why would they gut this phone?

[mrdrh99]

I stopped by Verizon and played with it for about 20 min, it's badass, i want (ed) it. But with the storage and battery i feel like I'm looking at a bodybuilder on steroids.....big and bad but tiny balls! if Motorola could put a 3300ma battery (i think) in the RAZR surely htc could have done better than this.....and 16gig is atrocious when they had that much real estate! I'm truly awed and disappointed at the same time!

 

[bassjo]

I heard that Verizon is the one who requested the HTC only make it 16 gigs. I honestly don't have a problem with the battery life, it routinely lasts me 16+ hours.

 

[WuBoy]

The small internal memory and battery gave me pause at first, but after getting it, it's really not that big a deal. The battery lasts me pretty much the whole day and I still have like 4 gives of internal memory left despite having the phone exactly how I want it.

If you're the type to pile your phone up with media or have the screen on for hours at a time, maybe it's not for you. But I think the average person would be happy with the phone despite the drawbacks.

 

[mrdrh99]

Maybe they're pushing you to use"the cloud", i want a quad core and 2g ram so bad but I'm probably going with the HD

 

[BigCiX]

Carriers are trying to push customers towards online storage. Why.....i don't know. Just glad i got 50gigs free when i purchased the LG Thrill. Nicely built phone but lacked software support.

 

[zenman]

The only times I run out of battery in a day is when I play too much Temple Run. Other than that the DNA always gets through the day. And I've still got 5 gigs of space left.

 

[atakin77]

The battery on this phone is fine - I routinely go all day off a charger. I do agree about the storage, but I've found that I keep music on my phone I actually listen to and apps on the phone I actually use. I'd still prefer more storage though, at least 32GB.

 

[stkorn97]

I got like 9 gigs left and easily make it through a day. I have no complaints honestly.

 

[lou61166]

thought the same way till i purchased and starting using the DNA,you quickly forget about the battery and storage,as the DNA is a pure treat to use.

 

[stkorn97]

thought the same way till i purchased and starting using the DNA,you quickly forget about the battery and storage,as the DNA is a pure treat to use.

Exactly. It blows away every other phone I've messed with.

I actually put 2 gigs of music on it just for the hell of it. 9 gigs left and have nothing to do with it haha.

 

[welbinator]

music.google.com <---store up to 20,000 of your own songs for free. (10GB per song limit)

drive.google.com <----5GB of free storage for any file type

Picasa/facebook/google+ <------store all your photos

Pandora <-----free music

Spotify <----10 bucks per month for unlimited access to an almost limitless library of music. Songs can be downloaded to your device if you're going some place without 3G/4G.

Rdio <---same as spotify, not sure the price


Who needs more than 16GBs of storage?

 

[hilmar2k]

Who needs more than 16GBs of storage?

Someone without unlimited data that likes to listen to a lot if music, or watch movies.

 

[welbinator]

Someone without unlimited data that likes to listen to a lot if music, or watch movies.

so a person like me?

You must mean "someone without unlimited data that likes to listen to a lot of music, or watch movies that also rarely has access to wifi."

I guess if you want to carry your entire music/movie collection around with you I see your point.

 

[Bearcats]

Someone without unlimited data that likes to listen to a lot if music, or watch movies.

So if you have unlimited are you not streaming data and not keeping files on your phone?

 

[hilmar2k]

So if you have unlimited are you not streaming data and not keeping files on your phone?

I have no idea what you said there.

 

[Bearcats]

I have no idea what you said there.

Ah ha...my bad. Coffee has not kicked in. You said someone that does NOT have unlimited. I read as "has unlimited". Mea Culpa.

 

[inkdesigner]

Carriers are trying to push customers towards online storage. Why.....i don't know.

Because data is the new king when it comes to revenue, especially at VZW and AT&T. The more carriers can "force" their subscribers to store stuff in the "cloud", the more data these subscribers will consume. At VZW and AT&T, where data is now metered and the number of users with unlimited data accounts is dwindling, the carrier can make more money, as the average user doesn't really understand how much data is consumed when streaming music all day or 1 or 2 HD movies from the "cloud". They are counting on the user exceeding their data limit so they can charge anywhere from $10 to $15 USD per GB in overage charges.

 

[WuBoy]

Because data is the new king when it comes to revenue, especially at VZW and AT&T. The more carriers can "force" their subscribers to store stuff in the "cloud", the more data these subscribers will consume. At VZW and AT&T, where data is now metered and the number of users with unlimited data accounts is dwindling, the carrier can make more money, as the average user doesn't really understand how much data is consumed when streaming music all day or 1 or 2 HD movies from the "cloud". They are counting on the user exceeding their data limit so they can charge anywhere from $10 to $15 USD per GB in overage charges.

I don't know if I buy that. I mean it's tempting to blame big business on trying to scalp the consumer, and I also agree that these companies are making the data move to increase their profits. I don't necessarily agree they are trying to come up on overage charges though. Verizon created a data monitoring widget and has set it up to inform you when you're within 50% and 75% of your limit. In other words, they are giving you a fair shot to responsibly manage your data. Not only that, if you find that you didn't sign up for enough data, you can pretty much increase your limit at any time and avoid the overage charges if those appear like they will be come a constant thing.

 

[Eris1981]

I don't know if I buy that. I mean it's tempting to blame big business on trying to scalp the consumer, and I also agree that these companies are making the data move to increase their profits. I don't necessarily agree they are trying to come up on overage charges though. Verizon created a data monitoring widget and has set it up to inform you when you're within 50% and 75% of your limit. In other words, they are giving you a fair shot to responsibly manage your data. Not only that, if you find that you didn't sign up for enough data, you can pretty much increase your limit at any time and avoid the overage charges if those appear like they will be come a constant thing.

The widget and website do not update in real time that I can tell. 2 movies can easily put you over on your data buch less everything else you could do in a day or two.

 

[atakin77]

I don't know if I buy that. I mean it's tempting to blame big business on trying to scalp the consumer, and I also agree that these companies are making the data move to increase their profits. I don't necessarily agree they are trying to come up on overage charges though. Verizon created a data monitoring widget and has set it up to inform you when you're within 50% and 75% of your limit. In other words, they are giving you a fair shot to responsibly manage your data. Not only that, if you find that you didn't sign up for enough data, you can pretty much increase your limit at any time and avoid the overage charges if those appear like they will be come a constant thing.

For $30, you used to get unlimited data per month. Now on the tiered / metered plans that same amount of money will get you around 2-3gb of data.

One streamed hd movie is about 750 mb. I use about 500mb of data per day if I stream music all day from Google Music I am my office. What this means is that I one could hit the data cap in a couple of days very easily while that same amount of monthly cost used to get you unlimited data. Personally, I will use 5-6 gb per month and my wife will use about 1.5 gb, with occasional spikes. We would need to get a 8 or 10 gb plan to be on one we comfortably would not go over. Those plans are $80 to $100 per month versus $60 per month for two lines of unlimited data.

So what they have done is forced folks to buy more data for more money. By reducing the amount of on board storage, Verizon is subtly pushing their users toward many of the cloud storage options someone listed earlier in this post. Knowing that users will not always have access to wifi, they will have to use more wireless data to access their content (music, pictures, etc). More wireless data means more money for the carrier on these capped data plans.

The amount of data one uses on 4g versus 3g is amazing... Think about dial up at home versus cable Internet. It is the same. The carriers know this and are positioning their plans to make more money.

Fair shot at staying under your data cap? It is nice for them to make a widget, but I wouldn't call it fair when they strip out on board storage to force you to use cloud services for content you used to be able to store locally on your phone and then charge you more per month to get that same content. The whole setup is a play to get more money for data, either up front in higher monthly costs or at the back end in the form of overages.

 

[WuBoy]

The widget and website do not update in real time that I can tell. 2 movies can easily put you over on your data buch less everything else you could do in a day or two.

It's just a matter of tapping on the widget to update it. It's not that difficult a thing, and once you tap it, it stays pretty current. And if you know you're on a limit, why wouldn't you do the smart thing and DL the movie or movies ahead of time on a wireless connection? I'm not saying that the tiered systems are just as convenient as the unlimited. Obviously, they aren't. I'm just saying that I don't think Verizon is trying to set you up get a bunch of overage charges. They have given you ways to monitor your usage. They voluntarily send you warnings about your data usage. And the Verizon reps actually do a pretty good job of helping you choose the right plan for you. Past that, it's your own responsibility in not going over. If you do, it's not due to some master plan on Verizon's part. It will most likely be due to your own carelessness.

For $30, you used to get unlimited data per month. Now on the tiered / metered plans that same amount of money will get you around 2-3gb of data.

One streamed hd movie is about 750 mb. I use about 500mb of data per day if I stream music all day from Google Music I am my office. What this means is that I one could hit the data cap in a couple of days very easily while that same amount of monthly cost used to get you unlimited data. Personally, I will use 5-6 gb per month and my wife will use about 1.5 gb, with occasional spikes. We would need to get a 8 or 10 gb plan to be on one we comfortably would not go over. Those plans are $80 to $100 per month versus $60 per month for two lines of unlimited data.

So what they have done is forced folks to buy more data for more money. By reducing the amount of on board storage, Verizon is subtly pushing their users toward many of the cloud storage options someone listed earlier in this post. Knowing that users will not always have access to wifi, they will have to use more wireless data to access their content (music, pictures, etc). More wireless data means more money for the carrier on these capped data plans.

The amount of data one uses on 4g versus 3g is amazing... Think about dial up at home versus cable Internet. It is the same. The carriers know this and are positioning their plans to make more money.

Fair shot at staying under your data cap? It is nice for them to make a widget, but I wouldn't call it fair when they strip out on board storage to force you to use cloud services for content you used to be able to store locally on your phone and then charge you more per month to get that same content. The whole setup is a play to get more money for data, either up front in higher monthly costs or at the back end in the form of overages.

I don't think you're comparing the plans fairly. You're only accounting for the data, but no one just gets data. You have to look at the phone plan charges too, and when you take that into account, it's not nearly as bad a change as you're making it seem. For instance, my wife and I had 1700 mins talk plan with unlimited data on both lines before. I tend to use about 4 gigs of data a month and my wife uses about 1. So by getting the 6 gig plan we actually save about 10 a month and get unlimited talk minutes which is good since our cell phones are out exclusive means of making phonecalls. If we want a larger buffer on our data, we could get the 8 gig plan and only be spending about 3 dollars more than before.

Again, I'm not saying they aren't moving to the tiered plans to make more money. Of course they are. I'm saying I don't believe their master plan is that everyone is irresponsible with their data management and gets a ton of overage charges. Yeah streaming huge files uses up your data, but you act you absolutely have to do that. You don't, and frankly it's silly to even make that point. If I know I'm taking a plane ride tomorrow and want to have movies for that, it's not that big a deal to DL the movies on my wireless tonight beforehand. Your whole post basically just boils down to you wanting to stubbornly stick with what you did when your data was unlimited rather than just adjusting. I loved unlimited as much as anyone, but honestly, I don't really even miss the loss. I uses my data pretty much the same way I did before with the exception of making sure to connect wireless more when I have the opportunity and I'm actually saving money as a result.

 

[hilmar2k]

.... And if you know you're on a limit, why wouldn't you do the smart thing and DL the movie or movies ahead of time on a wireless connection? ....

That's exactly the point. The lack of storage makes that difficult, and promotes streaming. My point was that the lack of internal storage and not being on unlimited don't go together well for people that like to listen to music or watch movies on their phones.

I don't really do either much, so it's not a big deal to me. I'm more concerned about the non-removable battery than the fixed storage. Li-Ion batteries don't last forever, and by the end of the 20 month upgrade period it may have lost 25-50% of its capacity. So having great battery life now, doesn't mean you won't be struggling to make it through the day in 18 months. My old Inc2 is now my wife's, and she is starting to complain about battery life. The battery is 18 months old, and clearly doesn't have the same capacity it did when new. But then again, I can just replace that battery.

 

[WuBoy]

That's exactly the point. The lack of storage makes that difficult, and promotes streaming. My point was that the lack of internal storage and not being on unlimited don't go together well for people that like to listen to music or watch movies on their phones.

I don't really do either much, so it's not a big deal to me. I'm more concerned about the non-removable battery than the fixed storage. Li-Ion batteries don't last forever, and by the end of the 20 month upgrade period it may have lost 25-50% of its capacity. So having great battery life now, doesn't mean you won't be struggling to make it through the day in 18 months. My old Inc2 is now my wife's, and she is starting to complain about battery life. The battery is 18 months old, and clearly doesn't have the same capacity it did when new. But then again, I can just replace that battery.

And how many of Verizon's top phones lack storage? Just this one. The Note 2, S3, Maxx HD, and pretty much every other worthwhile phone at Verizon have external storage options and or variable internal memories.

And the non-removable battery definitely isn't an angle they are running. It would lead to people replacing their phones as soon as the option becomes available. Phone companies lose money on giving out subsidized phones. They would much rather you continue to act like you're on contract and use the same phone as long as possible.

 

[Rxpert83]

Its got nothing to do with Verizon. Its HTCs top of the line phones that no longer have expandable storage.

Sprint made them change it with their one x. Looks like Verizon took it as is

 

[jhawkkw]

Its got nothing to do with Verizon. Its HTCs top of the line phones that no longer have expandable storage.

Sprint made them change it with their one x. Looks like Verizon took it as is

The Butterfly/J Butterfly, which is the international model of the DNA, has a sd card slot. Every report I found claims Verizon asked them to remove it.