Photon Owner's Comments, Issues, and Reviews

[Puzzlegal]

There has to be some apps running in the background. Did you go into the Task Manager to see what was running? You'd be surprised to see how many apps would be running without you knowing. I know I was when I first checked.

So, I just looked at task manager for the very first time. (I am new to Android, so I have a lot of dumb newby questions.) There are a bunch of things "running", but it says they are all using zero CPUs. I don't even know what several of them are.

browser
k-9 mail
tapatalk (although I am using the PC now)
camera
gmail (I don't need this, do I?)
market
maps
voicemail
bookmark widgets
smart device manager

 

[mgiven]

On keyboard vs pre keyboard: I'm also coming from a pre. Getting used to the non-physical keyboard, but yes some of the keys need to be in the PRIMARY screen. No comma, dash, @ or a dedicated .com button is annoying. Need a keyboard app that makes those keys easier. Haven't looked yet.

Battery % display: Where the hell is it? I can't find it either.

Loving the phone so far though. Solid build and great reception. The transition to android is going to take awhile in my case. Been with Palm since 2002.

 

[VDub2174]

So, I just looked at task manager for the very first time. (I am new to Android, so I have a lot of dumb newby questions.) There are a bunch of things "running", but it says they are all using zero CPUs. I don't even know what several of them are.

browser
k-9 mail
tapatalk (although I am using the PC now)
camera
gmail (I don't need this, do I?)
market
maps
voicemail
bookmark widgets
smart device manager

Hmmmmm........you can kill the gmail app if you don't use it and go into (from the home screen) Menu>Settings>Accounts then go to your gmail account and uncheck the "Sync Gmail" box.

You have any widgets going? I'm at 90% battery life after 4 hours off the charger.

 

[Puzzlegal]

On keyboard vs pre keyboard: I'm also coming from a pre. Getting used to the non-physical keyboard, but yes some of the keys need to be in the PRIMARY screen. No comma, dash, @ or a dedicated .com button is annoying. Need a keyboard app that makes those keys easier. Haven't looked yet.

Battery % display: Where the hell is it? I can't find it either.

Loving the phone so far though. Solid build and great reception. The transition to android is going to take awhile in my case. Been with Palm since 2002.

I agree with everything you said, except I don't really need a dedictated ".com" button. Let me know if you find a keyboard you like.

 

[Puzzlegal]

Hmmmmm........you can kill the gmail app if you don't use it and go into (from the home screen) Menu>Settings>Accounts then go to your gmail account and uncheck the "Sync Gmail" box.

You have any widgets going? I'm at 90% battery life after 4 hours off the charger.

I had some stuff that I killed. (mostly Facebook things.) I'm hoping that it was the gmail checking every minute that was drawing battery life. We shall see. The plan today is to let it run down until it complains, and then plug it in.

 

[VDub2174]

Battery % display: Where the hell is it? I can't find it either.

Not all Android phones have the battery % by default. There's a app that was mentioned in the Battery Life thread that you can download for free. Here's a link to the app.

 

[wynand32]

Coming from an Epic, so some of my observations are from that perspective...

Bugs:

- Only one I've run across so far is I'm not sure if my light sensor is doing what it's supposed to do. It works according to various sensor tests, but the phone doesn't seem to automatically change brightness as it should, and the "in-pocket protection" thing doesn't lock my phone when I, well, stick it in my pocket.

Pros:

- Speed seems outstanding. I'm not experiencing any lag whatsoever, on the home screens, opening apps, scrolling, etc. Everything just happens exactly as I expect it to. Many of the frustrating lags I experienced with the Epic, like the switch from portrait to landscape and back, are smooth as glass on the Photon. Absolutely loving performance so far.

- Screen is fine for me. Plenty bright, more natural colors than the Epic, and I see absolutely none of the PenTile weaknesses others are hating. I really think this is a person-by-person thing, because I've heard people complaining about the same thing on the Epic and I never saw it there, either. For me, the screen is not only good enough, but downright pleasant to use. Oh, and Netflix looks fine to me, not sure what others are seeing. I played Toy Story 3 as a test, and it was lovely.

- I like the software better than on the Epic. Email, messaging, social network integration, transitions (I like the flow in changing orientation rather than Samsung's abrupt switch), etc. is all nice and makes me happy with my decision to go with the Photon. I really don't like Samsung's flavor, I'm finding, and simply like Motorola's better. This makes me very hesitant indeed to even consider switching to a Within if it's out within (no pun intended) 30 days no matter what kind of crazy specs it has.

- Love how you can dismiss individual notifications on the Photon.

- Configuration options are better on the Photon, such as the ability to define battery states and such. The Epic was lacking in some things I didn't know were possible on Android devices.

- The Photon car dock is heads and shoulders better than the Epic's equivalent. There's far less interference when nothing's playing (just a tiny bit that I have to listen for, vs. the screech-in-my-ear interference with the Epic's dock), and I like that the Photon dock can be customized a bit. It's nice to be able to add my music apps and launch them directly from the dock, rather than going through the launch-first-then-start-dock gyrations I had to go through with the Epic. The Photon is also easier to add to the dock than the Epic was, in terms of getting the USB port lined up.

- It's a small thing, but I love the kickstand mode. I'm actually using it when the phone sits on my desk, which I didn't reall expect. Kind of nice.

- Phone and 3G radios seem roughly equivalent to the Epic, maybe a bar better in most cases on the Photon.

Cons:

- Can't turn off the shutter sound on the camera. I hate that.

- Edit: Lock screen is pretty plain, and I'm missing the unlock options (answer, ignore, ignore with text) that I had on the Epic. Maybe an app can fix that. Actually, not sure what I was thinking here, not really referring to the lock screen but rather the incoming call screen. And, there's the option to ignore a call, and then after that a dialog pops up to send a message. So, yeah, that's fine.

- Motorola widgets are kind of plain and 2-dimensional.

- Getting worse wifi reception with the Photon. Where I had a single bar of wifi in my home office in the garage with the Epic, I'm not getting a single bar with the Photon. And it translates to performance, where I get some disconnects with the Photon that I never saw with the Epic. It's not a dealbreaker by any means, but something to keep an eye on.

Edit: - Forgot this one: The battery only increments by 10% until you get to 15% left, then it goes in increments of 5%. Seems silly to me to not know if I'm at 99% remaining or 91%. So, yes, that should be fixed.


Bottom line:

I'm probably missing some things, but those are my initial impressions. Haven't made any calls yet so I can't commend on how they compare in this respect.

Overall, I like the Photon MUCH better than the Epic so far, and if the Within will have the same basic software features as the Epic, then I'm not interested in it even if it has a theoretically faster processor. I like the screen on the Photon well enough to not make me salivate for the SAMOLED Plus screen on the Within. Very happy with the Photon.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

 

[crussell52]

Has anybody else noticed that the screen brightness seems to change when switching betweenthe kickstand/clock view and the standard homescreen view?

I have to touch the brightness settings (either through settings menu or through a widget) in order to reset it back to where I want it.

 

[mgiven]

How do you dismiss individual notifications?

 

[Puzzlegal]

How do you dismiss individual notifications?

Touch the red circle with a minus sign in it to the right of the notification.

 

[mgiven]

Touch the red circle with a minus sign in it to the right of the notification.

Thanks! I was tapping the red circle, which opens it. You have to touch and hold it to get rid of it.Whew!

All of us WebOS converts will get through this together lol

 

[bkurt01]

Also coming from the Pre, and having been playing with it since Saturday, these are my thoughts:

1) Missing the LED notification for incoming email and sms messages. I read on a couple threads that this may or may not be a bug, but I sure miss it!

2) Have been looking high and low for a charging cradle. One of my fave parts of the Pre was the touchstone. I would hate to buy the HD cradle simply to have an easy way to charge. Maybe I missed an alternative?

3) I don't know if this is app-specific or phone-specific, coming from the Pre, but the (.) key being next to the submit function on the keyboard and i'm consistently hitting the enter or next function when trying to hit the period.

Otherwise, best device I've ever had. Love it!

 

[jbuggydroid]

Ok just upgraded from an epic to this beatie sexy thing. I'm a gamer and throughout the week I will be puuting this bad boy through some gaming paces. I will let u know how it does.

Also I am trurly amazed at how light this device feels and how great typing on the screen is. Love that swype is preinstalled. Love it.

Also I use go launcher and it runs great. Did notice tho that when I open kickstand I don't get option to use the cool clock. Oh well....hopefully that can be changed when this device does get rooted or better yet without being rooted.

coming from an super amoled screen the photons is not bad. I actually like it.

 

[Paperino]

Coming from an Epic, so some of my observations are from that perspective...

Bugs:

- Only one I've run across so far is I'm not sure if my light sensor is doing what it's supposed to do. It works according to various sensor tests, but the phone doesn't seem to automatically change brightness as it should, and the "in-pocket protection" thing doesn't lock my phone when I, well, stick it in my pocket.

Pros:

- Speed seems outstanding. I'm not experiencing any lag whatsoever, on the home screens, opening apps, scrolling, etc. Everything just happens exactly as I expect it to. Many of the frustrating lags I experienced with the Epic, like the switch from portrait to landscape and back, are smooth as glass on the Photon. Absolutely loving performance so far.

- Screen is fine for me. Plenty bright, more natural colors than the Epic, and I see absolutely none of the PenTile weaknesses others are hating. I really think this is a person-by-person thing, because I've heard people complaining about the same thing on the Epic and I never saw it there, either. For me, the screen is not only good enough, but downright pleasant to use. Oh, and Netflix looks fine to me, not sure what others are seeing. I played Toy Story 3 as a test, and it was lovely.

- I like the software better than on the Epic. Email, messaging, social network integration, transitions (I like the flow in changing orientation rather than Samsung's abrupt switch), etc. is all nice and makes me happy with my decision to go with the Photon. I really don't like Samsung's flavor, I'm finding, and simply like Motorola's better. This makes me very hesitant indeed to even consider switching to a Within if it's out within (no pun intended) 30 days no matter what kind of crazy specs it has.

- Love how you can dismiss individual notifications on the Photon.

- Configuration options are better on the Photon, such as the ability to define battery states and such. The Epic was lacking in some things I didn't know were possible on Android devices.

- The Photon car dock is heads and shoulders better than the Epic's equivalent. There's far less interference when nothing's playing (just a tiny bit that I have to listen for, vs. the screech-in-my-ear interference with the Epic's dock), and I like that the Photon dock can be customized a bit. It's nice to be able to add my music apps and launch them directly from the dock, rather than going through the launch-first-then-start-dock gyrations I had to go through with the Epic. The Photon is also easier to add to the dock than the Epic was, in terms of getting the USB port lined up.

- It's a small thing, but I love the kickstand mode. I'm actually using it when the phone sits on my desk, which I didn't reall expect. Kind of nice.

- Phone and 3G radios seem roughly equivalent to the Epic, maybe a bar better in most cases on the Photon.

Cons:

- Can't turn off the shutter sound on the camera. I hate that.

- Edit: Lock screen is pretty plain, and I'm missing the unlock options (answer, ignore, ignore with text) that I had on the Epic. Maybe an app can fix that. Actually, not sure what I was thinking here, not really referring to the lock screen but rather the incoming call screen. And, there's the option to ignore a call, and then after that a dialog pops up to send a message. So, yeah, that's fine.

- Motorola widgets are kind of plain and 2-dimensional.

- Getting worse wifi reception with the Photon. Where I had a single bar of wifi in my home office in the garage with the Epic, I'm not getting a single bar with the Photon. And it translates to performance, where I get some disconnects with the Photon that I never saw with the Epic. It's not a dealbreaker by any means, but something to keep an eye on.

Edit: - Forgot this one: The battery only increments by 10% until you get to 15% left, then it goes in increments of 5%. Seems silly to me to not know if I'm at 99% remaining or 91%. So, yes, that should be fixed.


Bottom line:

I'm probably missing some things, but those are my initial impressions. Haven't made any calls yet so I can't commend on how they compare in this respect.

Overall, I like the Photon MUCH better than the Epic so far, and if the Within will have the same basic software features as the Epic, then I'm not interested in it even if it has a theoretically faster processor. I like the screen on the Photon well enough to not make me salivate for the SAMOLED Plus screen on the Within. Very happy with the Photon.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

Nicely written.

As an Epic switcher as well, I have to say I am 50/50 on this phone. My main reasons for switching were the faster processor and world capabilities. After having the phone for three days, I have to say that the main reason for STAYING would be the Battery life and world capabilities.

There are a number of things that the Photon does well, but also many that it does very poorly...

PROS -

a) Battery Life - never knew what it meant to not have to charge midday. I use my phone mostly for texting, email, and my battery on the EPIC would need to be charged by noon every day.
b) World Roaming - Finally don't have to schlep a second phone with me to Europe....
c) Fast - Motoblur has it's issues, but choose any other launcher and you can see how fast the phone actually is.
d) Pretty cool that in Music mode, it scrolls the lyrics of songs that you are playing.
e) Software keyboard is actually not that hard to use, even though I miss the hardware keyboard from the Epic. I downloaded Swype and life is much easier.


CONS -

a) Phone Audio loss during calls. Only has happened once to me, but it better not happen again. From what I hear, it can also happen during a phone call. It may have happened to me Friday night, but I can't confim this.
b) Screen - In both pictures and video, my EPIC's screen was way better than the Photon. I haven't put any native pictures (taken with the Photon) on it, but all of my old pictures from the EPIC look worse on this screen (Pixelated mess, is what I say).
c) Wi-Fi instability - Tried to do some file sharing using Spotify, and the Photon kept dropping the connection with the network. Not sure if if just goes to sleep once the screen goes off, but if it has an active connection it should stay on.
d) Browser rescaling - doesn't seem to do this as well as the old phone. Not sure why, since the browser is stock android from what I can tell.
e) Some things are hidden that were plain to change in the EPIC. You can choose to not display Facebook Contacts from the Settings panel inside of the Contacts APP. In the EPIC, I just chose not to sync them to begin with.
f) Camera blows.


Overall, it does what I need it to do. What bothers me is that it should be that much better than a phone that came out last year. This is an important phone for Motorola, so I expect the updates to come out fast and furious to address any issues that users may have. That said, if the Within is that much better....

 

[Puzzlegal]

Also coming from the Pre, and having been playing with it since Saturday, these are my thoughts:

1) Missing the LED notification for incoming email and sms messages. I read on a couple threads that this may or may not be a bug, but I sure miss it!

I'm using the K9 email app. Free, and much more Pre-like, with loads of options and a unified in-box. One of the options is to light the LED when you have new mail.

I had a lot of trouble with this when I first loaded it, but a reboot solved all of my problems. I vaguely recall somewhere that is actually required, and not just a glitch I ran into.

2) Have been looking high and low for a charging cradle. One of my fave parts of the Pre was the touchstone. I would hate to buy the HD cradle simply to have an easy way to charge. Maybe I missed an alternative?

I have the same question. I suspect we will have to buck up and shell out the dough for a fancy multimedia cradle to get that. On the other hand, right now I have the gadget sitting on its kickstand with the Pre's USB cord coming into the top. (The USB cord that used to be in the touchstone.) That seems to be working reasonably well.

3) I don't know if this is app-specific or phone-specific, coming from the Pre, but the (.) key being next to the submit function on the keyboard and i'm consistently hitting the enter or next function when trying to hit the period.

Otherwise, best device I've ever had. Love it!

Yeah, the keyboard in general and that quirk in particular are driving me nuts, too. If you find a better keyboard, please let me know.

 

[mgiven]

Ok just upgraded from an epic to this beatie sexy thing. I'm a gamer and throughout the week I will be puuting this bad boy through some gaming paces. I will let u know how it does.

Also I am trurly amazed at how light this device feels and how great typing on the screen is. Love that swype is preinstalled. Love it.

Also I use go launcher and it runs great. Did notice tho that when I open kickstand I don't get option to use the cool clock. Oh well....hopefully that can be changed when this device does get rooted or better yet without being rooted.

coming from an super amoled screen the photons is not bad. I actually like it.

Think its a bit too early to see what kind of docks will come. The two sprint stores I went to were displaying the media dock, but didn't even have it for sale yet.

There is sometimes a delay for the kickstand mode clock options to appear. Put the kickstand back and try it again and wait like 5-10 seconds.

 

[VDub2174]

3) I don't know if this is app-specific or phone-specific, coming from the Pre, but the (.) key being next to the submit function on the keyboard and i'm consistently hitting the enter or next function when trying to hit the period.

Yeah, the keyboard in general and that quirk in particular are driving me nuts, too. If you find a better keyboard, please let me know.

Some keyboard apps allow you to press the space bar twice to insert a period. I perosnally use Thumb Keyboard as my default.

 

[bkurt01]

I'm using the K9 email app. Free, and much more Pre-like, with loads of options and a unified in-box. One of the options is to light the LED when you have new mail.

I had a lot of trouble with this when I first loaded it, but a reboot solved all of my problems. I vaguely recall somewhere that is actually required, and not just a glitch I ran into.
.

I also am using K9 (should have said that), and I'm not seeing an option in settings for LED notification. Are you getting LED notifications for texts?

 

[Puzzlegal]

I'm using the K9 email app. Free, and much more Pre-like, with loads of options and a unified in-box. One of the options is to light the LED when you have new mail.

I had a lot of trouble with this when I first loaded it, but a reboot solved all of my problems. I vaguely recall somewhere that is actually required, and not just a glitch I ran into.
.

I also am using K9 (should have said that), and I'm not seeing an option in settings for LED notification. Are you getting LED notifications for texts?

It took me a lot of stumbling to set the options i wanted in k9. There are three different option menus, one for a folder, one for an account, and one for the system. I still havent figured out how to reliably get the option menu i want, but if i knock around enough, hitting the menu button frequently, i eventually find what im looking for. I think tje led notifications are in tje system menu.

I barely ever use texting, and havent opened that app or recievwd a text since gettinf the phone. So i cant help you with that.

Damn, this keyboard os still driving me muts.

 

[MacBook]

Ok, coming from an Evo and an Evo 3D I immediately notice the crappy Pentile screen!! It seems very grainy to me unlike the Evo 3D which had a crisp sharp resolution. Also Ive noticed that the frame rate is a little lower than the Evo 3D @ 54 fps while my Evo 3D got 60 fps..I have only had the phone for about two hours now and those are the only "complaints" I have so far..