• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Motorola + Samsung: 1st and 2nd worst phones - but what are they like on Android?

OM2

Android Enthusiast
Jun 12, 2010
251
22
I have a few personal beliefs that hold true for me:

- the sun shines
- the sky is blue
- Samsung make the 2nd worst phones ever
- Motorola though take the title of making the worst most non intuitive phones EVER

Dumb things like loud speaker (lack of), or stoopid bluetooth probs (that other phones don't suffer from) or just the most crappy user interface and menu system ever invented

But: what are the Android phones like?
With Android, surely they can't mess up the OS and general functionality?

Does the Bluetooth work? Does it work on car phone bluetooth systems for example?

Are there other problems that both companies have intentionally put in to frustrate people? I believe they pay someone to invent ways to make their phones suck!

The Galaxy and at least one Motorola phone have had rave reviews from what I've heard

Just wondering: that's all - I don't ever intend to buy another Motorola EVER - will probably still get a samsung along the line somewhere and sell on ebay out of frustation after 2 weeks!


OM
 
your only real choices are a motorola droid 1 (used, they dont make them new anymore) or a droid 2. A devour is also an option (also motorola) but its a peice of garbage. Motorola makes great phones these days. HTC makes the user experience as good as it gets, though.

of course, this is all a matter of opinion.

htc phones are pure brilliance - made by geniouses
apart from the damn htc tatoo that is - that was made by a super god who is more than a genius
they hired someone with extra brains to make it be a really bad phone - it;s got all the specs of the tmobile mini pulse, but has android 1.6 + many other functional definciencies - that have been intentionally put there because they didn't want to give away a great phone for a cheap price
(only gave the comparison to show that he SAME spec phone can be made ok to use and a be a decent phone - there's no excuse for having the bad phone)

i did like it - because it was small. sigh
 
Upvote 0
Motorola makes great hardware, but otherwise except Droid 1 they are crap on software level. Droid 2, Droid X, Milestone and Milestone 2 are not a option. Yes, if you like to depend on Motorola and throw out your phone after 1 year because Motorola decided that it is not worth to support your phone anymore, then they are a acceptable option. But if you like to keep your phone more than 1 year, while having at least community support, then they are not for you.

Oh, and don't let me start to talk about the official support. Each and every Motorola Milestone firmware update were plagued by bugs, the worst ones were in April 2010-September 2010 period with 2.1, when my phone randomly rebooted (and it was the firmware which caused the restarts, since the update to 2.1-update1 it works OK again, before that 40 hour uptime was a miracle). 2.2 in (hopefully) Q4/2010 will be the final update for Milestone, nothing more for a 1 year old phone. Oh, and i didn't even mentoined the non-US DEXT/BACKFLIP users, they will be stuck at 1.5 forever :
https://supportforums.motorola.com/community/manager/softwareupgrades

Seriously, if you want to keep your phone for more than 1 year, or you like to keep your adrenaline level not too high, then you stay away from Motorola.

Samsung is a bit slow with their firmware updates, but so is Motorola outside of the USA. And Sony Ericsson is a joke with their planed 2.1 update for X10 :).

There is really one option - HTC. While not perfect, they have their bugs too - but they are nowhere near as bad as Motorola, and they provide updates a lot sooner than Samsung.
 
Upvote 0
that seems odd to me
all these other guys have been in the industry for a looong time
and then comes along htc - a fairly newbie and makes great phones
maybe it's just hat when u get to be really big: u lose sight of whats happening down there in the real world?


and ouch: faugusztin, u hav suffered more than any soul should ever bear. may u rest in peace in htc heaven
 
Upvote 0
your only real choices are a motorola droid 1 (used, they dont make them new anymore) or a droid 2. A devour is also an option (also motorola) but its a peice of garbage. Motorola makes great phones these days. HTC makes the user experience as good as it gets, though.

of course, this is all a matter of opinion.
Also of the same size w/ keyboard but NOT a comparable option is the Samsung Moment (@ OP, DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE! I am merely throwing in as a warning in case you come across and mistakenly think it would be a good fit).

@OP, is the keyboard really a necessity? Have you tried swype or shapewriter?
 
Upvote 0
Samsung do make good phones and also some awful phones, they basically cover every part of the market, low end right up to high end.

High end are usually let down poor OS, example of this would be the Samsung i8910, great phone but it uses Symbian which sucks, also the Wave which I would describe as the handicapped smaller sibling of the Galaxy S, due to the Bada OS.

Samsung's Galaxy S and it's many versions however are very popular Android phones and have sold 5 million + worldwide

Not perfect however, the GPS is dodgy but otherwise it's a great phone.
 
Upvote 0
Also of the same size w/ keyboard but NOT a comparable option is the Samsung Moment (@ OP, DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE! I am merely throwing in as a warning in case you come across and mistakenly think it would be a good fit).

@OP, is the keyboard really a necessity? Have you tried swype or shapewriter?

swype - i can't really comment: looks awesome
i've used the x10 - whopping BIG screen - but touch screen that sucks
i honestly thought touchscreen was bad - and invention that human kind did not need as a result of using the x10 and one or 2 other androids

then, i used the iphone briefly - the touch is really nice - i love it
before anyone thinks if beating me up for the above line: save it! i started another thread a while ago saying something like 'i loved the iphone' (or something like that!) and was chased down by a pack of wolves and got threat letters posted to me :rolleyes:

one of my main things is: i don't want to carry a brick around!
i could live with something the size of the htc tatoo - alas, the phone sucks :(

thats why the x10 pro can't be replace for me!
 
Upvote 0
... Samsung's Galaxy S and it's many versions however are very popular Android phones and have sold 5 million + worldwide

Not perfect however, the GPS is dodgy but otherwise it's a great phone.

aaaah... gps!!
praise be given to lord google for blessing us with google maps and a million gratitudes for giving the world navigation
hail lord google!

yeee ha! damn: google navigation IS the bEST thing since sliced bread

i mean it's f*ck** awesome!!
(pardon my language - i don't normally like to swear - just getting over excited!)

i can get gps navigation from ANYWHERE to ANYWHERE!!
no: it's not like one of the other sat navs where u kinda have to know the exact location details - i can just type 'something' and u'll get results

but... it gets better: real sat nav on a phone thats just a little bigger than a matchbox??
wow: thats what i call magic!

so... thanks for telling me
i would have considered galaxy - but now that i hear about the gps problem, i will steer clear
 
Upvote 0
OM2, may I ask where you are from?

Either way, imo, if you are from the US, look at a the T-Mobile G2 (which is made by HTC, just without their branding/HTC Sense) or if you are from the UK/Europe wait for the HTC Desire Z which is practically the G2 but with HTC branding and HTC Sense, which as an original Desire user I do think is the better option. I love Sense, its the only good UI imho.

Also on your touchscreen statement, the X10 is a pretty bad example of what a touch screen phone is about. All new high-end Android mobile devices have excellent capacitive multi-touch screens which in some areas aren't quite as smooth (yet definitely comparable) yet they do have their bonuses such as mobile browsing is much better on an Android device.

P.S. I think Sony Ericsson's make the worst phones tbh, though Moto and Samsung are two of the worst phone makers I have ever used. Before I used an HTC (Desire) I thought Nokia were the best but they're sticking to Symbian/Maemo/MeeGo. Ugh.
 
Upvote 0
With Android, surely they can't mess up the OS and general functionality?
Depends on the UI they stick on (if they do), whether they take measures to prevent root, etc. All this partially depends on you as well. If you like the UI or you don't care about rooting then neither of these may be an issue for you specifically. The sky may be blue but not everyone has your needs/wants.

I don't ever intend to buy another Motorola EVER
It's your call to make. I personally prefer to evaluate products on their individual merits. There are numerous companies that make both bad and good products and it's easy to miss out if you paint with broad black-and-white brush strokes IMO.

all these other guys have been in the industry for a looong time
and then comes along htc - a fairly newbie and makes great phones
HTC is no newbie. They've been an OEM for a very long time. Try reading up on them.

google navigation IS the bEST thing since sliced bread
i can get gps navigation from ANYWHERE to ANYWHERE!!
Not without data coverage you can't. Even with data coverage you probably don't want to use it excessively while roaming internationally. There are nav apps that store maps locally though.
 
Upvote 0
It's your call to make. I personally prefer to evaluate products on their individual merits. There are numerous companies that make both bad and good products and it's easy to miss out if you paint with broad black-and-white brush strokes IMO.
ur right of course - but there's a limit - once u've gone past ur 10th crap motorola phone, it's time get wise and stop wasting time and move on - forever :)

HTC is no newbie. They've been an OEM for a very long time. Try reading up on them.
yes ur right... i did kinda know that... but they are new to the phone world just in their own right

Not without data coverage you can't. Even with data coverage you probably don't want to use it excessively while roaming internationally. There are nav apps that store maps locally though.
yes, ur right. i have the internet package on my phone, so don't really about usage
as for abroad - i hadn't given that thought

but, the gps does wind me up sometimes! sometimes data connection will be lost for no good reason
it's good 95% of the time though and means i don't have to carry a sat nav around with me
 
Upvote 0
Had a few Motorola phones. Never had a problem from any of them. Don't know what your beef is, especially when you didn't mention a one. What, you didn't like the colors? :rolleyes:
lol
no beef
i don't hate them - i just stay away from them!
haven't owned a motorola android phone
but have owned many older phones - like the flip ones and a few others - i forget the names - we're going back starting 10+ years ago
compared to what nokia had for the operating system, whatever motorola had *really* sucked

my original post on this thread was just asking: are they still bad? (as well as samsung)?
 
Upvote 0
I work in the cellphone business and have used LOTS of different phones.

Motorola has always been KING of the RF side of the house. Radios is where Motorola started and it remains one of their strengths. Physically, their recent Android phones have been on the big side but are extremely well made. The Droid X and Droid 2 are among the best Android phones out there (spec-wise and in performance).

HTC creates beautiful devices that perform great in almost all aspects. The Incredible and EVO are considered top tier Android devices.

Samsung has very good Android phones overall but they lack some of the "attention to detail" other makers have. Their RF performance has always lagged behind the competition (GPS and Bluetooth performance; even on the Galaxy S line, is below that of many other phones). And despite having fast processors, the UI sometimes seems slow in comparision to other Android units.

LG is the new kid on the block in the Android/Smartphone world and they have a lot of catching up to do before being considered equal to the other makers.

Its your money and your choice but I'd look closely at HTC and Motorola for a great Android devices these days.
 
Upvote 0
Samsung and Android is not a pretty sight. GPS is way messed up with no hope in sight of it being fixed.

And it is just my humble opinion but GPS is a very important part of an Android phone. Especially when we are talking about a "flagship" product.
ouch, that's painful i think - i *just* could not live without gps
i *hate* my x10 mini pro - but one of the things that make me keep it is the gps sat nav

good to hear the reply - i was thinking of trying out a samsung galaxy - will steer clear now
 
Upvote 0
good to hear the reply - i was thinking of trying out a samsung galaxy - will steer clear now


I really tried, I went thru two Captivates but the GPS issue is real and not
acceptable in a phone that cost this much.


I am incredulous at the number of people and websites "shielding" Samsung from criticism. It reminds me of a political party that things what is believed and felt is more important than what is.
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones