New Photon owner!

[jeffdlb]

Yesterday I replaced my HTC Evo 4G with the Motorola Photon. I was also considering the Samsung Epic 4G Touch but felt the Photon would better suit my needs (reliability & world phone were the main factors).

While I was waiting for them to set it up in the shop, I saw an Otterbox Commuter case on the shelf and bought that as well. My Evo's screen had shattered from being dropped on a tile floor, so I decided I needed some decent protection. The guy at the shop applied the screen protector -- perfectly done, I might add.

Anyway, so far I am quite pleased. I have 13 more days to decide whether to keep it.

 

[drexappeal]

Yesterday I replaced by HTC Evo 4G with the Motorola Photon. I was also considering the Samsung Epic 4G Touch but felt the Photon would better suit my needs (reliability & world phone were the main factors).

While I was waiting for them to set it up in the shop, I saw an Otterbox Commuter case on the shelf and bought that as well. My Evo's screen had shattered from being dropped on a tile floor, so I decided I needed some decent protection. The guy at the shop applied the screen protector -- perfectly done, I might add.

Anyway, so far I am quite pleased. I have 13 more days to decide whether to keep it.

Welcome to the MoPho family! I've said it before, but as a former EVO owner, as much as I loved that phone, I don't miss it and actually love the MoPho a lot more. There are certain things I initially missed with the EVO (like the automatic sync'ing of contacts with facebook/twitter accounts), but not enough to not keep this phone. There are so many more things I love about the MoPho, especially the "no lag" part (after 7 months owning and 160+apps), as well as the battery saving modes.

 

[jeffdlb]

So far the only thing I miss is having the LED come on during charging. I understand I could install Light Flow but it seems like complete overkill for just that. I like to be able to tell at a glance that my phone is charging in the car, and I ignore the LED otherwise.

 

[drexappeal]

So far the only thing I miss is having the LED come on during charging. I understand I could install Light Flow but it seems like complete overkill for just that. I like to be able to tell at a glance that my phone is charging in the car, and I ignore the LED otherwise.

Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of light flow either. Maybe, I just didn't take enough time to play around with the settings, but I could never get it to work exactly like I wanted.

 

[Jungle Jack]

Hello,
Congratulations. I had a EVO 4G and then got a 3D last June, but had bad luck with the 3D and Sprint allowed me to swap to the Photon for free about 3 Months ago. I absolutely love this phone and the amazing amount of Internal Storage (16gb) coupled with a 16gb SD I had from my 3D gives me an insane amount of Memory.

The Battery Life is also outstanding. I also highly recommend getting the HD Dock. With it and the Bluetooth Keyboard, and a Wireless Mouse has essentially amounted to a 3rd Computer. And this one is connected to my Home Theater. It is awesome that you can purchase the NBA Season Ticket for $19.99 (and you can Bill it to your Sprint Account) and watch it on your HDTV. The Picture Quality is certainly not High Definition, but is certainly watchable. And Firefox via the Webdock works quite well too. And all of this is simply icing.
Cheers,
JJ

 

[drexappeal]

Hello,
Congratulations. I had a EVO 4G and then got a 3D last June, but had bad luck with the 3D and Sprint allowed me to swap to the Photon for free about 3 Months ago. I absolutely love this phone and the amazing amount of Internal Storage (16gb) coupled with a 16gb SD I had from my 3D gives me an insane amount of Memory.

The Battery Life is also outstanding. I also highly recommend getting the HD Dock. With it and the Bluetooth Keyboard, and a Wireless Mouse has essentially amounted to a 3rd Computer. And this one is connected to my Home Theater. It is awesome that you can purchase the NBA Season Ticket for $19.99 (and you can Bill it to your Sprint Account) and watch it on your HDTV. The Picture Quality is certainly not High Definition, but is certainly watchable. And Firefox via the Webdock works quite well too. And all of this is simply icing.
Cheers,
JJ

I concur. I have both the HD dock and the Lapdock 100, as well as the Car Dock. IMO, All the Motorola specific accessories absolutely cast a shadow over any of the HTC specific accessories I've purchased in the past! I just feel that Motorola has a better concept behind productivity with the cell phone than HTC really did. HTC takes the prize on "looks," but functionality is all Motorola. My favorite of the accessories is the Car Dock because the USB chord, that plugs into the dock, is connected with a 3.5mm connector that allows a perfect connection to my car stereo (even though I still have to use a tape adaptor...LOL). It basically gets the chords out of the way, but the sound output is still fantastic, especially using PowerAmp player.

 

[jeffdlb]

My favorite of the accessories is the Car Dock

The car dock seems useful, but I believe it won't work if I have the Otterbox case on.

 

[jeffdlb]

One very nice surprise: The built-in Swype supports French and many other languages. The version I installed on my Evo only had English and Spanish.

 

[jeffdlb]

Is it possible to display name/contact info on the lock screen? Something like "If found, call Jeff at 555-1212?" with my home or work phone?

 

[drexappeal]

The car dock seems useful, but I believe it won't work if I have the Otterbox case on.

You are correct. I do believe there are some cases that do work, but otterbox would be too big.

 

[drexappeal]

Is it possible to display name/contact info on the lock screen? Something like "If found, call Jeff at 555-1212?" with my home or work phone?

I just saw an app that does that. I'll try finding and post if I find.

 

[floorguy]

One very nice surprise: The built-in Swype supports French and many other languages. The version I installed on my Evo only had English and Spanish.

MANY different languages

 

[jeffdlb]

The kickstand mode is clever. Is it possible to get the home screen in landscape without opening the kickstand?

 

[drexappeal]

The kickstand mode is clever. Is it possible to get the home screen in landscape without opening the kickstand?

I don't think it's possible using the stock launcher (i.e. UI), but if you use a 3rd party launcher, you can.

Check this thread out:
http://androidforums.com/motorola-p...rmarket-rooting-not-required.html#post3087410

 

[jbb2388]

Wait til you see how nice it is with CM 7.

Good luck with it. You won't be disappointed.

 

[joephoton]

Congratulations, new owner! I'm new too, having my new Photon for 28 hours. I also had the shop guys (Best Buy) install a Zagg shield. Now I'm rocking with PdaNet to hookup my laptop to 4G.

Wait til you see how nice it is with CM 7.

Good luck with it. You won't be disappointed.

So yeah I wanna learn about CM 7 or 7.2 and how to root a phone (I've not done it before, and i do realize that is for other threads)

 

[Seanjohn2239]

You made a good choice I have both phones and clearly I love the Photon lot more. after 2 months of the samsung it gained a lot of lag. 8 months with the photon and not have a single problem. Congrats

 

[magicolight]

Just got my new Photon 4G with Sprint. First Smartphone for myself so I am lost as to what apps are a must or are good with this phone. Some games and fun things to do. I look at the Market and am just mezmerized at all the things that one can do. Could use some help, thanks.

 

[Muqtar]

I will just say this. Go to the Android market, and download go launcher.

Also install home switcher or another application that will let you toggle to launchers on and off.

Go launcher is the single biggest improvement I had made to the phone until my friend rooted it for me and put CM9 on it.

Enjoy your new phone, its the best I have ever had.

 

[paradox183]

My wife and I both have the EVO 4G and we are considering making the jump to the Photon using our upgrade eligibility. MikG has extended the life of my EVO a little bit but my wife's charging port is partially broken so she really needs something new. It's encouraging to read here about others' good experiences going from the EVO 4G to the Photon.

I'll probably wait until the April 4 Sprint/HTC announcement and see whether the next EVO and LTE is going to be worth the wait/price.

 

[Herach]

So far the only thing I miss is having the LED come on during charging. I understand I could install Light Flow but it seems like complete overkill for just that. I like to be able to tell at a glance that my phone is charging in the car, and I ignore the LED otherwise.

Hello. For the Charging LED, you can use BATTMONX from Market. It is pretty good. I have been using it for quiet a while now and I like it a lot. Give it a try and let us know what you think and welcome to MOPHO family.

 

[Sen2012]

I just ordered a Photon from Sprint to upgrade my antiquated cell phone. It will be my first smart phone. I don't have it yet, but am already intimidated by android.

Even having an IT degree, I feel lost on all this, but I'm sure I'll pick it up in no time. I really needed a better phone for e-mail and work related tasks that I just felt no use for an old cell phone anymore.

I almost got the Epic Touch 4G, but I had decided a few years ago to give up on Samsung, because the call quality (at least on my two Samsungs) was awful. Then I decided, after a bit of research, the Photon was much better and fit what I wanted.

Glad to have found this forum.

 

[drexappeal]

I just ordered a Photon from Sprint to upgrade my antiquated cell phone. It will be my first smart phone. I don't have it yet, but am already intimidated by android.

Even having an IT degree, I feel lost on all this, but I'm sure I'll pick it up in no time. I really needed a better phone for e-mail and work related tasks that I just felt no use for an old cell phone anymore.

I almost got the Epic Touch 4G, but I had decided a few years ago to give up on Samsung, because the call quality (at least on my two Samsungs) was awful. Then I decided, after a bit of research, the Photon was much better and fit what I wanted.

Glad to have found this forum.

If you have an IT degree, I have NO doubt you'll pick it up and maybe in a short time even start schooling a bunch of us on the limitations and/or additional things that can be done with the phone.

If you're new to Android, then I might as well put this link in here also (also mentioned in the accessories thread).

SDSDQY-064G-A11A SanDisk 64GB Mobile Ultra microSDHC, up to 30 MB/Sec, Enabled Class 6 Memory Card with SD Adapter

$79.95 for a 64gb microsSD (free ship + no tax...I'm in CA). Best deal to be found right now. If you don't have a microSD, I'd say this is worth it for sure, but if you'd rather go the less expensive route, there's always deals (more recently) on 32gb microSD cards from Class 4 to Class 10.

 

[Sen2012]

Thanks for that info. I think I might go ahead and order that. I had read that it can support up to a 32gb micro sd; then somewhere else I read it only supports up to 16gb; so I was confused on that already.

 

[drexappeal]

Thanks for that info. I think I might go ahead and order that. I had read that it can support up to a 32gb micro sd; then somewhere else I read it only supports up to 16gb; so I was confused on that already.

There's 16gb internal built in (8.92 usable) already. It supports up to "32gb" microSD, but that was also before 64gb microSD's were available. There have been reports all over (I found via google search) that the 64gb cards seem to work fine on "newer" phones. I saw one example where the Thunderbolt identified the max capacity of the card, so I'm assuming it'll be no issue with the Photon.

I already ordered this 64gb card and even if it doesn't identify the full capacity, I'll have it ready for when I upgrade my phone again (whether this year or next year).