Talk me into, or out, of a Bionic

[EnergyPlus]

The plans, including pricing and rules, are controlled by the carrier, not the phone retailer.

 

[dontlookatme]

You are not suppose to lose it. And don't buy a bionic. Get a RAZR or RAZR maxx. Better looking and better specs. IMO.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

[hiono]

You are not suppose to lose it. And don't buy a bionic. Get a RAZR or RAZR maxx. Better looking and better specs. IMO.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

So even with what he wants that being a removable battery u think he should get a razr?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[SeigaGen]

I'm currently using a Droid 2 and I want a larger screen phone, I want LTE and a dual core processor. I want a phone with a quality build. I also want a removable battery and a screen I can see well outside. And I must, and I mean MUST, have a phone that's capable of making quality voice calls even in low signal strength areas. Oh, and I want a phone that's going to get ICS.

I don't care about thin, light or sexy. I don't care about a super hi res screen.

Tell me why the Biionic wouldn't suit my needs. And if not the Bionic, what? My contract was over August last year, I'm tired of waiting.

You pretty much described the Bionic in every way. But here's the thing. Bionic was the first dual core 4GLTE phone. I had gone through 2 bionics before I gave up on it. It's a fantastic phone in theory, but the constant reboots and BSOD's, it was way too much. Even after version 902 update, which I had done SOAK testing for.

I feel you for the removable battery, but don't let that stop you from considering a Droid RAZR MAXX. 3300 mAh gives you a massive battery life on a thin phone. And the screen display is amazing with the Super AMOLED qHD screen. Stability wise, Razr MAXX is where it's at.

I personally love the Galaxy Nexus however. Look, Samsung is notorious for having bad signal phones, and tbh, the Bionic had that problem when it was first released. I live in L.A. and I can say, I haven't had a call drop yet with my Nexus. 4.65 Super AMOLED HD screen is amazing! The quality you get out of it is uncanny sometimes. It has a removable battery, I had upgraded to the 2200 mAh battery and it has proven to give me some lengthy life per day. The latest ICS 4.05 build is currently being tested and it is rumored to fix any signal issues there might be with the current ICS on the Nexus. And that's among other things.

Look, if you want to stay up to date, Galaxy Nexus is where to go. It's the Google Experience Phone, so what do expect? It will stay up to date for the most part. It doesn't have a 8mp camera or amazing photo taking capabilities, but for the overall experience... this is the one you want.

Let me put it to you this way as well. The Nexus can have an unlocked boot-loader, which moto phones don't have. It doesn't use any special UI customization in its stock version. When ICS comes out to other phones, expect things like Motoblur to be added on there. Samsung has already proved that with TouchWiz on their ICS build on the Galaxy S2. Vanilla android will always give you the best out of your android device because of the customization capabilities.

It's a toss up, but I would stay away from the Bionic and consider the Razr MAXX or Nexus phones. You want quality, Razr MAXX. You want custom ability and latest software, Galaxy Nexus is where to go.

 

[hokiesteve]

I'm currently using a Droid 2 and I want a larger screen phone, I want LTE and a dual core processor. I want a phone with a quality build. I also want a removable battery and a screen I can see well outside. And I must, and I mean MUST, have a phone that's capable of making quality voice calls even in low signal strength areas. Oh, and I want a phone that's going to get ICS.

I don't care about thin, light or sexy. I don't care about a super hi res screen.

Tell me why the Biionic wouldn't suit my needs. And if not the Bionic, what? My contract was over August last year, I'm tired of waiting.

Given your requirements, I would say that the Bionic would be a good fit. What you mentioned are certainly strengths of the Bionic. Voice quality is great, hardware is durable, and the battery life is descent. OEM replacement batteries are cheap as well.

I've had the Bionic since October. When I initially got the phone I was fairly unhappy. The device stability and connectivity problems were nearly unbearable. After a replacement phone and a few software updates, the Bionic has certainly improved to a solid device. It's generally stable now as the software crashes and connectivity issues have largely disappeared.

Despite all this, it's not a perfect device. The Motorola UI enchancements and the pre-installed non-removeable Verizon crapware on the device still irks me and it's only gotten worse with recent software devices. In order to make it tolerable, I installed LauncherPro and hid all the excessive icons. If a stock Android experience is important at all to you, the Bionic is definitely not a good device for that. The mobile hotspot feature is also buggy and temperamental. The stock android wireless hotspot worked a lot better. On the plus side, you can tether with the bionic without paying the extra fee for hotspot.

All in all, the hardware is pretty solid and the software leaves a bit to be desired. The price is great now too.

 

[pauldroidr2d2]

I'm currently using a Droid 2 and I want a larger screen phone, I want LTE and a dual core processor. I want a phone with a quality build. I also want a removable battery and a screen I can see well outside. And I must, and I mean MUST, have a phone that's capable of making quality voice calls even in low signal strength areas. Oh, and I want a phone that's going to get ICS.

I don't care about thin, light or sexy. I don't care about a super hi res screen.

Tell me why the Biionic wouldn't suit my needs. And if not the Bionic, what? My contract was over August last year, I'm tired of waiting.

At this point in the game, I wouldn't purchase any Android phone that doesn't come with ICS installed on it. These phones should be on the current OS, there is no excuse for them not to be. If Motorola put the same effort into keeping the OS's up to date on their Droid that they put into releasing new models their phones wouldn't be a year behind.

Sent from one of the following: Galaxy Nexus, Bionic or Xoom using Tapatalk.

 

[dylanear]

I've had one Bionic and it's been very solid. Only troubles were on the second to last update, I only had that for a few weeks until the latest update and it's been great since. Mine is a workhorse, I couldn't get along without it.

I will not buy a phone without an SD card slot and removable battery. The only other phone that I'd consider on Verizon right now is the Rezound.

Besides the battery issue, the Razr screeen sucks. Very unnatural color reproduction. I prefer the Bionic's screen. But the pentile screen is my one irritation about the Bionic, I'd greatly prefer an IPS LCD or a Super AMOLED +. But other than that the Bionic is the bees knees!

 

[3rdpig]

I've had the Bionic five days now and so far it's been great. Not a single reboot, very fast and smooth and the screen is great, even in bright sunlight.

Thanks for all the help, but the Nexus was a non starter with it's poor radio reception, same with the Razr for it's non removable battery.

And yea, I would have loved to have bought a phone that came with ICS, but that limits me to one phone, the Nexus, which not acceptable to me since I need quality voice phone calls in weak signal areas.

I went through one of my lowest signal strength areas yesterday, and while I dropped from 4G all the way to no data at all, I was still able to make and receive calls. Since 100% of my income flows through my phone, that is the prime importance to me. And seeing it in bright sunlight is also very important.

I have a feeling we're coming to the end of phones with removable batteries and memory card slots. I wanted to get one that had it all and the only real choice was the Bionic.

 

[Johnly]

Got a TPU case for the bionic....It is all yours, PM me and pay the cents for shipping, and it is yours....I paid 10.

 

[hkklife]

I agree. Before I got the Bionic, I thought long and hard about what I needed to have and what I wanted to have. My mandatory items were of course LTE, a removable battery, expandable storage, and at least a 4.3" screen and at least the hope of an official ICS update. My "nice to have" items were 8+ Gb of internal storage, a decent camera, some kind of video output, and a qHD or better screen. I couldn't think of any phone that hit all that criteria other than the Bionic (well, other than the lousy camera but it sounded good on paper).

It basically came down to the Bionic or the Rezound (which hadn't launched yet). I feel that Blur is the lesser of two evils over Sense and HTC has NEVER been known for long battery life or extended battery performance. Plus, I prefer a standard microHDMI port over the bulky and clunky MHL adapter. And I'll never have concerns over Moto's RF performance or voice call quality. I seldom charge my phone, instead just swapping between two extended batteries during the day so I'm not tethered to an outlet. If I had a RAZR Maxx I'd have to adjust my usage habits. If I had a G-Nex I could do that but I'd have to leave my big movie/music collection at home due to its lack of microSD storage (don't lecture me about cloud/streaming, please).

I think you are right and we are first going to see the elimination of expandable storage across the board in the ICS world (save for a few tablets by Asus and Acer who thankfully aren't in the carriers' pockets. This is of course thanks to Google's arrogance and mimicry of Apple as well as the carriers' influence to force everyone to stream everything, thus incurring data overages and padding their bottom line. The Galaxy SIII will be the harbinger of whatever is the next big thing in the Android world--I predict that it'll push wireless charging as the reason for the elimination of removable batteries. So the Bionic's not perfect but it and the Rezound may really be the last devices of their kind on VZW so I'm fairly content for the time being.

I've had the Bionic five days now and so far it's been great. Not a single reboot, very fast and smooth and the screen is great, even in bright sunlight.

Thanks for all the help, but the Nexus was a non starter with it's poor radio reception, same with the Razr for it's non removable battery.

And yea, I would have loved to have bought a phone that came with ICS, but that limits me to one phone, the Nexus, which not acceptable to me since I need quality voice phone calls in weak signal areas.

I went through one of my lowest signal strength areas yesterday, and while I dropped from 4G all the way to no data at all, I was still able to make and receive calls. Since 100% of my income flows through my phone, that is the prime importance to me. And seeing it in bright sunlight is also very important.

I have a feeling we're coming to the end of phones with removable batteries and memory card slots. I wanted to get one that had it all and the only real choice was the Bionic.

 

[wrightrocket]

I agree. Before I got the Bionic, I thought long and hard about what I needed to have and what I wanted to have. My mandatory items were of course LTE, a removable battery, expandable storage, and at least a 4.3" screen and at least the hope of an official ICS update. My "nice to have" items were 8+ Gb of internal storage, a decent camera, some kind of video output, and a qHD or better screen. I couldn't think of any phone that hit all that criteria other than the Bionic (well, other than the lousy camera but it sounded good on paper).

It basically came down to the Bionic or the Rezound (which hadn't launched yet). I feel that Blur is the lesser of two evils over Sense and HTC has NEVER been known for long battery life or extended battery performance. Plus, I prefer a standard microHDMI port over the bulky and clunky MHL adapter. And I'll never have concerns over Moto's RF performance or voice call quality. I seldom charge my phone, instead just swapping between two extended batteries during the day so I'm not tethered to an outlet. If I had a RAZR Maxx I'd have to adjust my usage habits. If I had a G-Nex I could do that but I'd have to leave my big movie/music collection at home due to its lack of microSD storage (don't lecture me about cloud/streaming, please).

I think you are right and we are first going to see the elimination of expandable storage across the board in the ICS world (save for a few tablets by Asus and Acer who thankfully aren't in the carriers' pockets. This is of course thanks to Google's arrogance and mimicry of Apple as well as the carriers' influence to force everyone to stream everything, thus incurring data overages and padding their bottom line. The Galaxy SIII will be the harbinger of whatever is the next big thing in the Android world--I predict that it'll push wireless charging as the reason for the elimination of removable batteries. So the Bionic's not perfect but it and the Rezound may really be the last devices of their kind on VZW so I'm fairly content for the time being.

 

[bear_lx]

i feel like most of the issues come from rooting your phone. i had nothing but problems with my rooted fascinate. constantly having to reboot , and always wanting the latest and greatest rom. then having to revert back to stock jsut for an update.

this bionic bone stock is flawless for me. never have to reboot, strong signal, no data drops. works perfectly. and always smooth as butter, not choppy and laggy like most other android phones. preforms like it is supposed to, so i dont understand how so many people complain about the bionic, mine has been perfect from day one, stock!