All signs point towards an imminent release..BUT!

[redraider133]

Guys -- I hate to burst everyone's bubble, but there is one glaring thing we are missing that almost always gets leaked before a new phone is released.

That is training materials, or word that employees are going through training for the new phone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have not seen any word on this.

Just my 2 cents, but I don't think the August 4th date is realistic at this point.

Bash away if you must....

They went into training like a month ago atleast thats what some people were saying who knew verizon people. It was in one of these threads somewhere so take it with a grain of salt but yeah.

 

[huskerkate]

i dont understand why everyone is so intent on jumping on the gs2 after the horrible track record with.the fascinate, you really want to be a year behind everyone else with ice cream sandwich? They havnt changed either, the charge is still on froyo also and probably wont.officially have gb until after ics is already out. Not to mention the fascinate was hardly reliable and very plasticy and dealing without a notification light is harder then you think. Just wait for your buyers remorse months down the line, its silly to think samsung has changed they havnt even said themselves that they're going to be different.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

ya make a decent point with the Charge. i never paid any attention to that device. but, if it doesn't have gb in the next couple months, that would certainly make me leary of the GS2 (ie, the thought that it could be updated to ICS).

 

[delco714]

Why wouldn't they push this phone hard? They have for the x2 and notes they have a new one with with 4g. It will be advertised as much if not more than the Charge

 

[rushmore]

*Bash* Bash* ....

I don't remember seeing any word that employees were being trained on the Droid 3. Yes we saw some leaked hands on videos from motorola but nothing saying that VZW employees were going through training. Just to add to that the Bionic has been kept much more under wraps than the Droid 3. I also don't remember seeing any accessories leaked for the Droid 3, which we have seen for the Bionic.

So what I am trying to say is there is no uniform methodology for predicting an imminent launch date based off lack of leaks, or a large amount of leaks. It's just a guessing game until something concrete is announced by VZW. I wouldn't be completely 100% shocked if Bionic Pre-Orders started tonight, I doubt it but just saying.

P.S. I am still holding my breath for Aug. 4th because of the FCC August 7th (all revealed) documents. At least we will know what the Bionic entails on that date if nothing else.

Difference being the D3 was slowed down due to excess D2 inventory. Bionic does not have this issue. Seems very doubtful the Bionic releases next week.

 

[rushmore]

Difference being the D3 was slowed down and not pushed due to excess D2 inventory. Bionic does not have this issue. Seems very doubtful the Bionic releases next week.

 

[milkshed27]

i dont understand why everyone is so intent on jumping on the gs2 after the horrible track record with.the fascinate, you really want to be a year behind everyone else with ice cream sandwich? They havnt changed either, the charge is still on froyo also and probably wont.officially have gb until after ics is already out. Not to mention the fascinate was hardly reliable and very plasticy and dealing without a notification light is harder then you think. Just wait for your buyers remorse months down the line, its silly to think samsung has changed they havnt even said themselves that they're going to be different.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I can't speak about the Fascinate since I never owned one, but I did have a Charge for two weeks and really enjoyed it. Even though it's not 100% sure thing atm, the beauty of Samsung phones is they usually come with unlocked bootloaders. So, not having the latest firmware updates the fastest or it being "BINGED" is irrelevant to me personally. Both those problems can be easily fixed by rooting, which is extremely easy with the Samsung bootloader. Besides, Samsung did send out an OTA update fairly soon after the Charge was released. It fixed a bunch of issues such as increased battery life on voice calls and better browser and GPS performance.

The Charge community has had two leaked GB versions over the past month. Still no word on an official release but having leaked versions sounds like it can't be as far away as when ICS hits as you stated. Notification lights are far from a deal breaker for me. NoLED works just fine if you take the time to set it up properly. If all else fails I can always set recurring sound or vibrate notifications. As far as the plastic feel, I wasn't digging it on the Charge, but getting a case to just cover the back side of the phone also remedied that problem with very little added girth. I apologize if this is off topic and for its length but I feel that none of the things you mentioned warrant the assumption of buyers remorse. IMO as long as the GS2 has LTE it will be a strong competitor to the Bionic.

 

[tbssawd07]

I've had a lot of time to use my friends Charge and it really is a nice phone! Made me think if I really needed a dual core phone.

 

[redraider133]

i dont understand why everyone is so intent on jumping on the gs2 after the horrible track record with.the fascinate, you really want to be a year behind everyone else with ice cream sandwich? They havnt changed either, the charge is still on froyo also and probably wont.officially have gb until after ics is already out. Not to mention the fascinate was hardly reliable and very plasticy and dealing without a notification light is harder then you think. Just wait for your buyers remorse months down the line, its silly to think samsung has changed they havnt even said themselves that they're going to be different.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Moto isnt much better lately and when they do send out an update it makes the phone worse than it was. I mean look at the droid x it got gb over a month ago and they put it on hold because they had a ton of people's phones get screwed up and still havent issued a fix. It just makes it a little easier when you can root and install custom roms and get the latest updates months(usually) before the ota and usually the devs make better roms anyway. Just saying if you want to go with moto then go ahead but I dont think( as long as the dont dumb down the gs2) that they would have buyers remorse in a few months like with the fascinate. I had the fascinate and luckily had no issues but it was a great little phone if verizon wouldnt have skimped on the ram it could have been a real power house.

 

[Soapinmouth]

Moto isnt much better lately and when they do send out an update it makes the phone worse than it was. I mean look at the droid x it got gb over a month ago and they put it on hold because they had a ton of people's phones get screwed up and still havent issued a fix. It just makes it a little easier when you can root and install custom roms and get the latest updates months(usually) before the ota and usually the devs make better roms anyway. Just saying if you want to go with moto then go ahead but I dont think( as long as the dont dumb down the gs2) that they would have buyers remorse in a few months like with the fascinate. I had the fascinate and luckily had no issues but it was a great little phone if verizon wouldnt have skimped on the ram it could have been a real power house.

This is also something I don't understand people who dont have dx's constantly talking aabout the gb build being borked. I found it ran extremly stable, i loved it so much i stayed stock for a longer period then i have on any phone b4. ran it from the first leak all the way up to cm4dx release without even a single issue.

and as far as leaks meanimg the update will come soon, font his your breath,itl be a while b4 they are actually official. the problem with the fascinate wasnt making the software it was just stupid political reasons with sammy and verizon. they had froyo on all other gs varients loooong before. This is something sammy has yet to prove differently.

 

[TeeSquar]

... font his your breath ...

Guess that's what "don't hold your breath" sounds like while you have soap in your mouth.

Ain't word prediction grand.

 

[anon(49997)]

Geesh! I walked into a Verizon Corp store this AM and asked to see the Motorola Bionic and was told it will release after January 1, 2012. I should report this guy. Then again he may be getting that crap all the time and is tired of it. Heh!

 

[milkshed27]

This is also something I don't understand people who dont have dx's constantly talking aabout the gb build being borked. I found it ran extremly stable, i loved it so much i stayed stock for a longer period then i have on any phone b4. ran it from the first leak all the way up to cm4dx release without even a single issue.

and as far as leaks meanimg the update will come soon, font his your breath,itl be a while b4 they are actually official. the problem with the fascinate wasnt making the software it was just stupid political reasons with sammy and verizon. they had froyo on all other gs varients loooong before. This is something sammy has yet to prove differently.

I don't mean to sound like a jerk but, you seem to enjoy stating opinions as if they were facts. "The Charge wont officially have GB until after ICS is out... dealing without a notification light is harder than you think... just wait for your buyer's remorse... we're silly to think Samsung has changed." All these are opinions, based on little to no facts. However, it is a fact that many people have had problems with the GB update on the DX. You said you don't understand people who don't own DXs constantly talking about the GB build. By that logic unless you own a Fascinate and a Charge, you should not be one to talk about Samsung's update problems. You placed all the blame on Samsung for not releasing Froyo and then you turn around and say that it was "political reasons" with Verizon. From what I've read the majority of Fascinate owners place the blame on Verizon more so than Samsung.

 

[anon(94115)]

i dont understand why everyone is so intent on jumping on the gs2 after the horrible track record with.the fascinate, you really want to be a year behind everyone else with ice cream sandwich? They havnt changed either, the charge is still on froyo also and probably wont.officially have gb until after ics is already out. Not to mention the fascinate was hardly reliable and very plasticy and dealing without a notification light is harder then you think. Just wait for your buyers remorse months down the line, its silly to think samsung has changed they havnt even said themselves that they're going to be different.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

So many things wrong in this.

First, the Charge does have the backlights on the keys. Second, as mentioned, we have 2 really stable builds for GB. I mean really stable. It looks like it just needs some polish and it is out the door. In terms of reliability, the fassy and Charge are two different reasons. The Charge has an internal antennae, the Fassy doesn't. I had both and there were definitely a ton of missed calls on the Fascinate, not a one for the Charge.

The Charge is an awesome phone. No two ways about it.

Moving on to the topic at hand, the bionic looks awesome but it is also starting to look like vaporware at this point. If I were Samsung, I would pay VZW extra to get the SGSII out the door ASAP. As long as it has LTE, it would soak up the potential Bionic sales and make those that were waiting for the SGSII VERY happy customers.

EDIT: Forgot a few things. The bootloader could be unlocked with a wet noodle and The fassy almost couldn't be bricked.

 

[Soapinmouth]

Looks like cm7 is booting on the bionic what was that about a Samsung phone that never got reloaded having it first for sure?