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First impressions on RAZR MAXX HD: One full day

Marc_G

Well-Known Member
Feb 5, 2011
160
7
Indianapolis Area
Hi folks,

For those lurking here considering the RAZR MAXX HD (RMHD), I thought I'd give some first impressions from my experience coming from a Droid X running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

The short story is I love the phone though it's not without its quirks, out of the box.

The main issues I've had have really been "Verizon" issues. I bought mine from Costco's online site, and when I got the phone a week later, it didn't want to activate. Fortunately they provided a separate SIM card which eventually did activate with some help from tech support. Not sure why I had to go through all that, given there was a pre-installed SIM in it. Or why no instructions saying I had to use the other SIM. Or why the other SIM had to be activated by a tech support phone calle.

But eventually it was up and running. I was surprised that it auto-downloaded everything (all apps) as soon as I put in my email address (google account). Presumably because I had used Verizon's backup assistant plus, it knew how to connect via my home's WPA2 WIFI (I did not configure it myself!). I just went through a few initial setup screens then it said to wait a couple minutes, then suddenly all my apps were there. Including some I didn't want any more, but I can always uninstall them...

Heft/feel: It's a bit bigger than the Droid X but similar weight; size wise it is similar to the X in the hardshell case I used. I don't plan to use a hardshell with the RMHD, though I will probably get a ZAGG shield for it. It feels good and solid in my hand... it's at the limit of a size I can realistically work one-handed.

Screen: The screen simply rocks, there's no other way to describe the bright, vibrant look. The default settings are pretty nice, though I quickly changed to a different live wallpaper.

Call voice quality:A major step up from the X. And there are no volume issues... the speaker is lound and has good dynamic range. Speaker phone is decidedly loud!

Reception: At home, I have good 4G signal, and it had no trouble keeping connected here. At work in my office, the signal sucks due to the building, and my Droid X struggled to stay in 3G, frequently dropping to 1G. It worked more reliably on 1G there... I hated the switchback it would do that would halt data apps. But the RMHD is doing much better there, and while there are still some data pauses, it is a lot more useable in this fringe zone.

GPS: So far so good. The X had lots of problems with GPS (it wouldn't find a location, would just sit there burning battery seeking, about half the time until I rebooted it). I'll be keeping an eye on this with RMHD, but so far it has done a quick location find with good accuracy.

Minor annoyances: screen doesn't auto rotate with out an app like Ultimate Rotate. And Verizon puts a VoiceMail app which constantly tries to get you to sign up for visual voice mail. I got rid of it and eventually got the phone programmed to go straight to voice mail; see other threads on that.

ICS vs. Gingerbread: a world of difference. Took me a while to sort out how to manage with just three buttons! But I'm over that hump and loving every minute of it.

Battery life: first day of heavy use, and after 24 hours, I'm still at 39% power. Sweet. The X was gasping for air after about 8-10 hours of use.

Gotta go, but those are my first thoughts.
 
Hi folks,

For those lurking here considering the RAZR MAXX HD (RMHD), I thought I'd give some first impressions from my experience coming from a Droid X running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

The short story is I love the phone though it's not without its quirks, out of the box.

The main issues I've had have really been "Verizon" issues. I bought mine from Costco's online site, and when I got the phone a week later, it didn't want to activate. Fortunately they provided a separate SIM card which eventually did activate with some help from tech support. Not sure why I had to go through all that, given there was a pre-installed SIM in it. Or why no instructions saying I had to use the other SIM. Or why the other SIM had to be activated by a tech support phone calle.

I had the same exact issue with the sim cards when I got my RMHD yesterday. But after it was up and running I haven't had any big issues. Today is the first day I'm using it on a full charge. Arriving to work today, I did notice that after having LTE all the way to work, I have none inside my work. In fact, the reception signal dropped to 1 bar. I have ATT as well, and with any ATT phone I've used, I've always had great service inside where I work.

But overrall, I'm liking this phone. I have 13 more days to decide if I want to keep Verizon and the RMHD or cancel the service, return the phone and go back to my GS3 on ATT.
 
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A couple more observations, after another day of use:

A nice plus: I installed the Light Flow app and set up different colored notifiers for each email account and other kind of notifier. It's really cool how the notification light can do different colors. Reminds me of my Blackberry Pearl from circa 2008. It would be cool if the application could color-cycle like the pearl did; I think it just does single colors.

A minus: I haven't found a one-finger way to wake up the phone. Am I missing something? To wake it up, I have to grab it with sort of a pincer grasp and press the side power button. I miss being able to do a one-finger jab at the home key like I could on the X (or, dare I say it, my wife's iPhone). Maybe ICS provides some screen-based way to wake it up easily, about which I'm ignorant?
 
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A minus: I haven't found a one-finger way to wake up the phone. Am I missing something? To wake it up, I have to grab it with sort of a pincer grasp and press the side power button. I miss being able to do a one-finger jab at the home key like I could on the X (or, dare I say it, my wife's iPhone). Maybe ICS provides some screen-based way to wake it up easily, about which I'm ignorant?

Nope, still pressing the side power button is the only way to wake it up. Not sure if there is any app that does this though. Only the phones with physical home button like DX or GS3 can do this.
 
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I would like to comment on the difficulty's you had activating it. I deal with Verizon enterprise support quite a bit as my company has a rather large number of lines of service with them (10,500+ although only a fraction of them are actual cell phones) When switching devices from a 3G to 4G device, a call to customer service is always required. Doesn't matter if it is a phone or a data card. They need to provision something with the 4g card or attach it to your account to make it work.

Now I would imagine that doing an upgrade to a device in the store is different as the rep will take care of it all for you in-store, but this is my personal experience when doing any 3G to 4G upgrade.
 
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