Is the Motorola Triumph the worst Phone of 2011

In defense of the OP, his poor grammar, attitude and all, YES...this phone is garbage. I never wanted to sign another contract for a cellphone after getting burned by one years and years ago. So, my wife and I spent $600+ total for two Motorola Triumph phones. We've had issues with the phones not charging. We've swapped out charging cables. The sound volume on these phones is not very good. There is definitely a problem with electrical shorts around the 'jack' where the audio-out is plugged in. If you jiggle the jack around a little you can get the phone's sound output to become louder or softer. That isn't good, it's a manufacturing defect. The SD cards that come with these phones are pure junk. My phone's SD card eventually quit working, so I went out and bought a 32gb SD card and it worked fantastic. Eventually my phone wouldn't even charge unless I was pressing the charger plug into the phone really hard and holding it in place (charger worked fine with my wife's phone). That's another manufacturing defect. Overall the phone felt flimsy and appeared to be made of poor quality plastic parts. My wife and I got so frustrated that we bit the bullet and signed a 2-year contract with Verizon for the Motorola Charge phones and we're very happy to have high quality phones with a carrier that has a decent, CONSISTENT signal, working GPS. I'm sorry that it didn't work out for us with Virgin Mobile and their crappy Triumph phone. I would have rather NOT signed a contract, but the bottom line is that we needed phones that worked, with a carrier that wasn't buying second tier bandwidth. Good luck to you guys!

thevaliantx said:

In defense of the OP, his poor grammar, attitude and all, YES...this phone is garbage. I never wanted to sign another contract for a cellphone after getting burned by one years and years ago. So, my wife and I spent $600+ total for two Motorola Triumph phones. We've had issues with the phones not charging. We've swapped out charging cables. The sound volume on these phones is not very good. There is definitely a problem with electrical shorts around the 'jack' where the audio-out is plugged in. If you jiggle the jack around a little you can get the phone's sound output to become louder or softer. That isn't good, it's a manufacturing defect. The SD cards that come with these phones are pure junk. My phone's SD card eventually quit working, so I went out and bought a 32gb SD card and it worked fantastic. Eventually my phone wouldn't even charge unless I was pressing the charger plug into the phone really hard and holding it in place (charger worked fine with my wife's phone). That's another manufacturing defect. Overall the phone felt flimsy and appeared to be made of poor quality plastic parts. My wife and I got so frustrated that we bit the bullet and signed a 2-year contract with Verizon for the Motorola Charge phones and we're very happy to have high quality phones with a carrier that has a decent, CONSISTENT signal, working GPS. I'm sorry that it didn't work out for us with Virgin Mobile and their crappy Triumph phone. I would have rather NOT signed a contract, but the bottom line is that we needed phones that worked, with a carrier that wasn't buying second tier bandwidth. Good luck to you guys!

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Maybe YOURS were garbage, but there are plenty of people who's aren't!

I think the current winner for the worst Android-based phone I have used to date is the Huawei M835 (released by MetroPCS in the US).

I was one of the first people to preorder a G1. When my G1 started tripping balls, I picked up a Nexus One. Now I have a Triumph (went from ~$90/month with T-Mo to $25/month with VM) and would love to have the same features/quality of my Nexus One but I know it's not going to happen overnight. Just happy that there are improvements in the works.

So, you could say I've been a long time Android supporter (Andy Rubin, when he still worked at Apple, ran my first ISP in 1990) and have been really happy with the improvements and have been patient. A coworker picked up this Huawei M835 with the 2.x" screen, sluggish processor, minimal ram, etc. It's the worst android device I've ever played with. My coworker came up to me with a frowny face asking me to look at her new phone. I tried to clean up her settings/install Launcher Pro, configure it similar to I have my phone and it took about three times as long as I did on my Nexus One. Apps kept force closing on it too. After trying to help improve the battery life for her and using the phone more, if this was my only exposure to Android I'd probably switch. Tried telling her to complain and see about swapping it for one of their better phones...

There's also these articles (since I haven't posted much, I can't link to):

Introducing The Worlds Worst Android Phone: Metro PCS Branded Huawei Ascend
"At first glance the Huawei Ascend seems like an OK device, but once purchased and fired up for the first time you immediately get the feeling of being ripped off".

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Introducing the Planet's Worst Cell Phone
Everything about the 'truly dreadful' Samsung Craft is a 'nightmare'

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I've also read that their 4G service they've been hyping is slower than every other major carrier's 3G. I don't know why MetroPCS has jumped on the Android bandwagon with the worst phones possible (as you can see on those two alone) but I think these hurt the android community more than help it (who would honestly consider owning another Android phone after their first impression being one of these abominations?) and it pisses me off.

So to consider the Triumph as one of the worst phones of 2011... no. Production/Quality Control issues? Yeah... but I think the phones that are working good, hopefully we see some changes for the better with software updates and I'll be happy with the switch to VM. My friend bought an Optimus V and he's been happy with it since day one, especially raving about the signal on it so I know they're at least doing at decent job on VM.

I would far from say this is the worst phone,but it is certainly not what i lot of the fanboys are making it out to be,it is not an iPhone or photon,or Bionic killer that is for sure,the only thing that made me return mine was the weaker radios in this phone.as compared to my V,i would still have mine if not for that.

lou61166 said:

I would far from say this is the worst phone,but it is certainly not what i lot of the fanboys are making it out to be,it is not an iPhone or photon,or Bionic killer that is for sure,the only thing that made me return mine was the weaker radios in this phone.as compared to my V,i would still have mine if not for that.

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Who would expect the triumph to be the iPhone, Photon, or a Bionic killer? All 3 of those phones cost around $600 without a contract... The triumph is only $300.





This is indoors, outside I get 3-4 bars and I still have over half my battery after 8 hours unplugged. I too use my phone as an alarm and don't charge it at night, but I use airplane mode when I'm sleeping, so that's probably why my phone isn't dead when I wake up.

I also have the LG Optimus and it has FULL signal strength when indoors, but you know what? My triumph, even with its 2 bar strength, has the same call quality as my Optiumus with FULL bars... So I have no reason to complain about that.

I'm sorry you guys had problems with your battery and signal, but mine's fine. And I'm not a fanboy, I knew when buying my triumph that it was a cheap ass phone, but that's why I got it, cause I'm broke and can't afford the iPhone.

I just think it's funny that the original poster thinks anyone with something positive to say is making stuff up.

This is a pretty good thread, despite my having to edit and delete a couple of posts.

I'd like to leave it unlocked so that the discussion about Triumph issues, or lack thereof, can continue.

I know how frustrating it can be to have a device that seems to be messed up right from the first day of owning it, and I also know how easy it is to get mad at somebody who posts their own frustrations about their messed up phone when yours is just fine. It can sometimes seem like they're trolling, etc.

But those frustrations expressed in disrespectful ways to each other make these threads look like a fight zone rather than a discussion of the issues zone..

..lol, please stop leave disrespectful stuff out of your posts and stick to the issues about the phone.

Din't no wot ths guiy iz camplaining aboot. I done did by diz fone, and allthough it hadz itz kwerks, it has done be improvin over thyme. I did soem love my Optimus, butt could not go bak. I luvs my Triumph.

The Motorola Triumph is hands down the best phone I have ever owned! My only real issue with GPS is the long TTFF.

FaroeseViking said:

Din't no wot ths guiy iz camplaining aboot. I done did by diz fone, and allthough it hadz itz kwerks, it has done be improvin over thyme. I did soem love my Optimus, butt could not go bak. I luvs my Triumph.

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Priceless.

The Triumph works very well for me.. I get 1 to 2 bars inside my house and 3 to 4 bars in the city. My Triumph has never froze and has never dropped a call. The only issue I have is sometimes it's slow to connect to GPS but I barely use GPS so it's not really that big of a deal to me..

The longest my Triumph ever lasted was 1 day and 6 hours with moderate use on a single charge and I never seen my Time Without Signal go over 25%. So maybe others peoples Triumphs are "Worst phone of the year" but mine has been awesome and is the best prepaid phone to come out so far in my opinion.

lou61166 said:

I would far from say this is the worst phone,but it is certainly not what i lot of the fanboys are making it out to be,it is not an iPhone or photon,or Bionic killer that is for sure,the only thing that made me return mine was the weaker radios in this phone.as compared to my V,i would still have mine if not for that.

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There were a couple other things that I was disappointed with, otherwise, I would totally agree. This phone's hardware had (seemingly) so much potential ... it was a let down for me, especially as a Motorola device.

On the other hand, I also realize there are folks that were satisfied with it. Unfortunately for my Triumph, it's failings outweighed the positives, and I ended up back with the Optimus V. So far, I miss the size of the Triumph screen and the little external blinking LED, other than that, the OV has been darn near perfect with things the Triumph struggled with on a daily basis.

Needless to say, it doesn't stop me from visiting the Triumph forums both here and at Motorola. The major let-down is to see how Motorola has responded to the phone's issues, or rather, not really done anything to help.

Bill2099 said:

I wish I had taken a pic before I returned ma Triumph you would have seen quite the oposite zero bars and a almost dead battery time since unpluged 3-4 hour max a phone on the hunt for a signal eats up battery plain and simple what you'll fail to realize is the Radio on this phone is crap google it, the majority of us do not have a steady signal you are one of the few who do, congrats, enjoy your Motorola Triumph I love the phone too I really wanted this to work and trust me if Motorola or Virgin Mobile were to fix this one thing i'm more than willing to over look the rest of the issues I would repurchase it in a heart beat that said I am done posting on this subject good luck all this was very interesting and if i've hurt any one's feelings I apologize bye you'll.

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I don't know why you think Google proves that the "majority" of Triumph owners have issues with the phone.. Unless you know how many Triumphs have been sold and how many people have serious problems there is no way to know.. Yeah you can look up user reviews at BestBuy.com but even than 50% of the 106 Bestbuy reviewers recommend the Triumph to others and 50 or so people complaining is not much if this phone has sold in the thousands which it probably has..

Also people that are pissed about a product are always more vocal than people that are satisfied with a product.. People that are satisfied usually use the product and don't care to go to every forums and store website to tell people how awesome it is. On the other hand people that aren't satisfied with a product always rant/complain to as much people as possible..

Hell I even notice the same user names of people complaining on multiple forums and store website reviews so it seems people with problems like spamming their issues across the entire web.. Im not saying there isnt any issues with the Triumph but there is no way to know if there majority of users have issues especially since not every cell phone owner goes online to talk about their phone and since we don't know how many Triumphs have been sold..

thevaliantx said:

In defense of the OP, his poor grammar, attitude and all, YES...this phone is garbage. I never wanted to sign another contract for a cellphone after getting burned by one years and years ago. So, my wife and I spent $600+ total for two Motorola Triumph phones. We've had issues with the phones not charging. We've swapped out charging cables. The sound volume on these phones is not very good. There is definitely a problem with electrical shorts around the 'jack' where the audio-out is plugged in. If you jiggle the jack around a little you can get the phone's sound output to become louder or softer. That isn't good, it's a manufacturing defect. The SD cards that come with these phones are pure junk. My phone's SD card eventually quit working, so I went out and bought a 32gb SD card and it worked fantastic. Eventually my phone wouldn't even charge unless I was pressing the charger plug into the phone really hard and holding it in place (charger worked fine with my wife's phone). That's another manufacturing defect. Overall the phone felt flimsy and appeared to be made of poor quality plastic parts. My wife and I got so frustrated that we bit the bullet and signed a 2-year contract with Verizon for the Motorola Charge phones and we're very happy to have high quality phones with a carrier that has a decent, CONSISTENT signal, working GPS. I'm sorry that it didn't work out for us with Virgin Mobile and their crappy Triumph phone. I would have rather NOT signed a contract, but the bottom line is that we needed phones that worked, with a carrier that wasn't buying second tier bandwidth. Good luck to you guys!

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My phone had the same charging problem. Exchanged, new phone works fine.

And yes you will get better service from a Verizon phone, and you will be pang more than triple what VM charges for the same thing. You get what you pay for. If you thought you were going to buy a discount smartphone on a discount network and get top tier service, you were kidding yourself.

Bill2099 said:

I wish I had taken a pic before I returned ma Triumph you would have seen quite the oposite zero bars and a almost dead battery time since unpluged 3-4 hour max a phone on the hunt for a signal eats up battery plain and simple what you'll fail to realize is the Radio on this phone is crap google it, the majority of us do not have a steady signal you are one of the few who do, congrats, enjoy your Motorola Triumph I love the phone too I really wanted this to work and trust me if Motorola or Virgin Mobile were to fix this one thing i'm more than willing to over look the rest of the issues I would repurchase it in a heart beat that said I am done posting on this subject good luck all this was very interesting and if i've hurt any one's feelings I apologize bye you'll.

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You got a bad phone. It happens. It seems to happen a lot with the Triumph. That's why stores have exchange policies.

And that ^^^^ wraps the thread up nicely.