Best phone right now?

[wickedawsome]

Going to be switching to VZW from ATT in the next week or so... I was on a win-mo phone for a long time and am currently stuck on an ancient nokia dumbphone (and going insane!) so time is of the essence.

I would love to get the Droid X, and I like the size, however it seems to be on back order for atleast a few weeks.

The incredible looks really nice but I have heard some rough criticisms including terrible battery life, crappy screen, and overall not that well put together?

and then of course, the original droid... old, but I can get for much cheaper and it seems to be a very versatile and hackable phone. (not completely nessecary, but I do like to do some tweaking)

I also have heard word that VZ's 4G is coming to my area in the not so distant future, and will likely upgrade to a 4G phone as soon as I am upgrade eligible (so I'd prefer not to have a $200 paperweight in 12 months)


Any input is appreciated, I know its mostly just opinions...

 

[codeyh]

Had a friend order the Droid X last monday, got it last friday.. so if you want it, order it!

4G/LTE for Verizon is still a ways away.. rumored for holiday season at earliest.. and your phone won't be a paperweight in 12 months.. CDMA will still be active.

 

[wickedawsome]

ok, paperweight was a bit harsh... but when 4G phones are available... I will want one of those as soon as I could upgrade.

 

[tsanuri]

4G only really matters if you are one of the lucky people to be in the markets where they launch it right off the bat. For most it will be into late 2012 or 2013 before we see it and if you are the main line of a family plan or the sole line and pay more than $49.99 for the minute plan then you can upgrade every year and that puts you at the perfect spot to upgrade late next year and get LTE if avail. then.

 

[wickedawsome]

Well, hopefully it will be soon for my area... the real question is what should I be getting right now?

 

[Frisco]

Waiting for the device you want the most seems best in the long run; why settle for less?

The Droid X beckons.

 

[Old Man]

What phone you get now shouldn't affect your upgrade other than how much you want to spend on a phone now when you plan to upgrade as soon as possible. The Droid 2 supposedly goes on sale next week and some posts here reported stores clearing out their Droid inventory, so if you want a Droid you may want to act pretty quickly. But the Ally, Incredible, Droid X and Droid 2 would still give you some very good choices.

 

[joshellis625]

Most definitely would say the Droid X. I switched from an iPhone and the DX is amazing!

 

[substring]

I went to the local VzW store and played with the Incredible and X for about 20 minutes. Before that, I was leaning toward the Incredible because of what I saw on all the youtube videos. Now I am not so sure. The Incredible is much skinnier than I thought and it looks very strange with such skinny screen. Then I noticed that many apps, including the calendar, cannot be used in landscape mode. That is a show-stopper to me as I primarily use my phone in landscape mode. I like to type and scroll with two thumbs.

Then I played with the X. It is better than I thought. And it has more apps that can be used in landscape mode than the Incredible. Although I am still not happy that the home screen is always in vertical mode, but it is the same for all Android devices....something that should have changed to allow landscape mode.

But anyway, I cannot make up my mind because I am still very skeptical about Motorola as the manufacturer of the device. I think HTC is a better manufacturer than Motorola as I have been using HTC devices from the XDA to the XV6800.

Since my NE2 is up in October, I will wait till then. Hopefully the Galaxy S will be available at that time. Then I might buy that one instead because the Super AMOLED is very sweet.

So to answer the question of this thread, the X is by far the best device, beating the Incredible maybe by a nose. But I think the better Android device is yet to come, and I think the Galaxy S might be better than the X. I don't mind to wait for another 2 months or so.

 

[wickedawsome]

Wound up getting the X and loving it. This is my first android phone... so I don't have much to compare against, but I do know that everything works as good or better than I would have expected it to and it is leaps above the WinMo6.1 phone I did have. Now I just have to download some more apps!

oh yeah, only complaint... battery life is 'meh'. It makes it thru the day, but is usually dead by about 8pm. I'd say 'moderate' usage.

-A satisfied android convertee

 

[Frisco]

I played with the X....I am still not happy that the home screen is always in vertical mode, but it is the same for all Android devices....something that should have changed to allow landscape mode.

Various 3rd party launchers from Market support home screen landscape mode, Launcher Pro comes to mind.


YouTube - ‪Verizon Droid X running Launcher Pro Beta‬‎

 

[substring]

Thanks Frisco. However, I checked all the Launcher Pro videos on youtube, including yours, and none of them has shown the option to display home screen in landscape mode. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

 

[wickedawsome]

just put launcherPro on my DX today. does landscape homescreens just fine. only thing is, you have to buy the full version in order to resize widgets... pretty lame.

 

[substring]

just put launcherPro on my DX today. does landscape homescreens just fine. only thing is, you have to buy the full version in order to resize widgets... pretty lame.

Thanks for the info.

Now, if I am not mistaken, the launcher pro basically provides the same features the Froyo has (probably except the landscape home screen). If it is correct, do we still need the launcher pro when Froyo will be released soon?

Please clarify. Thanks!

 

[TXSooner]

In your OP you say the Incredible's screen is crappy. I dont know where you got that info. It's a better screen than is on the X.

 

[Frisco]

Thanks Frisco. However, I checked all the Launcher Pro videos on youtube, including yours, and none of them has shown the option to display home screen in landscape mode. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

I've been using Launcher Pro for a while, but was using ADW in my current and another ROM, which does have the landscape home screen option in a menu check box.

Launcher Pro has it as "enable auto rotation" in the menu > preferences > behavior settings (the web browser will go to landscape mode when rotated that way no matter the preferences setting for the home screen rotation).

Meanwhile, here's an ADW video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5gRgpuQE_k

ADW is a bit slower in response than Launcher Pro, however, and requires a lot of tweaking to get it up to speed, not the least of which is overclocking.

I thus dumped it for LP.

 

[anderson620]

And with the Droid Pro so close!

 

[wickedawsome]

In your OP you say the Incredible's screen is crappy. I dont know where you got that info. It's a better screen than is on the X.

I had read somewhere there was a shortage in the screen they used and they switched to a different one part way into production? That may be totally wrong... I have no idea.

 

[vzwuser76]

I had read somewhere there was a shortage in the screen they used and they switched to a different one part way into production? That may be totally wrong... I have no idea.

That was only for the Nexus One and the Desire. The reason they did so was because Samsung had an amoled supply shortage. I talked with HTC aobut some other stuff and asked them about them going to SLCD on the Incredible. They have not nor do they have any plans to.

I got to play with a friends X the other day. I would take my amoled any day over the LCD on the X. The only thing is in sunlight, but it is still usable for me in it (worst case all you have to do is use your body to shield the sun from the screen).

As far as LTE (4G), that is for data only for the near future. I've heard they are planning to keep CDMAS for voice running anywhere from 2015 to 2019. And while they are rolling it out, they will have to have EVDO (3G data) around until they cover the country.