Have Photon Questions? Ask 'em here

[MarkEdwardsArlingtonTexas]

Re: WHERE is the micro SD card slot? - RESOLVED

that's exactly what it is. lift the black flap and slide the SD card in from the left

RESOLVED! Yes, the little chrome rectangle IS the microSD receptacle. Stopped by the Sprint store tonight, and the clerk slipped it right in for me.

Thank you for your patience with me on this question. Over the past 30+ years, I have never had any problems figuring out where add-ons go on my various toys.


Mark Edwards

 

[ram482]

I would like to stream music from my photon to a Sony car radio( mex BT 2900) with Bluetooth audio streaming capabilities. I can't find anything in the Motorola manuals about streaming music. Is there a special procedure to set up the phone or do you just pair them similar to an ear piece (jawbone).

 

[ccrooks]

i haven't tried this yet, but i think you just pair it similar to a bluetooth earpiece. the phone will know what kind of BT device it's pairing to and adjust accordingly (correct me if i'm wrong, someone)

 

[jayq]

Heard the rear speaker is awesome what do you think?? And how is reception vs. Evo3d. Thanks

its like the old nextel phones, real loud...i could hear it walking the busy streets of 34th street in Manhattan NY & for games or movies @ just 30% volume its good enough.

 

[jayq]

What does the bloatware situation look like on this phone in a post bloatware happy Sprint?

Please tell me the Nascar app is gone? I was embarrassed to have that on my phone.

the only bloatware's are sprints usual sprintware & 1 motorola bloatware *Quick Office* which i happen to like, the sprintwares can be uninstalled & you can already root the phone without the need of the HD dock so if you dont like the new moto U.I. you can just get something else. i happen to like moto's native email app more than gmail's app, it gets my gmail alerts before the gmail app & its easier to travel between file types * inbox to trash & your custom file, i made a facebook file for all my facebook emails to go into without blowing up my inbox*.

 

[jayq]

Phil!

Thanks for having your initial review up so quickly!! Great job!

#1 How does the pentile screen look to you?
#2 Are those holes in the back cover at the top and bottom for microphones (ala the original Droid X)?
#3 Is the speakerphone loud?
#4 How is the call quality?
#5 My biggest concern about getting the Photon was the drop in resolution of the front camera (VGA on Photon) from 1.3MP on the EVO 4G. How does the FFC quality look?


Thanks... Android Central Rocks!

#1, the pentile screen in the photon is different from other motorola qHD screen's, even engadgets review gave the screen praises & said it was second only to super amoled plus! but imo, i like it more than the amoled plus because the color accuracy is better & compared to the LG nova screen 700 nits of brightness the qHD on the photon is also 700 nits brightness so outside no matter how sunny youll see your screen with color & they have 2 layers of some kind of anti glare with gorilla glass. also the screen is bezeled at the edges kind of like the htc sensation.the blacks are as black as the my ex galaxy s *vibrant*.

#2, the phone has 2 microphones in the back besides the main microphone in the front, when you take the back cover off there are rubber tubes that keep the sound between the holes & the mic's, i guess its for better sound & it seems to work based on reviews of sound quality when recording vid's.

#3, the call quality along with the sound quality is the best ive had since my last motorola phone *nextel* they were always good at reception. i can get full bars where i wouldnt get a single bar, im comparing this to my older sprint phone's & t-mobile. im going to even say verizon because the last phone i had was the evo 3D *returned for photon* the evo 3D would lose reception then switch to roaming & sprint uses verizons 800mhz channel for roaming which has better penetration than verizons other channels. so basically in some areas like inside my building *third floor,concrete walls* i wouldnt even get roaming to work so i would have to go outside to use my cell, but now i get FULL BARS! thats crazy, anyway now i can talk even in the basement of my building & i dont roam so the reception is really really good. try sprints 30 day guarantee theres nothing to lose.

4#, good,clear & its not monotone. the volume is loud so even in busy areas, like i said in manhattans busy streets you can talk & hear the other end without having to raise the volume past 50%, today i was talking to my brother & had to lower the volume because it was tickling inside my ear.

5# the front camer is only VGA (640x480) but its perfect for video chats & the camera is good. the colors are good, the pictures & videos are clear with sharp edges. remember that the mp's dont matter unless the sensors are good. i can compare it to my ex evo 3D which was 1.3mp's & this camera looks better quality wise & i cant tell the difference in pixels, its definitely better in colors, but sucks in low light as did the evo 3D's front cam in low light also.

all this might sound to good to be true but check the reviews or go to a bestbuy or sprint store or even take it home for the 30 days,you wont regret it. heres a bonus my quadrant score is 2900 to 3100 & thats real good for a qHD. considering that the SGS2 gets a 3200 @ 1.2 ghz average with a 800x480 screen & when overclocked gets around 3600, which gets beaten by the galaxy R @ only 1 ghz! tegra 2 is still strong i couldnt believe it scored 3600 @ 1 ghz with no overclocking. * look for youtube videos & see the benchmarks *

 

[oskar1995]

#1, the pentile screen in the photon is different from other motorola qHD screen's, even engadgets review gave the screen praises & said it was second only to super amoled plus! but imo, i like it more than the amoled plus because the color accuracy is better & compared to the LG nova screen 700 nits of brightness the qHD on the photon is also 700 nits brightness so outside no matter how sunny youll see your screen with color & they have 2 layers of some kind of anti glare with gorilla glass. also the screen is bezeled at the edges kind of like the htc sensation.the blacks are as black as the my ex galaxy s *vibrant*.

#2, the phone has 2 microphones in the back besides the main microphone in the front, when you take the back cover off there are rubber tubes that keep the sound between the holes & the mic's, i guess its for better sound & it seems to work based on reviews of sound quality when recording vid's.

#3, the call quality along with the sound quality is the best ive had since my last motorola phone *nextel* they were always good at reception. i can get full bars where i wouldnt get a single bar, im comparing this to my older sprint phone's & t-mobile. im going to even say verizon because the last phone i had was the evo 3D *returned for photon* the evo 3D would lose reception then switch to roaming & sprint uses verizons 800mhz channel for roaming which has better penetration than verizons other channels. so basically in some areas like inside my building *third floor,concrete walls* i wouldnt even get roaming to work so i would have to go outside to use my cell, but now i get FULL BARS! thats crazy, anyway now i can talk even in the basement of my building & i dont roam so the reception is really really good. try sprints 30 day guarantee theres nothing to lose.

4#, good,clear & its not monotone. the volume is loud so even in busy areas, like i said in manhattans busy streets you can talk & hear the other end without having to raise the volume past 50%, today i was talking to my brother & had to lower the volume because it was tickling inside my ear.

5# the front camer is only VGA (640x480) but its perfect for video chats & the camera is good. the colors are good, the pictures & videos are clear with sharp edges. remember that the mp's dont matter unless the sensors are good. i can compare it to my ex evo 3D which was 1.3mp's & this camera looks better quality wise & i cant tell the difference in pixels, its definitely better in colors, but sucks in low light as did the evo 3D's front cam in low light also.

all this might sound to good to be true but check the reviews or go to a bestbuy or sprint store or even take it home for the 30 days,you wont regret it. heres a bonus my quadrant score is 2900 to 3100 & thats real good for a qHD. considering that the SGS2 gets a 3200 @ 1.2 ghz average with a 800x480 screen & when overclocked gets around 3600, which gets beaten by the galaxy R @ only 1 ghz! tegra 2 is still strong i couldnt believe it scored 3600 @ 1 ghz with no overclocking. * look for youtube videos & see the benchmarks *

JayQ - Everytime I run the Quadrant App I get somewhere between 2100 and 2450. Have you performed any modifications to get to 2900-3100? I'm overall pretty happy with the phone although some inconsistencies have driven me nuts. I performed a hard reset the other day since I was having issues with 3g speed (its at times microscopic, at other times its serviceable but right after I reset, it was (above average). In addition, I seem to be getting inconsistent battery life. Each morning for me is pretty much the same in terms of what i do and when i take the phone off a charger and my drive to work. Some days I've used 5-7% of battery per hour while some days were 2-4%. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled to see how this reacts going forward.

 

[skld]

How many multi touch points does the Photon support? I downloaded an app called multi touch tester, and my Photon would only register a max of two. My wife's Epic 4g registered 5. I have a game where I needto have at least 3 points at once.

Also, is there a way to have different notification tones for my different accounts? My last phone was Blackberry and I really liked being able to hear which email account was coming in.

 

[wynand32]

How many multi touch points does the Photon support? I downloaded an app called multi touch tester, and my Photon would only register a max of two. My wife's Epic 4g registered 5. I have a game where I needto have at least 3 points at once.

Wow, just tested myself and I'm only seeing two inputs as well. That's kind of a bummer... Not sure what's common for smartphones, but two points doesn't seem like it.

By the way, which game is it that supports three inputs? So far, I can't remember EVER using more than two inputs on my Epic.

 

[skld]

Wow, just tested myself and I'm only seeing two inputs as well. That's kind of a bummer... Not sure what's common for smartphones, but two points doesn't seem like it.

By the way, which game is it that supports three inputs? So far, I can't remember EVER using more than two inputs on my Epic.

Bit64. Tried playing Golden eye, but I can't hold down a button to aim, aim with the "joystick" and then fire. I need three inputs. :'( It almost makes me want to return it, even though my Blackberry had no fun games.

My wife saw that she had more touch inputs on her Epic, and said "oh, looks like your phone isn't better than mine! You should have gotten my phone!'

 

[kmcochran]

Can you watch shows streamed on websites like tnt.tv and mylifetime.com? I'd love to be able to stream them easily to my TV.

 

[AlanD96]

Hi
I just received my Photon 4G after years with an old Blackberry and it's a real culture shock (but a good one).
I was playing with the Photon, put a song in the player and was AMAZED to see the player display lyrics to the song as the artist was singing them, just like a karaoke machine. The next day I went to impress a friend and it stopped showing the lyrics. I can find no information on how this is turned on or off. Was I hallucinating? I'd like to see those lyrics again.
Thanks for any replies

 

[Quick Storm]

here are a couple of questions, or I guess you would call them more complaints, I have about the phone:

One thing that bothers me is when I select the dialer icon on the bottom dock it will usually revert to the last thing that I used in that screen, example, if I last looked at contacts or favorites/groups and then I hit the back or home button to go to the main screen and hit the power button to screen lock the phone then I hit power button unlock the phone and hit the phone/dialer icon it brings me back to the contact list not the actual phone dialer then I have to select the dialer on the top left. This step seems unnecessary and I've search the phone to see if there is a selection that I missed to have the phone do this automatically and I can't find this. searched the forum and can't find any info.

Also, my google contact are doubled up on some of my contacts in the contact list, this is also very frustrating.

Sometimes the WiFi doesn't connect when the widget is turned on, have to turn off and then turn it back on, and I have experienced the silent calls 3 times so far in a handful of phone conversations, turning the phone off and then back on has seemed to temporarily fix the issue.

I hope motorola is working on somekind of update now that google owns motorola

 

[jfenton]

Google doesn't yet own Motorola and it's already being contested by shareholders as MOTO didn't shop the sale to anyone else.

I wouldn't hold your breath for Google having any influence over product updates yet.

 

[craigdts]

I have not seen a way to change the font, but it does play netflix AND, if connected to a HDMI cable, it plays on your TV in mirror mode. Actually, it mirrors the entire device. I could not get HBO GO to play on the TV (did on the Photon) as it kept saying something about checking the HDMI cable.

Font can be changed in email and web. Change it under each app

 

[srkmagnus]

Font can be changed in email and web. Change it under each app

Font can be changed universally. You just need to swap the font files with the one you want -- there's about 4 files to replace.

 

[Tibman]

Just curious if anyone has checked for photon compatibility with the the much more inexpensive droid x hd dock or any of the other hd docks from motorola otger than the unbelieveable $130 photon hd dock. Looks like a droid hd dock runs a light $25 with shipping.

 

[jayq]

See, I'm tempted to jump to the Photon from my Epic once my upgrade windows opens up in a few days. I really liked a lot of things on the Epic. That AMOLED is just gorgeous compared to the LCDs on every other phone out there. However some things with the Epic infuriated me (dismal battery life, pathetically slow OS updates from Samsung, completely non-functional compass, spotty GPS, hardware keyboard misses many keystrokes, etc). I wanted to love the Epic and while I really liked it, there were too many things that kept me from loving the device. The fact Sprint never pushed the phone hard and therefore didn't sell as many as say the Evo means that the community is small and no devs have been able to get CM7 on it as of yet. Having been turned off to Samsung by the Epic I don't see the need to wait for the Within which is why I'm awfully tempted by the Photon.

Hoping that the higher res on the Photon makes up for subdued colors and poor black levels compared to the Epic's screen.

hey i had the samsung vibrant for t-mobile & the evo 3D after then returned it for the photon, well i can tell you that the screen on the photon can be compared to the galaxy s amoled plus screen. the only difference that i can see is when the lights are off *lets say in the bathroom with no windows* you will notice that the blacks are illuminated from a back light source, but you cant notice it in any way with a bit of light * the blacks look as black as ink like the amoled * another feature there screen has is like the nokia "clearblack amoled" where they use a layer of some kind of filter to enhance the colors & contrast of the amoled screen & is better to view the screen in sunlight than the super amoled. basically the photons screen has 2 layers of filter, 1 is to keep light from entering the screen & wash out the colors from the qHD's screen & the 2nd layer helps make blacks extremely black like oled's, also the 698 nits of brightness is comparable to the LG Nova's screen 700 nits of brightness so the whites are extreme & the filter helps in there to. i dont know to much about it but i can tell you that i do like the screen & the main reason i returned the evo 3D was because of the screens washed out colors imo & the reason i stayed with the photon was because the screen was imo the same as my ex t-mobile vibrant & trust me when your used to super amoled you wont want anything less. i suggest seeing the phone in person & try not to use the demo phone that everyone uses *scratched,cracked & running a million apps in background* tell them you want to see a phone thats not beaten so make a clearer decision & then im sure if you dont like the photon it wont be because of the screen.

 

[jayq]

It's also a matter of sharpness, though, The text on the Epic renders more clearly to my eye. I think the EPIC could have and should have been a home run for Sprint and Samsung. I also think that they won't repeat the same mistakes with the Within.

That said, the Photon is a great upgrade. The onscreen keyboard works well, and I have installed Swype on it as well, so I am a very happy camper. Some things I am not used to, but it will take a bit of time.

how can you install swype if it already comes with swype? & how could the epics screen compare to photons qHD screen any qHD come to that? yes it must be your eyes only that see it as more sharp or clear. failed...

 

[Paperino]

The Epic screen, is still Amoled and does a great job of rendering. That's not to say the Photon's doesn't. People who get hung up on pixel count are quite dumb IMO.

The Photon's screen fails during pretty much any video function. I've watched HBO Go, and it sucks compared to my old Epic, the Iphones 4S and the Epic Touch.

I like text better on the Photon, due to the resolution.

You can install a later version of swype if you know how, btw. Get a clue.