Help A Few Questions

[Masquerain]

Some time next week I will be getting a new phone, and I was looking at getting the Droid 2 global, but first I have a few questions that I have not been able to find the answer to.

1. I currently have an enV Touch. It is very scratched up from me dropping before I purchased a case for it. But after I got one, the phone became 10 times more scratched from the inside of the case. I don't want that to happen to my new phone, does anyone know of a brand of case for the D2G that will not scratch the inside but will also protect it well?

2. I know that there is a difference in the LED Flash placement on the D2 and the D2G which causes a there to be a separate type of case for each, but are other accessories interchangeable between the two?

3. I know that the D2G has a 1.2 GHz processor, and the regular D2 and the R2D2 only have a 1 GHz processor. I would like to get the white version of the D2G, but they currently do not make an extended battery in the white. I have heard that you can purchase one for the R2D2 and there is little difference in appearance, but will having a battery that was made for a phone with a smaller processor somehow cause problems?

4. Other than the difference in the processor size, and the fact that one is global, is there any other important difference between the Droid 2 and the Droid 2 Global?

5. With the iPhone and such, there is a way to change the icons that are set at the bottom and always at hand, no matter which window you are on, is that option available on the D2G? Or am I stuck with contacts, phone, and the third one (I can't remember what it is lol).

6. While at the Verizon store, I played around with setting the short cut keys (ex. press 'A' to open Text Messaging). But when I went and tried out the letter I had pressed, it brought up the Google search instead of what I had set it at. Is that option actually available and works? Or is there something else you have to do to get it to work (such as disable the Google search thing)?


Okay, all done
Thanks for any help that anyone can provide

 

[3devious]

I can only answer from my experience with the R2 D2 version:

1. I had an EnV Touch. Motorola uses Gorilla Glass. I don't use a case and have yet to scratch a droid. I have a D1 as well. To my shame, I have dropped both on concrete, hard floors, soft floors, tables, etc. The little chrome rim around the screen on my R2 D2 is a little chewed up, but the screen is fine. It should be OK an any droid case.

2. I don't know anything about this, but I have had no problem using D1 accessories with the R2 D2 version.

3. I would look at the power output of the batteries. If they are not the same, I would try to stick to the D2G batteries because I notice a marked difference in using my D2 while plugged in via usb vs. the D1. I have to stop my Angry Birds marathon and just let it charge sooner than I did with my D1.

4. For this I would recommend Launcher Pro. It will let you customize the bottom dock quite a bit. You can have static icons down there or have it scroll through a fair number of them. You can give each icon a custom gesture (like having a different behavior for pressing the icon vs swiping up on the icon.) If you pay for Launcher Pro, you can get even more funtionalitiy with it.

5. I am not sure why you experienced that behavior in the store. Neither of my Droids did this. (Hopefully that demo model was just quirky. If yours does that, make them fix it.)

I hope the D2G works out well for you. It is a pretty cool phone but since no one lets me leave the country (something something international incident, blah blah blah...)

 

[Goodspike]

This is just connecting two of the questions: Is the color of the phone that important if you're going to use a case?

 

[Masquerain]

Thanks, that was quite helpful

If I can't find a case that won't scratch it then I'd rather not have one at all, so then it would be important

Also, are the extended batteries thicker with the D2G? An extended battery for my current phone is about half an inch thicker than regular ones, are they similar to that? And does anyone know if they make cases to fit over the extended battery?

 

[3devious]

I've never seen the extended battery. Most of the cases don't have a lot of room in them, so I hope that the extended battery is just using some sort of magic or small nuclear reactor because I can't imagine a larger device fitting into some of these contraptions.

I hope that power consumption on the D2G is improved over the two phones before it. This thing is nothing like the LG phones when it comes to power. Smartphones are just very power hungry.

 

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

Some time next week I will be getting a new phone, and I was looking at getting the Droid 2 global, but first I have a few questions that I have not been able to find the answer to.

1. I currently have an enV Touch. It is very scratched up from me dropping before I purchased a case for it. But after I got one, the phone became 10 times more scratched from the inside of the case. I don't want that to happen to my new phone, does anyone know of a brand of case for the D2G that will not scratch the inside but will also protect it well?

I used the Seidio innocase, and it does EXACTLY what you described. Thankfully, I ended up washing my phone and getting a new one. I have since decided to not use a case on my phone, and it looks pristine a month or so later. If anything, I can recommend the Body glove case because it's lined with soft touch felt, however, most people don't like the fit and finish of the BG case, and there are many reports of it being flimsy and easy to break. You could always use something like the zagg invisishield (there are other brands) that are just clear membranes that go over the phone. My experience with these has been that they are so thick and ugly and hard to apply, and ruined within a few months that they just aren't worth the hassle. I used to be OCD about protecting my phone, and have found that I actually have better results just leaving it naked. I do still use a screen protector. The gorilla glass screen is VERY hard to scratch, but I'm very active, kind of clumsy, and often outdoors, so to me a replaceable screen protector is a small investment to make
2. I know that there is a difference in the LED Flash placement on the D2 and the D2G which causes a there to be a separate type of case for each, but are other accessories interchangeable between the two?
I don't own a D2, so I can't say for certain that the flashes are exactly the same, but I can tell you that my D2G has fit in every D2 case I've tried perfectly, and never had an issue with the flash being blocked
3. I know that the D2G has a 1.2 GHz processor, and the regular D2 and the R2D2 only have a 1 GHz processor. I would like to get the white version of the D2G, but they currently do not make an extended battery in the white. I have heard that you can purchase one for the R2D2 and there is little difference in appearance, but will having a battery that was made for a phone with a smaller processor somehow cause problems?
The R2D2 extended battery is an exact match for the D2G. It's the same white and does NOT have the blue markings that are on the R2D2. The battery is designed for your phone. The OEM battery for all three 4 Droids (OG, D2, R2D2, and D2G) is the same BP6X and the extended battery is the BP7X, the only thing that varies is the color of the battery door. I have the R2D2 battery door on my white D2G right now. If your VZW rep can't find the R2D2 battery, it's the same part number as the regular BP7X, but with W on the end

4. Other than the difference in the processor size, and the fact that one is global, is there any other important difference between the Droid 2 and the Droid 2 Global?
The D2G only has one stable custom ROM, because the extra radio hardware is currently incompatible with all other custom ROMs due to the added complexity. If you don't plan to root or change up the operating system, this is irrelevant. The D2G's battery life is noticeably less than the D2, unless you do some reading and tweak your phone. I currently see 2 or 3 days of use out of my D2G with a BP7X and a custom ROM. I wrote a thread on how to increase your battery life, you can find it by clicking my name, then hitting view profile, then statistics, then find all threads started by me. The most important tweak, IMHO is using an app like SetCPU to turn your processor speed down whenever your screen is off. The D2G has a few settings that are different, but they're mostly related to the different radio hardware, and irrelevant, especially if you never plan to go global with your phone. Other than that, the differences are negligible.

5. With the iPhone and such, there is a way to change the icons that are set at the bottom and always at hand, no matter which window you are on, is that option available on the D2G? Or am I stuck with contacts, phone, and the third one (I can't remember what it is lol).
with an app like launcherpro or zeam or adw launcher, the customizations are almost limitless. I have 10 custom icons in my dock (it's scrollable) and most of them perform a second action if I swipe them instead of clicking them

6. While at the Verizon store, I played around with setting the short cut keys (ex. press 'A' to open Text Messaging). But when I went and tried out the letter I had pressed, it brought up the Google search instead of what I had set it at. Is that option actually available and works? Or is there something else you have to do to get it to work (such as disable the Google search thing)?
The settings work (I think.. I don't have mine set up)... Demo phones are always so jacked up that they're not even really fair comparisons to the phone you'll have at home.


Okay, all done
Thanks for any help that anyone can provide

Answers in bold.