I know my complaints are nothing new with VZW and Moto but here it goes anyways, I've been patiently waiting for this phone or any 4G Dual Core phone to come out on Verizon, so today I walked down to my local VZW store (Atlantic Terminal - Brooklyn) to check out the vaunted Bionic. I have never been so disappointed with a phone. Over the past few months I've tried out a bunch of dual core phones from other carriers including the HTC Sensation and the LG G2X. Each of these other phones have been so vastly superior to the Bionic. So here is my initial reaction: 1. The feel of the Bionic is one of cheap plastic with no real easy way to hold it, HTC and LG just have a far better "feel" to them, one that is "solid"; 2. The form factor is basically non-existent an unimaginative, like they blatantly combined the Droid X2 and the Droid 3, with nothing new; 3. The Blur interface is non-intuitive and very sterile; 4. The sheer amount of bloatware that VZW has installed actually boggled my mind; 5. All three Bionic units I played with exhibited a glitch lag when scrolling between home screens and in the app drawer. 6. When scrolling through each homes screen and each various page, there was a brief pixelation of whatever image was on that screen before it sharpened up, which drove me crazy. All I can say is that after a 9-month wait for this phone to come out, I was expecting a lot more in terms of feel, streamlining, form factor, and operation. Overall, this phone was extremely disappointing. Perhaps its just that moto phones have never suited my needs. Count me in with the group that will be patiently (or impatiently) awaiting whatever the next phones from Samsung HTC and LG will bring.
Yea...the Bionic wont be for everyone. No phone is. Oh well. At least in a few months there will be other new phones on Verizon.
Agreed, there are definitely things to like about the phone, its just after such a long wait, I was expecting more.
Strange. I just played with one for about 10 minutes and it was fast and responsive. There was zero lag on the homescreen. It also felt better in my hand than my DX. Just shows that each phone has its pro and cons for different users.
Your loss, since the Bionic will be a definate chick magnet! Wait..... I have Droid 3 Oh well, I am married, so does not matter
I disagree with pretty much everything here except maybe #4 which is Verizon's fault not Moto's. I've had mine for over 2 hours now and have seen 0 lag and absolutely love it. it's a bit thicker and feels more solid with the extended battery but i still love it
This phone is stuck in the middle of last gen and next gen. I would steer away from it since so much more is coming in just a matter of a couple of months.
Let's be honest here...w/ technology there is always something much more coming in just a matter of a couple of months.
i only agree with 4-5. holy shit there was sh*t tons of bloat ware. i am new to android so i wasnt sure if this is customary to all android devices. as for lag glitch, i only noticed it very few times.. not exactly sure what the problem is. when i relaunch app or w.e and scroll the same thing, the lag isnt there anymore...
Most likely the phone was charging when you noticed the lag. I was charging mine while playing with it and noticed some lag other than that zero lag. The plastic feel is only from the battery cover and it won't scratch like metal and it's also lighter than the Droid X. The phone feels awesome in my hands and i like battery life and this one is the best of them all especially with an extended battery of 2760 mAH.
Thank goodness that this is an opinion/gripe. Why come in here and complain about a phone that so many are looking for? We've heard our fair share(if not more than enough) of complaining about this and that with the Bionic. Got an idea, if you don't like it, don't buy it. Seems like a pretty simple idea to me. I understand your gripes and complaints though, I don't like the bloatware either but who does so that doesn't even need to be said. The rest, well, same stuff we've been hearing from all the other non Bionic adopters. Personally, I'd appreciate if the negativity would just disappear from people who don't even own the darn phone. Now if you own one, then that's understandable that you have a gripe seeing as how you paid a premium for a device that isn't doing what you want or expect it do. But complaining about something you saw in a store that tons of others have already played with is a bit far fetched. It's like complaining about a hooker who's to loose for your liking. Either get a bigger tool or move on cause she ain't gonna get any tighter after all them other guys have "pressed" her buttons. And everyone will be able to say that when you get your next phone, just sayin.
How do you figure? The performance jump from single core to dual core phones was quite large. The performance difference between all of the current dual core phones is minute. The OMAP 4 processor in the Bionic is more powerful than everything on the market except for the Exynos processor in the GS2. It is more powerful than the Tegra 2 and the dual core Snapdragon. LTE support being the single most desirable feature a Smartphone can have today(no one feature improves the user experience by more than LTE does), I find the Droid Bionic to be plenty competitive. In fact, I would say that releasing a dual core phone today without LTE support(such as the Galaxy S2) is just as stupid as releasing a single core phone today with LTE support. Both are outdated from the get go.
I'm going to look at the Bionic this afternoon. Hearing that there is any lag on any screen is a deal breaker for me. I'm dealing with the Charge right now and the lag stinks. The HTC Incredible set the bar for me. It was the total package when it comes to usability. My next phone need to hit that bar or higher.
There is no "bloat" in vanilla Android, unless you count all the google services. All extra applications are installed by carriers to help keep the cost of the handsets lower, or thier profits higher. Each one of those bloatware applications gets Verizon paid.
He said he played with a unit in store so they are always plugged in so that makes sense it would lag. Not to mention people load everything and anything on the ones in the stores so you cant base everything off those units.
As stated, it won't be for everyone. I agree with number 4, but its the rare exception that a phone on VZW isn't bloated. For the time being, I've just loaded launcher pro and hidden them from sight...I'll perform a more permanent solution, when I decide to root. As to performance and glitches, I've experienced 0 with mine, thus far. I'll keep an eye out, but the phone hasn't experienced any slowdown, yet, and I've been loading up and playing a bit more, as the day has gone by. I'll keep my fingers crossed. My Xoom, a vanilla Android device, also had some bloat, though not much.
yea...I cant use my phone charging at home on the wall charger that good. Does something to the phone trying to charge it and use it at the same time. Maybe thats why charging by USB on the PC is slower, weaker and some newer Android phones or Android OS's give the option to charge only when connecting to the PC?
I'm saying this because people are blowing dual core phones way out of proportion in my opinion. Dual core is a cool spec and marketing buzzword, but what about real world? I can guarantee you that you wouldn't notice a real world difference between my rooted Charge and the Bionic. On a spec sheet there is a difference. In real world operation, you won't see much of a difference. Now of course I am comparing a rooted phone to a non-rooted one. But with everything I've done to my phone, I wouldn't gain anything by buying a Bionic. Ultimately, I'm not saying that the Bionic is a bad phone or that it's not a good choice for a lot of people. But I think if you have a ThunderBolt or Charge (especially rooted), you won't see much of a difference. In the end, the Bionic looks like a great LTE phone and would be an awesome upgrade for people coming from non-LTE phones. It's probably the best choice out of the box right now for sure.
