Thisismynext review of the Droid Bionic... - Motorola Droid Bionic

http://thisismynext.com/2011/09/07/motorola-droid-bionic-review/
"This is not the killer handset that I think a lot of people were expecting it to be — it’s a good phone on a great network that will keep you satisfied… for now."
"Score: 7.5/10"
"Cons:
Battery life is lacking
Software bugs can cause problems
Pricey"
"In the time I used the device I found the Bionic’s stamina to be less than spectacular in comparison to most 3G phones, but nearly-passable when held up next to its 4G competitors."
Ouch
Thought about upgrading but for $300 + tax + 2 year contract the phone should have better than "nearly-passable" battery life. Guess I'll have to wait for Anandtechs review of the battery life as well. Can anyone here speak of the battery life they are getting and if it fits this review?

Pretty bad review. Everyone I've spoken to that's had it for a few days says the battery is f*cking amazing. This and the gizmodo review seem biased as hell.

Mark Smith from the Detroit Free Press says he's been using it for about a week and is very happy with the battery life. I've heard a few other positive comments as well, depending on how long the reviewer had or used the phone. Those who only used it for a day typically were less than impressed. Those who had time to break it in said it got better.
But it's still a good idea to wait a few days for more reviews.

idefiler6 said:
Pretty bad review. Everyone I've spoken to that's had it for a few days says the battery is f*cking amazing. This and the gizmodo review seem biased as hell.
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I heard that as well.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

Yeah its expected for some reviews to be a bit negative especially given the long wait and hype over the Bionic. With that said if I'm able to get 12-14 hours of battery under moderate use then I'll be happy.

DemoManMLS said:
Yeah its expected for some reviews to be a bit negative especially given the long wait and hype over the Bionic. With that said if I'm able to get 12-14 hours of battery under moderate use then I'll be happy.
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This is most definitely the case for me, and I've had a Bionic for nearly a month. Battery life with everything syncing is more than acceptable in my mind, especially for an LTE device.

I have heard a lot of good things about the battery life on the Bionic - except for this review. I happened to notice that he is only showing 1 bar in all the pictures he posted. It might just simply be he was in a really bad area for Verizon. I know that a really bad signal would always kill my battery fast in every smartphone i've ever had.

DemoManMLS said:
Yeah its expected for some reviews to be a bit negative especially given the long wait and hype over the Bionic. With that said if I'm able to get 12-14 hours of battery under moderate use then I'll be happy.
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That, iphone and samsung fanboys writing articles as well!

Guys... Battery life will vary for EVERYONE. The thunderbolt battery drains twice as fast when your 4G signal is less than 3 bars. This guy in the review had very few bars, thus, draining the battery. The best thing you can do for a phone like this is have 3G on until you NEED 4G. I mean really people, when do you actually NEED 4G? When tethering...
Juice defender is the best app on the market. Phone locked??? Data turned off and set to check your data whenever you set the time to. This helps every phone.

I can't wait to give you guys my review tomorrow.... but I was able to order mine from vzw for $75!!

Wtf? I didnt see much negativity in the review. What are you guys talking about?

I have been using mine for the past four days and hands down the best battery life on any android device I've owned to date. (This is my 9th android device.)
Sent from my Droid Bionic using XDA Premium App

BGR says it's the best handset ever offered by verizon.
http://www.bgr.com/2011/09/07/motorola-droid-bionic-hands-on/

mrpickem said:
BGR says it's the best handset ever offered by verizon.
http://www.bgr.com/2011/09/07/motorola-droid-bionic-hands-on/
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That was one of the crappiest reviews I have ever read.

psufan5 said:
That was one of the crappiest reviews I have ever read.
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It was a hands-on, not a review. You know, a quick impression of the phone for the rabid customers that can't wait for a full review. Like us
Jason

I also have heard nothing but praise regarding battery life, especially in comparison to the existing LTE selection on VZW. I also saw the "review" on gizmodo, which was nearly opposite of what engadget had to say. They both posted around the same time, and the gizmodo writer seemed *incredibly* biased. Even when he was talking about basic specs he seemed to do so with a negative connotation.
... with only 2 negative reviews out of 10 or so positives I've seen, I'm definitely still going to get it this morning!

If you guys actually watched his video, he said that he got 11 hours switching between LTE and WiFi. That's *fantastic* battery life for an LTE device. I don't think battery life is going to be an issue, especially if you don't have 4G in your area and you just turn it off, but then you might as well get a DX2 which is basically the same phone without LTE (among other differences like it's got a Tegra, etc)

Related

Battery life

For those who owned this phone, how's battery life so far for you?
very good, and getting better for each charge
with a normal varied use of the phone I can get almost 2 full days use - compared to the same use lasting only 1 day on my HTC Desire, Samsung SGS and my Iphone 4
That's weird. There are reviews of bad battery life..
bryant_16 said:
That's weird. There are reviews of bad battery life..
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do you have sources?
Like others mentioned. It shows rapid drained to begin, but gets really good after a week or so
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA App
not weird
Reviews were of early pre production units with an early software
Relased production units are naturally better - in many ways
From the first day the batterylife has been better that any of my other phones (see signature). My usage style is really heavy too. As others have reported it keeps getting better at least it has improved every day for the week ive had it.
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA App
How does it compare to Nexus S and iPhone 4?
Anyone know of the above?
battery life comparison
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4144/...ra-2-review-the-first-dual-core-smartphone/15
Yup, saw it already. Not very good for a dual core processor phone.
Sad.
Well the batterylife will be better on gingerbread and up since our fancy dual core isnt supported in 2.2
send from mah ubersmexy tricorder
Yeah, but gingerbread also doesnt support dual core right?
I kinda forgot if it was gingerbread or honeycomb hmm eitherway on a next update it might improve allthough as previously posted before it gets better after some charge cycles also letting the battery drean all the way down and than fully recharge +2 hours additional charging a month improves battery drainage in general
send from mah magic toaster
But I heard people saying that by doing that, you are actually harming the battery life. I'm not sure, maybe someone can come in and clarify this.
Since 7.30 this morning (3h ago) with 3g, a little app sorting, and 30min of music ive lost 52% battery. This is rooted, factory-restored and with frOzen unnessesery apps.
Also it seems that now, a week old, the battery is getting worse and worse Since it reached its peak 2 days ago.
Help please
Sent from my LG-P990 using Tapatalk
Am i the only one experiencing this? ;(
Sent from my LG-P990 using Tapatalk
I guess not, some others are facing the same issue too. How long is your set already?
if you mean how much battery its now; 29%
the stragest thing is, as i said, that it was better 2 days ago
reg-sux said:
battery life comparison
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4144/...ra-2-review-the-first-dual-core-smartphone/15
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Tests here made on a preproduction unit with prelaunch software making this test slightly useless as anadtech should now.
Both stability and battery life are better on production units being sold after launch with a more mature software.
This test should be repeated now with a production unit to have any validity.

So I went to VZW to check it out (D2G owner)

Hi all,
I finally got a chance to go to the store to check one of these out. I wanted to see what all the hype was about and if I could justify spending the money to upgrade my D2G (not elligible for upgrade yet).
First Impressions:
- Screen: I read all the hysteria about how bad a pixelated screen looks etc. Some people said that you could barely see the difference unless youre holding the right up to your eye holes.. They are wrong. You can easily see the difference holding it at normal viewing distance. If you like the screen on the D2G it will take some serious adjusting to. It simply 'seems' like outdated tech and looks cheap.
-4G: This is the first 4G device I have ever used. It is shockingly quick (had 2 bars in Central NJ). I download a few apps (dolphin browser) and went to a couple of web pages. I also ran the speed test 19.6mb down // 3.99 upload. I went to youtube and loaded an HD video and the video never stuttered once (video time never caught up to buffering). I was very impressed with 4G and that is mainly the reason I wanted to take a look at the Droid Bionic.
- Stress testing:? Not sure what to call this but I wanted to see if I could make the phone hang up. Im not even sure if these are applicable to the hardware, but I ran 2 apps. The first of which was Google Maps, it didnt seem to be any faster than on my D2G. Scrolling isnt any more impressive neither is zooming in, I felt like the rendering speed was the same.
- Moto BLUR/UI whatever its called these days: Its still sucky you will want to root and change it.
I also downloaded a PDF and scrolled around that. Same issue, rendering doesnt seem any faster.
Im not even sure if something like this can be critiqued because these things arent even smooth on a regular PC.
Its clearly a good phone if you can deal with the screen thing. Once roms and stuff are developed for it, it will be even better. I would probably pull the trigger if i was elligible for an upgrade.
Just my 2 cents.
I personally wouldn't recommend the Bionic. I'm currently using one, as it "fell into my hands". There are many more options coming VERY soon which will have greater specs than the Bionic and won't have the terrible display.
I can't believe how much denial the people are in when they say that the screen is fine. If you say the screen is fine you're lying to yourself and everyone else, but whatever makes you feel better about your $300+ purchase I guess.
I will say that the Bionic has a leg up on my Incredible as far as outdoor viewing goes.
BerkleyJ said:
I personally wouldn't recommend the Bionic. I'm currently using one, as it "fell into my hands". There are many more options coming VERY soon which will have greater specs than the Bionic and won't have the terrible display.
I can't believe how much denial the people are in when they say that the screen is fine. If you say the screen is fine you're lying to yourself and everyone else, but whatever makes you feel better about your $300+ purchase I guess.
I will say that the Bionic has a leg up on my Incredible as far as outdoor viewing goes.
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Click to collapse
Then I'm in denial and deny it! lol.. its not the best screen, but its not horrible! I think its quite ok.. the pixels don't bother me much, my battery life kicks butt compared to tbolt! Then again, im not one for watching movies on my phone I got a Sammy LED at home for that...
For those of us who:
-would rather watch a movie on something larger than a 4 inch screen.
-would rather fap to pr0n from a pc
-would rather play games on a pc, xbox 360 or ps3
-care about performance of the best 4g radio and so far the best processor/ram combo
OR have a connection for incredibly good deals on phones and don't really care...
Yeah, denial is the right term.
Like i've been saying - Rendering performance will not be hardly any different until Icecream comes out. Gingerbread is singlethreaded.. you're not going to see the OS take any advantage over dual core for a while.
The good news is that it's still just as fast as any other single core phone. If any app is coded to take advantage of dual core, it will shine in those but in average usage - you're not seeing any performance advantage here.
The pentile screen doesn't bother me. I can tell at times but still doesn't impact me. I would rather have better battery life than a non-pentile screen. I don't want the Thunderbolt battery issues.
After removing a bunch of bloatware, I kinda dig the new Blur. I was using CM7 with ADW Ex on top. It is running so butter smooth! I will probably go back to ADW Ex when a ROM comes out without Blur.
I got 30 days to try it out but I might exchange it for the HTC Vigor. Depends on what happens the next 30 days.
Diversion said:
Like i've been saying - Rendering performance will not be hardly any different until Icecream comes out. Gingerbread is singlethreaded.. you're not going to see the OS take any advantage over dual core for a while.
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While it's true it's barely worth mentioning. "YET" or "UNTIL" are key vocabulary for this CPU.
Coming from a droidx here... the screen looks a-ok to me on the bionic.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium
I've been using htc phones since the ppc6600. Battery life has been terrible since then, and I don't see it getting any better, unless they do something magical. 6600:terrible battery life. 6700 terrible battery life. 6800: terrible battery life. Incredible : incredibly terrible battery life.
There seems to be a trend here. I do believe I am done with htc.
The battery life alone, to me, is worth the money.
No doubt that the screen is disappointing, but LTE is absolutely insane, and the phone is noticeably faster than the Sensation running a Sense ROM. Overall, I'm very pleased with my first Motorola device, and it was a steal at $179 from Amazon.
--
Sent from my Droid Bionic.
I think that people are being to anal about the screen. I use the phone in direct sunlight now and it looks incredible. The text looks super sharp and you dont have to put your hand on top of the screen to block sun light. this phone is amazing. and yes better phones will be out and when you get that awesome phone that will come out in a few months another better phone will be out after that. is a never ending cycle. I love the bionic and i dont regret buying it. When i want to watch porn I use my computer or my galaxy 10.1 tablet. If you really really need a porn fix the bionic could take care of it too.
86shelby said:
I've been using htc phones since the ppc6600. Battery life has been terrible since then, and I don't see it getting any better, unless they do something magical. 6600:terrible battery life. 6700 terrible battery life. 6800: terrible battery life. Incredible : incredibly terrible battery life.
There seems to be a trend here. I do believe I am done with htc.
The battery life alone, to me, is worth the money.
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It's Sense. Put CyanogenMod on any HTC device, and you get amazing battery life. Can't wait for it on the Bionic.
--
Sent from my Droid Bionic.
TheBiles said:
It's Sense. Put CyanogenMod on any HTC device, and you get amazing battery life. Can't wait for it on the Bionic.
--
Sent from my Droid Bionic.
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Sense didn't exist until after the 6800. I had cm7 on my DInc, it still sucked, battery wise anyway.
The hate for the screen is warranted, and not warranted. I don't know how to put that. I was adamantly against a PenTile screen and it was almost enough to put me off on this phone. I had seen it in store and focused on the screen, and it just annoyed me. Then I got some real time with it and it's seriously a bunch of nonsense. The screen is sharp, great colors, great in daylight. It's not AMOLED level there but it's a do-it-all screen.
The 4G is super fast, and the battery life is amazing. I came from a Droid X and it's an impressive phone. Suck it up on the screen and you'll forget about it in a day.
Vexorg said:
Hi all,
I finally got a chance to go to the store to check one of these out. I wanted to see what all the hype was about and if I could justify spending the money to upgrade my D2G (not elligible for upgrade yet).
First Impressions:
- Screen: I read all the hysteria about how bad a pixelated screen looks etc. Some people said that you could barely see the difference unless youre holding the right up to your eye holes.. They are wrong. You can easily see the difference holding it at normal viewing distance. If you like the screen on the D2G it will take some serious adjusting to. It simply 'seems' like outdated tech and looks cheap.
-4G: This is the first 4G device I have ever used. It is shockingly quick (had 2 bars in Central NJ). I download a few apps (dolphin browser) and went to a couple of web pages. I also ran the speed test 19.6mb down // 3.99 upload. I went to youtube and loaded an HD video and the video never stuttered once (video time never caught up to buffering). I was very impressed with 4G and that is mainly the reason I wanted to take a look at the Droid Bionic.
- Stress testing:? Not sure what to call this but I wanted to see if I could make the phone hang up. Im not even sure if these are applicable to the hardware, but I ran 2 apps. The first of which was Google Maps, it didnt seem to be any faster than on my D2G. Scrolling isnt any more impressive neither is zooming in, I felt like the rendering speed was the same.
- Moto BLUR/UI whatever its called these days: Its still sucky you will want to root and change it.
I also downloaded a PDF and scrolled around that. Same issue, rendering doesnt seem any faster.
Im not even sure if something like this can be critiqued because these things arent even smooth on a regular PC.
Its clearly a good phone if you can deal with the screen thing. Once roms and stuff are developed for it, it will be even better. I would probably pull the trigger if i was elligible for an upgrade.
Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your comparing a Droid 2 Global to a Bionic .... Bionic>"D2G"
---------- Post added at 04:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:54 AM ----------
The "VERY" part of your statement, stands out as if you know something the rest of "non" Verizon Wireless employee's would know... if you dont work for verizon wireless please share what these options are..if you do work for vzw i can understand if you dont because you dont want to get a lawsuit.
Thx for the detailed review while playing with a demo model in-store for how long?
*crack me up!
manolith2011 said:
I think that people are being to anal about the screen.
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Click to collapse
If I'm spending $200 to $300 on an smartphone it better have a damn good screen. No offense but the Bionic does not have a good screen. Yeah at times it can look good but anything with green for instance suddenly brings out the crap factor. If it doesn't bother you then enjoy it. As for me I'll wait until either the HTC or Samsung offerings are out both of which will have a better screen over the Bionic.

Battery tech breakthrough - Finally!

This report says a breakthrough has been made in L-Ion battery tech that will give batteries 10 times the charge and 10 times faster charging. They say it will be on the market in 3 to 5 years.
10 times longer lasting will finally provide our smartphones, laptops with endurance and make EVs viable. If a phone lasts 6 hours worktime (on calls, WiFi, Bluetooth) on a charge, 60 hours will be heaven. We would be able to use our phones for it all then...playing movies and music while providing life for calls and web surfing etc.
http://www.dailytech.com/Battery+Breakthrough+Based+on+Graphene+Charges+10x+Faster/article23288.htm
10x the price?
916x10 said:
10x the price?
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I hope not. Since it is still Li-Ion battery tech, the only difference are the anodes. I wouldn't expect it to be too costly, depending on how complex the manufacturing of the anodes is.
916x10 said:
10x the price?
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Click to collapse
Lol, probably! Thanks for the post OP. I hope this tech comes to fruition.
That sounds really cool, I once saw something on developing processors that were just as powerful but consumed less bettery, I think it would be great if that got coupled with this!
Sent from my I897 using XDA App
bradleyG said:
That sounds really cool, I once saw something on developing processors that were just as powerful but consumed less bettery, I think it would be great if that got coupled with this!
Sent from my I897 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
I agree. But I hope the tech industry doesn't become lazy after this new battery breakthrough comes out.
I wonder when this will be implemented for consumer use. In 10 years perhaps
Amidst our poor battery days, this is definitely good news. Too bad it's a little too far away from our hands yet.
ja wol done right
Free energy is already here the only reason we are still using these battery methods is because these corporations reap huge profits
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
But life of that battery can be quite short. Read in the other news that after couple of charges efficiency drops to even 50% :/

Skyrocket owner lurking out of jealousy....

...because you guys got an official ICS release and you seem to be enjoying it so much. I'm still able to return my phone (within 30 days) and try another phone out. Would you guys recommend it?
All the reviews I have read have put the skyrocket as being an overall better phone. However, I am a big fan of HTC. I used to have an inspire and I swear that was the best phone I EVER owned. Not very impressed with my skyrocket at this point. I'd like to see what you guys have to say.
At this current point in time.. the Vivid is ok. there's not much too it. there aren't even many themes that work properly with it. the skyrocket (samsung touchwiz in general) gets a bit stale. if you use your phone a lot (data and sms) stay with the skyrocket because your battery will last much longer. on heavy usage i get about from 7am to 11 am
Crimson Ghoul said:
At this current point in time.. the Vivid is ok. there's not much too it. there aren't even many themes that work properly with it. the skyrocket (samsung touchwiz in general) gets a bit stale. if you use your phone a lot (data and sms) stay with the skyrocket because your battery will last much longer. on heavy usage i get about from 7am to 11 am
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Yikes, that's really bad. I do use my phone a lot so battery life is huge for me. How are you feeling about ICS on your phone? Does it feel different at all or was it all just hype?
I went to the att store at least 5 times to male sure j wanted the vivid over the skyrocket. Overall i think i made the right choice with the vivid. Battery life is bad but i bought a 3600mah battery on amazon for 10 dollars and i get at least 20 hours with very heavy usage. Plus i couldn't stand the low Res on the skyrocket display
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using XDA
I also had an Inspire before my Vivid, and other HTC's before that. i've always been a big fan, and loved my Inspire right up til the day I broke it. I like my Vivid 10 times better than that. I get a solid 10 hours on normal usage as far as battery. With the custom ROMs that are available, and the Mods that have recently been released, and the official release of ICS...hopefully development will pick up even more and we catch the interest of some themers and such too..
Edit: F me for not proofreading..that "solid 10 hours on normal usage" should have read "solid 20 hours on normal usage". To only get 10 hours it would have to be pretty much constant screen on. I literally watched my battery die the other day to try and work out another issue, so the screen was on most of the day, and it still took til right before I went to bed for it to die.
well i had a infuse 4g and went to the vivid after my infuse stopped functioning right i would have to say i am glad it broke love my vivid
Crimson Ghoul said:
At this current point in time.. the Vivid is ok. there's not much too it. there aren't even many themes that work properly with it. the skyrocket (samsung touchwiz in general) gets a bit stale. if you use your phone a lot (data and sms) stay with the skyrocket because your battery will last much longer. on heavy usage i get about from 7am to 11 am
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it's a full hour of heavy LTE data usage
i dont know what yall guys are talking about my vivid battery last at least 10 12 hrs with heavy usage during the day and im in a lte area...my phone is always on lte and i dont see any differance between my vivid and my buddies skyrocket as far as battery...
and besides imo touch wiz sucks i have the so called battery hog sence and like i said my battery last just as long as his...we even have races to see whos battery will run out first and its all ways about the same time
---------- Post added at 01:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:54 PM ----------
aaronv89 said:
...because you guys got an official ICS release and you seem to be enjoying it so much. I'm still able to return my phone (within 30 days) and try another phone out. Would you guys recommend it?
All the reviews I have read have put the skyrocket as being an overall better phone. However, I am a big fan of HTC. I used to have an inspire and I swear that was the best phone I EVER owned. Not very impressed with my skyrocket at this point. I'd like to see what you guys have to say.
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Click to collapse
i say get the vivid and youll enjoy it....ics is the **** mayne
i dont know why everyone says the skyrocket is better...the price tag doesnt make it better.. i hate that
besides they feel really cheap..i almost feel like im going to crush the skyrocket in my hand cuz its so light and weak feeling
Thanks guys. I think I might go to the ATT store today and see if they have a vivid on display running ICS.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA
aaronv89 said:
Thanks guys. I think I might go to the ATT store today and see if they have a vivid on display running ICS.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA
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Click to collapse
they might not...but you can look up on youtube the vivid running ics ...
I kind of wish people would stop bashing the battery on the Vivid. It's pretty damn good. When I plug in my phone at night, its usually at more than 50% battery and is reporting more than 16 hours of use. I've experienced better battery on the Vivid than I did on the GS2.
Sent from my HTC Vivid
I have to agree on the battery. If you are using it, regardless of which phone it is, the battery will drain. However the battery on my vivid does not die like the captivate would. I work two jobs and can comfortably go to both knowing my phone will not be in the red when I get off work. It always lasts. I had to bring my charger for the captivate wherever I went. The vivid is amazing!
I'm shocked at the bad battery reports.
I'm actually getting amazing battery life.
Play games rather often, have gps and wifi and mobile data always turned on. Usually browsing the net, xda, facebook, a bit of texting and a few phone calls, sooo many widgets and a livewallpaper, max brightness, and I get at least 12 hours out of my phone, usually more.
And on days I don't use it much... well I've been charging it every other day this week.
I would say that the battery is pretty good. If I can keep from turning on the display I can probably get 15-20hrs. The display really sucks the watts. While you can turn it down (I have it set on automatic) and that help out a lot. Unfortunately, if I just set it for say 20% brightness, I can barely see it indoors and forget outdoors. So automatic works best for me. I have push email and everything else updates at least once an hour.
how do you guys feel about the processor/ram? Do you have trouble playing the latest games or applications? although I'm not a huge gamer, I prefer to be at least moderately updated with the latest hardware.
another question: as was suggested earlier I started looking up some videos. I didn't see any videos showing off the really awesome multi-task functionality that's in ICS. Does it still work the same way on the vivid?
I'm running WC's ICS rom, his kernel is clocked to 1.5 instead of the stock underclock of 1.2. I have experienced absolutely ZERO lag on my Vivid, and I've played several games without issue, emulators also aren't laggy and super buggy on it either.
And the multi tasking is pretty intuitive and nice, you can long press on "home" and it'll pop up the apps you've used most recently in the state they were in when you left unless you fully quit that app or game.
Battery isn't going be great on any of the current LTE phones.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
kozmikkick said:
Battery isn't going be great on any of the current LTE phones.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
again with the bashing of the battery... the battery is great
my battery last longer than my old inspire and infuse so it has nothing to do with lte. all though lte does use the battery more but not like your implying
Ive owned 4 HTC's and the vivid is the best of the bunch so far.I can't imagine a day without it or a day using any other phone again for a long while!This phone is simply amazing!As for the battery i think its pretty awesome.Check out this post where i posted my battery report after 24 hours of use.Yea thats right 24 hours and then some on one charge!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=23800715&postcount=13
The battery thread can be found here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1544094
+1 for battery life, especially if you check the automatic brightness.
I wouldn't stay with the skyrocket, especially with all the new devices coming out now (highres screens, ics, build quality, etc). I'm glad I choose the vivid and I always recommend it over skyrocket hands down.
Sent from my HTC Vivid via Tapatalk

Anandtech Full Review

It doesn't look like anyone has posted the full review yet, so here you go.
Anandtech Review
Turns out the issue with performance was actually due to new drivers, which allow for the full suite of benchmarks to be run. As a result, the CPU gets throttled after all that torture testing.
The new benchmarks, done without running the full suite, are posted in the review.
OMG. The battery life IS atrocious. Lol.
Yeah the battery really is bad. Its the most concerning issue right now for me as I debate whether or not to pull the trigger on this. My biggest concern is the cellular talk time and the wifi hotspot time. Those things can't really be blamed on the cpu thermal throttling issues as neither are CPU intensive tasks. Would a software update really even have the potential to fix those particular benchmarks?
EDIT: Unless the radio drivers are just really poor? That might explain the bad benchmarks on web browsing too since data would be in use the entire time for those benchmarks as well. Maybe then there is hope for a software improvement to battery life? I really hate buying things based on what they might be able to do in the future vs what I know they can do now
TheSopranos16 said:
Yeah the battery really is bad. Its the most concerning issue right now for me as I debate whether or not to pull the trigger on this. My biggest concern is the cellular talk time and the wifi hotspot time. Those things can't really be blamed on the cpu thermal throttling issues as neither are CPU intensive tasks. Would a software update really even have the potential to fix those particular benchmarks?
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Not if you want to fry your internals. Lol.
I'm guessing that the heat cannot dissipate effectively because of the screen on the front which is emanating heat, and the damn wireless inductive charging pad which is, in my mind, like a blanket. And I'm not even sure how effective glass is at displacing heat when couple with plastic.
But actually, cellular talk does release heat. Have you not noticed your phone getting hot when talking for extended periods of time? I believe the radio chip gets hot, maybe not necessarily the CPU. Regardless of where the heat is coming from, however, the sensors may still pick up on it. *shrugs*.
I'd advise you to wait 3 ~ 4 weeks if you can. Don't waste your time being the early adopter and wasting time dealing with early-release issues.
PoisonWolf said:
I'd advise you to wait 3 ~ 4 weeks if you can. Don't waste your time being the early adopter and wasting time dealing with early-release issues.
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Well, every bad for a good we say where I'm from.
Looks like a whole bunch of us are gonna wait for exactly that.
On the review, keep in mind that we're not sure what version of the software all those test units use. Probably an unfinished version..
It hasn't really come together for me...
- No 32GB or Micro SD
- Poor battery life still, the update hasn't fixed it
- Poor benchmark results
I wanted to buy cause I thought it would be a bargain powerhouse but in the end it is obvious why the thing is so cheap. I'll just wait for my upgrade in April and get the GS4 if that is any good but until then my GS2 is doing just fine.
Seems fine.. compared to the Galaxy Nexus, which I regularly get 2 days at at time out of, the battery rates about the same, so no worries for me.
well, iv been "forced" to wait now, i was trying to order earlier today in the UK, but maybe it was a good thing i didnt get it yet
Well the "battery" test involves using chrome so...chrome sucks lot of power
not realy a good battery test imho
hippieschuh said:
Well the "battery" test involves using chrome so...chrome sucks lot of power
not realy a good battery test imho
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Agreed. Chrome really isn't ready for prime time in my experience. Even on my Nexus 7, I use dolphin and its much smoother and faster than Chrome.
So even if we throw out the browser tests because of Chrome, why the low talk times compared to other phones with smaller batteries?
My take away is:
Software - Great
Design - Great
Performance - Good, could get better with kernels
Camera - Par
Battery Life - Par
More realistic than the sky high expectations set by everyone for a $350 off-contract phone.
Venekor said:
It hasn't really come together for me...
- No 32GB or Micro SD
- Poor battery life still, the update hasn't fixed it
- Poor benchmark results
I wanted to buy cause I thought it would be a bargain powerhouse but in the end it is obvious why the thing is so cheap. I'll just wait for my upgrade in April and get the GS4 if that is any good but until then my GS2 is doing just fine.
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Click to collapse
I'm sorry but benchmarks mean sweet FA. My GNex is faster in actual usage than my One X although the One X is 3 times faster in Quadrant. Battery life is completely subject to usage - I don't believe their graphs as my One X is pitiful compared to my Nexus. Whereas me Nexus would be at 80%+ at this time of day my One X is currently sitting at 62% as I type with the same minimal work day usage
Really wanted this phone, but there are a number of areas that mean quite a lot to me to be honest, it hasn't really delivered:-
1. Battery life - no getting away from it, its poor. Marginally better than the GNex but no so much you would notice, despite a bigger battery.
2. Camera quality - Yes again, its better (not difficult), but somehow, it just isn't as good as it could be. Slightly slow shutter speed, average quality.
3. Audio quality - We haven't yet seen the full score with that, but again, the consensus seems to be "average"
4. Storage capacity - even less than the GNex (8/16 vs 16/32). We don't all have access to 4G internet and no limits to store all of our files in the cloud.
Now, yes I appreciate this is really nit-picking but I'm not really unhappy with the performance of my GNex, and it will still get the update. It is not slow, or choppy, and as such, with the values of the GNex how they stand, I'm reluctant to fork out £150 to upgrade to a phone, which no doubt is an upgrade, but not one you'll notice very easily.
As it stands, I'm thinking that vanilla android alone is not enough to make it a worthwhile swap over something like an HTC One X+, despite the price difference. OK the N4 has a faster CPU and more RAM, but I'm not much of games player, but it has a better screen, camera, sound quality and more storage. Or a Galaxy Note which is just as fast, much better battery life, bigger screen, expandable, better camera etc.
I can see why this phone is cheaper than the competition TBH. I am a big fan of Vanilla Android, but there can be no denying it plays second fiddle on *most* specs (all but RAM, CPU and , possibly screen).
BUT, I'll probably still get one, LOL.
EddyOS said:
I'm sorry but benchmarks mean sweet FA. My GNex is faster in actual usage than my One X although the One X is 3 times faster in Quadrant. Battery life is completely subject to usage - I don't believe their graphs as my One X is pitiful compared to my Nexus. Whereas me Nexus would be at 80%+ at this time of day my One X is currently sitting at 62% as I type with the same minimal work day usage
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Yeh one thing that puzzles me is they have the LTE One X topping the charts for most of the battery tests alongside the iPhone. However, wasn't the One X knocked for only having a 1800 mAH battery and poor battery life? Or was that only for the Tegra One X?
Thoughtful said:
Yeh one thing that puzzles me is they have the LTE One X topping the charts for most of the battery tests alongside the iPhone. However, wasn't the One X knocked for only having a 1800 mAH battery and poor battery life? Or was that only for the Tegra One X?
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Tegra
Thoughtful said:
Yeh one thing that puzzles me is they have the LTE One X topping the charts for most of the battery tests alongside the iPhone. However, wasn't the One X knocked for only having a 1800 mAH battery and poor battery life? Or was that only for the Tegra One X?
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Click to collapse
I should really qualify my last statement with I'm currently running the JB test build from HTC (as I'm a member of Elevate) so it's not on the final build but even on ICS it was poor compared to my Nexus. I can't see me having any issues with the N4 as I don't game/listen to music on my phone - it's purely a communication tool so email/FB/Twitter/SMSs/calls is the order of the day for me
Benchmarking wise the Nexus 4 is a joke. People were talking about this miraculous ota that will make it better but nothing happened. The camera isn't among the best and battery life sucks. Jeez, iPhone 5 with LTE is way better than the 3G Nexus 4. We can hate on Apple as much as we want but sometimes they get the job done way better than android makers/vendors.
I wanted this phone so bad but now I can wait to see what happens.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
The sad part is tests rarely reflect reality, people get poor battery life on the iPhone 5 despite the controlled tests suggesting it should have excellent battery life, moral of the story is YMMV, its not as cut and dry as raw data correlating to reproducible performance. The benchmarks aren't great so there is one criteria left and that is how it performs in real world usage cause I'm not going to benchmarking like a maniac as it serves no benefit, as I actually want to use my phone. I'd say it passes that criteria well from numerous reviews. Camera quality (video) is reportedly improved though have to wait for Anandtech to update the review and upload new videos. I'll be getting mine in December wanna wait for some cases and then pull the trigger on the purchase
crazyalaa said:
Benchmarking wise the Nexus 4 is a joke. People were talking about this miraculous ota that will make it better but nothing happened. The camera isn't among the best and battery life sucks. Jeez, iPhone 5 with LTE is way better than the 3G Nexus 4. We can hate on Apple as much as we want but sometimes they get the job done way better than android makers/vendors.
I wanted this phone so bad but now I can wait to see what happens.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
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Benchmarking wise benchmarking doesn't have to do with anything. Jesus.....
I'm assuming all these reports of poor battery life include Google Now being enabled. I know its a key feature on JB(4.1/4.2) but I use it on CM10 now and its a HUGE battery drainer. When i turn it off, my battery life is markedly better. I'm assuming if you turn it off with the N4 you'll see better battery life.

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