Considering Rezound - Questions

[kelela92]

I upgraded to a Razr and have been having some issues with it and am debating going to a Rezound. I previously had the Dinc and that's the only Android phone I've used, so obviously, I'm used to HTC. Here are my areas of concerns I hope someone can help me with.

1. Google Music and BT integration for car
I have a Mazda and my Dinc worked seamlessly with it. I could use my cars controls to skip tracks, volume, etc. If my BT was on, and I hit AUX, GMusic would start immediately. If I switched to the radio or turned my car off, it would stop. If I turned off my car mid-song, it'd start back up where it left off when I returned.

Unfortunately, the Razr is iffy on all accounts and I use GMusic a lot when driving. It won't change tracks (well, sometimes it will), if I turn to AUX, it doesn't start, I have to start it from the phone. Volume doesn't work.

Does anyone use GMusic and BT in their car? Does it work nicely? Having a Mazda is a plus, lol.

2. Keyboard Lag
Although I'm not the best at typing, my Dinc never lagged and always kept up. How's the Rezound? The Razr is absolutely horrible and I hate typing on it. It's becoming a dealbreaker.

3. Reception/Signal
My Dinc gets nothing at my house (I'm in a dead area). Usually it's at 1 bar 3g or maybe 1x, but usually neither. So it kills my battery unless I remember to put it on Wifi. My Razr on 4g gets 3 bars. On 3g, gets 2 bars. My friend's Dinc gets 1 bar on 3g (so I know it's not just my phone). How's the Rezound? Would you say average? Better than average?

4. Battery Life
I know 4g kills batteries, but I also know my Razr will only last 8-12 hours...and that's not really using it (although it still receives mail and stuff). I've been reading and it sounds like the Rezound and Razr are about the same. This is when I want a Maxx.

5. Smart Actions
I just realized....is that a Moto thing?

6. Opening Apps/menus
Everything I've read points to the Razr being faster. But after 2 weeks, my is lagging big time. 4-5 seconds just to open the "add a widget" screen. I see a few posts here...anyone else see their phone slowing down after adding lots of apps and personalizing their phone? My Dinc is faster than my Razr.

Thanks for getting through this. I'm trying to decide and although I have had the Razr for a bit over 2 weeks now, I can't use the Rezound for that long and return it for a Maxx. I'm trying to do this the hard way....by asking people about it instead.

 

[Wraith72]

I recently acquired my Rezound, and I love it. I'm still learning my way around it and the Android OS as this is my first Android phone. I apologize in advance for my lack of detail in answering your questions. This is only meant as a response based on my opinion of the phone so far.

1. Google Music and BT integration for car

I haven't tried Gmusic via BT in my truck yet. Although, I am impressed with the streaming ability as I've played music (without interruption) with 1 bar of 3G here at work. This is definitely a +1 for the Rezound's antenna reception in my area.

2. Keyboard Lag

I haven't noticed any lag between key presses. The phone seems quite snappy in this respect.

3. Reception/Signal

The reception/signal is amazing in my area, but this will be relative in terms of your location and provider coverage. Last night, I found a nice 4G zone in an area that I didn't even know had 4G coverage! (see my response to #1)

4. Battery Life

I think you'll find a lot of people agreeing with you on the lack of stock 4G battery life (in any phone). I was also tempted by the RAZR MAXX, but I wanted a different phone. Everyone in my workplace has a RAZR. I bought the extended battery and replacement cover from Verizon for $31, so that was a no-brainer. My Rezound may be half the thickness of a brick right now, but at least the battery lasts more than a day without being charged (that's 'moderate' use - checking emails, surfing the web, playing a few games).

5. Smart Actions

Yes, I believe from what I've read, this is a Moto app that will be (or is) integrated into their phones.

6. Opening Apps/menus

Again, to answer similarly as in #2, I haven't noticed any lag with anything I've done on my Rezound. I do notice some games/apps take longer to load than others, but as far as the basic functions of the phone go, all seem very responsive and snappy.

I hope this helps, and maybe a more experienced user can chime in with their results to help you with your decision.

Good luck.

 

[trophynuts]

3. Reception/Signal
My Dinc gets nothing at my house (I'm in a dead area). Usually it's at 1 bar 3g or maybe 1x, but usually neither. So it kills my battery unless I remember to put it on Wifi. My Razr on 4g gets 3 bars. On 3g, gets 2 bars. My friend's Dinc gets 1 bar on 3g (so I know it's not just my phone). How's the Rezound? Would you say average? Better than average?

Based on my experience when i had the Rezound i was very impressed with the signal reception. HTC i think really did their homework after the T'bolt. However Mine didn't get as good as my DX ( no surprise we all know Moto is king in cell radio tech) BUT it did get better than my girlfriends Dinc in the same area. Like i said overall i was happy with the reception.

4. Battery Life
I know 4g kills batteries, but I also know my Razr will only last 8-12 hours...and that's not really using it (although it still receives mail and stuff). I've been reading and it sounds like the Rezound and Razr are about the same. This is when I want a Maxx.

Based on my experience when i had the Rezound i was also impressed with battery life. Just know that this is a very subjective topic though. Everyone uses their phones differently, everyone has a diff version of what they think moderate use is. I can say that for my needs and what my version of moderate use were i could easily make it 12 hours on the standard battery. I was able at times to stretch it to 15hours. However i did leave 4G turned off when i didn't need it. This saved a lot of battery

5. Smart Actions
I just realized....is that a Moto thing?

Yes this is just a moto thing. However there may be apps that replicate similar results. Like Locale.



All in all if you told me i had to pick between the Razr and the Rezound. I would pic the Rezound hands down. I really like Moto's build quality and usually their overall quality but i think out of those two the Rezound is the winner.

There is my input based on the time i spent with the Rezound (3 weeks)

 

[kelela92]

I recently acquired my Rezound, and I love it. I'm still learning my way around it and the Android OS as this is my first Android phone. I apologize in advance for my lack of detail in answering your questions. This is only meant as a response based on my opinion of the phone so far.

Thanks for the responses. That helps a lot. Would you mind testing out the BT and Google Music? I know every car is different, but I'm having major issues just streaming (and I'm in 4g) through my BT. If you could, that'd be great. If not, it's quite alright too.

 

[kelela92]

There is my input based on the time i spent with the Rezound (3 weeks)

Thanks for the feedback. At least I know if I go to a Rezound, it will be an upgrade from my Dinc. And thanks for letting me know about Locale. That'll help a lot if I go back to HTC (which I'm thinking I might).

Just curious, why only 3 weeks and what do you have now?

 

[trophynuts]

galaxy nexus

 

[jetmdt]

If you want an inferior camera.... Refer to the above.... But you get ICS first... Rezound hands down.

 

[Blacklight82]

1. Can't answer this.

2. There is no lag when typing for me.

3. I get really good reception on my Rezound. I've had the Incredible before and I could barely get a signal at my place, 1 if I was standing by a window. With the Rezound I get 2 bars most of the time and occasionally 3 bars anywhere in my house. I got no bars with my Thunderbolt.

4. As a light-to-moderate user throughout a work day, the phone will last with about 55% left. On a heavy usage day I'll get about 7 hours max.

5. Like you said, a Motorola thing.

6. I think HTC has been pretty good with having their Personalize feature work without lag. I've never noticed any lag on my Incredible, Thunderbolt, or Rezound. I've had lag on my Motorola Droid 2 and Samsung Droid Charge.

I really like the Rezound. Besides the small battery it's the perfect phone for me. It's got a great camera, good speed, great reception, and an awesome screen.
I've installed the ICS leak and after a few hiccups, the phone is running flawlessly.

 

[trophynuts]

If you want an inferior camera.... Refer to the above.... But you get ICS first... Rezound hands down.

inferior camera in your opinion .

 

[colornshape]

I got 23 hours on a single charge one day. That was sort of a best case test, though - only a few minutes of voice calls, connected to WiFi the entire time, phone was on, but screen off most of the time. I seem to get about three point five hours of talk time.

I've had this about a month and it is as snappy and responsive as day one, and I have perhaps sixty apps. Takes for-huh-ever to boot now, though.

I had a DX for a year, and this phone has weaker connectivity by far. I lose the data connection in places the DX didn't.

With the nice display and no missing hardware keys, this phone was the only sensible choice for me, and I am quite pleased with it. Recommended.

Matt

 

[Wraith72]

kelela92... Referring to question #1, my Kenwood nav unit won't allow me to stream music via BT on my Rezound. Sorry. Hopefully someone else can offer their experience about streaming tunes through their car stereo with the Rezound.

 

[varaonaid]

Thanks for posting these pre-purchase questions. I'm strongly considering the Rezound for both my phone and my DH's phone upgrades. Our DX's are seeming to slowly die...less and less responsive, weird activity etc. I don't want to pay the initial prices for quadcore and 1.5ghz dual core is 3x the speed of the DX so I'm just waiting for another $99 sale (like they had JUST before we were eligible for our upgrades...go figure!). All the responses were really helpful to read as we're experiences serious lag with our DX's.

 

[Dubbin1]

galaxy nexus

Agreed!!!

Don't let the haters steer you away from the best phone on the market. No matter what you read the battery life is good and the camera is awesome. People need a better understanding about MP when it comes to how good a camera really is.

BTW I'm not hating on any phone as I'm in this forum right now trying to decide if I want to get the rezound for the wife (can't beat it for $50 right now).

 

[Bobbyg714]

I too have a couple of questions. I currently have the Thunderbolt and have had issues in the past couple of months. I have received two replacement phones and now see I can transfer an upgrade on my account and get the Rezound for 49.99. My questions:

1. The rezound has a 16 gig SD card installed. Can I just use my 32 gig card from my Thunderbolt which has all my apps, pics text back up etc in the rezound. I don't want to start all over on a new phone. I can't find out if the Rezound can handle 32 gig card.

2. If I do get the phone would it be as simple as putting my 4G sim card and 32 sd card in the new phone and activate to get started?

3. Has anyone else upgraded from the thunderbolt to this phone and is it that much better?

Thank you so much for any replies, I need to decide soon as the sale won't last long.

 

[Whubblesbuddy]

Hi Bobby,

My daughter and I have had Rezounds since 2/24 of this year, and we LOVE them. With one minor exception, our Rezounds have been working perfectly with no problems for the whole time. Exception was that daughter's phone was charging all night, in the morning it went into funky reboot-start it self up-freeze-reboot a while later cycle. It had this problem only once, but was easily fixed by pulling the battery for a few seconds, then doing a "volume-down, power button" reset of the phone. It had been fine ever since then. We get a lot of power flickers and brown-outs here, and it may have gotten zapped while it was charging overnight.

Answers to your questions:

1. Yes, you can put a 32GB micro SD card in the Rezound

2. Do T-bolts have SIM cards? The upgrade should be as easy as you describe.

3. Never had a T-bolt, but: The display on the Rezound is sharper (more pixels/sq. inch) than the much vaunted "Retna" display on the iPhone 4s. Sharp and crisp don't even begin to describe it. It is the sharpest screen you can get in a phone, anywhere, now. Of course, managing all of those pixels can eat up some computing power. Not to worry, the 1.5 GHz dual core Qualcomm MSM8660 processor in the Rezound has its own, built in, Adeno 220 graphics processor that works like a GPU in a desktop comuter, by unloading the main CPU.

Memory: Rezound = 16 GB onboard memory, 1 GB DDR2 RAM (DDR2 is very fast compared to normal phone memory). You have about 10GB of the built-in 16GB available to use, as well as the whole microSD card that you install. In your case, with your 32GB card, that gives you near 42GB of storage space. Thunderbolt = 8GB emmc + 768 RAM Memory card (quoting HTC web site), plus your microSD card.

Processor: Thunderbolt = 1 core at 1GHz. Rezound = 2 cores, each one running 50% faster than the T-bolt's one processor core.

There are many comments on the Android forums out there that the Rezound is the most trouble-free Android phone available. Maybe ever. Some people have had problems with the OTA upgrade for the software that came out in January this year, but we haven't.

Rezound is also the most powerful Android phone on Verizon's network now. Possibly the most powerful phone of any kind on any network in the US right now. If this phone had been marketed on its screen specifications and promoted as the raw horsepower beast that it is, it would be flying off of the shelves much faster than the Razr Maxx is now. IMHO, pushing only the Beats by Dr. Dre thing only served to make people overlook the phone as some kind of gimmick for the teens and twentysomethings. We almost overlooked it too.

Of course you can always upgrade, and use the 14 day return period to evaluate the Rezound yourself. That way you will get the only opinion that counts in the end: yours.

Scott

 

[Whubblesbuddy]

Oh, yeah. Given that the Rezound is one of Verizon's two flagship phones, along with the Razr Maxx (less powerful , but very good battery), the Rezound will likely get the Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade pretty early, along with the Razr Maxx.

 

[Bobbyg714]

Thanks for the wealth of information. Yes the Tbolt does have a 4G sim card. I know becuase I have transferred it and my SD card to 3 different replacement Tbolt phones in the past 8 days. I just ordered the Rezound and can't wait to get it. My main concern was the SD card as I have had to back up and restore all my apps 3 times now and being able to just plug the card in helped save so much time. Thank you again.