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Should I even open the box?

My Photon is set to arrive tomorrow. I went through the nightmare of the Samsung Nexus S 4G and never want to live that kind of mess again. Based on what I'm seeing on this forum, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just take the phone back to the Sprint Store unopened and stick with my EVO 4G. Are the problems with the Photon that bad? Is this another Nexus mess? Any guidance would be appreciated.
 
People HAVE to keep in mind the following.

Proven Fact: For every negative comment / complaint, there are dozens of positive comments NOT being made. It is human nature to point out the negative, and let others know about it. I would venture a guess that out of all the Photons purchased, 80% work as intended.

If you go to a restaurant and have a great experience, you might tell a friend or two. If you have a terrible experience, you'll tell 10.

This doesn't account for opinion however. The pentile screen is an example. Some love it, others hate it.

Yeah...people are having issues with some things. Most are not. An environment such as this, where people are savvy enough go to discuss a particular device will have more than it's share of complaints. It's the type of place to discuss things like that.

Open the box...see for yourself. If you got a bum device, return it.
 
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It seemed alright, but I'm not for the Pentile screen, checked it out before reading any reviews and might have got it, but read reviews about the screen and after going back and checking it out, I must say.. I picked the 3d screen and SENSE - sense being a big part haha. Go check out a demo phone and see if you like the phone itself or not.. If you experience any problems that shouldn't be there take it to corporate
 
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So far, The Photon 4g has been the best phone I have ever had.

Could it crap out in 5 minutes, sure, just like anything. But I have found it lightning fast, and will do anything an Android device could possibly do.

Very good sound quality, and much better at holding onto the poor signal I have here on the edge of the range than my last two or three phones.

Yes there have been some others with serious issues, but you might also be seeing one out of a thousand here on the boards.

I would recommend getting the extended service plan on anything this complicated, but I would recommend it on ANY Android phone.

Go for it. If you don't like it, trade it it. Buy you may kick yourself if you do not try it first.
Good luck...:)
 
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People HAVE to keep in mind the following.

Proven Fact: For every negative comment / complaint, there are dozens of positive comments NOT being made. It is human nature to point out the negative, and let others know about it. I would venture a guess that out of all the Photons purchased, 80% work as intended.

If you go to a restaurant and have a great experience, you might tell a friend or two. If you have a terrible experience, you'll tell 10.

This doesn't account for opinion however. The pentile screen is an example. Some love it, others hate it.

Yeah...people are having issues with some things. Most are not. An environment such as this, where people are savvy enough go to discuss a particular device will have more than it's share of complaints. It's the type of place to discuss things like that.

Open the box...see for yourself. If you got a bum device, return it.

He pretty much hit it on the head. I was going to point out the same points as well. Only you can be a judge of whether or not a phone is going to be a problem with you. I came to this from an EVO 4G that turned into a nightmare after the GB update. I have had the call issue happen to me 2x. On the EVo though I was having it almost consistently reboot during calls and even once during a 911 call to report a dangerous drunk driver. With all mass produced items there will be some that have issues. Heck people even make jokes out of it like Found On Roadside Daily or Can Hear Every Valve Rattle On Long Extended Trips.
 
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My Photon is set to arrive tomorrow. I went through the nightmare of the Samsung Nexus S 4G and never want to live that kind of mess again. Based on what I'm seeing on this forum, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just take the phone back to the Sprint Store unopened and stick with my EVO 4G. Are the problems with the Photon that bad? Is this another Nexus mess? Any guidance would be appreciated.

I personally love the phone, even with the little things that I've noticed (which I could easily point out about every single smartphone I've ever owned...in fact, it'd be worse with the other phones, including the EVO).

If you find yourself to be "overly critical" (again, that's all relative to how you are as far as phones are concerned), then I'd say you probably will notice every single little thing on the phone that you don't like and it will be a "big" problem for you that isn't necessarily a "big" problem for others. You have 30 days, so if you're going to go through the hassle of actually returning the phone anyway, why not just take those 30 days of trial before deciding (or even less, if you know right away that it's not the right phone for you).
 
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I would say give it a try. I have the 3vo, but that is my preference. I have seen the phone and played with it for a while. It is not a phone that i would just simply pass up. There are alot of negative comments about a lot of phones, even the evo 4g when it came out. If you like the 4g then this phone is definitely an upgrade. The best advice I can give is don't let others make your choices for you. Give it a try and if you don't like it send it packing
 
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I agree that usualy the ones who make the most noise are the ones who are negative. It's just the way it seems to be. I'm a rare one who loves to praise more than I do complain. not sure why so I am here being vocal because I am very pleased with this phone.

I have read a ton of bad about 3Vo with issues it has had, but it wouldn't keep me away from buying it had I liked it better.

I've never owned a Motorla phone before but I am so glad I made the switch. I've had no major complaints bout this phone at all. I can nitpick to death on everything if i want to, but in the end I have way fewer nitpicks about this phonne than I do almost anything else I own... I think even less than my beloved Asus Transformer tablet I am currently using.
 
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I personally think the 3Vo is a better phone. If I didn't want to carry two phones in Europe, I would have stuck with the 3Vo.

That said, the Photon 4G is a SOLID competitor despite the issues you see posted on the forum. As previous posters stated.... these forums are largely support forums... you will see more posts in the negative just because the nature of the forums. Generally if people don't have issues, they wont be posting.

I'll put it this way, although I think the 3vo is the better phone, the P4G doesn't make me miss it.
 
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I personally think the 3Vo is a better phone. If I didn't want to carry two phones in Europe, I would have stuck with the 3Vo.

That said, the Photon 4G is a SOLID competitor despite the issues you see posted on the forum. As previous posters stated.... these forums are largely support forums... you will see more posts in the negative just because the nature of the forums. Generally if people don't have issues, they wont be posting.

I'll put it this way, although I think the 3vo is the better phone, the P4G doesn't make me miss it.


Honestly, both have its pros and cons. Htc sense 3.0 is nothing short of awesomeness on the htc 3d. The ui is completely polished and i can honestly say that i miss it! Screen is crystal clear and the phone in general runs like butter. However... call quality was definitely somewhat lackluster, screen washed out in the daylight, and the speaker phone left a LOT to be desired. You'd have to make sure no noise was in your area just so you could hear it.

Now the photon, i can admit the pixelation was a definite turn off at first. But much like anything else, after a while you get used to it to the point where you no longer notice. Especially since you can see the screen clear as day boldly so in broad daylight. Speaker phone is ridiculously and pleasantly loud. Calls are an improvement on the phone. The music app is the SugarHoneyIcedTea! Zippy for the most part and very responsive. The pros totally outweigh the cons with this phone. I totally do not regret trading in the evo 3d for the photon!
 
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I've had mine 4 days. ...no problems so far. Well, one slight one. Yesterday, I was receiving two phone calls, at least one voicemail, and a text -- all at the same time -- while I was trying to make a call. The phone lagged a little.

I love the PenTile display. It's easily readable in full noonday sunlight. Yes, there is a texture on some still images in certain solid colors (sky blue and light green) that is just barely at the limits of my perception. ...but I'll trade the full-on sun readability, and slightly better battery life, for pixel perfection any day. If you aren't looking at the display side-by-side with a non-PenTile screen, and you aren't looking explicitly for it, it's not there. When it is there, it just doesn't bother me. It's a phone, not my primary entertainment device. There are necessary compromises, and the PenTile seems to hit them about right.

While I'm on the subject of the screen, does automatic brightness work on other Android phones as perfectly as it does on this Photon? The automatic brightness on my laptop is awful! I never even see it working on the Photon. It's just always the right brightness.

I looked at the 3Vo. It's not for me. Sense is nice, but after almost 3 years with a Touch Pro, I'm soured on HTC. All that eye candy just unnecessarily drags down the phone. If the Galaxy S2 comes out in the next 25 days, I will definitely consider a swap. But that S2 will have to be something totally spectacular to get me to trade my Photon for it.
 
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I've had mine 4 days. ...no problems so far. Well, one slight one. Yesterday, I was receiving two phone calls, at least one voicemail, and a text -- all at the same time -- while I was trying to make a call. The phone lagged a little.

I love the PenTile display. It's easily readable in full noonday sunlight. Yes, there is a texture on some still images in certain solid colors (sky blue and light green) that is just barely at the limits of my perception. ...but I'll trade the full-on sun readability, and slightly better battery life, for pixel perfection any day. If you aren't looking at the display side-by-side with a non-PenTile screen, and you aren't looking explicitly for it, it's not there. When it is there, it just doesn't bother me. It's a phone, not my primary entertainment device. There are necessary compromises, and the PenTile seems to hit them about right.

While I'm on the subject of the screen, does automatic brightness work on other Android phones as perfectly as it does on this Photon? The automatic brightness on my laptop is awful! I never even see it working on the Photon. It's just always the right brightness.

I looked at the 3Vo. It's not for me. Sense is nice, but after almost 3 years with a Touch Pro, I'm soured on HTC. All that eye candy just unnecessarily drags down the phone. If the Galaxy S2 comes out in the next 25 days, I will definitely consider a swap. But that S2 will have to be something totally spectacular to get me to trade my Photon for it.

Auto brightness is usually a battery drainer on phones.

Well before Sense wasn't running on a dual core processor with 1gb of ram. The 3vo is quite smooth. Playing with my friends for about 10mins I can say it was smoother than the Photon. But again only 10mins of use. And this is android. Sense can be replaced with another launcher.
 
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Auto brightness is usually a battery drainer on phones.

Well before Sense wasn't running on a dual core processor with 1gb of ram. The 3vo is quite smooth. Playing with my friends for about 10mins I can say it was smoother than the Photon. But again only 10mins of use. And this is android. Sense can be replaced with another launcher.

I would have thought auto brightness would save the battery. Is it because it keeps it too bright, or because it hogs up the battery to run?

As for Sense... My Touch Pro has a 528 MHz cpu -- state of the art in 2008. The Touch Flo 3D overlay just dogged it to death. It could have been much snappier if it had less eye candy. I'm only assuming HTC will pretty much always use a lot of processing power for eye candy. I just don't care for eye candy at the expense of performance. I realize Sense is a totally different animal, running on a totally different OS. It is very nice. ...but my Touch Pro worked well at first too. It just got slower and slower and slower as time went on, and all without a single software update. I didn't install a single app other than S2U2 screen lock. I didn't dare.
 
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My friend has the Evo 3d and my girl has the Evo 4g..I had Eris. After playing with the Photon I fell in love. (I was a Sense fiend) I do not experience 95% of the issues reported on this forum. I don't see the "screen door" effect and my battery lasts pretty long time. Sound quality on calls and speaker is better then anyone of the fones I mentioned. The only problem I have is my battery cover, but thats cuz Im OCD like that.
 
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I would have thought auto brightness would save the battery. Is it because it keeps it too bright, or because it hogs up the battery to run?

As for Sense... My Touch Pro has a 528 MHz cpu -- state of the art in 2008. The Touch Flo 3D overlay just dogged it to death. It could have been much snappier if it had less eye candy. I'm only assuming HTC will pretty much always use a lot of processing power for eye candy. I just don't care for eye candy at the expense of performance. I realize Sense is a totally different animal, running on a totally different OS. It is very nice. ...but my Touch Pro worked well at first too. It just got slower and slower and slower as time went on, and all without a single software update. I didn't install a single app other than S2U2 screen lock. I didn't dare.
It hogs the battery to run constantly finding the "right" level. I dislike Auto (tendency to be too bright IMO on all Androids) so I keep mine at the lowest level and just toggle through if I go outside with the power bar app I use at the top (use it also to turn off and on wi-fi and GPS)
 
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People HAVE to keep in mind the following.

Proven Fact: For every negative comment / complaint, there are dozens of positive comments NOT being made. It is human nature to point out the negative, and let others know about it. I would venture a guess that out of all the Photons purchased, 80% work as intended.

If you go to a restaurant and have a great experience, you might tell a friend or two. If you have a terrible experience, you'll tell 10.

This doesn't account for opinion however. The pentile screen is an example. Some love it, others hate it.

Yeah...people are having issues with some things. Most are not. An environment such as this, where people are savvy enough go to discuss a particular device will have more than it's share of complaints. It's the type of place to discuss things like that.

Open the box...see for yourself. If you got a bum device, return it.

Well said, Bandage.
 
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I looked at the 3Vo. It's not for me. Sense is nice, but after almost 3 years with a Touch Pro, I'm soured on HTC. All that eye candy just unnecessarily drags down the phone. If the Galaxy S2 comes out in the next 25 days, I will definitely consider a swap. But that S2 will have to be something totally spectacular to get me to trade my Photon for it.

I understand being sour about a manufacture, but I have the EVO Shift and really like sense. It seems that other launchers are trying to capture/keep up with sense widgets and performance. I came from the Samsung Moment, which has/had a really nice screen but big hardware issues and has soured me on Samsung phones. As well as a friend got the Captivate and it would just shut off. I want nothing to do with Samsung. That is just my experience.

As far as sense goes on my wife's EVO 4G and my EVO Shift, it runs well and is not a performance hog. I also believe that it manages battery usage pretty well with how it controls it's widgets. They only update when you go to that homepage. I have had many widgets that do their thing in the background and kill your battery life.
 
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Sense takes a lot of storage space but I don't think it's a performance hog. I think it's one of the smoothest custom UI's available for android. I like sense for the fixes they put in place to some of the limitations of stock android... T9 dialing, an email client that works, useful widgets, etc..

That said, most things that sense offers can be replicated by downloading an app from the market (it's usually not quite as slick as sense but it works). So when I'm looking for a phone I'm more concerned about the quality of the hardware... the stuff that can't be fixed after you buy the phone.

I like the photon because of it's good reception, call quality, build quality and screen (the resolution and the fact that it's viewable outside). So far I haven't heard of any common issue with the phone. I personally think the pentile screen issue is a bit overblown but I also know that once you "see" an issue, it's hard to "unsee" it.
 
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I just got my Photon. Build quality is absolutely superb. The battery door is so snug it's very difficult to remove even when you're trying. The buttons are solid and feel great.

Phone signal and sound are absolutely excellent, perhaps the best I've ever seen on a smartphone. I think it outperforms my Evo for sure.

My only two complaints are 1) the screen, I can see the PenTile's 'screen door' effect regardless of brightness. I will settle for this if it means better battery life and outdoor visibility. And 2) the Motoblur. Wow, what a change from Sense. This is quite frankly something I'd be embarrassed to put out if I were a manufacturer. It's like they had a high school student design the widgets and the look of the whole thing, while HTC had a proper graphic/industrial designer work on Sense. The difference is astonishing. However, I can overlook this because I got rid of all the widgets and I hope to replace the launcher with something that doesn't suck as much as this Motorola one.

As a side note about Sense, I found it to be a drag on performance on my old Hero, and in the initial software of my Evo, but with the 2.3 update for the Evo I think it was really snappy and no longer an issue.
 
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I just got my Photon. Build quality is absolutely superb. The battery door is so snug it's very difficult to remove even when you're trying. The buttons are solid and feel great.

Phone signal and sound are absolutely excellent, perhaps the best I've ever seen on a smartphone. I think it outperforms my Evo for sure.

My only two complaints are 1) the screen, I can see the PenTile's 'screen door' effect regardless of brightness. I will settle for this if it means better battery life and outdoor visibility. And 2) the Motoblur. Wow, what a change from Sense. This is quite frankly something I'd be embarrassed to put out if I were a manufacturer. It's like they had a high school student design the widgets and the look of the whole thing, while HTC had a proper graphic/industrial designer work on Sense. The difference is astonishing. However, I can overlook this because I got rid of all the widgets and I hope to replace the launcher with something that doesn't suck as much as this Motorola one.

As a side note about Sense, I found it to be a drag on performance on my old Hero, and in the initial software of my Evo, but with the 2.3 update for the Evo I think it was really snappy and no longer an issue.

If, aside from the screen, the only thing you don't like is Motoblur, I'd definitely check out one of the aftermarket launcher UI's (e.g. Launcher Pro, Go Launcher, ADW). I absolutely love Launcher Pro Plus on the Photon as compared to how it was on my EVO. On my EVO, it would start out great, but after a while it had really bad lag and started to have a lot of force close issues. On the Photon, it's unbelievably smooth!
 
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