"Motorola Radios are the best"

[markymark]

I haven't noticed much diff from the S4 to the DT in LTE signal, but I've not done any exhaustive testing.
I have however done so for wifi, and the DT has come up lacking. Not bad, just not as good as I expected.

I did the same type of test at the Verizon store in the mall, comparing the Turbo to my RMHD. The 4G and 1x signals were virtually the same between the 2 phones. But connected to free wifi from another store next door in the mall, my RMHD was consistently 7-10 db stronger than the Turbo. And my RMHD was picking up several networks the Turbo couldn't even see. That was one factor in my decision to pass on the Turbo and wait for the new HTC flagship (M9?).

 

[Rukbat]

Turbo is superior. So yes, still the best from my experience.

Charging at 4C (a 15 minute charge means charging the battery at 4 times its capacity) and, I believe, a non-user-replaceable battery, is design-by-throwing-darts (and missing the target by more than a few pubs). Watch all the dead battery complaints in about a year (if we're lucky and we don't have another Sony bonfire catastrophe). Even charging at 3C lowers the battery life to about 360 cycles (people who need that kind of fast charge are exactly the ones who are going to charge more than once a day, so the battery is going to last less than a year). See Fast and Ultra-fast Chargers - Battery University Cadex does a lot of battery analysis - they know what they're talking about.

 

[wolf_walker]

Charging at 4C (a 15 minute charge means charging the battery at 4 times its capacity) and, I believe, a non-user-replaceable battery, is design-by-throwing-darts (and missing the target by more than a few pubs). Watch all the dead battery complaints in about a year (if we're lucky and we don't have another Sony bonfire catastrophe). Even charging at 3C lowers the battery life to about 360 cycles (people who need that kind of fast charge are exactly the ones who are going to charge more than once a day, so the battery is going to last less than a year). See Fast and Ultra-fast Chargers - Battery University Cadex does a lot of battery analysis - they know what they're talking about.

You can replace the battery on this thing, if you can find one, and have not a faint heart.
I've done a lot worse, it's not soldered in or in the middle of ten fragile components or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_AOQ6U2Zb0#t=170

That being said, I'm not using the turbo-charger every time...

 

[wolf_walker]

I did the same type of test at the Verizon store in the mall, comparing the Turbo to my RMHD. The 4G and 1x signals were virtually the same between the 2 phones. But connected to free wifi from another store next door in the mall, my RMHD was consistently 7-10 db stronger than the Turbo. And my RMHD was picking up several networks the Turbo couldn't even see. That was one factor in my decision to pass on the Turbo and wait for the new HTC flagship (M9?).

Jives with what I'm seeing. I never dreamed Motorola would have trouble with something as basic as radio reception so I never even
questioned it and ordered online. Silly me I guess. Hope to hear from the engineers at some point.

After this I'll start in on em about the camera..

 

[vzwuser76]

Charging at 4C (a 15 minute charge means charging the battery at 4 times its capacity) and, I believe, a non-user-replaceable battery, is design-by-throwing-darts (and missing the target by more than a few pubs). Watch all the dead battery complaints in about a year (if we're lucky and we don't have another Sony bonfire catastrophe). Even charging at 3C lowers the battery life to about 360 cycles (people who need that kind of fast charge are exactly the ones who are going to charge more than once a day, so the battery is going to last less than a year). See Fast and Ultra-fast Chargers - Battery University Cadex does a lot of battery analysis - they know what they're talking about.

No one says you need to use the fast charging of the Turbo charger. I'm not and I don't think they figured using it everytime. I use a regular Motorola charger, same one I used on my Droid Maxx. As far as having a non removable battery, that's what most OEMs are doing. I ran my battery down to 1% to see how far it would go. I ended up with 33 hours and around 5 hours of sot.

I've owned Motorola, Samsung and HTC, and I've been the most satisfied with Motorola. I wouldn't have gone with them up until the last couple of years due to their skin. My HTC's weren't necessarily bad, but they seemed to be pretty quick to abandon support for their devices. My Galaxy S3 had more issues than any other phone I've ever used (except for maybe the Thunderbolt). GPS issues, lag, slow updates, radios that weren't as good as the HTCs I'd previously run, screen burn in, and battery life decreasing to around half of what it was after less than a year. The last update I got killed my mobile data, it can make calls and connect via WiFi, but no 3G/LTE data. We have 2 other members of our share plan that ran Samsung phones, one went through 3 Samsungs and the other went through 4 during their 2 year contract. They just don't last. That ensured we'll never go back to them again.

 

[doggy2965]

It seems everyone's radios have been getting better but I agree Motorola has always been the gold standard.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[wolf_walker]

No one says you need to use the fast charging of the Turbo charger. I'm not and I don't think they figured using it everytime. I use a regular Motorola charger, same one I used on my Droid Maxx. As far as having a non removable battery, that's what most OEMs are doing. I ran my battery down to 1% to see how far it would go. I ended up with 33 hours and around 5 hours of sot.

I've owned Motorola, Samsung and HTC, and I've been the most satisfied with Motorola. I wouldn't have gone with them up until the last couple of years due to their skin. My HTC's weren't necessarily bad, but they seemed to be pretty quick to abandon support for their devices. My Galaxy S3 had more issues than any other phone I've ever used (except for maybe the Thunderbolt). GPS issues, lag, slow updates, radios that weren't as good as the HTCs I'd previously run, screen burn in, and battery life decreasing to around half of what it was after less than a year. The last update I got killed my mobile data, it can make calls and connect via WiFi, but no 3G/LTE data. We have 2 other members of our share plan that ran Samsung phones, one went through 3 Samsungs and the other went through 4 during their 2 year contract. They just don't last. That ensured we'll never go back to them again.

I don't not-believe you at all, but it's so weird how two people can have such different experiences with a phone. I had an S3 for two years and handed it down to a (clumsy and not smart) girl, never had a problem with the thing. I rooted and unlocked the bootloader after a year so I ditched Samsung's goofy software/old OS but otherwise it never gave me any problem. The S4 I got after was almost identical, just more battery, more screen, more CPU, etc, etc, it was just a pumped up S3 which wasn't a bad thing really. If I could unlock the bootloader I'd still be using it.

 

[markymark]

Jives with what I'm seeing. I never dreamed Motorola would have trouble with something as basic as radio reception so I never even
questioned it and ordered online. Silly me I guess. Hope to hear from the engineers at some point.

Understood. I might have done the same thing but my contract still had 3 weeks left when the Turbo came out so I had to wait. After reading some comments about weak wifi signal I went to the Verizon store to check it out. Both of my previous phones (Droid Incredible and RMHD) I ordered online sight unseen and both worked out very well. I'm sure the Turbo is still a great phone, no phone is perfect. Hopefully this will be fixed with a software upgrade.

 

[itic]

Havingowned nexus and samsung devices before my 1st gen moto x i'd say theys a noticeable improvement better than the other two.

 

[udazavlanje]

This is in no way a critique of the Turbo and its radios.

For as long as I've had an Android device, I've always heard that Motorola radios are the best. Is this still the case or have the other OEM's stepped up their game? I'm coming from the HTC Droid DNA, and I get the exact same data speeds from my Turbo from a few places around town where I have historically tested my phones' speeds. Right or wrong, I expected the Turbo to be better than the DNA, which was really good in its own right. So, are Motorola Radios still the best? For those of you coming from LG, Samsung, etc, are you seeing improved radio performance? Thanks for your thoughts.

Seems like Note 4 is doing better on LTE too compared to DT

Motorola Droid Turbo Review: http://youtu.be/wTooqPpM6wQ

via AC App on VZW Moto X DE/N7

 

[scottysize]

I don't not-believe you at all, but it's so weird how two people can have such different experiences with a phone. I had an S3 for two years and handed it down to a (clumsy and not smart) girl, never had a problem with the thing. I rooted and unlocked the bootloader after a year so I ditched Samsung's goofy software/old OS but otherwise it never gave me any problem. The S4 I got after was almost identical, just more battery, more screen, more CPU, etc, etc, it was just a pumped up S3 which wasn't a bad thing really. If I could unlock the bootloader I'd still be using it.

I had an SG3 from a buy one get one when I bought one for wifey. I dropped it day 3 from a 2' hieght. Shattered the screen. This was after deciding I really hated the phone. I have to say, I was happy it happened, because then I could justify buying a new phone to wifey. (No insurance and I'm unlimited anyway.)

On the other side, Wifey's on the SG4 now. She liked her 3 enough to get the 4 when work paid for the phone.

 

[wolf_walker]

The Galaxy phones have become like buying another Honda Accord to me.
Sure the new one is better and nice, but it's ANOTHER Honda Accord.... lol

 

[sharkita]

I don't know if technically they're the best any more, but they're darned good. I work in a building where only Verizon customers can reliably make calls with their cell, yet I'm on AT&T and have had no trouble with either of my Moto X's (2013 & 2014). Others with the same provider have trouble making phone calls inside this building, including Apple, Samsung, what have you (most people here have iPhones or Galaxies with an occasional Blackberry thrown in for fun). I use my cell like my desk phone - no worries. I realize that's a pretty subjective answer, but in the real world Moto phones have never let me down when making a phone call. It's one of the things I count on when getting a Moto - that and a less-than-stellar camera. I can only assume that a Turbo is just as super reliable in the radio department as the X before it.

 

[vzwuser76]

Doesn't matter if you believe me or not. This was my experience with Samsung. I will not own another and when I'm the one handling the phones for our share plan, neither will anyone else on it. Two lines going through 3 Samsung phones each is enough to make me stay away. Each of the lines had a new phone for their first one, and bought used after that. In both their cases and mine, the phone started having the serious issues after the year mark, or after the warranty ran out. But the GPS lock was always a problem for all of us, and it's a well documented in the forums of people having issues with GPS on Samsung devices.

I was past the year mark on my Maxx when I got the Turbo. I didn't switch because the Maxx wasn't good anymore, but mostly for screen, CPU, battery, camera, and storage (64GB). My Maxx is still my backup device. My S3 will no longer connect to 3G or LTE after an earlier update. I had to do the last 2 updates for it through KIES. Now it only does voice and WiFi data. So it's a media player.

Assuming Lenovo leaves Motorola to handle itself, I'll be a customer.

 

[leehardballer12]

This is my first Motorola phone since my pre-smartphone Motorola flip phone back when cell phones first went digital. I previously had the BlackBerry Z30 and I was extremely happy with the antenna on that phone. Hopefully, my Turbo will be just as good.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Cauhauna]

Looking at anything other than -dBm is useless.

I will say that the Samsung S5 is much better than the Galaxy Nexus they made a few years ago.

Moto will always reign supreme.

 

[udazavlanje]

Moto X 2014 is the best on Verizon right now. Droid Turbo, Z3 and Note 4 are about the same , but DT seems to be the weakest somehow. When I say the best, I mean 10-30 dB less than others at the same spot.

via AC App on VZW Moto X DE/N7

 

[Masheen]

Looking at anything other than -dBm is useless.

I will say that the Samsung S5 is much better than the Galaxy Nexus they made a few years ago.

Moto will always reign supreme.

Galaxy Nexus. Oh man, that brings back memories . I won't even get into it.

 

[VZWsucks]

Thank you guys for pointing this out. I tend to always go with the underdog if you will and not travel the paved road such as the popular iPhone and Samsung. Since I've owned a Motorola (starting with the krazr) I always thought they've had a really solid product and this is another reason why (radio) quality. I've always attributed this to vzw until reading this thread today. Thank you.

Sent from my DROID Turbo64

 

[Eclipse2K]

Thank you guys for pointing this out. I tend to always go with the underdog if you will and not travel the paved road such as the popular iPhone and Samsung. Since I've owned a Motorola (starting with the krazr) I always thought they've had a really solid product and this is another reason why (radio) quality. I've always attributed this to vzw until reading this thread today. Thank you.

Sent from my DROID Turbo64

To be fair its a mixture of both.

Verizon + Motorola = #1 in most areas.



Sent from my Motorola Droid Turbo