Well, I've now officially had my Droid X for one year...
...well, actually, I've had this one (my third) for about two weeks.
Boy, oh, boy do I wish I had one year's worth of information to go on when I purchased this junker. Let's run down the list of common problems.
First, if you've owned your Droid X for more than six months and use it with any regularity at all, I have bad news for you: Your screen is damaged.
Don't believe me? Open your browser and go to the Google homepage. Then tilt your phone around a bit and look under the area where you swipe your thumb to unlock your phone. Notice the unnatural brightness? Every single Droid X I have ever encountered (including my first two) has this damage. It's simply a byproduct of using the phone.
Which is likely due to problem No. 2: The battery REGULARLY overheats. 10-15 minutes of use (or 120 seconds of use in a low signal area) turns your phone into a small pizza stone capable of crisping up a fine Neopolitan pie. A common theory is that this excessive heat, when combined with regular use of the screen, causes the bright spots mentioned above to "burn" into the screen near common points of contact.
(Sub-problem: Low signal area? That means anything other than 3G. I can't recall the last time I was able to do anything successfully on my phone (other than placing a call) using 1X speeds.)
Problem 3: When the Droid X moves through a no service area, it often acts as though it is completely disconnected from the Verizon network even once it has moved back into an area with a 1X or 3G coverage.
What do I mean by this? The problem to which it most compares is when a computer remains connected to an active wireless network, but for some reason believes it has no internet signal. This happens with my MacBook all. the. time. I have to cycle my Airport card to get it to start properly reading the wireless network again.
The Droid X is no different. I live in D.C. and often traverse parts of the Metro rail system that rob my phone of ANY signal. Once I move back into an area WITH signal, I often have to cycle my phone in and out of Airplane mode to get it to start recognizing the 3G signal it's displaying in the upper righthand corner of my screen.
Speaking of Airplane mode, has anyone else noticed a severe lag with this feature? Today (I $#!% you not), my phone remained fully connected to by Bluetooth headphones while claiming to be in Airplane mode. Only once I manually disengaged the bluetooth settings did this stop.
Sometimes it takes as long as 45 seconds for my phone to switch to airplane mode.
Problem 5: The phone often shuts down/restarts when playing music. This is usually accompanied by the battery overheating. I have experienced this with the Stock Music app, Pandora, with Bluetooth headphones AND regular headphones. The phone will suddenly stop playing music. When you look down at the screen, it's either gone very dark (as in, not off, but lacking any brightness) or it's already begun it's reboot cycle. This problem has been reported far and wide across the interwebs.
Another problem is it's shoddy Bluetooth capabilities. So you know, I use a set of Motorola S9-HD's, a product designed by the self-same company. At first, I used the homescreen toggle to connect with them. When I noticed how often this failed, I started opening Bluetooth settings directly. Often times, the phone connects to just Phone audio or just Media audio rather than both. Sometimes neither. When THIS seemed to fail as often as the toggle, I started long-pressing the S9-HD's in the equipment queue and selecting "Options" so I could literally watch the phone try to connect to first Phone and then Media audio every. single. time. I use my headphones. This still is not perfect, and it's about 3x as time consuming as the "easy" toggle widget.
Speaking of Widgets, has anyone ever used a widget like ScoreCenter without having to constantly remove and replace it? I have had problems with a number of widgets that are set to update automatically. They freeze up with regularity. Once frozen, I must either restart the launcher or the device, or remove and replace the app on the screen.
And, finally, speaking of freezing, boy does my phone freeze. A lot. Before I figured out the Airplane Mode signal cycle trick, I had to do a restart or even battery pull on my device 2-3 times a day. I spend more time during my commute restarting my phone than using it.
On a related note, many apps freeze up when you use them in a low signal area and must be Force Stopped and restarted in a 3G area, otherwise they will continue to make the phone over-think (and heat up). The most common offender for me is Google Voice, which is ESPECIALLY frustrating. Essentially, my phone regularly freezes in the process of sending text messages. Yup. Text messages. The wheel spins for 30 seconds, and then I know it's time to go in to the settings and Force Stop Voice for the nth time today, this week, this year...
All I can say is that I wish I had bought an Incredible. Less powerful? Sure. But I don't know many owners who aren't satisfied. It takes every fiber of my being not to want to destroy my Droid X and urinate on it's mangled form, and this is a device for which I paid $200 down and another $75 a month for two years.
And my brand new refurb, just two weeks old, is not better with the vast majority of these problems than either of my previous two models.
At least I have another 5.5 months before I start noticing the compulsory screen damage...
...well, actually, I've had this one (my third) for about two weeks.
Boy, oh, boy do I wish I had one year's worth of information to go on when I purchased this junker. Let's run down the list of common problems.
First, if you've owned your Droid X for more than six months and use it with any regularity at all, I have bad news for you: Your screen is damaged.
Don't believe me? Open your browser and go to the Google homepage. Then tilt your phone around a bit and look under the area where you swipe your thumb to unlock your phone. Notice the unnatural brightness? Every single Droid X I have ever encountered (including my first two) has this damage. It's simply a byproduct of using the phone.
Which is likely due to problem No. 2: The battery REGULARLY overheats. 10-15 minutes of use (or 120 seconds of use in a low signal area) turns your phone into a small pizza stone capable of crisping up a fine Neopolitan pie. A common theory is that this excessive heat, when combined with regular use of the screen, causes the bright spots mentioned above to "burn" into the screen near common points of contact.
(Sub-problem: Low signal area? That means anything other than 3G. I can't recall the last time I was able to do anything successfully on my phone (other than placing a call) using 1X speeds.)
Problem 3: When the Droid X moves through a no service area, it often acts as though it is completely disconnected from the Verizon network even once it has moved back into an area with a 1X or 3G coverage.
What do I mean by this? The problem to which it most compares is when a computer remains connected to an active wireless network, but for some reason believes it has no internet signal. This happens with my MacBook all. the. time. I have to cycle my Airport card to get it to start properly reading the wireless network again.
The Droid X is no different. I live in D.C. and often traverse parts of the Metro rail system that rob my phone of ANY signal. Once I move back into an area WITH signal, I often have to cycle my phone in and out of Airplane mode to get it to start recognizing the 3G signal it's displaying in the upper righthand corner of my screen.
Speaking of Airplane mode, has anyone else noticed a severe lag with this feature? Today (I $#!% you not), my phone remained fully connected to by Bluetooth headphones while claiming to be in Airplane mode. Only once I manually disengaged the bluetooth settings did this stop.
Sometimes it takes as long as 45 seconds for my phone to switch to airplane mode.
Problem 5: The phone often shuts down/restarts when playing music. This is usually accompanied by the battery overheating. I have experienced this with the Stock Music app, Pandora, with Bluetooth headphones AND regular headphones. The phone will suddenly stop playing music. When you look down at the screen, it's either gone very dark (as in, not off, but lacking any brightness) or it's already begun it's reboot cycle. This problem has been reported far and wide across the interwebs.
Another problem is it's shoddy Bluetooth capabilities. So you know, I use a set of Motorola S9-HD's, a product designed by the self-same company. At first, I used the homescreen toggle to connect with them. When I noticed how often this failed, I started opening Bluetooth settings directly. Often times, the phone connects to just Phone audio or just Media audio rather than both. Sometimes neither. When THIS seemed to fail as often as the toggle, I started long-pressing the S9-HD's in the equipment queue and selecting "Options" so I could literally watch the phone try to connect to first Phone and then Media audio every. single. time. I use my headphones. This still is not perfect, and it's about 3x as time consuming as the "easy" toggle widget.
Speaking of Widgets, has anyone ever used a widget like ScoreCenter without having to constantly remove and replace it? I have had problems with a number of widgets that are set to update automatically. They freeze up with regularity. Once frozen, I must either restart the launcher or the device, or remove and replace the app on the screen.
And, finally, speaking of freezing, boy does my phone freeze. A lot. Before I figured out the Airplane Mode signal cycle trick, I had to do a restart or even battery pull on my device 2-3 times a day. I spend more time during my commute restarting my phone than using it.
On a related note, many apps freeze up when you use them in a low signal area and must be Force Stopped and restarted in a 3G area, otherwise they will continue to make the phone over-think (and heat up). The most common offender for me is Google Voice, which is ESPECIALLY frustrating. Essentially, my phone regularly freezes in the process of sending text messages. Yup. Text messages. The wheel spins for 30 seconds, and then I know it's time to go in to the settings and Force Stop Voice for the nth time today, this week, this year...
All I can say is that I wish I had bought an Incredible. Less powerful? Sure. But I don't know many owners who aren't satisfied. It takes every fiber of my being not to want to destroy my Droid X and urinate on it's mangled form, and this is a device for which I paid $200 down and another $75 a month for two years.
And my brand new refurb, just two weeks old, is not better with the vast majority of these problems than either of my previous two models.
At least I have another 5.5 months before I start noticing the compulsory screen damage...
. I also haven't noticed any overheating issues, and signal has always been strong even when hiking up in Rockies (I've had 3G at points at the top of the Continental Divide where my previous Palm 755p wouldn't have any signal at all).
