I can't recommend the HTC Incredible highly enough, especially now that the current models will continue having the AMOLED screen. I keep finding cool little functions even after several months with mine. I still haven't received the OTA Froyo update, which is getting on my nerves, but once I do, the Incredible will be even better.
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What smart phone to get on Verizon?
- Thread starter Kirika
- Start date
Still haven't picked up a phone yet.
Reset a store Droid X as recommended and it was still sort of laggy.
I tried the Droid 2 and I actually liked the keyboard on it. It wasn't as laggy as the X but still not as quick as incredible and it did have Ninjablur. On the fence about this one. I heard there was a special star wars version of the Droid 2 coming end of Sept and being a Star Wars fan going to wait for details on this. Also waiting for the Chinatown rooted modded Droid 2 complete with gamepad add on like they did for the Droid 1. This is popular with a bunch of friends they have Playstation, SNES and SNES emulators on it. I talked to the guy at the shop this past weekend and he said that he has rooted the Droid 2 and had wait for the joystick controllers to come out and finish writing their rom and these might be available mid to late September.
Fascinate looked cool at first when I saw the Galaxy S with the keyboard but if its going to be gimped with less ram, less storage and no keyboard, I dunno. Have to try it out when it comes out on Sept 9th.
Dunno about the Incredible. I didn't like the touch screen it was really hard to type on and friend who has one complains constantly about bad battery life. It doesn't even last half a day. He tried getting a Seido battery but it didn't work and nor did its replacement.
Reset a store Droid X as recommended and it was still sort of laggy.
I tried the Droid 2 and I actually liked the keyboard on it. It wasn't as laggy as the X but still not as quick as incredible and it did have Ninjablur. On the fence about this one. I heard there was a special star wars version of the Droid 2 coming end of Sept and being a Star Wars fan going to wait for details on this. Also waiting for the Chinatown rooted modded Droid 2 complete with gamepad add on like they did for the Droid 1. This is popular with a bunch of friends they have Playstation, SNES and SNES emulators on it. I talked to the guy at the shop this past weekend and he said that he has rooted the Droid 2 and had wait for the joystick controllers to come out and finish writing their rom and these might be available mid to late September.
Fascinate looked cool at first when I saw the Galaxy S with the keyboard but if its going to be gimped with less ram, less storage and no keyboard, I dunno. Have to try it out when it comes out on Sept 9th.
Dunno about the Incredible. I didn't like the touch screen it was really hard to type on and friend who has one complains constantly about bad battery life. It doesn't even last half a day. He tried getting a Seido battery but it didn't work and nor did its replacement.
robble
Supreme [H]ardness
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I like my droid 2. I find the on screen keyboard is so good I seldom use the physical keyboard. There are times when the physical keyboard is very handy though.
Same here I rarely use the physical and I got the droid 2 last weekend and I got it over the X for the sole reason of the keyboard. I hardly mistype anything on the virtual.
Good to know (since I know you and I share a similar opinion of the X), I'm getting a new Verizon phone in about a month and the Galaxy is looking mighty sexy
I have no idea how a Verizon version of the phone will work though. Verizon tends to add bloat to their software and they like to lock down features so that they can nickle and dime you to death. Well all carriers like to do this but Verizon excels at it.
Justintoxicated
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Can the Droid-X be rooted? I'm heavily leaning towards the X, but if it can't be rooted it seems like it might be better to go with the galaxy to get rid of the bloat?
Terrific analysis here. Im also in this boat my NE2 just came up and its either going to be DX or Fascinate for me. Im deciding to wait till next week for all the reviews and to play with the sucker myself. Ive fiddled with the Captivate [its cousin] but surely there will be some differences. The screen is more to my liking on the Sammy and the gpu trumps the DX. Admittedly DX has a tad bigger screen and its still very decent on the graphics end.
Like you said the battery life might be the deal breaker. DX is #1 here. But if Sammy can come close I will probably lean that way.
Some may have seen this graphic:
However, that test wasnt as "fair" to the SAMOLED since it was basically just web browsing and most websites are highly white in color which is the most draining color for a AMOLED to display. Still that is a huge margin between SF and DX.
It truly is almost a coin flip for me and countless others on all the phone forums across the net. Battery life is the only thing preventing me from committing to the SF. Equally true if "normal" usage can make it a day then its a done deal
Regardless of whether the test is "fair" or not, at least it's a good indicator of how much time you can actually browse the web. I mean, if most pages are white, they're gonna be white on the DX or the Galaxy S. It maybe not be fair to AMOLED screens, but it's still a real world test. I'm certain the Galaxy S will do much better than 4 hrs. in talk time, and I've read that the Droid X can score up to 9.6 hrs of talk time.
Every report I've read says that the Samsung S variants and the Droid X all excel at reception and call quality, on both ends of the call. You sound good to them, and they sound good to you. Both take decent video, and both have dedicated GPUs. It's safe to say, at least for now, that they are the current flagship touchscreen devices available on their respective carriers (the Droid 2 being Verizon's top droid with a keyboard.) They are both going to excel at a LOT, and I'm certain I would be pretty dang happy with either phone.
Froyo will help the Incredible, for sure, but the Droid X and Samsung are almost in another league. With dedicated GPUs and larger screens they are going to both be a cut above the already excellent Incredible. They're much newer. They should be!
Here is a post from Android Forums, specifically regarding some issues (1 and 2 are minor issues to me) that the Fascinate has:
Here's the answer from an actual Fascinate owner (testing it for Verizon)
Here is some feedback from owners of both the Incredible and Droid X, referring to their upgrade to the DX:
"I actually returned my incredible because of how bad it was. The droid x is one of the better phones I have used. the noise cancellation is amazing. I was blasting some music in my car and people can not hear it. Call quality is very good on both ends."
"+1 on ^^^^
Returned Incredible for X and never looked back"
"Switched from an Incredible to an X. Call quality of the X blows it away."
"I, too, returned my Dinc for an X because of choppy call quality. The X is better -- period...."
"i think the quality is great. as was said before, the triple mic's are awesome. best noise cancelling phone i have ever used, bar none."
"I can also attest to the difference in call quality between the X and Inc. Had the Inc and swapped it in part because of that issue. It bothered me every time I had to ask someone else to repeat something... I was so impressed with the first call I made on the X because it sounded like I was on a good landline.
After that I have essentially forgotten about call quality because I no longer have issues.
Take that as you may..."
"I think the worst part of HTC phones is the dialer and phone quality. They seem to have forgotten that first it needs to operate as a phone and then all the other good stuff."
- And that is my experience with the Eris as well, although I know the Incredible is better than the Eris by a few dozen orders of magnitude in a lot of respects ...
"If you were asking me about issues, I don't have any, the X solved all the issues I had with the Incredible."
The X can be rooted, but it takes extra steps over the simple root of the Galaxy S phones. Many have successfully rooted the X, though, and many are running 2.2 on it already. The OTA update on the X is just around the corner.
X owners (and future ones) hit this handy guide up for more info:
http://androidforums.com/motorola-d...-x-guide-updated-01-30-bst-aug-31-2010-a.html
I tried the Samsung Vibrant, but it felt really cheap. The Fascinate looks like a carbon copy of the Vibrant. IMO, the Captivate is the best Galaxy S, but you've gotta deal with AT&T. Droid X is good, but too big for my tastes. It's nice to have a lot of phones to choose from Verizon, for once. About time!
Justintoxicated
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Regardless of whether the test is "fair" or not, at least it's a good indicator of how much time you can actually browse the web. I mean, if most pages are white, they're gonna be white on the DX or the Galaxy S. It maybe not be fair to AMOLED screens, but it's still a real world test. I'm certain the Galaxy S will do much better than 4 hrs. in talk time, and I've read that the Droid X can score up to 9.6 hrs of talk time.
Every report I've read says that the Samsung S variants and the Droid X all excel at reception and call quality, on both ends of the call. You sound good to them, and they sound good to you. Both take decent video, and both have dedicated GPUs. It's safe to say, at least for now, that they are the current flagship touchscreen devices available on their respective carriers (the Droid 2 being Verizon's top droid with a keyboard.) They are both going to excel at a LOT, and I'm certain I would be pretty dang happy with either phone.
Froyo will help the Incredible, for sure, but the Droid X and Samsung are almost in another league. With dedicated GPUs and larger screens they are going to both be a cut above the already excellent Incredible. They're much newer. They should be!
Here is a post from Android Forums, specifically regarding some issues (1 and 2 are minor issues to me) that the Fascinate has:
Here's the answer from an actual Fascinate owner (testing it for Verizon)
Here is some feedback from owners of both the Incredible and Droid X, referring to their upgrade to the DX:
"I actually returned my incredible because of how bad it was. The droid x is one of the better phones I have used. the noise cancellation is amazing. I was blasting some music in my car and people can not hear it. Call quality is very good on both ends."
"+1 on ^^^^
Returned Incredible for X and never looked back"
"Switched from an Incredible to an X. Call quality of the X blows it away."
"I, too, returned my Dinc for an X because of choppy call quality. The X is better -- period...."
"i think the quality is great. as was said before, the triple mic's are awesome. best noise cancelling phone i have ever used, bar none."
"I can also attest to the difference in call quality between the X and Inc. Had the Inc and swapped it in part because of that issue. It bothered me every time I had to ask someone else to repeat something... I was so impressed with the first call I made on the X because it sounded like I was on a good landline.
After that I have essentially forgotten about call quality because I no longer have issues.
Take that as you may..."
"I think the worst part of HTC phones is the dialer and phone quality. They seem to have forgotten that first it needs to operate as a phone and then all the other good stuff."
- And that is my experience with the Eris as well, although I know the Incredible is better than the Eris by a few dozen orders of magnitude in a lot of respects ...
"If you were asking me about issues, I don't have any, the X solved all the issues I had with the Incredible."
The X can be rooted, but it takes extra steps over the simple root of the Galaxy S phones. Many have successfully rooted the X, though, and many are running 2.2 on it already. The OTA update on the X is just around the corner.
X owners (and future ones) hit this handy guide up for more info:
http://androidforums.com/motorola-d...-x-guide-updated-01-30-bst-aug-31-2010-a.html
I'll take a look at the article a bit later cause I'm pushed for time right now. The reason I am asking about rooting is because I am told that a rooted phone will allow tethering through the OS, but a non rooted phone has this feature disabled unless I pay verizon an extra $30 a month. $30 a month extra is enough reason to get another phone. (Although my laptop is broken right now, so I don't have a use for tethering right now anyways)
Anyways can anyone with verizon verify this?
Zurginator
Gawd
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Any smartphone on any carrier has an extra charge for tethering. Not sure on prices though.
Justintoxicated
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I learned that indeed tethering is available via Froyo release if your Droid-X is rooted.
However theres limitations to what you can do with a rooted droid, and all the blurr stuff should be left alone or something. It's hard to understands the posts in that forum since I don't have the phone.
However theres limitations to what you can do with a rooted droid, and all the blurr stuff should be left alone or something. It's hard to understands the posts in that forum since I don't have the phone.
XMonkey-v2.0
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Tethering is $20/month I think, 2GB cap (stupidly low).
You can technically tether without rooting using PDANet over USB and Verizon won't charge you, but you can't go crazy with the data usage. This is a breach of your contract also, but a lot of people do it, same with wireless tethering.
You can technically tether without rooting using PDANet over USB and Verizon won't charge you, but you can't go crazy with the data usage. This is a breach of your contract also, but a lot of people do it, same with wireless tethering.
Best choice ever! lol, fastest Android out now!
Froyo has built in tether, on Vanilla android that is. Also. there will be roms which strip motoblur completely.
If you're rooted, there's android wifi tether and wired tether, both work great on most phones.
nobody_here
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Op,
I myself went from a lg env (touch vx11000 to be exact) and ended up with the lg ally (vs740). Its almost everything I loved about the env and env touch with android to boot. Also got one for the wife. $50 for both after rebates. We are very happy. The ally is to get the 2.2 froyo update in sept supposedly. Its not the powerhouse the others are but it is very solid, roots in 5 secs with universal androot and runs very well overall. Its suprisingly powerful for the price. No complaints thus far other than the 50% bug that discharges battery faster. But they say that is fixed in froyo so we shall see.
*posted from my lg ally btw
I myself went from a lg env (touch vx11000 to be exact) and ended up with the lg ally (vs740). Its almost everything I loved about the env and env touch with android to boot. Also got one for the wife. $50 for both after rebates. We are very happy. The ally is to get the 2.2 froyo update in sept supposedly. Its not the powerhouse the others are but it is very solid, roots in 5 secs with universal androot and runs very well overall. Its suprisingly powerful for the price. No complaints thus far other than the 50% bug that discharges battery faster. But they say that is fixed in froyo so we shall see.
*posted from my lg ally btw
Justintoxicated
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So what about the eFuse n the droid-X won't that cause problems loading custom ROMS?
What is the general practice for modding a phone and still being able to get updates later when needed?
Meaning that I hear hard resets may screw your phone if it is rooted etc. Or I hear that you may not be able to get updates if your phone is rooted. Is there a typical process where you can backup -> Root -> Unroot -> Update -> Root again without losing all your data or configuration? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I see it asked often without finding an answer.
What is the general practice for modding a phone and still being able to get updates later when needed?
Meaning that I hear hard resets may screw your phone if it is rooted etc. Or I hear that you may not be able to get updates if your phone is rooted. Is there a typical process where you can backup -> Root -> Unroot -> Update -> Root again without losing all your data or configuration? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I see it asked often without finding an answer.
nobody_here
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From what I understand you can update a rooted phone no problem. Just that sometimes it unroots the device. In which case you just run androot again.
Depends on the device, I do not have the Droid. On other Androids, nexus one for example, when you root, you have to flash a custom recovery, which will not let you update via OTA. if you have stock rom and there's an update, it will prompt you, download it, but won't install as you have custom recovery. Thing is, community usually have updates weeks if not months before they are released via OTA, so you never miss out. Some phones have stock recovery you can flash back and you can unroot it to bring to full stock.
Like Samsung Vibrant, you can bring it full stock, same with EVO 4G. Even get all the OTA and make it the way it was shipped.
Justintoxicated
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From what I read rooting the droid-x is a bit more complicated. No1 knows if the Samsung phone will be as well. There is a one click root for the Droid-X now, however I believe it only works for android 2.1 not froyo, so to get 2.2 with root you have to have 2.1 then update to the pre-released Froyo, but theres a bug in that version where the camera will no zoom.
And as of right now if you get the OTA update it may or may not work with a rooted DROID-X. I dont think anyone is sure yet.
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If the Fascinate is like the other Galaxy S phones, it should be supremely simple to root. As in minutes.