• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Droid 3 - First Impressions

First thing I would do is reboot to see if it works after restarting. Returning it would be the next option. (I have to say that so far I'm not impressed with the pictures taken but that might be because I had finger prints all over the lens.)

Thanks, I tried that right away but that didn't help. Guess I'll be calling VZW and asking for a replacement.
 
Has anyone tried the 3G hotspot functionality with a MacBook? I definitely have the service enabled in my VZW account, and I can create and connect to the hotspot. But there's no data actually going through.

I specifically have a MacBook Air.
 
I am still impressed with this phone! I was uploading vids to Youtube, listening to tunes and viewing pics in Gmail...all without a hitch or stutter. No way could the D1 have done that. What it can't do is play tunes and record video at the same time. Lol, it got confused with that request.
I'm still not thrilled with the blue display though...getting used to it but it sucks for picture viewing.


This how the DX2 should have performed as well.
 
I hate the idea of a high-capacity battery adding a hump to such a sleek phone, but the extra juice is hard to argue with. I face that same dilemma with my Evo. Battery life blows chunks, but the phone is pretty sleek for having such a large screen (4.3"). I feel like if I go to one of those humpback batteries I might as well just fire up my old Motorola Brick Phone. :D

motorola-first_cell_phone.jpg
 
I hate the idea of a high-capacity battery adding a hump to such a sleek phone, but the extra juice is hard to argue with. I face that same dilemma with my Evo. Battery life blows chunks, but the phone is pretty sleek for having such a large screen (4.3"). I feel like if I go to one of those humpback batteries I might as well just fire up my old Motorola Brick Phone. :D

It doesn't look like it adds much bulk to the phone:

Set Your Location
 
It doesn't look like it adds much bulk to the phone:

Set Your Location

My buddy has the 3500mAh extended battery on his Evo and it's a brick. The slick lines are gone, and while it feels ok in your hand it's heavier and is too fat to be carried in a pocket. Your only choice will be some kind of belt case, or just lugging it around in your hand. They say it only adds 5-6mm to the thickness of the Evo, but for a phone that's only 13mm thick to begin with it's a 50% increase. I just can't do it.
 
My buddy has the 3500mAh extended battery on his Evo and it's a brick. The slick lines are gone, and while it feels ok in your hand it's heavier and is too fat to be carried in a pocket. Your only choice will be some kind of belt case, or just lugging it around in your hand. They say it only adds 5-6mm to the thickness of the Evo, but for a phone that's only 13mm thick to begin with it's a 50% increase. I just can't do it.

You could always carry it in your purse like I do. :D
 
Of course the 1750mAh battery for the Evo or the 1850mAh battery for the D3 doesn't add that kind of bulk, but it also offers a minimal gain in extra power. It's a compromise but it might be the only way to go until we come up with a 100-year antimatter super battery. :D
 
This week, I'll officially join the Motorola Droid 3 crowd. I hope the annoyances described by xXIncognitoXx won't be as bad for me. BTW, this will be my first Android device. My current (soon-to-be-former) phone is LG enV Touch.
 
I hate the idea of a high-capacity battery adding a hump to such a sleek phone, but the extra juice is hard to argue with.

i've been quite pleased with battery life so far. my phone has been unplugged for 1 day 2hrs, with moderate-heavy usage and the battery is still at 30%. i haven't been able to use it/play with it as much as i would have liked to yet, but i have definitely been using it heavier than normal playing with settings, installing apps, and checking out different features. i'm still on my second charge cycle, so the battery life might even get longer after a few more charges.





how are your guys' experience with call quality? I've had kind of a mixed bag so far with the dozen or so phone calls that i've had. for some of the calls i was thinking to myself the entire time how amazingly clear the phone sounded. for some of the calls it sounded so muffled and tinny that i had to ask the person on the other end to repeat what they were saying. and then i've had some calls in the middle where it was pretty good but not amazing. I haven't had enough calls yet to get any more info like signal strength or how frequent the bad calls happen, but I just thought I would ask to see what some of your thoughts are on call quality?
 
i've been quite pleased with battery life so far. my phone has been unplugged for 1 day 2hrs, with moderate-heavy usage and the battery is still at 30%. i haven't been able to use it/play with it as much as i would have liked to yet, but i have definitely been using it heavier than normal playing with settings, installing apps, and checking out different features. i'm still on my second charge cycle, so the battery life might even get longer after a few more charges.





how are your guys' experience with call quality? I've had kind of a mixed bag so far with the dozen or so phone calls that i've had. for some of the calls i was thinking to myself the entire time how amazingly clear the phone sounded. for some of the calls it sounded so muffled and tinny that i had to ask the person on the other end to repeat what they were saying. and then i've had some calls in the middle where it was pretty good but not amazing. I haven't had enough calls yet to get any more info like signal strength or how frequent the bad calls happen, but I just thought I would ask to see what some of your thoughts are on call quality?

It's the weekend so I've had no calls. The bad call quality you experienced might have been because of the phone on the other end. I know that when my daughter had the iphone on AT&T, we had dropped calls like crazy! It wasn't my end that was the problem.
 
It's the weekend so I've had no calls. The bad call quality you experienced might have been because of the phone on the other end. I know that when my daughter had the iphone on AT&T, we had dropped calls like crazy! It wasn't my end that was the problem.

i admit i haven't really had enough calls with bad quality to make that distinction or see a pattern there. two of the calls that have had bad quality have been to a land line, so that makes me think it had something to do with the signal strength of my droid or something along those lines. its definitely something i'm going to keep an eye on over the next couple of days. ... or i suppose i should say keep an ear on! (rimshot anyone?)
 
Well I'm at 12hrs 15mins on my first day using the extended battery. I'm sitting at 90% remaining with only a few dozen text messages and a few web searches today. Standby is definitely no issue for me, and I'd guestimate that I'd be at no worse than 80% on the stock battery right now. So those worried about standby time, if you have everything configured properly with no rogue apps, you can let those worries go. If you have crap standby time, I'd start uninstalling potential problem apps and make sure the GSM band is off.
 
I haven't gone through all the posts here, but has anyone used Skype and the FFC yet? My brother and I will each get the Droid 3 and we look forward to checking that out, both via 3G and Wi-Fi.
 
I haven't gone through all the posts here, but has anyone used Skype and the FFC yet? My brother and I will each get the Droid 3 and we look forward to checking that out, both via 3G and Wi-Fi.

I don't think anything uses the FFC yet. And I'd be video chatting with chicks, not my brother. :cool:
 
I don't think anything uses the FFC yet. And I'd be video chatting with chicks, not my brother. :cool:
I thought Skype comes by default with Droid 3, from what I read.

Sure, me, too, but it's a good way for my bro and I to test out the FFC. Ideally, we'd like to Skype w/ our family using a combination of a real PC and Droid 3's FFC. Not sure if that can be done, but I guess I'll find that out soon.
 
Well I'm at 12hrs 15mins on my first day using the extended battery. I'm sitting at 90% remaining with only a few dozen text messages and a few web searches today. Standby is definitely no issue for me, and I'd guestimate that I'd be at no worse than 80% on the stock battery right now. So those worried about standby time, if you have everything configured properly with no rogue apps, you can let those worries go. If you have crap standby time, I'd start uninstalling potential problem apps and make sure the GSM band is off.
Finding rogue apps in Gingerbread isn't as easy as it is in Froyo :(
 
I thought Skype comes by default with Droid 3, from what I read.

Sure, me, too, but it's a good way for my bro and I to test out the FFC. Ideally, we'd like to Skype w/ our family using a combination of a real PC and Droid 3's FFC. Not sure if that can be done, but I guess I'll find that out soon.

Skype works fine for voice. It does not do video, at least not yet. I did not test it out by calling another Droid 3. I tested it calling a computer. No video on either end of the call. Someone else reported that Tango works but I don't use that.
 
Back
Top Bottom