First Impressions and Questions Thread

[skep]

im considering going to get this phone tomorrow. everyone seems to love it so far and ive been following it since it was first announced. looks like a keeper!

 

[l1fe]

I'm loving my P4G (coming from a Pre- OCed to 1Ghz)! Screen isn't as bad as people seem to think it is (or maybe I'm just not that picky). Construction is solid, and the phone just feels good in my hands.

As for blur, LPP synced over automatically from my profile and didn't really get a chance (nor did I have the inclination) to play with it. One thing I can say is that everything is blazing fast. Oddly enough, it feels faster than my GTab with its Tegra2 OCed to 1400.

My home is a black hole for Sprint so I'm pretty much always on my airave. Call quality is good, although I did get some complaints about the speaker phone mic. 4G in the Tysons Corner, VA area is not particularly impressive, getting about 3-4 Mbps, although regular browsing and app downloads were fast enough.

Haven't really tried out the camera or video features yet, but overall I'm very happy with the phone. Seriously, I can't get over how fast everything feels.

 

[DMC-12]

A full day with my Photon.. and this is what I got (thus far):

-Great call quality. Just amazing. People say I sound amazing. Likewise they sounds amazing as well on the Photon.

-LED Indicator does not light up when charging and device is on... someone else has mentioned this in this thread as well. Bug? Or working as intended?

-Lock slider does seem a bit buggy. Sometimes it takes two swipes... as I seen in some videos yesterday... and again someone else here mentioned this as well.

-Netflix looks amazing.. and plays as smooth as can be... even on 3G only.

-Screen looks good to me. I know this is an issue for some. But I dont know *shrugs*. It is OMG BRIGHT!!! as some have said...lol but I took it off auto... and adjusted it to more tolerable levels for my peepers. lol

-Battery cover... again.. others have mentioned this. Comes off fine.. but does seem to be a PITA when trying to put it back on.

-The Android Market updated for me.. after I rebooted last night. It is on the newest version.

-I'm still cleaning up some bloat... and installing the native android apps I want (FB and Twitter). Wasnt a fan of Blur's integration of this stuff. But then again... I wasnt a face of Sense's built in social media stuff either.


-All in all.. I am very pleased. This phone is pretty amazing.

 

[McLogan]

I am so damn old, my first computer was literally a TRS-80.

The thing used a modified black and white TV as a display. Each "pixel" was a dot nearly as big as this smiley. And we were amazed by the technology!

So I guess my frame of reference on this quartile display thing is different. I think I will have to change the prescription on my bi-focals to see it.

Maybe these displays are like Monet paintings and the Opposite sex: They look better from a slight distance away.


Not trying to insult anyone. Just my sense of irony kicking in.

 

[simcha]

Thanks for all of the comments about the screen. I guess I'll have to see it for myself. I do have to say that I never use my phone under a microscope or a magnifying glass. Lol!

 

[Godfather13]

Ya, call quality is amazing on this phone. And Ive only taken the back cover of twice, but to me it seems harder to come off then it is to go on. When trying to get my nails under there to start pulling I find it a bit difficult to hold the phone in a way to give leverage. But snapping it on is a breeze and I love how it snaps closed very tight. Nice construction for sure.

I havent played with it as much today. A few texts, 3 calls, listen to one album on the Moto music app. But its now 3:30 and my battery is now orange. I def think some app Ive downloaded is draining the battery. Ive had 4G, wifi, and GPS OFF all day. The gmail app doesnt allow for a change in fetch time for email, so Im wondering how often it might be checking? any ideas?

 

[tonyv69]

I am so damn old, my first computer was literally a TRS-80.


i as well had the trs-80... good times

i am 42 but my eyes are good enough i can see the pixeling effect. screen is bright and looks ok. (useable)
Not great. QHD compared to my evo... I would have to say No most deffinately

bad enough to return?
I'll let you know in 2 weeks

 

[simcha]

Ok, you guys. I'm the same age as you, 41. The first computer I played with was the Commodor Vic20. I learned Basic on that thing. It had a cassette player you used to store data on a cassette tape. It took 20 minutes to save a program I wrote that got it to display "Hello" and my name. It also took 20 minutes to load that program up to get it to run! Lol!

It was hooked up to an old 13" color CRT television. Screen resolution was the same as the Atari I had and all television programming had before just a few years ago before the advent of digital television. I thought it was fine. But we didn't have anything else to compare.

I'm using my Epic now. Users had the same complaints of a screen door effect on the Epic. Yes I can see it. Does it bother me? No. I like it much better than the washed out grayed out screen of the Evo. So, I'll have to see the screen for myself to see if I'll like it.

 

[reddragon72]

I am so damn old, my first computer was literally a TRS-80.

I started out with a TI-994A and a timex Sinclair 100, and my grandad had a TSR-80 So I'm with you on the old stuff

But has anyone tried the webtop yet with the HDMI alone?
And I have read a few complaints about the screen blacking out and not coming back on. Has anyone seen that issue?

 

[Godfather13]

One more oberservation Id like to make is my signal strength is much better with the Photon then I had with the Hero. My work building is notorious for being a Sprint network bar killer. My Hero averaged just one bar when inside the building. You would get 2 bars if lucky. The Photon has been consistantly getting 3 to 4 bars here at my desk the past 2 days. I didnt want to post on this until today to make sure it wasnt some freak accident from Friday. But Im here at work today and its still looking good. Much impressed with that.

 

[skep]

My Motorola phones have always provided better signal than my others, so I'm not surprised. Motorola really knows how to make a phone!

 

[drexappeal]

One more oberservation Id like to make is my signal strength is much better with the Photon then I had with the Hero. My work building is notorious for being a Sprint network bar killer. My Hero averaged just one bar when inside the building. You would get 2 bars if lucky. The Photon has been consistantly getting 3 to 4 bars here at my desk the past 2 days. I didnt want to post on this until today to make sure it wasnt some freak accident from Friday. But Im here at work today and its still looking good. Much impressed with that.

One of the review videos I had posted mentioned a similar thing. The guy's home office normally got around the same that you mentioned (1 or 2 bars at the most), but when he was reviewing the photon, it dropped between full bars and 3/4 bars. Very impressive. I've never really had issues with my HTC phones and their antennas, but if the Photon exceeds what my HTC phones have in the past...I'll be extremely happy!

 

[pmilford]

HI,
I have an EVO 4G. I read a lot of text on the screen and enjoy the large
screen size. The active area of the screen is about 56mm wide
by 93.5mm tall. (About 4.3" diagonal with 800x480 pixels)

I have the impression that both the EVO 3D and the Photon are longer
narrower displays - can anyone measure the active display area(s)?

Can you comment on the ability to read text on the narrower higher
resolution displays? For the same font size you would get fewer characters
or words on a line - is the difference enough to be noticeable?

Thanks,
Peter

 

[wynand32]

I'm using my Epic now. Users had the same complaints of a screen door effect on the Epic. Yes I can see it. Does it bother me? No. I like it much better than the washed out grayed out screen of the Evo. So, I'll have to see the screen for myself to see if I'll like it.

Hadn't heard about that re: the Epic, and I can certainly see nothing like it (45 here, and man, my eyes have gone downhill since I hit 42). So, perhaps I'd not have any issues with the Photon.

Hmm...

 

[wubbie075]

-Netflix looks amazing..

Has anyone tried Netflix on a big screen via HDMI?

Also, is the photon screen the same as the atrix, or higher resolution? I took a peek at an atrix this afternoon specifically to look at the screen and I was not impressed at all.

 

[tbhausen]

A full day with my Photon.. and this is what I got (thus far):

-Great call quality. Just amazing. People say I sound amazing. Likewise they sounds amazing as well on the Photon.

-LED Indicator does not light up when charging and device is on... someone else has mentioned this in this thread as well. Bug? Or working as intended?

-Lock slider does seem a bit buggy. Sometimes it takes two swipes... as I seen in some videos yesterday... and again someone else here mentioned this as well.

-Netflix looks amazing.. and plays as smooth as can be... even on 3G only.

-Screen looks good to me. I know this is an issue for some. But I dont know *shrugs*. It is OMG BRIGHT!!! as some have said...lol but I took it off auto... and adjusted it to more tolerable levels for my peepers. lol

-Battery cover... again.. others have mentioned this. Comes off fine.. but does seem to be a PITA when trying to put it back on.

-The Android Market updated for me.. after I rebooted last night. It is on the newest version.

-I'm still cleaning up some bloat... and installing the native android apps I want (FB and Twitter). Wasnt a fan of Blur's integration of this stuff. But then again... I wasnt a face of Sense's built in social media stuff either.


-All in all.. I am very pleased. This phone is pretty amazing.

Agreed and have similar experience on all points (except I'm not a Netflix subscriber, but Dish Remote Access looks great).

I've tried to get the Market to update... Force close, clear cache, reboot--all to no avail. Anyone else get Market to update? How did you do it?

 

[DMC-12]

One more oberservation Id like to make is my signal strength is much better with the Photon then I had with the Hero. My work building is notorious for being a Sprint network bar killer. My Hero averaged just one bar when inside the building. You would get 2 bars if lucky. The Photon has been consistantly getting 3 to 4 bars here at my desk the past 2 days. I didnt want to post on this until today to make sure it wasnt some freak accident from Friday. But Im here at work today and its still looking good. Much impressed with that.

I concur. I live in a old brick flat... and signal strength has always been an issue for me. Hell... when I was on T-Mobile... I had to go out to my balcony to make a call and send texts.

The Hero on Sprint was much better in my flat... but it would only be at half signal strength. I get full bars now on the Photon.

 

[DMC-12]

Has anyone tried Netflix on a big screen via HDMI?

I wanted to. I even stopped at Fry's on the way home to pick up a HDMI cable. But I could not bring myself to pay $40 for a 3in monster cable. lol

So I need to get that from monoprice or amazon.

 

[drexappeal]

Has anybody used a 3rd party launcher yet (e.g. Launcher Pro Plus, Go Launcher Ex, ADW, etc.)?

 

[Glod]

after another day

- I hate the lock screen, It may even be the worst part of the phone.
- I take back what I said about the screen, it isn't cheap it's better than the evo
- battery life improved after 2 cycles
- love the swype keyboard, easy to read in sunlight too
- could be the best speakerphone ever
- no bluetooth issues pairing with my infiniti g37x
- no bluetooth issues pairing with kensington liquid AUX
- feels much thinner than it actually is
- awesome music app! auto imports lyrics and upcoming concert dates. HOWEVER the font and icons too small for car usage
- kickstand is sturdier than the evo
- highest I've hit on wimax is 7mbit in nova
- uh it's more capable than our congress, ZING

 

[drexappeal]

after another day

- I hate the lock screen, It may even be the worst part of the phone.

For that reason, since it's the same as the LG Optimus S line that I have on a secondary line, I may finally bite the bullet and pay for widget locker, which can also be customized fully. I think that's one of the few things I've seen that I like much better on my EVO 4g. swipe down to unlock is so much easier 1 handed than swipe across.

 

[busted bones]

For that reason, since it's the same as the LG Optimus S line that I have on a secondary line, I may finally bite the bullet and pay for widget locker, which can also be customized fully. I think that's one of the few things I've seen that I like much better on my EVO 4g. swipe down to unlock is so much easier 1 handed than swipe across.

Really? I know I have slightly larger hands than most people but swiping down always seemed to put my thumb in an unnatural position so I never really liked it. As for other lock screens: The most useful one Ive ever found is LockMenu by HuSmith. You have 10 sliders that you can configure to do just about anything.

 

[burgertime]

Anyone else have an issue with the power button. Maybe it's just getting used to the phone but in the dark it's pretty tough to find. This can be a good thing because you don't want the button getting hit all the time but it just doesn't feel big enough or something. I end up spinning my phone three times thinking the power button is on the other end because I can't just "feel" it. Again by no means a deal breaker but just one negative.

 

[excav8ter]

So I am reading in some of the posts in this thread that the signal/reception is very good with the Photon. Is there a design or antenna improvement that makes this possible? My Evo seems to be lacking in reception lately, I have been wondering if that is due to some issues that sprint is having in my area or if that happens to a phone as it ages. I have had my Evo since release day and it has been the longest I have ever had a phone by far. Its been a great phone, and I don't need a new one, but if I can get better reception it will be worth buying it.
What sets this phone apart from the EVO, besides a dual core processor?

 

[1kwik72]

Anyone else have an issue with the power button. Maybe it's just getting used to the phone but in the dark it's pretty tough to find. This can be a good thing because you don't want the button getting hit all the time but it just doesn't feel big enough or something. I end up spinning my phone three times thinking the power button is on the other end because I can't just "feel" it. Again by no means a deal breaker but just one negative.

Yeah I noticed that but thought it was just me being that I came from a Treo Pro where all I had to do was double tap the center button twice. Mine may even be a little harder seeing that I have the case/holster

Craig