**OFFICIAL**: I got my BIONIC Thread!

[Travisimo]

I picked mine up at VZW corporate store yesterday morning at 9am. There were about 10 people in line. I opened up a new line to buy the phone, then switched it over to my line and activated a previous feature phone we had on the new line. The new line will be for our son, who just started junior high and walks to school. So he was excited to get a cell phone, and I was excited to get the Bionic!

I also bought the extended battery for $25, which i thought was a great deal. So far, really liking the phone. I have been flip-flopping back and forth between Android and iPhone for the last couple of years. This year it will be Android simply because LTE is coming here next week and Apple won't have LTE in this year's iPhone. Next year about this time, I will likely switch back to iPhone if it has LTE.

 

[Nuar]

Im sorry but to me switching from the bionic to the iphone is like going back to a flip phone... i dont understand the whole iphone craze. My friends have them and i played around with them plenty. *shrug*

 

[alanmeyer]

Picked up my Bionic at the Verizon store yesterday. Would have loved the Costco deal, but Costco couldn't upgrade me due to my corporate account. The Verizon store even had a couple of issues, but it worked out in the end.

Great phone so far. I'm new to Android so I'm still trying to figure out all of the features. Phone seems fast, and I love the big screen.

 

[HotDawg]

just a heads up - the extended battery is only 24.99 online also - so you don't have to go to a corporate store if you dont have one near you.

udchemis, can you share where you saw this? I don't see it at all in the Verizon shop and at the Moto shop it's $50.
Thanks

 

[dmodert66]

I work at a Verizon Plus. We got our shipment today, and all other Plus stores "should" have as well. My store got 9. No accessories though. I would stop by a corportate VZW and get that extended battery deal!

Sweet! I just called my plus store and they are open until 7. I am surprised they answered because every other time I have called them I got their answering machine. The rep checked and said they had just gotten theirs in. She is going to process it now for me (charge to my FiOS account) so all I have to do is come pick it up (she will already be gone for the day). Thanks for the heads up!

 

[udchemist]

udchemis, can you share where you saw this? I don't see it at all in the Verizon shop and at the Moto shop it's $50.
Thanks

hey HotDawg - it shows up as 49.99 for me as well, but when I got to the checkout page it changed to 24.99 - I dont know how long the promotion will last. this was at vzw.com - i looked through the accessories for the bionic until I found the extended battery.

edit: heres the link to the battery:
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/...ryDetails&archetypeId=12743&accessoryId=47724

 

[RobDog888]

Got my Bionic yesterday. Walked into the Verizon store and walked out in about 30 minutes or so.

 

[kpedx]

Got my bionic yesterday. First one bought by the night shift at the mall in waterbury, ct. I had to put the sim in for the tech because no one behind the counter could figure it out lol. This thing is an animal coming from a lg ally

 

[johnlgalt]

I was the first real customer at CostCo in Morrow, GA (and got the second phone - the first was snatched up by the Wireless Associates kiosk manager lol). I actually got to the store before the phones 'arrived' - meaning they had not been released from shipping and receiving into inventory yr b/c they were bagging all the accessories together.

It took forever for it to activate, though, for some odd reason - when it finally did, I tried to make a post here - man, 4G is fast - but the forums kept messing up my post so my thread never made it, I think.

I will admit that I would've been happier with a slightly smaller battery and a door that was even with the camera hump.

But I opted to go with an extended battery anyways because I use my phone so stream Slacker Radio for at least 8 hours a day at work. I also use a set of Motorola SD-10 Bluetooth Headphones to listen to it.

On my OG Droid I could kill a battery in 5-6 hours doing that so I always had to keep a second battery plugged in and charging to make it through the night.

I'll be putting the Bionic to the test tonight and will report on how it does. If it can't make the full 8 hours of my shift I will likely be buying a standalone battery charger for my Standard battery to use when the extended dies. Hopefully it doesn't come to that as keeping 2 batteries and 2 battery doors with me would be a hassle.

I might go the extended battery route in the future - right now, with the CostCo deal, I got a spare battery and battery charger, so that stays in the truck getting charged until it is needed.

Let's try these pics again.

Dropbox didn't want to share with others so I uploaded to Photobucket this time.

I hope these work.

Again, quality is bad because I used my OG Droid to take the pics since my normal camera was dead.

Front of Phone:
It automatically downloaded my wallpaper off my OG Droid running CM7.

Back with Shell from Shell/Holster Combo:
That's a little fold out kickstand on the back.

Side with Shell isntalled:

Back with Extended Battery and Cover on:

Side with Extended Battery and Cover on:

Back with Standard Battery and Cover on:

Side with Standard Batter and Cover on:

Extended Battery on Left, Standard Battery on Right:

Extended Battery Door on Left, Standard Battery Door on Right:

I got the shell holster - I compared the it with the Otterbox, but the ease of being able to remove it from the new shell design plus the kickstand won me over. I plan on using the car dock I got from CostCo, so....

Funny thing is, CostCo gave me a car charger, and The shell holster combo also had on in it - and I already have a PowerJolt Dual Universal - Universal car charger with 2 USB ports - Griffin Technology and so I have two spare car chargers - probably sell them on eBay lol...

=============================

So, get this. I went into my local VZW store today to look at cases - the leather case that CostCo gave me feels cheap, and and the seams are already separating....

I ask for cases for the Bionic, and dude gets me both of the ones they have Otterbox and Shell / holster combo. I ask if I can open them to look at them and he says sure, just come see me when you're ready to get one.

Another associate (the same one who told me a few weeks ago that the Charge was the best phone and I would never need anything else...) then asks me if I had already broken my case - I said no, I didn't get one - then he proceeded to ask me about the phone, etc. and when he found out that I didn't buy it from there, he acted like he was pissed, that I wasn't supporting local businesses....Then he had the audacity to tall me that this store was the largest store in the SE region. In a town with a population of less than 100K. I was like WTF? I almost left. But I wanted the Shell Holster combo.

He didn't apply my discount, and I think I'm going to call CS and get one with the discount, then return it to the VZW store. Largest store in the region - lmfao - how come he didn't run out of DROID BIONICs yet? They have like 4 at this store as of tonight....

I hate when folks try to play me and they don't know jack about me.

 

[charlie310]

Does it really hurt the battery that much? I mean, do you guys set timers as to how long to leave it on the charger for? All my phones in the past I just plugged in @ night when I went to bed and unplugged when I got up .... does it make that much of a difference?

Fill me in please.

From my understanding, leaving your phone plugged in at night doesn't do noticeable damage (I'm sure the battery stops charging). What hurts the battery is using it until it gets low(that's why I said the first thing to do with the Bionic is charge your battery).

In regards to the "memory-effect", it is true that there technically isn't any memory-effect in Li-Ion. A similar problem occurs where the phone won't accurately know the battery level. Hence, a full-discharge and full-recharge is required to correct this.

To sum-it up:
Try not to drain the battery really low.
Only drain it really low when you notice the phone battery meter is messed up (drain it til it shuts-off, then recharge until full).

EDIT: sorry for the off-topic post. I did order the phone for $180. Will be here Monday.

 

[goldz28]

I got mine today from fedex. So far I really like it but have not had a lot of time to play with it.
I like that shell case I'm going to have to get one. :thumb:


edit : Can you please give me a link to that extended battery case? I can't find it with a simple search.

Thanks in advance

 

[Tosa90]

I got mine today from fedex. So far I really like it but have not had a lot of time to play with it.
I like that shell case I'm going to have to get one. :thumb:


edit : Can you please give me a link to that extended battery case? I can't find it with a simple search.

Thanks in advance

Shell/Holster Combo


There's the Shell/Holster Combo. The shell fits on the phone with or without the extended battery installed.

 

[John_Roger]

Very happy with it so far!

 

[micahdiablo]

This phone is absolute junk.

And by this phone im talking about my nexus s 4g. Problem after problem and a phone with overheating tendency.

Im the proud owner of a Droid bionic for my work phone. It's an excellent phone that I just got yesterday.

Droid bionic is amazing...

Battery life is excellent
I like blur
lte > wimax
No lag
Charges fully(nexus s only charged to 94%)
Signal reception is great for voice data and wifi(nexus s....horrible)

Im liking my bionic. Best of all my job pays fully for my verizon contract, so I get to use the best network for free.

And I returned my nexus s for the kyocera echo for my personal line because it's cool.
TWO great phones(bionic and echo) and the weekend is going great already.

 

[celticscryer]

Just got mine a few hours ago! I'm surprised by how much lighter it is compared to my first gen Droid. Love it so far!

 

[kobrapack99]

In my opinion, the Bionic is a joke. Not trying to knock anyone who has one; if you love it, that's great. But to me, it is WAY overpriced. $299 for a phone that isn't even global? Give me a freakin' break.

Bestbuy price matches with walmart. $199

 

[kathy2343]

I'd be interested to hear what you extended battery users are experiencing. My standard battery is lasting about 6 hours with moderate use--about the same as my OG Droid, which isn't bad since I'm getting LTE, though longer would be nice.

I figure I can get by with my Costco bundle extra battery and charging dock, which can charge spare and phone battery at the same time. Plus the desk dock and car dock can both charge. But just in case--how long do you get from the standard and extended batteries at the same level of use?

Gotta figure out whether that bigger hump on back would be worth it. Also...will it fit in the docks with the extended battery?

 

[Tosa90]

I'd be interested to hear what you extended battery users are experiencing. My standard battery is lasting about 6 hours with moderate use--about the same as my OG Droid, which isn't bad since I'm getting LTE, though longer would be nice.

I figure I can get by with my Costco bundle extra battery and charging dock, which can charge spare and phone battery at the same time. Plus the desk dock and car dock can both charge. But just in case--how long do you get from the standard and extended batteries at the same level of use?

Gotta figure out whether that bigger hump on back would be worth it. Also...will it fit in the docks with the extended battery?

I'm not sure about the Standard battery as I have yet to use it. Haven't even charged it yet.

My extended battery lasted 8 hours on the first night starting at 60% and ending at 5%. During this time I was streaming music over 4G most of the time along with some browsing of this forum and a bit of gaming and other browsing. I also had my Bluetooth headphones attached the entire time listening to that music.

On my OG Droid My battery would usually last somewhere around 6 hours doing the same things.

Yes, the docks do make room for the extended battery. They have a removable insert that comes out if you want to dock the phone while the Shell is attached to the back.

 

[goldz28]

Gotta figure out whether that bigger hump on back would be worth it. Also...will it fit in the docks with the extended battery?

My phone has been unplugged for about 11 hours and I'm at 70%. Granted I work nights and was asleep from 1340 when I unpugged it to 1930 when I got up. But its been in my hand alot while 50% of the time i've been up. So I would say the extra 1000ma is helping, I think the extended batter is 2700ma.

 

[carmendiva]

I have mine

 

[rajaji]

Bionic impressions so far: it's 2 days old. Yesterday on 4G, standard battery lasted 5 hours. So it's gone on 3G since then. Yesterday evening I turned on 4G for a few minutes to download an app, and in just minutes I could see the battery drop. But WiFi seemed great today on the battery. Voice and speaker quality are fine, music with headset sound quality is superb.

There's a bug in the browser: while in a window you press menu, then windows, you get a list of windows. You should be able to delete a window by pressing on the red button next to it, but those red buttons don't work. I'm trying out Dolphin browser and like it very well so far.

I paid $279 plus the free bundle at Costco, but then found out VZ is $249 plus I could have had $30 off for new every two. Still I have no regrets, the Costco bundle has a lot of useful stuff. Had 2 chargers, spare battery, two docks. Navigation dock is very nicely designed. The case they gave me sucks....I paid $20 at VZ and got a very sleek belt holster case.

 

[Frisco]

I have mine

Way to go, Carmendiva.

Is it super wonderful at or above your expectations?

 

[carmendiva]

Way to go, Carmendiva.

Is it super wonderful at or above your expectations?

Frisco<3 It exceeded my expectations and the bar was set high with my droid charge, which I'm selling
Everyone I know is like excited about my bionic.

 

[carmendiva]

This phone is absolute junk.

And by this phone im talking about my nexus s 4g. Problem after problem and a phone with overheating tendency.

Im the proud owner of a Droid bionic for my work phone. It's an excellent phone that I just got yesterday.

Droid bionic is amazing...

Battery life is excellent
I like blur
lte &gt; wimax
No lag
Charges fully(nexus s only charged to 94%)
Signal reception is great for voice data and wifi(nexus s....horrible)

Im liking my bionic. Best of all my job pays fully for my verizon contract, so I get to use the best network for free.

And I returned my nexus s for the kyocera echo for my personal line because it's cool.
TWO great phones(bionic and echo) and the weekend is going great already.

Whoo whoo Micah

 

[cdf3]

Got mine! Enjoying it so far.