Moto Droid Maxx Pre-Release Thread

[Outatime]

It's ridiculous that Motorola blocks their widget from being used on other launchers.

It really is! I do not get the logic in that at all.

 

[blackwizard]

coming from a GNex and really wanted the Moto X but kinda annoyed that they haven't made an official release date yet. decided to grab a Maxx today and IF the Moto X is released next week, i can always return it if i'm not happy.

first impressions with my Maxx:

• it feels a but large in the hands. i have small/medium hands and my GNex felt pretty great. the Maxx is definitely cumbersome even though it's not that much larger in actuality
  
• the screen looks fantastic. very nice and bright colors
  
• the battery is BEASTLY. the only time i checked it before i plugged it into the pc, i had 1 hour 8 mins of screen on time at full brightness while downloading all of my apps from the play store that i had on my Gnex on 4G and i was only down 9%. i know i used it a good hour and half to 2 hours after that and still had plenty of battery to go.
  
• i don't miss the LED from my GNex. i really thought i would, but the active notification on this is GREAT.
  
• the buttons aren't a big deal at all. i really enjoyed the on-screen buttons of the GNex and thought i'd miss them, but i almost feel like these are on screen buttons with their close proximity to the screen and being essentially just pictures on the glass.
  
• using the flash as a flashlight leaves a lot to be desired. light has a very yellow tint to it, where the GNex had a very whit color.
  
• signal, reception, and call quality are all great. typical motorola in that respect
  
• my biggest complaint is the hands free "ok google now". it doesn't always hear me sitting on my desk 18" away. even speaking loudly, it sometimes took 2-3 times of saying the phrase for it to hear me and respond. when it did, more often than not it led me to a google search result page. when i have said "ok google now what's the weather", like in so many of the video reviews, it still takes me to a results page with a link to the weather channel. maybe i'm doing something wrong here, but it's not quite as advertised

overall, i'm fairly impressed with the phone. i may yet return it for the X (if it's released next week) just because of the feel of it in my hand.

 

[Thom]

I'm distressed! I went at noon today and picked up my new Maxx. I switched my upgrade to my son's line so that I wouldn't lose my unlimited data. As I go to switch the sim cards, obviously the Maxx uses a mini with NFC and my Gnex does not. I asked for a new sim card the CSR tried to activate a mini WITHOUT NFC. Obviously that does not work. After him going in the back for 15 minutes he comes out and tells me that the mini NFC sim is so new that they don't have any in store, but if I wait 7-10 days they will LIKELY have them in store OR I could call Verizon myself and have one delivered in a couple of days.

A COUPLE OF DAYS!!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! You mean to tell me that my 16 year old son that breaks a phone every month (exaggeration) will have his grimy hands on my phone until Thrusday because they don't have a sim in the store for me?!?!

And that is exactly where I am now. Thursday, my sim will come and I will begin using the Maxx.

It's my understanding that the Maxx uses a nano-SIM and the iPhone5 uses a nano-SIM. I was confused by your reference to a micro-SIM.

Are you telling me there are two flavors of nano-SIM (NFC and not NFC) and the Maxx requires the nano-SIM supporting NFC?

I don't know how to tell them apart. The nano-SIM was already installed when they opened the Maxx for the first time. I showed them how to access the SIM from the User's Guide I brought in with me.

So ... two flavors of nano-SIM and maybe that's what's preventing activation?

... Thom

 

[Old Member]

It's my understanding that the Maxx uses a nano-SIM and the iPhone5 uses a nano-SIM. I was confused by your reference to a micro-SIM.

Are you telling me there are two flavors of nano-SIM (NFC and not NFC) and the Maxx rewires the nano-SIM supporting NFC?

I don't know how to tell them apart. The nano-SIM was already installed when they opened the Maxx for the first time. I showed them how to access the SIM from the User's Guide I brought in with me.

So ... two flavors of nano-SIM and maybe that's what's preventing activation?

... Thom

The tech guys at my Verizon Corporate store and the tech guy when I called *611 both said that the nano sim has NFC incorporated in it and that is why they can't use the one that they use in the iPhone.

 

[Thom]

I'm suspecting that the wrong flavor of nano-SIM was installed in the phone before it was shipped.

I passed on your previous information to them the last time I stopped in tonight ... it requires a nano-SIM with NFC because I knew they were trying the nano-SIM for the iPhone in it.

For the record ... I attract this stuff ... in a checkout line in the supermarket about every other time they run out of paper in the cash register when I am going through.

... Thom

 

[chrisv79]

Went to the Corp store tonight to check out the maxx and ended up walking out with one. When you pick it up, it just feels like a solid device. Very high quality. Display is beautiful, no lag that I have noticed so far, and very fast. It is a large device and that will take some getting used to, but overall I am satisfied so far. I will update as I get more time with it.

Also I noticed that a couple of you said the vzw salesperson tried to steer you to the ultra. My experience was weird also. I usually just order online, but I wanted to see this phone before ordering. He was almost trying to talk me out of it, telling me the x, the one, and the note iii are coming soon and I might want to wait. Weird sales tactic when you have somebody wanting to buy something.

 

[Old Member]

Also I noticed that a couple of you said the vzw salesperson tried to steer you to the ultra. My experience was weird also. I usually just order online, but I wanted to see this phone before ordering. He was almost trying to talk me out of it, telling me the x, the one, and the note iii are coming soon and I might want to wait. Weird sales tactic when you have somebody wanting to buy something.

When I bought my Maxx, the CSR suggested under his breath as he was fumbling with my nano sim, you know the Galaxy S4 is a really nice phone too. I chuckled and said, yeah, but I've already had a phone with poor signal strength and weak battery for 20 months. He didn't say anything else.

 

[mistermojorizi]

had some pretty bad verizon corporate store experiences today, but in the end, i got my maxx and still have my *unlimited* data!

First store, i told them i want to upgrade the dumbphone line, then put the dumbphone back on to free up the maxx. All of a sudden they were "out of stock."

I went to the next corp store, and just said upgrade the dumbphone line. Once that was done I said now do a "device change" - and they said "No!" and said what i'm doing is fraud and i misled them and if they knew they wouldn't have let me take the upgrade. (which is BS, because it's my freaking line and it's my f'ing upgrade to take). They also said they're noting my account.

I walked outside, called VZW customer service, and they did everything for me within 30 mins. Used the same nano sim the phone came with. Activated easy, on both lines.

 

[Old Member]

the droid line requires NANO-SIM with NFC security... obviously the iPhone does not so the NFC part it what makes the cards different.

the reason they should still be able to get the original sim to work even if an error occurs is because SOME stores (not all, mine included) still have the old computers up and have our OLDER POS interface known as netACE. in netACE you can track a sim ID, delete it from any paired device and set it free again and be able to be used in a phone. that is most likely what they are doing, its a big work around and again only stores that still have the computers (we are moving towards iPads only as our POS) are going to be able to do this method.

The store I bought mine in used iPad's only. You mean they could have fixed this for me?!?!

 

[jalov]

Had a bit of trouble getting mine activated, but after that, all good.

Only other problem I ran into, which is sort of a big problem, so just giving a heads up...

I purchased the phone at full retail price, to keep my old unlimited plan. For me, not worth the effort to constantly worry about data. For whatever reason I figured I better check my plan, just in case. My paperwork said I kept my old plan, unlimited web and data, and text.

When I logged into my account, the pricing for my plan was still the same, but they had moved me to 2gb data plan. Luckily I noticed, called, and got it fixed in time, as I was worried they would try to say..."well, it was a mistake, we cant fix it" or "we dont offer unlimited data anymore, so they should not have told you that you can keep it on your plan". Bigger things in life to worry about but it was a tense few minutes for me, as I wouldve been quite unhappy spending $700 on a phone to specifically keep my plan, only to lose it due to a mistake. anyways, it was fixed, so anyone out there may want to double check and make sure your plan is still the same.

 

[jhawkkw]

I believe the reason you need sims with nfc is because it's an ISIS device, and there's programming in the phone to check and/or require it.

I also looked up the specs on this phone, and it will hypothetically run at full capacity on T-Mobile. It supports their EDGE, refarmed HSPA, and LTE networks. Pretty sweet.

 

[lewwill]

The store I bought mine in used iPad's only. You mean they could have fixed this for me?!?!

Actually, the tech at the Rochester, NH corporate store that fixed mine did it on an ipad.
Lew

 

[Lucky Armpit]

So I'm confused with the SIM issues. Since my Razr Maxx has a regular SIM and the Droids take nano-SIM cards, does the phone come with a SIM? Or do I have to request they send a nano-SIM? Sorry for all the questions, but it's not making sense to me...

Also, would someone with the Maxx be so kind as to let me know how the internal storage is laid out? I'm curious about how much free space is available out of 32GB. Thank you!

 

[Thom]

The problem in my case was that there was no one to be found in Verizon Customer Support yesterday who could reset the offending record in their database. Luckily we encountered one this morning and it was corrected after about 10 minutes.

So I am using the nano-SIM that came in the Maxx, it is activated, it is currently downloading all my apps from Play Store.

... Thom

 

[doogald]

So I'm confused with the SIM issues. Since my Razr Maxx has a regular SIM and the Droids take nano-SIM cards, does the phone come with a SIM? Or do I have to request they send a nano-SIM? Sorry for all the questions, but it's not making sense to me...

Also, would someone with the Maxx be so kind as to let me know how the internal storage is laid out? I'm curious about how much free space is available out of 32GB. Thank you!

According to settings->storage, Android OS takes up 6.52 GB. It's listed as 25.48 GB of available storage; after installing apps, etc., I now have 22.75 GB available.

As far as I know, mine came with a SIM, but I bought the phone in a corporate store. It's possible that the salesman inserted the SIM before he brought the phone in from the back.

 

[jhawkkw]

According to settings->storage, Android OS takes up 6.52 GB. It's listed as 25.48 GB of available storage; after installing apps, etc., I now have 22.75 GB available.

As far as I know, mine came with a SIM, but I bought the phone in a corporate store. It's possible that the salesman inserted the SIM before he brought the phone in from the back.

Got to love all that bloat. Stock 4.2.2 is only about 2.75gb, so that means more than half of that is from motorola.

 

[Thom]

As far as I know, mine came with a SIM, but I bought the phone in a corporate store. It's possible that the salesman inserted the SIM before he brought the phone in from the back.

Mine came with the nano-SIM already installed. I shoed him how to open the SIM drawer (having read the User's Guide) and it was there.

I was told today that the two nano-SIMs (support NFC on Maxx and no support on iPhone) look IDENTICAL.

... Thom

 

[romwarrior]

So anyone know of any bedside apps that will dim the menu buttons? Even putting the included clock into night mode doesn't turn them off.

 

[chrisv79]

So far no complaints from me. I think this is a great phone. I also picked up the Ghost 100 charging pad that they were selling at the VZW store and I have it sitting on my desk and it works great. Showed my buddy here at work that is waiting for the Note 3 and he was pretty impressed. It really plays the part of a top end flagship phone well. And the notion that the dual core or 720p make this a substandard phone should be put to rest. This phone is lightning fast and the display is beautiful. No day after buyers remorse here.

 

[doogald]

Got to love all that bloat. Stock 4.2.2 is only about 2.75gb, so that means more than half of that is from motorola.

More likely it's from Verizon. There are a few Verizon preloaded apps, plus NFL, plus a few Amazon apps. Most Google apps were preinstalled as well (maps, g+, gmail, the play media apps, chrome.)

 

[lewwill]

The store I bought mine in used iPad's only. You mean they could have fixed this for me?!?!

I looked and asked what the tablet was. He said iPad. He may have had a computer behind the counter but it looked like he was working on the tablet.

 

[18t]

for those of us still without, here is the first unboxing video i have seen...

The new Droid Maxx unboxing - YouTube

 

[lewwill]

The store I bought mine in used iPad's only. You mean they could have fixed this for me?!?!

OK, just called the store in Rochester and Jay said that he did end up doing it on the computer Covert-Death is correct. However he also said that it can be done on the phone to Customer Service with the ser. nr. or MEID nr.
Lew

 

[lewwill]

no... only stores with desktops can use that fix method

my store uses iPads only as well, we no longer have desktops and therefore no longer have the older POS software known as netACE. this OLDER software is what allows the work around to fix the sim card issue, that is why they were unable to fix it for you because they don't have the older system to do it in.


its annoying but in 28 days EVERY verizon store in the country will be iPads only and NO desktops whatsoever so this problem may become an even bigger issue if our software isn't updated with nice little tricks like this.

I called the Rochester NH store and Jay said he indeed used the computer after failing to get it to work on the iPad. He also said phone customer service can do it also. You were absolutely right.
Lew

 

[mistermojorizi]

So anyone know of any bedside apps that will dim the menu buttons? Even putting the included clock into night mode doesn't turn them off.

i read screen filter will, but haven't tried yet