Picked it up today at the Sprint Store. Tried to get it at Best Buy, but that's a story for another day.
Build:
The build feels really nice. It's definitely "plasticky", but the slider mechanism feels pretty solid. No less than the Samsung Moment it's replacing, and that thing has lasted 2+ years with no problems. The Keyboard feels really great. The keys are well spaced out and the backlighting makes using it in the dark really simple. It has a nice weight in the hand. It feels a little slippery so I think a case might be in order. It gets a little warm on the back's topside, near the camera sensor, when you've been using it for a while. But I have no idea what long term use will be like.
Edit 5
A quick note about the plasticky build quality. I have had an EVO 4G for over 2 years now. It came out at the same time as the iPhone 4. Now build quality-wise the two are not comparable, the iPhone these days have a much more "premium" feel. But how many times have you heard about people barely dropping their iPhones and getting spiderweb cracks? Well I have dropped my EVO multiple times over the years. A couple of times it was on the road while running. After 2+ years, my EVO is still going strong and has taken the scratches and dings like a champ. Will my wife's Photon Q stand up to that kind of punishment? Hard to tell. But don't let it's "plasticity" turn you off. It can have its advantages.
Camera:
I haven't really tested this too much, but I never expect much from phone cameras to begin with. It takes pictures pretty fast and by default the volume keys are programmed as zoom buttons. Maybe I'll post a sample video and pictures later. Look for edits to this post.
Edit 1:
Sample images from rear camera
Sample image from the front camera
Here's a 1080p sample from the rear camera
http://youtu.be/_M79d-DwB9c
And here's a 720p sample from the front camera
http://youtu.be/S_gTaTcuGhI
And lastly, here's a quick snapshot of some of the audio options you get while recording video
Battery life:
Nothing to report yet. I'm not going to do a rundown test or anything. Basically my wife will take this with her throughout her day and if she bitches at me about the battery life of her new phone, then I'll know I'm in trouble
EDIT 7: BATTERY UPDATE
I've posted below some screen shot results on my wife's first day of use. The first half of the graph where the battery life is slowly falling is from when my wife was at work. She is not allowed to have her phone on her at work so what you are seeing is just basic draw from the cellular radios. Not actual use. When it starts falling is when she got off work, responded to a few texts, and started playing "Where's my water?". You can see that she didn't have the screen on for very long, nor was she playing "Where's my water?" for very long. As a point of reference, the screen was set to 80% brightness. I know that's high and we'll be playing with it over the next few days.
Here's my basic conclusions about battery life thus far. For my wife, this phone is fine. She is not part of this tween generation that spends all day facebooking and tweeting stuff like "ermagherd, ponies!!!11one!1" every five seconds and instagraming everything she eats. She responds to text messages when she gets them, and is only playing "Where's my water?" all the time because it's her current obsession. But that shall pass shortly. For my wife, this phone is just fine.
Unfortunately, this phone is geared towards "Business" users. Just from the offset, I can see a business user needing to manage their usage of this phone in order to get all day battery life out of it. Tons of phone calls, e-mailing, texting, and just general use seems like it can do a number on this thing's battery life.
Also, people that spend all day facebooking, texting, and instagraming will probably have a hard time if they are constantly attached to their phone. Mileage may vary, but for now I'm not impressed, but I'm also not worried because I know my wife's phone habits.
Speed and performance:
Just like batteries, I'm not doing anything scientific or running any benchmarks here. During the whole setup process of installing apps, syncing accounts, etc., I noticed ZERO slowdowns in the interface. Everything kept chugging along, menus popped in and out without so much as a single jitter. Overall I am really pleased with the performance. And I played some "Where's my Perry?" and it ran without a hitch.
Screen:
AAAAHHHHHH!!!! DEAD PIXEL!!!!!!! The screen has one, giant, red, stuck pixel on the top left side. I really am not motivated enough to return it, but it's still annoying. But OTHER THAN THAT, the screen is gorgeous. Everything is really crisp, no pixelation to be seen anywhere, and the colors are unbelievably bright and vivid. Makes my aging EVO 4G look even sadder than it already is. Needless to say, it's amazing. The only downside is that setting the brightness to "Auto" makes the screen too dim for comfortable viewing, so I'm not using the Auto feature.
Connections:
NFC!!!!!!! I did not see NFC anywhere on the specs page, but the moment I fired it up, it asked me if I wanted to turn on NFC. So I guess they must've added it in. I tried to transfer a photo from my Nexus 7 to the Photon, and they both responded to the tap, but when I tried the transfer, my Nexus 7 told me the receiver does not support large file transfers. I'll have to look into that problem since this is my first time using NFC.
Wifi is only 2.5ghz, but supports up to N.
Haven't really looked into Bluetooth at all yet.
I don't live in an LTE area. I'm in a WiMAX area ironically enough. So I can't comment on that. There's no obvious 4G on off switch, so I guess it just automatically searches for it. So I went into the settings and set it to strictly CDMA. That should hopefully prevent any battery draw from the LTE radios constantly looking for a connection that's not there. Here's a screenshot of what that pages looks like:
The device has HDMI which I have yet to try. Not sure if I'll get around to it.
Edit 3
When you plug in the phone, it gives you an option between Mass Storage Mode, MTP, or PTP.
Software:
Bloatware actually seems pretty minimal, which is a nice change for a sprint phone.
Edit 2
I've installed a few apps already, but here's a list of my app tray:
One gripe is the Dialer and Messaging app. Not sure if it's stock since this is my first ICS Phone experience. The only contacts available in the Dialer are "Recent" and "Favorites". If I want to select any other contact, I have to go to the "People" app. And there is NO contacts list of any kind in the Messaging app. I have to go to People if I want to select a contact and then message them. Just some hoops that I don't really feel are necessary.
Skype is currently non-functional, but I'm sure it just needs a quick update. When I try to call the phone on Skype, the app crashes. When I try to initiate a Skype call from within the app, the call never goes through, it just sits there and never connects. I'm sure Skype just needs to update their app for this device.
Edit 4
Some of you might have noticed I installed FoxFi. It currently does not work. I've never used it before because CyanogenMod 7.2 on my EVO 4G has tethering built into it. I didn't tinker with it too much due to lack of time and experience with the app, but I was able to successfully connect to the hotspot, but there was no internet. And within about a minute of getting connected, my desktop lost the connection. Again, just like Skype, I'm sure all it needs is an update to work with this new phone. Until then, it's a no go.
Speakers:
Calls are loud and clear. Normally I struggle with hearing calls on cell phones, but not this one. Also, I loaded some music and played it through the speakers. VERY loud at max volume. I was really impressed.
Video performance:
Will report back.
Edit 6
I had a 720p bluray rip at 2800kbs H.264 MP4 that played in both Dice Player and Moboplayer
720x576 H.264 MKV at 1200kbs that played in Moboplayer but failed in Dice Player
And lastly I had a 480p dvd rip XVID mp4 at 180kbs that played in both Dice Player and Moboplayer
Please let me know if there's anything I missed or anything you're curious about. I'd be happy to give you guys any info you'd like about the phone.
Build:
The build feels really nice. It's definitely "plasticky", but the slider mechanism feels pretty solid. No less than the Samsung Moment it's replacing, and that thing has lasted 2+ years with no problems. The Keyboard feels really great. The keys are well spaced out and the backlighting makes using it in the dark really simple. It has a nice weight in the hand. It feels a little slippery so I think a case might be in order. It gets a little warm on the back's topside, near the camera sensor, when you've been using it for a while. But I have no idea what long term use will be like.
Edit 5
A quick note about the plasticky build quality. I have had an EVO 4G for over 2 years now. It came out at the same time as the iPhone 4. Now build quality-wise the two are not comparable, the iPhone these days have a much more "premium" feel. But how many times have you heard about people barely dropping their iPhones and getting spiderweb cracks? Well I have dropped my EVO multiple times over the years. A couple of times it was on the road while running. After 2+ years, my EVO is still going strong and has taken the scratches and dings like a champ. Will my wife's Photon Q stand up to that kind of punishment? Hard to tell. But don't let it's "plasticity" turn you off. It can have its advantages.
Camera:
I haven't really tested this too much, but I never expect much from phone cameras to begin with. It takes pictures pretty fast and by default the volume keys are programmed as zoom buttons. Maybe I'll post a sample video and pictures later. Look for edits to this post.
Edit 1:
Sample images from rear camera
Sample image from the front camera
Here's a 1080p sample from the rear camera
http://youtu.be/_M79d-DwB9c
And here's a 720p sample from the front camera
http://youtu.be/S_gTaTcuGhI
And lastly, here's a quick snapshot of some of the audio options you get while recording video
Battery life:
Nothing to report yet. I'm not going to do a rundown test or anything. Basically my wife will take this with her throughout her day and if she bitches at me about the battery life of her new phone, then I'll know I'm in trouble
EDIT 7: BATTERY UPDATE
I've posted below some screen shot results on my wife's first day of use. The first half of the graph where the battery life is slowly falling is from when my wife was at work. She is not allowed to have her phone on her at work so what you are seeing is just basic draw from the cellular radios. Not actual use. When it starts falling is when she got off work, responded to a few texts, and started playing "Where's my water?". You can see that she didn't have the screen on for very long, nor was she playing "Where's my water?" for very long. As a point of reference, the screen was set to 80% brightness. I know that's high and we'll be playing with it over the next few days.
Here's my basic conclusions about battery life thus far. For my wife, this phone is fine. She is not part of this tween generation that spends all day facebooking and tweeting stuff like "ermagherd, ponies!!!11one!1" every five seconds and instagraming everything she eats. She responds to text messages when she gets them, and is only playing "Where's my water?" all the time because it's her current obsession. But that shall pass shortly. For my wife, this phone is just fine.
Unfortunately, this phone is geared towards "Business" users. Just from the offset, I can see a business user needing to manage their usage of this phone in order to get all day battery life out of it. Tons of phone calls, e-mailing, texting, and just general use seems like it can do a number on this thing's battery life.
Also, people that spend all day facebooking, texting, and instagraming will probably have a hard time if they are constantly attached to their phone. Mileage may vary, but for now I'm not impressed, but I'm also not worried because I know my wife's phone habits.
Speed and performance:
Just like batteries, I'm not doing anything scientific or running any benchmarks here. During the whole setup process of installing apps, syncing accounts, etc., I noticed ZERO slowdowns in the interface. Everything kept chugging along, menus popped in and out without so much as a single jitter. Overall I am really pleased with the performance. And I played some "Where's my Perry?" and it ran without a hitch.
Screen:
AAAAHHHHHH!!!! DEAD PIXEL!!!!!!! The screen has one, giant, red, stuck pixel on the top left side. I really am not motivated enough to return it, but it's still annoying. But OTHER THAN THAT, the screen is gorgeous. Everything is really crisp, no pixelation to be seen anywhere, and the colors are unbelievably bright and vivid. Makes my aging EVO 4G look even sadder than it already is. Needless to say, it's amazing. The only downside is that setting the brightness to "Auto" makes the screen too dim for comfortable viewing, so I'm not using the Auto feature.
Connections:
NFC!!!!!!! I did not see NFC anywhere on the specs page, but the moment I fired it up, it asked me if I wanted to turn on NFC. So I guess they must've added it in. I tried to transfer a photo from my Nexus 7 to the Photon, and they both responded to the tap, but when I tried the transfer, my Nexus 7 told me the receiver does not support large file transfers. I'll have to look into that problem since this is my first time using NFC.
Wifi is only 2.5ghz, but supports up to N.
Haven't really looked into Bluetooth at all yet.
I don't live in an LTE area. I'm in a WiMAX area ironically enough. So I can't comment on that. There's no obvious 4G on off switch, so I guess it just automatically searches for it. So I went into the settings and set it to strictly CDMA. That should hopefully prevent any battery draw from the LTE radios constantly looking for a connection that's not there. Here's a screenshot of what that pages looks like:
The device has HDMI which I have yet to try. Not sure if I'll get around to it.
Edit 3
When you plug in the phone, it gives you an option between Mass Storage Mode, MTP, or PTP.
Software:
Bloatware actually seems pretty minimal, which is a nice change for a sprint phone.
Edit 2
I've installed a few apps already, but here's a list of my app tray:
One gripe is the Dialer and Messaging app. Not sure if it's stock since this is my first ICS Phone experience. The only contacts available in the Dialer are "Recent" and "Favorites". If I want to select any other contact, I have to go to the "People" app. And there is NO contacts list of any kind in the Messaging app. I have to go to People if I want to select a contact and then message them. Just some hoops that I don't really feel are necessary.
Skype is currently non-functional, but I'm sure it just needs a quick update. When I try to call the phone on Skype, the app crashes. When I try to initiate a Skype call from within the app, the call never goes through, it just sits there and never connects. I'm sure Skype just needs to update their app for this device.
Edit 4
Some of you might have noticed I installed FoxFi. It currently does not work. I've never used it before because CyanogenMod 7.2 on my EVO 4G has tethering built into it. I didn't tinker with it too much due to lack of time and experience with the app, but I was able to successfully connect to the hotspot, but there was no internet. And within about a minute of getting connected, my desktop lost the connection. Again, just like Skype, I'm sure all it needs is an update to work with this new phone. Until then, it's a no go.
Speakers:
Calls are loud and clear. Normally I struggle with hearing calls on cell phones, but not this one. Also, I loaded some music and played it through the speakers. VERY loud at max volume. I was really impressed.
Video performance:
Will report back.
Edit 6
I had a 720p bluray rip at 2800kbs H.264 MP4 that played in both Dice Player and Moboplayer
720x576 H.264 MKV at 1200kbs that played in Moboplayer but failed in Dice Player
And lastly I had a 480p dvd rip XVID mp4 at 180kbs that played in both Dice Player and Moboplayer
Please let me know if there's anything I missed or anything you're curious about. I'd be happy to give you guys any info you'd like about the phone.
