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Droid 3 - First Impressions

Got to mess with a friend's Droid 3 today for about an hour.

1. The build is an efficient and functional masterpiece. Also seems built well.
2. The keyboard is a work of art in design
3. Speed is great
4. The device did not get hot while messing with it
5. Gingerbread & Blur mix seems like Honeycomb lite and is nice
6. Display looks like a 4" version of the DX2, so I am happy (in spite of pentile)
7. Easy access to the microsd card and no need to remove battery
8. Cover is flimsy, but probably by design. The material is supposed to be that way, else you would have more of a chance to break it. It also keeps the hand cooler than a metal cover. If you remove by also going around the sides to loosen it (after popping loose at the slot), the cover comes off without issue. Still flimsy, anyway you spin it.
9. More free ram than the DX2- without a need to hack
10. Camera is fine for impulse pics, but since no optical zoom on phones, I will not use one for more than that anyway.


The D3 was much better than I expected and the keyboard is easily the BEST I have ever typed upon for a phone. Keyboard lovers should rejoice. The key "action" seems "perfect", IMO.
 
Barbara said:
That is the exact same thing I experienced on my first day. Mine had to do with email apps conflicts. I use K-9 but the GMail app was also still enabled. I can't delete my account from there but I turned off all syncing and that seemed to solve the problem.
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The only email apps I use are yahoo and gmail. Idk if maybe the yahoo app is doing something but that's all I have installed on my phone. Haven't installed any games or anything yet.
 
rushmore said:
That pic almost looks like a special blue effect.
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Acctually it might be. Kind of. In regular photography (well digital at least as that is what I use), this is a white balance setting. I don't know if the Droid 3 has a selectable white balance, the D1 did. Usually if you set the white balance to fluorecent (little tube light bulb) it will add a blue hue to the photo to offset the whiteness of the light from the bulbs. Try setting the White balance to incandescent (little regular light bulb) and it should turn more orange.

Also having the flash on/off will affect the pic as sunlight/incandescent/fluorescent/LED all flouresc at different wavelengths so the white/blue/red will be absorbed in the sensor differently. Try changing the WB and take the same photo to see a marked difference.

I don't know if it is or not but also I would try the screen in sunlight and indoors to see if the blue in the screen shows a difference. There might be a setting in the screen for ambient viewing conditions, like some TV's have.
 
corbinator said:
Acctually it might be. Kind of. In regular photography (well digital at least as that is what I use), this is a white balance setting. I don't know if the Droid 3 has a selectable white balance, the D1 did. Usually if you set the white balance to fluorecent (little tube light bulb) it will add a blue hue to the photo to offset the whiteness of the light from the bulbs. Try setting the White balance to incandescent (little regular light bulb) and it should turn more orange.

Also having the flash on/off will affect the pic as sunlight/incandescent/fluorescent/LED all flouresc at different wavelengths so the white/blue/red will be absorbed in the sensor differently. Try changing the WB and take the same photo to see a marked difference.

I don't know if it is or not but also I would try the screen in sunlight and indoors to see if the blue in the screen shows a difference. There might be a setting in the screen for ambient viewing conditions, like some TV's have.
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Marines? I was an 0331 :)
 
fdnj48 said:
The only email apps I use are yahoo and gmail. Idk if maybe the yahoo app is doing something but that's all I have installed on my phone. Haven't installed any games or anything yet.
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Did you upgrade from another android phone and it did the restore apps and whatnot? I am thinking that a bunch of things just aren't compatible with the droid 3 at the moment. I know the only time I had battery problems with the phone so far was when I was running launcherpro which worked just fine on other android phones, but on the droid 3 the phone was like a thousand degrees and the battery drained extremely fast. Removed it and bam, pretty much the same battery life as my OG. Whatever the problem is, it appears to be a software related bug.

Also, my cousins iPhone 4 runs out of battery pretty goddarn fast. You should probably wait for the Galaxy S2 as I have heard only great things about it, battery life being one of those great things.
 
sharkh20 said:
Did you upgrade from another android phone and it did the restore apps and whatnot? I am thinking that a bunch of things just aren't compatible with the droid 3 at the moment. I know the only time I had battery problems with the phone so far was when I was running launcherpro which worked just fine on other android phones, but on the droid 3 the phone was like a thousand degrees and the battery drained extremely fast. Removed it and bam, pretty much the same battery life as my OG. Whatever the problem is, it appears to be a software related bug.

Also, my cousins iPhone 4 runs out of battery pretty goddarn fast. You should probably wait for the Galaxy S2 as I have heard only great things about it, battery life being one of those great things.
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No I didn't restore anything from a previous phone. I had gone back to my Blackberry after I returned my Thunderbolt. This phone right now is getting the same battery life as I was on the Thunderbolt.
 
Got mine today!

So I'm at work and don't have time to mess with it right now. But I did manage to find time to throw the battery in it and put it on the charger.

Gotta give it to Motorola...their build quality is just fantastic!

Forget the locked bootloaders...forget the fact that there is no 4G radio...forget that it runs Motoblur... If your initial impression of this phone is anything other than "Damn, that feels great" then you are holding it wrong. :D

Well done Moto! Now as I've mentioned in another post, this is my work phone so I won't be doing too much modding to it :( ...but if you want to keep the 5% of the Android population that roots their devices...then you had better start unlocking them like you said you would. Or leave them locked...and just give us the keys...we wanna drive! Dummies...
 
ok ive used the phone for 24 hours so far and i am happy. i love my dx absolutely had no issues with it bit i am stoked to have a physical keyboard again. my battery life is not bad at all. im getting close to what my dx got on an extended battery with moderate use. the screen did take some getting use to but my eyes ajusted and it looks good to me. i am assuming they went with pintile to use less juice? my guess anyway. no clicking or popping like one poster had.

my one gripe was the lack of sd card intergration with existing apps. my back up pro couldnt find the sd card. i changed the location and it still failed install. same with appmonster. i did however get appmoster to work to restore my apps. i also wish you had a choice to move apps to the external sd card instead of internal. i have my dx 16g card so id like to load that up before i get to the internal. anyone figure that out let me know.

everything else is fine definetly a good upgrade for any phone. very fast. i wont root or do anything until we have rsd lite version and sbf.
 
UBRocked said:
Got mine today!

So I'm at work and don't have time to mess with it right now. But I did manage to find time to throw the battery in it and put it on the charger.

Gotta give it to Motorola...their build quality is just fantastic!

Forget the locked bootloaders...forget the fact that there is no 4G radio...forget that it runs Motoblur... If your initial impression of this phone is anything other than "Damn, that feels great" then you are holding it wrong. :D

Well done Moto! Now as I've mentioned in another post, this is my work phone so I won't be doing too much modding to it :( ...but if you want to keep the 5% of the Android population that roots their devices...then you had better start unlocking them like you said you would. Or leave them locked...and just give us the keys...we wanna drive! Dummies...
Click to expand...
I'd be content with root. I only use it for screenshots and bloat removal anyway lol
 
Had my Droid 3 since Friday: seems to be excellent, great upgrade from Droid 1. Speed, display, battery life all good. (I can't see individual pixels in the display, btw.) And like everyone else, I hate the Crapware and will be happy when I can root it.

Two substantial annoyances, however:

1) Every time I connect to my PC via USB, the PC's browser automatically opens to Verizon's VCAST Media Manager, which I have absolutely no use for. Every time. Every time!!! Really Verizon?

2) My fancy headphones have a button that, on the Droid 1 (or an iPod), lets me start and stop music. But on the Droid 3 pressing that button activates the awful Voice Commands app. There is apparently no way to disable Voice Commands (without rooting) or change the behavior of the button. And so there's apparently no way to control the Music app except through the touchscreen. (Try operating the music app while cycling! Actually, don't.) This blows completely and should be corrected!

Anybody know how to get around these two issues?

Also, one more minor annoyance, also in the Music app: I navigate through the alphabetical list of artists to a specific artist, and then to that artists albums, and then select an album to display its song list. Now I want to back up one level to see the albums again. No go: pressing the Back button brings me all the way back to the top of the Artists list, NOT back to the album list. So I have to navigate down all over again to get back to that same Artist's Albums.

Who designed this awful music app? Can't they make one that works as well (or even half as well!) as an iPod in terms of user interface, ease of navigation, etc?? Heresy, I know. But still....

Anyway I haven't had noise trouble with the headphone jack (yet) as I did with the Droid 1. (Had to replace my Droid 1 3 times for that reason, actually!)
 
Got my droid 3 on monday, the wifi and gps broke on tuesday... I am really disappointed with this phone, it feels like a cheap plastic knock off phone, and the build quality is just not what I expected from the makers of the OG droid. I did a factory reset figuring it was motos crappy software and after I did that It wouldn't connect to google's servers to download my google account info. So I am left with a phone with no wifi/gps and no access to my google account, I can still make calls but thats it... Not only is the phone broken, but in order to get a new one, I have to buy it again, send the broken one in and wait for a refund. I'm not an endless money tree, I don't have a spare $218 lying around to buy the phone again because I got sent a defective unit... The kicker is, the stores have the phone but are not "allowed" to sell or replace it until the 14th. Long story short, I would not suggest the droid 3 to anyone looking for an upgrade from their D1, I made it less than 24 hours before I was back on the D1...
 
Fenix787 said:
Got my droid 3 on monday, the wifi and gps broke on tuesday... I am really disappointed with this phone, it feels like a cheap plastic knock off phone, and the build quality is just not what I expected from the makers of the OG droid. I did a factory reset figuring it was motos crappy software and after I did that It wouldn't connect to google's servers to download my google account info. So I am left with a phone with no wifi/gps and no access to my google account, I can still make calls but thats it... Not only is the phone broken, but in order to get a new one, I have to buy it again, send the broken one in and wait for a refund. I'm not an endless money tree, I don't have a spare $218 lying around to buy the phone again because I got sent a defective unit... The kicker is, the stores have the phone but are not "allowed" to sell or replace it until the 14th. Long story short, I would not suggest the droid 3 to anyone looking for an upgrade from their D1, I made it less than 24 hours before I was back on the D1...
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Wow. I had the D1 for a while and IMO, the D3 is FAR better. Too bad you had the issues, but why do you have to do what you mentioned? If purchased from VZW, you should just have to go Thursday and get a replacement.
 
rushmore said:
Marines? I was an 0331 :)
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@Rushmore -
6492 1st MAW ASE. Yup I'm an airwinger, sucks since I went in open contract, was actually looking forward to be on a wall putting rounds down range and saving babies. Oh well, the Corps decided they could use me best in a little white box with no windows instead.

And don't worry, not many people know what that MOS is. Even my 1st CIV DIV job is one that most people don't know about.
 
rushmore said:
Wow. I had the D1 for a while and IMO, the D3 is FAR better. Too bad you had the issues, but why do you have to do what you mentioned? If purchased from VZW, you should just have to go Thursday and get a replacement.
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Yeah I could wait until thursday, or I could switch to a company that doesn't force me to re-buy the phone or sit with a broken phone for 2 days. Their offer was to give me $3.12 for the time I would be without a phone... My intention was not to give verizon $218 and lock myself in for another 2 years to get a large paperweight that I can later trade in for a working phone. If I wanted to keep waiting I wouldn't have bought the damn thing. Been excited about this phone for the past 6 months. I guess this was a case of don't meet your heroes....
 
davidwindt said:
1) Every time I connect to my PC via USB, the PC's browser automatically opens to Verizon's VCAST Media Manager, which I have absolutely no use for. Every time. Every time!!! Really Verizon?
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You're using Windows and have Autorun enabled? If so, you should be able to assign your D3 a specific drive letter, and the tweak Windows to disable Autorun for that drive.
 
The blur is better!

It is not a secret that I have always hated Moto blur. Let's be honest, it has always been slow and fugly...

This implementation of blur is a huge improvement. Im not sure if it's the same version as the Droid X2 because I haven't played with one...but it is much better than past versions like on the Atrix or on the Droid X.

Im still iffy on the keyboard and need more time with it. At first glance. It seems really good but I'm finding it hard to type on.
 
UBRocked said:
The blur is better!

It is not a secret that I have always hated Moto blur. Let's be honest, it has always been slow and fugly...

This implementation of blur is a huge improvement. Im not sure if it's the same version as the Droid X2 because I haven't played with one...but it is much better than past versions like on the Atrix or on the Droid X.

Im still iffy on the keyboard and need more time with it. At first glance. It seems really good but I'm finding it hard to type on.
Click to expand...

I think it's only harder because it's different. I'm used to hitting one key for "question mark". That's changed. The number keys are definitely better. Other symbols have moved so it's just readjusting. But straight typing is definitely easier for me. The reach across that pad was awkward on the Original Droid. My 20 cents. (Inflation, you know.)
 
UBRocked said:
The blur is better!

It is not a secret that I have always hated Moto blur. Let's be honest, it has always been slow and fugly...

This implementation of blur is a huge improvement. Im not sure if it's the same version as the Droid X2 because I haven't played with one...but it is much better than past versions like on the Atrix or on the Droid X.

Im still iffy on the keyboard and need more time with it. At first glance. It seems really good but I'm finding it hard to type on.
Click to expand...

I love the new keyboard personally. I was always hitting like 3 keys at a time with my OG droid. I am having a little trouble getting used to some of the layout and the shift over to the right. But I will get used to that.
 
Barbara said:
I think it's only harder because it's different. I'm used to hitting one key for "question mark". That's changed. The number keys are definitely better. Other symbols have moved so it's just readjusting. But straight typing is definitely easier for me. The reach across that pad was awkward on the Original Droid. My 20 cents. (Inflation, you know.)
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Haha...inflation...I like that :D

I get what your saying but that's really not my issue. I've been without a physical keyboard for awhile so it might just be me. But im double tapping letters when not trying to, I'm hitting two letters at a time, etc. I was one of the crazies that actually could fly on the original Droid's keyboard...and I enjoyed it. I'll give it a few days before I render judgement.
 
UBRocked said:
Im still iffy on the keyboard and need more time with it. At first glance. It seems really good but I'm finding it hard to type on.
Click to expand...

Im with you. I'm not 100% sold on the keyboard. I'm finding it much easier type on the touchscreen then the physical keyboard and I'm not a huge fan of touchscreen to begin with
 
UBRocked said:
Haha...inflation...I like that :D

I get what your saying but that's really not my issue. I've been without a physical keyboard for awhile so it might just be me. But im double tapping letters when not trying to, I'm hitting two letters at a time, etc. I was one of the crazies that actually could fly on the original Droid's keyboard...and I enjoyed it. I'll give it a few days before I render judgement.
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Being of the female gender, I intentionally keep my thumbnails at a moderate length just for typing/texting. It really is all in the thumbnails.
 
Has anyone noticed the home keys backlight to be a bit yellow?
mine is like that. just got it today.
 
I love this keyboard! And, now that you make me look, I'm not sure I would call it yellow but don't know what I would call it. Perhaps dirty light...something. It is a finely lit KB though.
 
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