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Just returned my E4GT

rdillz said:
I understand where you're coming from. But to say it's the phone's radio is just not true. I'm coming from the EVO 3D, which got red hot trying to find a signal, and this phone gets much better reception for me. If it's the phone, why is mine so good?

I ran these tests in my basement where getting a good signal is tough.
Click to expand...

I compared my evo today in several areas of Austin, including my living room, bedroom, kitchen, north side of city, south east, etc. Results:

In every location the evo 4g had better signal.
In some areas the difference was 1 bar, in others, 3 bars. But no dropped calls or slow networks or LOS issues. The bottom line is the radio is far worse than the evo4g. Whether I get 1 bar or 6 bars though, I havne't seen it really impact network performance or call quality. My weekend job is "in a bunker" (datacenter) so im curious as to whether it'll even work AT ALL there. Will report back on saturday! Even the evo4g drops calls in there, even on verizon roaming. So, even though it is pretty much a given that the radios are worse, it may not make any real difference in MY case.
 
BenChase7 said:
can you just : menu - settings - about phone - status
...to get signal strength in db?
Click to expand...

Yes. Although signal strength changes by the second, so what you see may not give you a true indication of the average.

The bar indicators on phones are notoriously inadequate at determining actual signal strength.

(Remember the dustup with the iPhone?)
 
I returned my ET4G on day 13 of my 14 day window (stinking return policy change). I too experienced frequent loss of 3G data and had to reboot my phone to get data again. This was really troublesome when trying to map out my route and I had to keep rebooting my phone.

I have not had similar issues with my trusty Evo. It's rock solid as ever.

I'd love to see a fix come out for the ET4G. It is great in every other way. I'll pick one up again if they do. Otherwise I'll wait and see if Nexus Prime comes to Sprint.
 
Friday, a coworker went to lunch and came back with a ET4G. He was so happy to have a "better" phone than my Evo4G. We noticed the signal problems immediately. He was dropping 3g constantly, at best his data connections were slow but often non existent. His phone signal seemed weak too, but we didn't see any drops in the several calls we made. Thinking it a bad device, he went back to the Sprint store and they swapped it for another ET4G....same data and signal issues as the first. Personally, after an Epic4G (wife) and a Moment with all their largely unresolved issues, I'm not rushing to buy another Samsung device and this experience didn't change that idea at all. The sad thing is that the ET4G is the only phone Sprint has that I have any desire for. The Evo3d just doesn't offer enough to be worth the upgrade and the Photon comes with Motorola's baggage. It looks like I'm going to sit tight with my rock solid Evo4G for quite a while yet.
 
What Motorola "baggage"? The MoPho has a TON going for it, and very little downside. I'll elaborate later, as people who come here should have wholly accurate information to help them make the right decisions for their own unique circumstances.
 
tbhausen said:
What Motorola "baggage"? The MoPho has a TON going for it, and very little downside. I'll elaborate later, as people who come here should have wholly accurate information to help them make the right decisions for their own unique circumstances.
Click to expand...

quick moPHOTON question; is the display just like the E3D, better, or worse?
just curious, as I know the Sammy display is completely different than both the E3d and the Sammy

thanks and sorry for going OT...
 
wase4711 said:
quick moPHOTON question; is the display just like the E3D, better, or worse?
just curious, as I know the Sammy display is completely different than both the E3d and the Sammy

thanks and sorry for going OT...
Click to expand...

as far as i know, the photon display has better black levels & viewing angles than the evo3d but it has a pentile matrix subpixel structure which will give the display a screen door effect (not everyone can see it). the Evo3d uses the traditional RGB subpixel structure but since it has the parallax layer for 3D, there's a sort of bands of brightness (center bright, slightly off center less bright, some greater angle then the previous angle, bright again. its basically like the slit pattern from the particle/wave experiment), that being said, its not that noticeable (can only be seen in person).

check here for side by side comparisons of the two displays. http://androidforums.com/motorola-photon-4g/379193-just-received-my-photon-4g-3.html#post2983914
 
too bad no one has down a side by side with the Et4g and the Photon..I'd be curious to see that one!
 
tbhausen said:
What Motorola "baggage"? The MoPho has a TON going for it, and very little downside. I'll elaborate later, as people who come here should have wholly accurate information to help them make the right decisions for their own unique circumstances.
Click to expand...

Super slow updates and a very poor record on bug fixes.
 
My Pro/Con List for the MoPho, from what I consider most to least important:

Con...

1. A long-standing Motorola-specific bug where low-bitrate streaming audio (e.g. talk radio) often is unlistenable dut to popping, skipping, and bursts of static. I'm a RadioReference.com feeed provider, and I made my own feed listenable by configuring 32kbps stereo rather than the default 16kbps mono. I'm nagging Motorola incessantly to fix this.

2. Pentile display with backlight at brightest setting has incorrect color rendition. Yellows have a mustard hue. This affects greens, browns, and oranges as well.

3. Motorola's support forums are very good, but it takes a bit of "convincing" sometimes to get a bug kicked up the line for fixing. I've occasionally seen a prevailing "must be user error" attitude. If you bring something to their attention and make your case well, things can and do get fixed but the process can be annoying.

Pro...

1. RF performance. The MoPho is the best smartphonephone I've ever experienced on the Sprint network at acquiring and holding a signal. All my "known trouble spots" are no problem with this handset.

2. Audio quality is also the best of any smartphone I've ever had my hands (ears) on. The earpiece and speakerphone have loud, stellar-quality audio. The speakerphone works in a moving car and is loud enough to host a moderately large meeting. Top-notch stuff here.

3. Per #1 and #2 above, if you want your smartphone to actually work well as a phone, the Photon is hands-down the best choice on Sprint.

4. Motorola support and updates have been nothing short of spectacular. We've gotten three bugfix updates in the first two months, including adding Google talk video chat support, fixing a GPS position reporting error (which I reported only a week or two beforehand), and addressing a nasty bug affecting some phones which toggled incoming calls to "mute".

5. PenTile display. Yes, the color is off at brightest backlight setting, but this display is outstanding out in the real world, especially in direct sunlight. This is the best smartphone I've ever used outdoors, and the only one I could ever put an anti-glare screen protector on and still see very well under all conditions. It's insanely bright when it needs to be. The ambient light sensor works fantastic at keeping the screen appropriately bright for nearly any situation.

6. Battery life is outstanding. A full day's hard use is no problem at all.

7. Email client, particularly for corporate (MS Exchange) is outstainding. Simple, fast, effective, and very readable under all conditions. The interface allows handling of multiple messages, similar to Gmail's mobile interface.
 
tbhausen said:
My Pro/Con List for the MoPho, from what I consider most to least important:

Con...

1. A long-standing Motorola-specific bug where low-bitrate streaming audio (e.g. talk radio) often is unlistenable dut to popping, skipping, and bursts of static. I'm a RadioReference.com feeed provider, and I made my own feed listenable by configuring 32kbps stereo rather than the default 16kbps mono. I'm nagging Motorola incessantly to fix this.

2. Pentile display with backlight at brightest setting has incorrect color rendition. Yellows have a mustard hue. This affects greens, browns, and oranges as well.

3. Motorola's support forums are very good, but it takes a bit of "convincing" sometimes to get a bug kicked up the line for fixing. I've occasionally seen a prevailing "must be user error" attitude. If you bring something to their attention and make your case well, things can and do get fixed but the process can be annoying.

Pro...

1. RF performance. The MoPho is the best smartphonephone I've ever experienced on the Sprint network at acquiring and holding a signal. All my "known trouble spots" are no problem with this handset.

2. Audio quality is also the best of any smartphone I've ever had my hands (ears) on. The earpiece and speakerphone have loud, stellar-quality audio. The speakerphone works in a moving car and is loud enough to host a moderately large meeting. Top-notch stuff here.

3. Per #1 and #2 above, if you want your smartphone to actually work well as a phone, the Photon is hands-down the best choice on Sprint.

4. Motorola support and updates have been nothing short of spectacular. We've gotten three bugfix updates in the first two months, including adding Google talk video chat support, fixing a GPS position reporting error (which I reported only a week or two beforehand), and addressing a nasty bug affecting some phones which toggled incoming calls to "mute".

5. PenTile display. Yes, the color is off at brightest backlight setting, but this display is outstanding out in the real world, especially in direct sunlight. This is the best smartphone I've ever used outdoors, and the only one I could ever put an anti-glare screen protector on and still see very well under all conditions. It's insanely bright when it needs to be. The ambient light sensor works fantastic at keeping the screen appropriately bright for nearly any situation.

6. Battery life is outstanding. A full day's hard use is no problem at all.

7. Email client, particularly for corporate (MS Exchange) is outstainding. Simple, fast, effective, and very readable under all conditions. The interface allows handling of multiple messages, similar to Gmail's mobile interface.
Click to expand...

Just curious, did they ever fix the "sleep of death" issue? I tried the MoPho, but within two weeks I had the phone totally die on me extremely rapidly. After the first time I just chalked it up to not having done a factory reset right after purchase, so I went ahead and did the factory reset. About a week later I went from over 80% batter life with the phone just sitting idle, to totally dead and unable to power on in about 2 and a half hours. I took it back after that. It ran about the same db's as I see on my Sammy at home, which for my house is usually mid 90's.
 
tbhausen said:
My Pro/Con List for the MoPho, from what I consider most to least important:

Con...

1. A long-standing Motorola-specific bug where low-bitrate streaming audio (e.g. talk radio) often is unlistenable dut to popping, skipping, and bursts of static. I'm a RadioReference.com feeed provider, and I made my own feed listenable by configuring 32kbps stereo rather than the default 16kbps mono. I'm nagging Motorola incessantly to fix this.

2. Pentile display with backlight at brightest setting has incorrect color rendition. Yellows have a mustard hue. This affects greens, browns, and oranges as well.

3. Motorola's support forums are very good, but it takes a bit of "convincing" sometimes to get a bug kicked up the line for fixing. I've occasionally seen a prevailing "must be user error" attitude. If you bring something to their attention and make your case well, things can and do get fixed but the process can be annoying.

Pro...

1. RF performance. The MoPho is the best smartphonephone I've ever experienced on the Sprint network at acquiring and holding a signal. All my "known trouble spots" are no problem with this handset.

2. Audio quality is also the best of any smartphone I've ever had my hands (ears) on. The earpiece and speakerphone have loud, stellar-quality audio. The speakerphone works in a moving car and is loud enough to host a moderately large meeting. Top-notch stuff here.

3. Per #1 and #2 above, if you want your smartphone to actually work well as a phone, the Photon is hands-down the best choice on Sprint.

4. Motorola support and updates have been nothing short of spectacular. We've gotten three bugfix updates in the first two months, including adding Google talk video chat support, fixing a GPS position reporting error (which I reported only a week or two beforehand), and addressing a nasty bug affecting some phones which toggled incoming calls to "mute".

5. PenTile display. Yes, the color is off at brightest backlight setting, but this display is outstanding out in the real world, especially in direct sunlight. This is the best smartphone I've ever used outdoors, and the only one I could ever put an anti-glare screen protector on and still see very well under all conditions. It's insanely bright when it needs to be. The ambient light sensor works fantastic at keeping the screen appropriately bright for nearly any situation.

6. Battery life is outstanding. A full day's hard use is no problem at all.

7. Email client, particularly for corporate (MS Exchange) is outstainding. Simple, fast, effective, and very readable under all conditions. The interface allows handling of multiple messages, similar to Gmail's mobile interface.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a great phone; hope the samsung epic touch 4g I just bought ends up being as good!
 
JackG058 said:
Just curious, did they ever fix the "sleep of death" issue? I tried the MoPho, but within two weeks I had the phone totally die on me extremely rapidly. After the first time I just chalked it up to not having done a factory reset right after purchase, so I went ahead and did the factory reset. About a week later I went from over 80% batter life with the phone just sitting idle, to totally dead and unable to power on in about 2 and a half hours. I took it back after that. It ran about the same db's as I see on my Sammy at home, which for my house is usually mid 90's.
Click to expand...

Also curious regarding the "sleep of death" issue.

I had the phone 2 weeks and other than that issue - it was a great phone.
 
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