Overall Review Thoughts

[sw33ndawg]

I've had time to briefly read a few of the reviews and watch a few videos but I'm extremely busy and can't look into them too deeply. Would anyone mind listing what the general pros/cons are with the reviews? And if they're mostly positive or negative? Thanks!

 

[Jonneh]

I read 3 of the reviews (Anandtech being the most in-depth). In my opinion, everyone seems to really like the phone. And, of course, even if you dislike motoblur, putting ADW or LauncherPro on it takes care of that bad boy. Everyone said the power on/off button was weird to them at first (I didn't quite understand, but something about it doubling as the fingerprint scanner itself), but after a little while it was no big deal and quickly grew on them. I don't think I read many, if any, negative things about the phone itself. ETA: Oh! One review did mention the back casing being slightly difficult to get off due to Motorola's tight design, or something like that.

The docks are where people differ a bit. The general consensus seems to be that the laptop dock is really cool, but the hardware doesn't seem to be quite up to par. They like that the keys are actually backlit, which is a great feature to have of course and I'd be unhappy without it. Some reviewers like the keys, some reviewers don't. Most people say the laptop dock gets smudged fairly easily due to its material. Anandtech claims if you open more than two or three tabs in firefox in the webtop mode for the laptop dock, it's pretty difficult to do much else, even typing up a few notes in Google Docs, due to lag. I find that disappointing... :\ that, combined with the added tethering fee, combined with the high price, is steering me away from the laptop dock at the moment.


ETA: Oh, corneliusm brings up a good negative for the phone itself. The screen is PenTile or whatever it's called, so basically while the resolution is high, the quality of pixels is a bit lower. Most reviewers speculate this to be where Motorola cut costs, besides the poor camera.
Personally, I would love if this screen were Super AMOLED, but I think I will be satisfied with the qHD...maybe. As long as I don't compare it to a Super AMOLED screen, which will be easy since I don't have any nearby lol.

 

[corneliusm]

Common talking points:

• Phone itself is great
• Tegra 2 is fast, outperforms any other smartphone CPU currently available
• HSPA+ seems to be no faster than 3G at the moment
• Battery life is very good
• Everyone complains about the cost of the docks + tethering (and rightfully so)
• Webtop and nettop surfing is okay for light internet browsing. Begins to slow if there are too many tabs open
• Fingerprint sensor works, but ends up being inconvenient for unlocking quickly
• Display has its ups and downs- great resolution, not as bright as IPS and SLCD
• Camera is okay, colors aren't perfect but it's adequate
• Front camera works well
• Several reviewers state that this is their favorite android phone
• Some (but not all) preinstalled apps can be removed
• No sideloading (big surprise there)

 

[textiaac]

Common talking points:

• Tegra 2 is fast, outperforms any other smartphone CPU currently available
  

Tegra is the only reason i am buying this phone, without it i would probably have gotten the inspire.

 

[corneliusm]

Tegra is the only reason i am buying this phone, without it i would probably have gotten the inspire.

+1

Tegra 2 is a bad@ass cpu. Anandtech recently compared it with the Orion cpu (who knows when the Galaxy S II will be available?), and it's neck and neck. I imagine that the TI OMAP4 series will be comparable, if not slightly faster on the GPU end. Snapdragon dual cores, on the other hand, don't have the IPC to compete at the same clock speed, so they're going to be clocked at 1.2Ghz and higher to keep up- which would impact battery life.

All in all, the Tegra 2 is a very futureproof platform and will continue to keep up until CortexA15-based SoCs become available.

 

[YoungSpade8]

The main things for.me are the low quality responce people are saying from the laptop dock; that and it requires the tethering data plan.

 

[Dave__C]

Common talking points:

• Phone itself is great
• Tegra 2 is fast, outperforms any other smartphone CPU currently available
• HSPA+ seems to be no faster than 3G at the moment
• Battery life is very good
• Everyone complains about the cost of the docks + tethering (and rightfully so)
• Webtop and nettop surfing is okay for light internet browsing. Begins to slow if there are too many tabs open
• Fingerprint sensor works, but ends up being inconvenient for unlocking quickly - NOT TRUE
• Display has its ups and downs- great resolution, not as bright as IPS and SLCD
• Camera is okay, colors aren't perfect but it's adequate
• Front camera works well
• Several reviewers state that this is their favorite android phone
• Some (but not all) preinstalled apps can be removed
• No sideloading (big surprise there)

Have you read related threads on this board? The user response appears to be overwhelmingly positive on the fingerprint sensor.

It's amazing how one reviewer's comment can become a general position statement.