Should I hold out for the Bionic?

[Joelist]

There's a lot more to a phone than raw hardware. User experience is also important and HTC phones blow everyone else away in that area because Sense is such a strong implementation of Android.

Blur aside Moto Android has had a tendency to be buggy, especially in areas like Exchange Sync. Meanwhile Sense has ActiveSync baked right in because HTC licensed it from MS. Add in the smoothness of the UI, the superb widgets (you have to buy Beautiful Widgets to even approximate it in a non-Sense UI) and overall stability and the result is a superb user experience.

 

[doctajay]

My reasons to switch to the Tbolt from my Droid X:

1. Custom Roms. I really just want the stock android experience. With HTC phones and cyanogen I can get that. Motorola phones past the droid x will be harder to break regardless of what Motorola tries to say

2. On my droid x I bought both launcherpro and beautiful Widgets to get rid of the Blur. Then I realized that all of this just turned my phone into the normal HTC sense experience. So why not go with the real thing?

3. This is my biggest reason. All the rumors have pointed to the 4g pricing for the Tbolt to be $30/mo. Now we know that Verizon is money hungry and will not keep that price that low for long. So it would be cheaper to get grandfathered into that early 4g pricing.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[msfraser302]

These forum's are the ****... the info I have received is awesome... coming over from Sprint and looking to replace my blackberry curve that is almost a year past the end of contract, didn't take the Evo or Epic dive... My wife got the Iphone on Verizon and I was dead set on the Bionic but I have since fallen in line for the TB. I have played around with the Evo, Friends and at the Sprint store and its a nice phone, so I assume the TB will be better and faster...

Thanks for all the great info on these boards.

 

[ncbryan]

Have had both Moto (Droid) and HTC (DInc) phones, I have experienced the good and bad from both.....

Good:
HTC exchange email support
Moto battery life
HTC Sense
HTC hackability

Bad:
HTC battery life
Moto exchange email support
Blur

There are many more good and bads, but for me the lack of seamless Exchange Email support is a deal breaker for me on the Bionic. Got to have it and really think it is pointless to have to buy a stupid app to get the email to work properly.

my .02
Bryan

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

I am starting to wonder if it actually WILL be out before the Bionic. Either way though, TB wins.

Oh it will be. The Bionic may not even come out until June. Our Verizon corporate rep (meaning the rep for our corporation) knows it will be at least May and they are hoping it isn't pushed back to June. They are actually having issues with the Bionic. He said they would have liked their new LTE phones to come out really close together (like release one each month), but with the Bionic issues he doesn't know if that will happen.

 

[flashpiti]

IMO, unless you need a phone now, I'd wait and see what all 4 4G phones are going to be like. It's possible some will offer features/apps that others don't have like Netflix and Skype. I took myself out of the waiting game by buying an iphone 4 and deciding to wait until the summer to upgrade to 4G, that way I can make the most informed decision possible. It's fun to be an early adopter, and I've done that with both the Droid and the DINC, but I just became too frustrated with the TB release and I realized that the TB wouldn't be doing what I wanted it to over 4G -- namely Skype and Netflix.

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

IMO, unless you need a phone now, I'd wait and see what all 4 4G phones are going to be like. It's possible some will offer features/apps that others don't have like Netflix and Skype. I took myself out of the waiting game by buying an iphone 4 and deciding to wait until the summer to upgrade to 4G, that way I can make the most informed decision possible. It's fun to be an early adopter, and I've done that with both the Droid and the DINC, but I just became too frustrated with the TB release and I realized that the TB wouldn't be doing what I wanted it to over 4G -- namely Skype and Netflix.

Well Skype is coming to the Thunderbolt, it was always said that it wouldn't be out at launch. Netflix, it's hard to say. Given that the Thunderbolt has the same processor as the Revolution, there is a chance that Netflix could work on it.

 

[shocka]

i know that this is only one tech reviewer's opinion but...

Motorola Atrix 4G and HTC Inspire 4G take seats on Phonedog's "Top Smartphones" list | PhoneDog

picking the inspire over the atrix seems to bode well for the thunderbolt vs. bionic head to head, considering that the bionic has worse specs than the atrix and the thunderbolt has better specs than the inspire.

the whole smoothness and usability factors is what, in my opinion, will make the 'bolt a superior phone. as the iphone 4 has shown, there's more to a phone than raw specs.

 

[swimrage]

I was at the AT&T store to play with the Atrix and the Inspire (yes I know they are not same same, but if you squint....) and I gotta tell you the Inspire just felt soooo much more sexy that the Atrix. Knowing that.... I still cant decide, speed vs comfort.

 

[macewank]

i know that this is only one tech reviewer's opinion but...

Motorola Atrix 4G and HTC Inspire 4G take seats on Phonedog's "Top Smartphones" list | PhoneDog

picking the inspire over the atrix seems to bode well for the thunderbolt vs. bionic head to head, considering that the bionic has worse specs than the atrix and the thunderbolt has better specs than the inspire.

the whole smoothness and usability factors is what, in my opinion, will make the 'bolt a superior phone. as the iphone 4 has shown, there's more to a phone than raw specs.

I'd imagine one of the things that makes the Inspire so attractive when compared to the Atrix is the $99/2yr price tag. With the bolt/bionic argument, we're probably looking at $249-$299 for both devices on a 2yr agreement.

 

[phantomog]

Good:
Moto battery life

Bad:
HTC battery life

the above is my only concern. This will be my first smartphone, so I'm wondering if the sudden huge decrease in battery life will be too shocking for me.

How bad is the battery life difference between the X and the Inc? Did HTC or Verizon do anything (firmware update, etc.) over the life of the Inc that helped increase battery life?

Can you charge a smartphone via computer/laptop via USB? I, like most I'm sure, am almost always in front of some kind of computer for work. Will a simple USB cable alleviate any battery life concerns (at least M-F)?

 

[DolfanCole]

i know that this is only one tech reviewer's opinion but...

Motorola Atrix 4G and HTC Inspire 4G take seats on Phonedog's "Top Smartphones" list | PhoneDog

picking the inspire over the atrix seems to bode well for the thunderbolt vs. bionic head to head, considering that the bionic has worse specs than the atrix and the thunderbolt has better specs than the inspire.

the whole smoothness and usability factors is what, in my opinion, will make the 'bolt a superior phone. as the iphone 4 has shown, there's more to a phone than raw specs.

Yeah, I saw this too. From what I've seen though, I think the MotoBlur on the Atrix and Bionic at least appear different. Not sure if that's a positive or not as I haven't seen much of the Bionic in action to see how much "blur" there is.

Hardware-wise, there's not much difference between the Atrix and Bionic. The Atrix has more memory, but it has been stated that the extra memory is for the laptop dock moreso than the phone itself. So, in essence, the usable memory is the same. The Bionic does have a bigger screen though. I don't believe that the Bionic's case is plastic like the Atrix. Although I'm not sure on this. Panda did make a comment that the construction of the Bionic seemed solid. Other than that, I believe that the other hardware between the two is pretty much the same.

 

[Dr3amville]

If your not interested in customizing your phone then Bionic for sure.

 

[karnovaran]

Can you charge a smartphone via computer/laptop via USB? I, like most I'm sure, am almost always in front of some kind of computer for work. Will a simple USB cable alleviate any battery life concerns (at least M-F)?

Yup. I bought an extra usb cable at monoprice for a buck or two and keep it at work in case I need to charge.

 

[shaddix]

Ok it should not be blur vs sense. It should be stock vs sense. Or launcher pro vs sense. I dunno why ppl think you're going to be locked into using motoblur on the bionic. It will have custom roms!

 

[Joelist]

Because Sense is FAR more than a launcher skin, as has already been explained. It has vastly superior Widgets, full native ActiveSync (in fact all of its push services work better) and is smoother and faster.

 

[Droid800]

Because Sense is FAR more than a launcher skin, as has already been explained. It has vastly superior Widgets, full native ActiveSync (in fact all of its push services work better) and is smoother and faster.

Blur is more than a launcher skin as well.

 

[am4966]

Yup. I bought an extra usb cable at monoprice for a buck or two and keep it at work in case I need to charge.

Monoprice, is my favorite Cable/Wire Store. Great pricing and fast delivery!

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Go and keep any eye out on the Atrix Threads. They are having some issue's over there, so maybe Bionic wont have some of them and some I'm sure it will just being from same mfg and basically being same phone.

 

[shaddix]

Because Sense is FAR more than a launcher skin, as has already been explained. It has vastly superior Widgets, full native ActiveSync (in fact all of its push services work better) and is smoother and faster.

That doesn't mean you have to compare it to blur, compare it to stock android, which imo is better than blur.