 years? I would expect we'd be receiving updates for at least another year.

 

[hkklife]

Droid X was launched in mid July of 2010. It originally had Android 2.1, then got Froyo in Sept 2010 and finally received GB in May 2011. The last two updates it received were just bugfixes (the one last week was just for the laggy keyboard and it has also supposedly created as many problems as it fixed). It still has a few camera issues along with the bug in Contacts where it won't remember to save contacts by default to Google or Backup Assistant. It'd be nice to see the old X get up to 2.3.4 at least.

The updates from 2.1 to 2.2 to 2.3.3 to 2.3.4 are all very incremental updates. The jump to ICS is rather more substantial, which is precisely why I think the X line has probably reached the end. Note that I don't HOPE that is the case, it is just what I SUSPECT.

 

[Devinator]

Well, I'd hope we'll get two updates as well then.

Well, at least they are still paying attention to it Haha. My buddy has an X, and, he hasn't had any problems since the update last week.

Yea, I agree that going to ICS is a big move, but, I still think we'll see it on the X2. If they put my phone out to pasture as you say and I don't see ICS, I will probably have to rethink purchasing a Motorola phone in the future. That'd be a huge let down. Especially since Mobility will be owned by Google.

 

[hondaalpinestar]

Figured maybe this would help. Also used ADW on 2.3.3 and it would always mess up and id have to uninstall and then reinstall. Running 2.3.4 and havent had a problem, battery life seems to have improved for me that is, and not as laggy. Course I dont know all the technical details but thats just from me.

[updated][how-to] sbf tutorial [how-to][updated] - xda-developers

 

[Philip600rr]

Fixes..............camera not working/loading,random reboots,random freezes,random blank screens,overall just snappy! Attempted to get another replacement phone...vzw sent me a rebuilt phone the a blown ear speaker! Insalled new software on old phone. Phone works great!

 

[Philip600rr]

Just performed quadrant standard test. 2843 damn! Stock

 

[fargles]

is it just me or are scrolling through the homescreens laggy? I have fancy widget on my homescreen and 3 post it notes the rest are apps. and on my next screen I have two music widgets one for google music the other is the stock music player, then the last I have the google search bar and the 4 toggle switches and the rest are apps again. The four homescreens are empty... I figure I just have to let the phone settle in but it has been 30+ minutes and still laggy, with a reboot

 

[fargles]

well hey hey, started playing music from the stock music app NO SKIPPING! While playing I went and loaded facebook for the first time, loaded a game after (konas crate lite) then scrolled arounf the xda forums using the app and not a single miss... if the homescreen thing can go back to being smoother I will be a freaking happy camper

 

[hkklife]

Mine basically took the better part of an afternoon to "settle" in. I also turned off the onscreen animations. I would not call the scrolling "laggy" just rather "slow to move". It's smooth, at least on my phone...it could just stand to be a bit speedier! It's definitely less choppy than I remember it being under Froyo!