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Droid Bionic Review Roundup & Specs
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by Jordan Yerman | September 7, 2011 at 11:35 am
2981 views | 0 Recommendations | 5 comments
Motorola Droid Bionic Reviews Are In
Reviews for Motorola Droid Bionic are trickling in, and users seem happy with the Android-based phone overall. The Droid Bionic is marketed as a dual-core 4G Android phone, but it isn't true 4G.
After a long wait, the Droid Bionic hits shelves on September 8 with Verizon, but let's get to some reviews now.
Gawker network's Gizmodo says that the Droid Bionic is fast, but not as fast as the Samsung Galaxy S II, and its screen is harsh and grainy. Also, Gizmodo though that the Lapdock interface was sheer crapola.
Techcrunch preferred the Bionic's display to that of the Galaxy II S, and loved the phone's performance.
CNET's Crave blog dug the Droid Bionic's design and speed, but lamented the bloatware and price (about $100 more than its competitors).
Engadget, in holding off from delivering a full review, said that the phone was drab-looking, as well as a bit of a lint-trap in your pocket.
A primary problem with the Droid Bionic is the sheer amount of bloatware. Most Android smartphones aren't generally famous for having lots of onboard memory, so less carrier-centric crud is better. (Droid Bionic boasts 16GB on onboard memory, which isn't bad.)
The presence of third-party add-ons is what makes iPhone fanboys point their fingers and go "hah!", but the "hah!" is legitimate. While Android is easier to customise (I'm running a hacked version of 2.2 now), relatively few smartphone customers will ever engage their handsets this way.
Those on the fence between Android and iOS will probably just wait a few weeks until the iPhone 5 drops, and see how its reviews measure up. The two mobile operating systems are converging in terms of feature sets, after all.
Motorola Droid Bionic Specs
The Droid Bionic specs are impressive, and include:
- Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
- Scratch-resistant 4.3-inch qHD scree
- 8MP camera, VGA P2P Video, Digital Zoom, Auto Focus, LED flash
- 1GB RAM, 16 GB onboard memory, 16 GB microSD
- Verizon "4G LTE network" (though LTE is not true 4G)
... Or Just Get the Simplest Mobile Phone Ever
The best thing that I found while researching this story came via the comment thread in Boing Boing's article. I discovered John's Phone, a mobile phone that only makes and receives calls. That's it.
As a Motorola XT720 owner, I frankly would prefer John's Phone to the Droid Bionic. Sorry, but that's just how I feel. I'm not cool with how Motorola abandons its phones in terms of OS upgrades. (I'm not affiliated with John's Phone in any way, but come on: that thing is cool.)
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 08:49 on September 8th, 2011
sigh... you are so ignorant. First off Motorola Mobility is now OWNED BY GOOGLE. So updates will pretty much be guaranteed. And saying you prefer a non smartphone makes you as a reviewer look bias and pretty much makes this whole article a wash from the start. All you did is repeat things you heard anyway. LTE isn't "true 4G" lol... of all the and all the phones... LTE IS THE FASTEST IN THE USA!So wtf is your point?
at 10:03 on September 8th, 2011
And saying you prefer a non smartphone makes you as a reviewer look bias and pretty much makes this whole article a wash from the start.
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I disagree, he's just conceding what many of us smartphone users hate to admit as it threatens the all important consumer purchase satisfaction validation. For as much as these gadgets can do, in the instances when we just need them to be a damn phone, all this crap just gets in the way.
I recently upgraded from an LG rumor touch to a Mororola Triumph (more or less a Droid X on Virgin prepaid @ $25/mo. unlimited) The RT was not a true smartphone and only had limited web browsing through opera.
It also had 4x the battery life, a speakerphone so good it worked in the car with the windows down, and actually answered when I slid it open. The Droid is simply dismal as a phone.
at 10:27 on September 8th, 2011
Note that the link to John's Phone site was blocked by my browser as a red flag server certificate revocation warning. I went anyway, daredevil that I am. :-) Perhaps the powers that be are offended by the common sense inherent to 3 weeks standby battery life and a pen and pad for number memory?
I've gotten used to texting enough even for business contacts that's a feature I can't live without. Other than that I think this is a great concept and if we all got on it might start a reversal of the current downfall of society we're experiencing with all our new "conveniences".
Too many choices, too many things to do. Remember the days when you only had 6 channels to watch on TV that were worth watching, and the next day at work you discussed with co-workers at the water cooler the season premiere of a crime drama or sitcom you both enjoyed? Or the NFL game you didn't dare miss? There was cohesion, camraderie, something to discuss you shared and it fostered human relations and bonding friendship.
Now we all have 400 channels or the internet to go home to and our own little cyber world to hide in. The humans around us every day, we have little in common with so we don't even care to raise a discussion with.
Online I may find a kindred soul 4,000 miles away yet I'll never meet. Civilization is not flourishing with these advances, it's degrading.
at 03:17 on September 10th, 2011
very nice review...seems to be excellent phone.But from my opinion Galaxy s2 is far better choice to buy..Droid bionic v/s Galaxy S2-Take a look www.techzags.com/2011/09/droid-bionic-vs-galaxy-s2-take-look.html
at 03:21 on September 10th, 2011
www.techzags.com/2011/09/droid-bionic-vs-galaxy-s2-take-look.html