The Moto Droid 3 - what features do you want on it?

[YourMobileGuru]

I suppose the lack of 4G pains some more than others. My previous phone before my Thunderbolt was an Epic 4G, my first smartphone ever. I absolutely loved it but moved to VZW because I work there currently. I suppose because the Epic was my first phone, I got used to and attached to a physical, slide-out keyboard and I do miss it on my Thunderbolt.

But I'm also used to the 4G of my TB and would hate to lose it, but the Droid 3 has all the specs I want, and the lack of 4G keeps it from being my perfect phone right now!

VZWRocks, since you mention thickness, is Moto's Bionic slated to be significantly thicker than their current DX2? Do you think Motorola would launch a 4G version of the D3 by year's end? And since the Epic is a slider with 4G (another 4G slider example is T-Mobile's G2), does Wimax and HSPA require less bulky and power-consuming hardware than LTE?

Don't get me wrong LTE is great and a year from now when the LTE Network is almost done they had better have LTE on at least 2/3 to 3/4 of their phones but for right now the vast majority of the network is 3G only and for most people 4G is a marketing term.

I could only guess but if is a virtual certainty that IF the revised Bionic has LTE in it then it will be thicker than the DX2 as it one of the thinnest phones on Verizon.

You mention you have a Thunderbolt. Go into a Best Buy store and compare your TB to the Evo 4G or better yet then HTC Inspire. The Inspire is almost the same phone but the TB is noticeably thinker because of the LTE radios. Until the LTE radio tech improves and gets smaller we will have to deal with this. LTE phones will be thicker and if you want a thn phone then it WILL be 3G only (for now). The simple fact of the matter is the vast majority of customers want thin and lightweight phones. That's a huge reason the DX and Fascinate sold so well last year.

Now obviously you may say that all 3 phones are 4G but the TB and Evo are different kinds of 4G (LTE and WiMax) and the Inspire has HSPA + which is only refereed to as 4G because AT&T is too lazy to build a real 4G network and instead branded their enhanced 3G network as 4G. Yes it is my understanding that LTE uses more energy than WiMax but it is also infinitely more powerful in the real world speed wise. Mickey talked about this a lot in this week's podcast.

While it is possible that there will be a 4G version of the D3 by yeas end (like the D2 Global last year) but honestly I doubt it. More than likely they will wait for the Druid 4 next summer for that but I have been wrong before.

 

[shamefulzero]

phonedog.com is saying Droid3 in june? what i said in a prevous post somewhere, i hope more info leaks about it. espeacially if it will be stock 2.3 or blurred up!

 

[YourMobileGuru]

phonedog.com is saying Droid3 in june? what i said in a prevous post somewhere, i hope more info leaks about it. espeacially if it will be stock 2.3 or blurred up!

I am sure there will be lots of new information coming as has been the case for almost every phone; however I believe I can confidently predict that this phone will have Motoblur Blur is how Moto differentiates their devices from everyone else's out there. I also seem to remember a statement last year form Moto that the Droid 1 was a one time thing because Verizon and Google asked for it as a device to showcase the new (at the time ) Android 2.0. And as much as I hate to say it I also predict the Xoom 2 (when t eventually comes) will have some form of Motoblur on it.

 

[shamefulzero]

MOTO is also retracted they're stance on bootloaders. They could not release it with MOTO blur. I still have hope.

 

[nerdydesi]

Its just really hard for me to let go that the Droid 3 will lack LTE.
I'm just anxious for news if it can later be upgraded to LTE like their Xoom (surprising there's still no ETA on that yet), or if an LTE version will come out shortly afterwards.

I guess right now, its too much to ask for a 4G slider on VZW...

 

[YourMobileGuru]

MOTO is also retracted they're stance on bootloaders. They could not release it with MOTO blur. I still have hope.

One has nothing to do with the other. The bootloader thing only effects a small percentage of their customers who choose to do custom roms on their phones and most others don't even know what a bootloader is let alone that it is locked..

Motoblur is their brand. It is how they distinguish themselves from LG, HTC, and Samsung. ALL Moto smartphones (with a very few exceptions) -- Android Windows Mobile and yes probably Windows Phone 7 -- have some variation on Motoblur on them to give them a unified look and feel. The only reason we got the Moto Droid 1 as stock was as I said Verizon and Google wanted a phone to showcase Android 2.0. Now Google has the Nexus series phones for that and unless the next Nexus is from Motorola it is unlikely we will see a stock phone from Moto.

 

[YourMobileGuru]

Its just really hard for me to let go that the Droid 3 will lack LTE.
I'm just anxious for news if it can later be upgraded to LTE like their Xoom (surprising there's still no ETA on that yet), or if an LTE version will come out shortly afterwards.

I guess right now, its too much to ask for a 4G slider on VZW...

The reason that the Xoom is upgradeable is because it was given a slot for an LTE SIM and space was left inside for an LTE radio. Very unlikely it will be possible with the D3 for space reasons as stated above and if it has a SIM slot in it, odds are it will be for Global (GSM) capabilities like that D2G.

 

[TC_Mits]

2 sim cards?

The reason that the Xoom is upgradeable is because it was given a slot for an LTE SIM and space was left inside for an LTE radio. Very unlikely it will be possible with the D3 for space reasons as stated above and if it has a SIM slot in it, odds are it will be for Global (GSM) capabilities like that D2G.

If the Droid '4G' (the '4G' doing double duty) does come out next summer as a 4G Global phone. How will the sim card work? The D2G sim card is for GSM use out of the US and the HTC TB 4G sim card is related to the LTE system. If the 'D4G' has both, will it need to have 2 sim cards?

 

[patfactorx]

I want a light removable Motoblur, unlocked bootloader, z4 rootable, Ti OMAP and LTE! With global radios plz

 

[TC_Mits]

At last! Time to close this thread.

phonedog.com is saying Droid3 in june? what i said in a prevous post somewhere, i hope more info leaks about it. espeacially if it will be stock 2.3 or blurred up!

AC scoop -- D3 on vzw site

It's OFFICIAL! We need a Droid 3 thread on the Motorola Android devices page now!

This makes me feel like it really could be out by the Fourth. Such a great phone, it's gonna be hard (but not impossible) to wait for the Droid 4...

But, then, who knows, maybe HTC will have an LTE 4G slide sooner -- and with an unlocked loader, to boot!

PS -- Should the D4 be expected to have 2 sim cards? (See Qn above --> 05-25-2011 07:02 AM.)

 

[YourMobileGuru]

AC scoop -- D3 on vzw site

It's OFFICIAL! We need a Droid 3 thread on the Motorola Android devices page now!

This makes me feel like it really could be out by the Fourth. Such a great phone, it's gonna be hard (but not impossible) to wait for the Droid 4...

But, then, who knows, maybe HTC will have an LTE 4G slide sooner -- and with an unlocked loader, to boot!

PS -- Should the D4 be expected to have 2 sim cards? (See Qn above --> 05-25-2011 07:02 AM.)

Yes I would say release by July 4 should be a safe bet at this point.

It's possible a D4 would have 2 sim slots (1 for Global GSM, 1 for 4G LTE) but by that time it is possible they would find a way to combine the two or decide to make two different versions of the phone. Who knows! Apple is lobbying for a new industry standard SIM card the size of a MicroUSB card too so that is possible as well. It's a year away so all we can do really is speculate.