This or Maxx?

OrionAntares

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My contract just came up for renewal for VZW so now I'm looking to move from my Pre to an Android phone. I was wondering if anyone could help me determine which might be a better choice, the Maxx or the S3, based on their experiences with wither device and Android in general? Thanks.
 

firetruck41

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There is no question the S3 is the more technically advanced phone, though the Maxx seems to be a very good phone and has been one of VZWs flagship phone for a while. If you want the latest/greatest you will need to wait a few weeks for the S3, or you can check out the Maxx at a store and see if it meets your needs.
 

Suntan

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As a previous Pre+ owner, I can tell you that the GSIII is going to look and feel more like the Palm Pre than the Maxx.

The Maxx has better options for hooking to an externail display (HDMI/USB > MHL, imo) the GSIII is shaping up to be better everywhere else.

Oh, one other thing, Moto has always been known to have really strong radio reception on their handsets. Sammy, not so much. A lot of us are waiting to see what the reviews are about radio performance for the US based GSIII handsets.

-Suntan
 

Premium1

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I have the maxx and preordered the s3 simply because with the s4 and the great reviews that processor has been getting I feel it will perform a lot better than the maxx. Samsung always seems to have their top of the line phones performing better than the maxx. Now the only thing I am worried about is the radios in the s3 but since I preordered one if within the 14 days the radios aren't good I will return it. Also the sgs3 will be more future proof with 2gb of ram and the s4 processor. Both Samsung and moto suck in the US with updates but with Samsung you can root and rom and have the latest software very easily with almost no chance to brick the phone. Moto phones are not the case with them being locked down so tight and coming out with a new small upgrade of a phone every other month. Also sgs3 has a clearer display 720p vs qhd so won't be able to see pixels like you can with the maxx.I will compare both side by side when I get them and decide.
 

mpower13

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I almost bought the MAXX before the GS3 pre-order was announced. The screen/resolution quality on the MAXX is horrid at best. My original Droid X has a crisper image than the MAXX. Hardware wise the MAXX isn't even in the same league.
 

Cruiserdude

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I would the S3 is the better device by far, though we won't know for sure until its in hand. I've had a Razr since early this year and I'm already getting sick of it. The phone looks and feels awesome, and the reception is great, but it leaves alot to be desired. The screen and camera are decent, but far from great, my Charge blew it out of the water in those areas, as well as in sound quality through the headphone jack.

My main issue with the Razr though is the frustration that a locked bootloader causes. Not only can we not make custom kernels, it makes flashing new builds much more difficult as well. VZW and Moto made it sound like the Razr would be one of the first phones upgraded to ICS, not long after it came out. It's now in its 7 month, and still they haven't even given a date for ICS. There are a few options out there, but none of them are great. You can run one of the AOSP builds on top of the stock GB kernel, which gives decent performance and great battery life, but lacks many essential features, like working hardware acceleration and video capture. There are a number of leaked ICS builds, but they're tricky. With Moto you've got to go in order for FW updates, so if you want to revert back to stock you've got to fastboot to the original FW version, then take each OTA in turn to get the next newest version until you have the latest. Well only the 2 earliest ICS builds will allow you to fastboot back to the original firmware and stay on the upgrade path, and those builds get poor battery life and aren't as snappy as they should be. There are many newer ICS builds with better performance, but they do not allow you to fastbook back to GB, so you're stuck with that version. Each one is designed to update from the latest official OTA, and the actual ICS OTA will be the same. So when it finally does drop, everyone on one of the newer leaks will likely be stuck there. A solution may be found, but it will be even more complicated than what I already described.

Compare this to Samsung, where you fire up Odin and flash whatever the hell you want over whatever you currently have, and don't have to go in any specific order. If all that stuff I described in the earlier paragraph confuses you, it confuses us Razr owners as well and is frankly a huge PITA. So while people complain about Samsung updates, Moto is absolutely horrid, as its FAR more frustrating to wait for an OTA. The hardware itself is great aside from a few things, though if you're big on having a great screen you'll be a bit disappointed.

Consider this as well, as far as updates. The SGS3 is Samsung's flagship device, and I'd expect they'll do a good job of keeping it updated, even as Jellybean comes out. Moto, on the other hand, still hasn't updated the Razr while its been their flagship for more than half a year, and it'll likely go EOL (end of life) as soon as the Razr HD releases. So that alone should be enough to tell you that you'll have a far better experience with a Samsung flagship than a Moto one.
 

tech_head

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I own the Maxx and love the battery. The device is solid.
I like the screen on the Bionic and DroidX better.

I ordered my daughter the S3 this morning to burn my last upgrade before the shared crap kicks in. It has a better display and some other features. The battery isn't as big as the Maxx but it is 2200mah big. The S3 is made of all polycarbonate and if that is an issue then pick the Maxx.

My daughter didn't like any other phone except the Maxx and the S3, we opted for the phone with the best specs.
 

Premium1

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I would the S3 is the better device by far, though we won't know for sure until its in hand. I've had a Razr since early this year and I'm already getting sick of it. The phone looks and feels awesome, and the reception is great, but it leaves alot to be desired. The screen and camera are decent, but far from great, my Charge blew it out of the water in those areas, as well as in sound quality through the headphone jack.

My main issue with the Razr though is the frustration that a locked bootloader causes. Not only can we not make custom kernels, it makes flashing new builds much more difficult as well. VZW and Moto made it sound like the Razr would be one of the first phones upgraded to ICS, not long after it came out. It's now in its 7 month, and still they haven't even given a date for ICS. There are a few options out there, but none of them are great. You can run one of the AOSP builds on top of the stock GB kernel, which gives decent performance and great battery life, but lacks many essential features, like working hardware acceleration and video capture. There are a number of leaked ICS builds, but they're tricky. With Moto you've got to go in order for FW updates, so if you want to revert back to stock you've got to fastboot to the original FW version, then take each OTA in turn to get the next newest version until you have the latest. Well only the 2 earliest ICS builds will allow you to fastboot back to the original firmware and stay on the upgrade path, and those builds get poor battery life and aren't as snappy as they should be. There are many newer ICS builds with better performance, but they do not allow you to fastbook back to GB, so you're stuck with that version. Each one is designed to update from the latest official OTA, and the actual ICS OTA will be the same. So when it finally does drop, everyone on one of the newer leaks will likely be stuck there. A solution may be found, but it will be even more complicated than what I already described.

Compare this to Samsung, where you fire up Odin and flash whatever the hell you want over whatever you currently have, and don't have to go in any specific order. If all that stuff I described in the earlier paragraph confuses you, it confuses us Razr owners as well and is frankly a huge PITA. So while people complain about Samsung updates, Moto is absolutely horrid, as its FAR more frustrating to wait for an OTA. The hardware itself is great aside from a few things, though if you're big on having a great screen you'll be a bit disappointed.

Consider this as well, as far as updates. The SGS3 is Samsung's flagship device, and I'd expect they'll do a good job of keeping it updated, even as Jellybean comes out. Moto, on the other hand, still hasn't updated the Razr while its been their flagship for more than half a year, and it'll likely go EOL (end of life) as soon as the Razr HD releases. So that alone should be enough to tell you that you'll have a far better experience with a Samsung flagship than a Moto one.

Agree, htc is such a simple flash for leaked software. With moto it is much more complicated and difficult. Plus with Samsung making all of the models in the US the same( save for the radios) I think this will greatly help with updates also since they only have to tweak the radios and not the entire software for 4 different US carriers like previous sgs models.
 
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LegalAmerican

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removable battery on S3.....nuff said.

That's actually not "nuff said" because the 3300 mAh kicks the a-- of any removable battery. You don't need a removable battery if your stock battery is enormous. Battery is the one aspect that should sway you to the Maxx, but other aspects should sway you to GS3

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums
 
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thirsy1258

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That's actually not "nuff said" because the 3300 mAh kicks the a-- of any removable battery. You don't need a removable battery if your stock battery is enormous. Battery is the one aspect that should sway you to the Maxx, but other aspects should sway you to GS3

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums

What do you do If the phone locks up.......

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 

Suntan

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What do you do If the phone locks up.......

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I've never needed to pull the battery on my Droid 3 to force a restart.

This never-ending quest against non-removable batteries is tiring. If a person thinks they need a removeable battery, get a phone with a removable battery. If they don't, don't.

It's not like that spec is subtle to understand, either the back comes off or it doesn't.

-Suntan
 

davidnc

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What do you do If the phone locks up.......

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I read somewhere in AC I think ,, there is a setting that allows you to reboot the phone IF that happens.Since that phone doesnt have removeable battery .Since I dont have that phone I really dont really keep up with those forums tho.
 

Suntan

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Wonder if this works for nexus

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

It's pretty standard practice to have a power & vol button hold down to force a boot.

Think of all the different android tablets available without removable batteries.

-Suntan
 

77Pat

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That's actually not "nuff said" because the 3300 mAh kicks the a-- of any removable battery. You don't need a removable battery if your stock battery is enormous. Battery is the one aspect that should sway you to the Maxx, but other aspects should sway you to GS3

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums

The only thing I would be worried about is if there were any problems. The battery in my Droid X became swollen, and ever since, my phone has had issues (even after replacing the battery).
 

Jacque Strapp

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That's actually not "nuff said" because the 3300 mAh kicks the a-- of any removable battery. You don't need a removable battery if your stock battery is enormous.

You do when your phone gets a little older and its battery starts to die permanently. The battery is usually the first part to fail on any phone. With a removable battery you just buy a new one for $15 on Ebay and pop it in. With the MAXX you're doing major surgery on your device, or paying someone else to do it. My T-Mobile G1 is still running great, the battery started to die after 18 months, I replaced it for $10 and now my mom uses it on AT&T.

Plus the MAXX uses older silicon which does not have the LTE modem on-die like the S3 does. That should help battery life on the S3 quite a bit. The Droid Fighter/RAZR HD should have incredible battery life (3300 mAh battery + same SOC as the S3) but it doesn't look like it's coming out before the cutoff date for renewing a contract with unlimited data.
 

Twist747

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I am trading in my GNex phone due to the Mic Drop issue (I love the phone otherwise). I have tried several (3) refurbs and ended up not keeping any of them due to the same problem on each. I'm leaning hard towards the S3 as I just don't feel that the MAXX is a move forward for me.

QUESTION: Are there any opinions out there about this Mic problem being a Samsung Software problem that could be rearing it's ugly head on the new S3??? That would move me into a cool phone but with the same problem which is unacceptable for business use.

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