Keeping or Returning?

[rlb81]

I'm also returning it. I like the screen in the sunlight but other than that I'm not impressed with the dullness of it. After a week of using it the pixelation in day to say usage doesn't bother me too much. However, watching video on HBO go or Netflix is so non-fluid that I can't get through it. I could live with the screen if battery life were acceptable. But, this leads me to reason #2. If the phone sits in my pocket all day then the battery life is acceptable. But having a phone that can be awesome, yet stays in my pocket, isn't worth $300 up front and ~$100 a month. Other things like the camera (admittedly I haven't tried another app, but the blur app is horrendous) and blur itself drive me crazy. I know it will be rommed sooner than later but I'll hold out hope for ICS on the Prime. And if not, My DroidX with Apex 2.0 was perfectly fine for me so that can hold me over no problem until a solid LTE Android phone does show up.

I've also found that my typing is horribly inaccurate on the bionic with thestock keyboard and with smart keyboard pro. That's one of my biggest gripes. And its not just mine, my wife is having the same problem with hers.

 

[Mikiesox]

Returned my bionic... Not happy with the interface lag or the battery life... Perhaps I am too spoiled by the iPhone... I've had an iPod Touch for 3 years now and loved the smooth interface, operation, and simplicity of it. So I returned it, got an iPhone instead with Verizon's $100 off discount. Just couldn't see paying $100 more and not being 1/3 happier with my choice over an iPhone... and I wasn't, so its gone.

edit: Oh I should say, I bought it for its touted 4G speeds, but apparently I don't even have 4G where I am, so that was a big let down. No sense in having a phone that's premiered as the best 4G phone if I'm not even in the usable area eh?

 

[Droid800]

Returned my bionic... Not happy with the interface lag or the battery life... Perhaps I am too spoiled by the iPhone... I've had an iPod Touch for 3 years now and loved the smooth interface, operation, and simplicity of it. So I returned it, got an iPhone instead with Verizon's $100 off discount. Just couldn't see paying $100 more and not being 1/3 happier with my choice over an iPhone... and I wasn't, so its gone.

edit: Oh I should say, I bought it for its touted 4G speeds, but apparently I don't even have 4G where I am, so that was a big let down. No sense in having a phone that's premiered as the best 4G phone if I'm not even in the usable area eh?

Depends. If you really like the phone, it's a smart idea to hold onto it since Verizon's 4g networks growing and expanding very quickly. No harm in returning it if you didn't like it, but if you have the choice, get a 4g phone.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Scout_313]

edit: Oh I should say, I bought it for its touted 4G speeds, but apparently I don't even have 4G where I am, so that was a big let down. No sense in having a phone that's premiered as the best 4G phone if I'm not even in the usable area eh?

While I do have 4G coverage in my area, 95% of the time I will be running on 3G only as the LTE radio kills my battery extremely quickly. I'm okay with this because I LOVE the rest of the phone and it's a big step up from the Droid X2 in terms of speed and smoothness. I figure if I ever want to stream music or movies, I'll turn the 4G on when I need it.

 

[Cigar-Junkie]

I am on the fence about this. I really like the phone, speedy and smooth. Battery drain is my biggest concern but I'll go to that thread to work on that. Question that I have is does anybody feel that the next update or ICS will improve things? I came from a DX and could leave my bluetooth and GPS on full time and make it all day. Now with those off my radio kills the battery in about six hours.

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[Mikiesox]

The battery was my biggest motivation for returning it. This was my first android device, so I was still very newbish to the OS, but I understood how to download apps and to be careful about what was running in the background. I don't like the idea of having to pay for an app (JuiceDefender) to get a reasonable battery life. Sure if the phone lasted 12 hours with moderate or light usage on the stock battery, that'd be cool, and with extra apps if it could push it to 16 or more, that's pretty cool too.

But from my week long experience with the phone, I couldn't get more than about 8 hrs with some browsing & installing of apps for an hour, and then some calls / texts in between. I thought it especially ridiculous when I had it plugged up to the wall and was playing a 3D intensive game, and the battery level was actually going down. Then if I stopped gaming, the battery level would either charge extremely slow or remain stagnant while I did general stuff on the phone (add contacts, surf, text, etc...) That annoyed me as I could use plenty of other phones while they were charging and still get the expected benefits of actually charging (ya know ADDing charge to the battery not simply holding it!)

 

[devoid99]

I'm likely going to return the phone once I get back from vacation tomorrow. This trip really showed me that the battery life isn't ready for prime time, also the data switching is far from perfect. Also the headphone whine is annoying to say the least. While I really enjoyed many of the features for the first few days, I'm just tired of having to run the phone in 3g mode to try and spare battery life. I guess I'll reactive my OG Droid until the Prime comes out.

 

[Scout_313]

I'm actually very happy that I gave the Bionic a second chance. After using 4G only when I needed it and leaving it on 3G for the rest of the time, my battery life has improved immensely. I picked up my second Bionic yesterday around noon and the battery had a 50% charge on it. I still had to re-download most of my apps, adjust my settings, and set up my homescreens the way that I like them and I didn't hit the 15% remaining mark until just about 11pm last night. As far as I'm concerned, I don't need to have 4G enabled unless I'm doing something that needs it. If it's going to be sitting in my pocket, leaving it on 3G is totally acceptable. The hardware and software alone are worth the money over the iPhone (in my humble opinion, YMMV).

 

[gene1138]

I ended up returning it. I was getting tired bouncing back and forth from 3G to 4G to lose data connection and mostly settle on 3G. Especially in an area that supposed to have broad 4G coverage. They tried getting me to keep the phone at the store saying that it's a known issue and should be fixed in November. I just feel that it's not doing what it's supposed to now and we don't know if the fix could take longer.

Other than that I thought it was a good phone. I waited this long for the Bionic I can wait longer or see what the Prime is in November.

 

[ferniesp]

I ended up returning it. I was getting tired bouncing back and forth from 3G to 4G to lose data connection and mostly settle on 3G. Especially in an area that supposed to have broad 4G coverage. They tried getting me to keep the phone at the store saying that it's a known issue and should be fixed in November. I just feel that it's not doing what it's supposed to now and we don't know if the fix could take longer.

Other than that I thought it was a good phone. I waited this long for the Bionic I can wait longer or see what the Prime is in November.

I agree with you, the Bionic really is a good phone but thats it. The data being so inconsistant would drive anyone nuts and a patch in November is a no go for me. I find it hard to believe that anyone at the store would acknowledge that this is a real problem. At my store, they think the Bionic is the next best thing ever.

So here are my gripes:

Data connection has got to be fixed.
OS needs lots of work, glitchy as heck.
Camera, fix the camera.

Fix all that and you have a great phone.

 

[Droid800]

I ended up returning it. I was getting tired bouncing back and forth from 3G to 4G to lose data connection and mostly settle on 3G. Especially in an area that supposed to have broad 4G coverage. They tried getting me to keep the phone at the store saying that it's a known issue and should be fixed in November. I just feel that it's not doing what it's supposed to now and we don't know if the fix could take longer.

Other than that I thought it was a good phone. I waited this long for the Bionic I can wait longer or see what the Prime is in November.

Did they make you pay the restocking?

 

[gene1138]

Did they make you pay the restocking?

They did not. They said since it was returned for a known issue they waived the restocking fee.

 

[Johnly]

I had to reboot it twice to restore data in 5 days. They didn't wave restdocking fee for me:-(

 

[pushdrops]

Because of the sound issues (whine / interference when using the analog audio out, also i see now there's a similar sound issue when using the HDMI out , dropping 3G way too often which none of our other phones do, horrible battery life, horrible slow camera <other than slow, whenever the flash was used it made a haze , not sure if that was a common issue or not but it made the already not so great camera just awful> etc.)

Because i so much didn't want to go back to the original Droid (my home button has been out for a while) - I picked up 2 GS 2 Epic Touch's - didn't port out # to test Sprint - the phone , no question the GS 2 really like - though the pentile other than yellow that seemed more like mustard i could deal with it but while it's a lower rez, the 4.5" GS2 display is amazing and in the sunlight b4 we returned the Bionic (I had both the Bionic and the Samsung for a few days to compare b4 the Bionic went back) - the Samsung and Bionic seemed the same in sunlight (just the same as far as affected by sunlight).

The speaker on the Samsung is different than the Bionic, at 1st I didn't think the Samsung's speaker was going to cut it but actually it is louder for voice / podcasts than the bionic while the bionic is better for music - but i wanted a louder speaker for Navigation , podcasts , ring tones and amazed the Samsung is LOUD as the Nexus S and Charge have super low speakers, so that's a real surprise for the better on the Samsung. Negative - while thej samsung takes much better video (no constant auto focus in and out) than the Bionic, the MIC on the Samsung distorts. Still camera shots no comparison, the Samsung takes for a phone amazing pics, even for a lower range digital camera - some pics you'd think were from a dedicated camera - very nice.

The Bionic was snappy, no log, the Samsung though is just as smooth and in a diff way.

Ar 1st the Samsung seemed like chap plastic after having orig Droid and the Bionic but now the Droid seems super heavy and i much prefer the Samsung and while it is really light , thin - it doesn't feel like cheap plastic at all, just light and easy to hold.

My wife and I couldn't ask for more with the Samsung's - there's ONE problem though and it's a HUGE issue, the Sprint network. We are lucky to get 200 kbps down and 75 up! I have a friend with an Evo and it's similar. So it's not an issue with the Samsung, but Sprint in our area (wide area thu the entire city with only a few spots offering 800 up / down). No Wimax avail in our area.

Verizon on the other hand with the Droid - easy always 800+ up / down kbps and with the Bionic 1,800 down and over 1,000 up - when in the area near us with LTE, upwards of 20mbps down.

I'm traveling and in Atlanta and Richmond, VA, 4G Sprint is around 2 mbps down and 1 mbps up - not much faster than what I got with the Bionic Verizon 3G!

Battery life even on 4G is better with the Samsung than the Bionic on 3G, Samsung battery life is great compared to the Bionic but the network is so slow at home - you cannot play Netflix or even HQ YouTube vids w/o constant buffering - just downloading small apps takes forever -something after almost 2 yrs of our VZW android phones my wife and i could not believe how slow Sprint is in our area at least - how can anyone pay $129 for a 2 line plan for such horrible performance??????

If we had Wimax at home as Sprint has here on my trip, i'd keep the Epic Touch's but as much as I love the phones and do not want to be stuck with our Droid and Eris while WAITING for verizon to get a decent phone (Samsung GS2 type such as the Epic Touch - it better have a 4.5" display and LOUD speaker I hope) - we will have to suffer on our slow, old phones and wait for Verizon to have a phone like the Epic Touch (why can't VZW have the Epic Touch!!!!!)

I thought the 4.5" display was going to be too large - for the resolution and the size of the phone but the phone isn't much larger at all than the Bionic, fits well to hold and is light, again , really surprised at how much we love these Samsungs (even latest TouchWiz is OK).

Had the Bionic not had the audio, 3G connectivity, battery, camera focus / flash - issues, i'd have kept it and thought it was a nice phone but after trying the Samsung, no comparison for me anyway, I'm all over the Samsung (HTC seems ok, Evo's of friends , my only Samsung experience- with the ones we are trying).

Still can't believe Sprint! Good thing we dind't port out # and lose our VZW contract (unlimited data).

 

[pushdrops]

One more item on the GS2 and the Bionic :

While i have a few questions about tweaking the Epic Touch GS2 , I haven't had to respond with a single thread with a "problem" - far from the Bionic where you can see a few probs that I had with the Bionic (that I didn't have with my original Droid or wife's Eris) - only pointing out as the Bionic - just a bit too many issues , didn't seem like a polished product - at any price......

 

[Jude526]

They are going to think its the best. But every phone has flaws. Nothing is perfect. And the 4 g network is going to have its growing pains for awhile. I am not dissatisfied with keeping my phone on 3g. It runs faster than the incredible and does more. My home area is 3g and when in town I can use 4g if I want. But to help with my battery I keep at CDMA. No biggie for me

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[cdf3]

Keeping mine, 100% satisfied.

I wasn't sure about the whole headphone hissing issue but after downloading PowerAmp and tweaking the sound settings I get none of that anymore.

The camera is no Cannon Eos Rebel but it works in a pinch. When I want to take serious pics at a function I'll use the wife's Cannon, when I'm running around and see something cool I want to take a pic of to share with family and friends...I'll use the phone.

I've heard of others downloading PowerAmp.
I'm about to download it as well.
What settings should I set it to?

 

[cdf3]

... (why can't VZW have the Epic Touch!!!!!)

I agree. If Verizon had the Samsung Epic, I would be all over it.
Samsung has really put out some great devices lately.
Since I have no loyalty to phone brands, manufacturers are as strong as their latest products released.
Based on the Tab 10.1 & SGSII, I'd say that Samsung is on top of their game.
I'm enjoying the Bionic, but if I had a choice I would have went with the SGSII.
Too bad Verizon didn't pick it up. If the Prime turns out to be better than than the SGSII, I will probably sell my Bionic.

 

[ninjataint]

I've heard of others downloading PowerAmp.
I'm about to download it as well.
What settings should I set it to?

curious too, I have power amp but still get a hiss when not using head phones with in line volume.

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[shadowsjc]

i really really want to return this phone based primarily on battery life (I can deal with the other problems, like the headphone jack problem or the camera). However, since the Prime is "unofficially" coming out in Nov (and who knows - maybe it gets pushed back), I really don't want to have to use my old replacement smartphone for who knows how long. I'll just suck it up and keep this and hope that they release an update that improves the life.