Hey all,
I wanted to come back and update my review after extended use. As you recall, I came from a Samsung Epic, which I thought was a very hard act to follow by any phone, when you only considered the features and quality of the device (not considering the slowness of Samsung getting out updates).
I was originally very excited by the Photon. Dual Core, Global, qHD screen, massive battery... It had a lot going for it.
Now, after two weeks of use, I finally have come to deciding whether the unit is a keeper or not....
Hardware -
The feel of the hardware on this phone is great. Not as light as many of the phones that have been out recently, but solid in the hand. Screen is bright and quite readable, albeit not as good at reproducing shades of black as Samsung SuperAmoled screens. I've looked at pictures and movies that looked spectacular on my Epic, and have turned them off because it just wasn't a good experience on the Photon. I use my phone to stream via HBO GO, and could not do it. The screen is quite crisp for reading, but poor for media/photo use. Camera was bad, slow to acquire focus. Light detecting sensors on the front never worked under any circumstance, causing many errors during phone calls. Battery on this phone lasts forever. I am docked most of the time, either in the car or at the office, but, even in days I used the phone without those items, I never worried about my battery running out and I am on it consistently, checking email, sending texts and reading forums.
User Interface -
Motoblur in a nutshell sucks. It is very minimalistic, yes, but it also makes it hard to do very basic items that Samsung's hated Touchwiz UI did quite well. The most annoying ones for me were accessing power controls, the convoluted account setup and options. I find myself having to go to multiple screens to achieve what I achieved with just one button press. Google Voice integration in this phone also causes more problems than I ever had with my Epic.
Performance -
Here is one that surprised me. The phone hangs a lot during downloads (especially on wi-fi). It also doesn't boot up much faster than my Epic did, which I find quite strange, given how much better of a processor it is supposed to have. It does perform admirably when playing games, I must say. Call quality is spectacular, at least to my ears, when it works....
Now, this discussion of calls is the biggest one. Without getting into it, I find that a phone should work as a phone first. I switched out my first Photon due to dropped calls. My second Photon hasn't had ANY of the phone problems of the first one, although I don't call with it that much. People on many boards have suggested changing the network settings and rebooting daily. I have done none of the above. I have (possibly incorrectly) come to the conclusion that Wi-Fi has a lot to do with the problems, since the phone bogs down and errs out more when Wi-Fi is ON than OFF.
So, are the intermittent call problems a hardware or software issue? Given my lack of problems with the second unit, it feels like hardware, not software, but we will see.
I do have an issue with the proximity detector not working making my handheld phone calls more of a pain than they should be. I also hate the interface during a call. I tried getting to another application while in a call and it took ten steps. The tray doesn't scroll down during a call, and some of the buttons are disabled... Not very intuitive.
Software -
I've had a number of pieces of software hang for unknown reasons. The bundled software, that activates itself when using their peripherals is interesting if not half-baked. What do I mean?
The car dock opens a separate interface that is meant to work better during driving. Try making a phone call from there, and you will see that while the main interface has nice huge buttons to allow you to make choices, once you click that screen, it goes to the regular phone interface which is too small to use while driving. The navigation software is quite nice, though. The screen doesn't change brightness based on time of day, so at night if you choose to use a function, it is as bright as it would be in daylight, making it a distraction while driving...
The HD dock is a great idea as well, but in full use, it is just a good gimmick. The best thing about it is the ability to use a keyboard and mouse to drive the interface, but I find the rest of it useless. Movies played from the phone to the screen don't look very good, nor does any of the software projected onto the screen. It works, it is interesting, but it isn't something to truly write home about. Add to that that removing the phone from the dock without "ejecting" it, causes the phone to stay in webtop/dock mode until you reboot it. Not cool.
Music Player was quite good, Camera software was poor, imho. Video player was good.
Best piece of software on the phone was the Social Networking software. I am not a huge fan of the various Facebook and twitters, but it was incorporated so well into the phone that it made me read updates from friends and actually update my status more than a couple of times.
Phone dialer was confusing. It doesn't easily recognize my contacts as I dialed a number, and getting around to numbers that you normally don't normally dial seems harder than it should be.
The phone also seems to lag in terms of syncing with google servers. I'm quite surprised at how long it takes changes on the phone to migrate to the server. I never felt that way about email deletion or contacts when using my Epic.
Conclusion -
Two weeks, a decent number of problems, a replaced phone, and still uncomfortable with the way Motorola set up the UI of the phone... Tried a few launchers, but I really don't feel I should have to do that in order to get my phone to function the way I want it to.
My Photon is more than likely going back. I tried my best to warm up to it, through all the problems that it has faced. Motorola had a good thing going for it, but it fell short in execution. I'm unfortunately going to have to wait it out until someone else steps into the fray with a better product. I am going to miss the call clarity that I have when audio does work (and as I said, it works quite well these days).
Biggest Pros
- World capabilities
- Big battery and up time
- Solid, if unspectacular hardware
- Social Networking software
- Call Clarity
Biggest Cons
- Intermittent Audio/radio
- Bad UI (to me)
- Proximity Sensors not working, therefore interfering with calls.
- Screen bad for photos/videos.
I wanted to come back and update my review after extended use. As you recall, I came from a Samsung Epic, which I thought was a very hard act to follow by any phone, when you only considered the features and quality of the device (not considering the slowness of Samsung getting out updates).
I was originally very excited by the Photon. Dual Core, Global, qHD screen, massive battery... It had a lot going for it.
Now, after two weeks of use, I finally have come to deciding whether the unit is a keeper or not....
Hardware -
The feel of the hardware on this phone is great. Not as light as many of the phones that have been out recently, but solid in the hand. Screen is bright and quite readable, albeit not as good at reproducing shades of black as Samsung SuperAmoled screens. I've looked at pictures and movies that looked spectacular on my Epic, and have turned them off because it just wasn't a good experience on the Photon. I use my phone to stream via HBO GO, and could not do it. The screen is quite crisp for reading, but poor for media/photo use. Camera was bad, slow to acquire focus. Light detecting sensors on the front never worked under any circumstance, causing many errors during phone calls. Battery on this phone lasts forever. I am docked most of the time, either in the car or at the office, but, even in days I used the phone without those items, I never worried about my battery running out and I am on it consistently, checking email, sending texts and reading forums.
User Interface -
Motoblur in a nutshell sucks. It is very minimalistic, yes, but it also makes it hard to do very basic items that Samsung's hated Touchwiz UI did quite well. The most annoying ones for me were accessing power controls, the convoluted account setup and options. I find myself having to go to multiple screens to achieve what I achieved with just one button press. Google Voice integration in this phone also causes more problems than I ever had with my Epic.
Performance -
Here is one that surprised me. The phone hangs a lot during downloads (especially on wi-fi). It also doesn't boot up much faster than my Epic did, which I find quite strange, given how much better of a processor it is supposed to have. It does perform admirably when playing games, I must say. Call quality is spectacular, at least to my ears, when it works....
Now, this discussion of calls is the biggest one. Without getting into it, I find that a phone should work as a phone first. I switched out my first Photon due to dropped calls. My second Photon hasn't had ANY of the phone problems of the first one, although I don't call with it that much. People on many boards have suggested changing the network settings and rebooting daily. I have done none of the above. I have (possibly incorrectly) come to the conclusion that Wi-Fi has a lot to do with the problems, since the phone bogs down and errs out more when Wi-Fi is ON than OFF.
So, are the intermittent call problems a hardware or software issue? Given my lack of problems with the second unit, it feels like hardware, not software, but we will see.
I do have an issue with the proximity detector not working making my handheld phone calls more of a pain than they should be. I also hate the interface during a call. I tried getting to another application while in a call and it took ten steps. The tray doesn't scroll down during a call, and some of the buttons are disabled... Not very intuitive.
Software -
I've had a number of pieces of software hang for unknown reasons. The bundled software, that activates itself when using their peripherals is interesting if not half-baked. What do I mean?
The car dock opens a separate interface that is meant to work better during driving. Try making a phone call from there, and you will see that while the main interface has nice huge buttons to allow you to make choices, once you click that screen, it goes to the regular phone interface which is too small to use while driving. The navigation software is quite nice, though. The screen doesn't change brightness based on time of day, so at night if you choose to use a function, it is as bright as it would be in daylight, making it a distraction while driving...
The HD dock is a great idea as well, but in full use, it is just a good gimmick. The best thing about it is the ability to use a keyboard and mouse to drive the interface, but I find the rest of it useless. Movies played from the phone to the screen don't look very good, nor does any of the software projected onto the screen. It works, it is interesting, but it isn't something to truly write home about. Add to that that removing the phone from the dock without "ejecting" it, causes the phone to stay in webtop/dock mode until you reboot it. Not cool.
Music Player was quite good, Camera software was poor, imho. Video player was good.
Best piece of software on the phone was the Social Networking software. I am not a huge fan of the various Facebook and twitters, but it was incorporated so well into the phone that it made me read updates from friends and actually update my status more than a couple of times.
Phone dialer was confusing. It doesn't easily recognize my contacts as I dialed a number, and getting around to numbers that you normally don't normally dial seems harder than it should be.
The phone also seems to lag in terms of syncing with google servers. I'm quite surprised at how long it takes changes on the phone to migrate to the server. I never felt that way about email deletion or contacts when using my Epic.
Conclusion -
Two weeks, a decent number of problems, a replaced phone, and still uncomfortable with the way Motorola set up the UI of the phone... Tried a few launchers, but I really don't feel I should have to do that in order to get my phone to function the way I want it to.
My Photon is more than likely going back. I tried my best to warm up to it, through all the problems that it has faced. Motorola had a good thing going for it, but it fell short in execution. I'm unfortunately going to have to wait it out until someone else steps into the fray with a better product. I am going to miss the call clarity that I have when audio does work (and as I said, it works quite well these days).
Biggest Pros
- World capabilities
- Big battery and up time
- Solid, if unspectacular hardware
- Social Networking software
- Call Clarity
Biggest Cons
- Intermittent Audio/radio
- Bad UI (to me)
- Proximity Sensors not working, therefore interfering with calls.
- Screen bad for photos/videos.
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram