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

got droid 2 as free warranty replacment for droid 1

A

asilver

Well-Known Member
I have a friend at verizon, I was on my 4th droid which was a refurb and was shipped to me with the led for the menu not working and a spot on the screen that appears burned in, if you can believe it.

Anyways I jokingly said can you get me a droid 2 and since I have had 4 swaps under warranty the could.

Initial impressions,

1: it loads up all your old apps and updates them automatically upon activation, droid 1 doesn't do this, this is handy.
2: its faster (can't tell how much until I've used it for a few weeks) but transitions through screens are smoother
3: it comes with motoblur supposedly, I don't even know what this is, so I can't tell any difference, thus anyone who wants a droid 2 but to have it operate like a droid 1...mine does...so uhhh I don't get it.
4: the graphics are different, icons are different, I like both the droid 1 on 2.2 and the droid 2, they are similar but the colors are often reversed in a lot of menus
5: ergonomically it feels better, camera button and volume button are much better feeling.
6: battery door cover looks almost identical but the foam is thicker and it is on their tighter than any of my 4 droid 1's
7: keyboard is much more tactile with the raised buttons and I like the arrows much better than the dpad, however I'll use the pre-installed swype for most my typing since that's what I'm used to.
8: calendar still doesn't scroll in month mode LAME only scrolls in week mode
9: camera mode is faster on droid 2..I think....I initially started it and droid 1 took 10 seconds to load, but after a battery pull they are closer in speed, so hard to say if there's an actual difference.
10: the unlock swipe takes longer on the droid 2...dunno why
11: on droid 1...gmail would always get confused on conversations that were of the same subject line for example if the subject was blank, it would combine emails from different senders....and it wouldn't show the correct email unless you got in the emial out and back in, droid 2 doesn't have this problem, it just shows EVERY email in the list, and you can scroll from oldest to newest...big improvement
12: start up time from power on is about 2 seconds faster on droid 2...not really a marked difference
13: all the icons are different...I actually perfer all the icons on the droid 1 versus the droid 2...but i'm not that picky.
 
14: forgot to mention they changed the order and icon for the menu / back / home / search buttons on the screen...this is just annoying..why did you have to change the order...lol..I'm used to my back being all the way on the left, now it's 2nd from the right.

whatever I'll get used to it, but still don't see why that was changed.
 
factory warranty, completely unrelated to insurance.

I guess Verizon has a rule that if you have over 4 legit warranty swaps they will either upgrade you or get you a new phone...since they aren't really selling the droid 1 anymore I defaulted to the droid 2.

1st phone would turn off if you closed the keyboard too fast
2nd phone wouldn't keep some apps loaded they would dissapear
3rd phone wouldn't charge
4th phone menu key wouldn't light up

now droid 2.
 
i did this with my eris and i was told that the only models i could get as a replacement were ones that had certified like new refurbs in stock??? thats how i ended up with the droid instead of the droid x or incredible
 
Going from the Droid to the Droid 2 is like going from an EnV to an EnV 2. It feels slicker and there is a performance boost. The D-pad is gone and it now has buttons for the arrows. Not sure how I'll handle that. I like the d-pad.
 
my droid loads and updates my apps when I reactivate after putting a new rom on.

so that isn't new
 
asilver said:
14: forgot to mention they changed the order and icon for the menu / back / home / search buttons on the screen...this is just annoying..why did you have to change the order...lol..I'm used to my back being all the way on the left, now it's 2nd from the right.

whatever I'll get used to it, but still don't see why that was changed.
Click to expand...

I saw that yesterday when I was fooling around with it at the vz store. That messes you up man. The back button feels correct on the left side on the Droid.


Joe
 
That's cool to hear, I have been having horrible lag issues,and getting a refurb. But this will be my second droid, I read earlier someone got the option of a droid x or an incrdible,I got the option for a refurb. But anyway where r u located? Central, east coast, west?
 
The completely different user interface IS motoblur... and as long as you have the setting checked your original Droid will absolutely install any previously installed apps...as far as getting a brand new Droid 2 for your four failed droids, good job!
 
bufftallica said:
The completely different user interface IS motoblur... and as long as you have the setting checked your original Droid will absolutely install any previously installed apps...as far as getting a brand new Droid 2 for your four failed droids, good job!
Click to expand...

I don't see ANYTHING called motoblur on this phone? This is where my confusion is, there's nothing different in the way it operates.

apps it has that might be part of motoblur but aren't named motoblur are

social networking app (useless it does what the facebook app already does)

there's nothing else on this phone that has anything "blur" about it...can someone explain what I'm missing.



further updates

OMG for anyone who uses the phone as an alarm, they greatly improved the interface: old alarm, as you attempt to press the snooze button it would change to landscape and cancel the entire alarm due to the terrible placement of the buttons, now the entire screen is snooze, and at the bottom there's a slider to cancel (Yipee, haha probably nobody uses this but me but I'm excited)

Gallery MUCH improved, loads everything instantly and has a slide bar like with your contacts so you can slide from top to bottom with more control and it shows you by dates when pics were taken.

theres a seperate icon for camcorder now, kinda cool

anywho, I'm just trying to report back the useful changes that are between the droid 1 and droid 2 that aren't reported in any of the reviews b/c they don't refer to wifis and gb's LOL
 
BlueIce5249 said:
This is what I have been waiting for!!

But now I'm reluctant to get rid of my original droid!
Click to expand...


what are your concerns, hopefully I can answer them..

FWIW I would not have purchased this phone had I not been offered it for free as a replacement, BUT I'm really happy with it.
 
asilver said:
what are your concerns, hopefully I can answer them..

FWIW I would not have purchased this phone had I not been offered it for free as a replacement, BUT I'm really happy with it.
Click to expand...


How is the battery life? There are quite a few rumblings on the D2 forum about the battery draining quick.
 
took it off at 7am this morning, it's 10:45 and I'm at 90% still, that's 10% / 3 hours or so, so far so good, however, we'll see as the day progresses, this is my first full day with the phone
 
asilver said:
factory warranty, completely unrelated to insurance.

I guess Verizon has a rule that if you have over 4 legit warranty swaps they will either upgrade you or get you a new phone...since they aren't really selling the droid 1 anymore I defaulted to the droid 2.

1st phone would turn off if you closed the keyboard too fast
2nd phone wouldn't keep some apps loaded they would dissapear
3rd phone wouldn't charge
4th phone menu key wouldn't light up

now droid 2.
Click to expand...

I know this isn't a "rule" because my friend has went through 4 Droids through warranty replacement and on the 4th one, I had him ask a rep about this "rule" because it was getting ridiculous. They told him that "even if you go through 20 Droids, we wont upgrade it". So it seems this type of deal is only at the stores where the reps/managers are nice enough to help you out in this aspect.


asilver said:
I have a friend at verizon, I was on my 4th droid which was a refurb and was shipped to me with the led for the menu not working and a spot on the screen that appears burned in, if you can believe it.

Anyways I jokingly said can you get me a droid 2 and since I have had 4 swaps under warranty the could.

Initial impressions,

1: it loads up all your old apps and updates them automatically upon activation, droid 1 doesn't do this, this is handy. I've noticed that the D1 has done this since 2.2 came out. So that's not a new feature.
8: calendar still doesn't scroll in month mode LAME only scrolls in week mode Yes it does, the monthly view scrolls vertically, not horizontally like the weekly view. You're welcome ;).
11: on droid 1...gmail would always get confused on conversations that were of the same subject line for example if the subject was blank, it would combine emails from different senders....and it wouldn't show the correct email unless you got in the emial out and back in, droid 2 doesn't have this problem, it just shows EVERY email in the list, and you can scroll from oldest to newest...big improvement I've never seen this.. :confused:.
12: start up time from power on is about 2 seconds faster on droid 2...not really a marked difference Compared to OC'd or stock Droid? Mine boots in about 20 secs (guess, I've never timed) after the moto logo.
Click to expand...

As far as some of the revisions the you've listed, I'm going to correct/address some of them (read above quote for my responses in red text).
 
You're probably right, as I noted that my friend works for verizon wireless therefore he probably got me the upgrade when it might not be a hard and fast customer satisfaction rule.

have you replaced your phone with a phone running 2.2? I don't think what I'm explaining is what your understanding........what I'm saying is as soon as I turned on the droid 2 it had all the apps loaded and in the app drawer, didn't even download from the market like the droid 1 did....I dunno, none of my 4 droid 1 refurb replacements loaded ANYTHING when I turned them on

thanks for that calendar info that's awesome

as for the gmail conversations, I'm sure if your emails are from friends or whatnot this is not likely to occur, I use mine for business where the subject line dictates the "conversation" therefore it lumped emails from muliple senders into the same one, and often would show me the one in the inbox as new was actually a 2 week old email from someone else, and only after hitting the back arrow and re-entering the email would it show the correct message.
 
asilver said:
as for the gmail conversations, I'm sure if your emails are from friends or whatnot this is not likely to occur, I use mine for business where the subject line dictates the "conversation" therefore it lumped emails from muliple senders into the same one, and often would show me the one in the inbox as new was actually a 2 week old email from someone else, and only after hitting the back arrow and re-entering the email would it show the correct message.
Click to expand...

Hmm, maybe I haven't seen it because I use the K9-Email app for all my personal e-mail accounts.

So would you think it'd be worth it to upgrade to the D2 from the D1 if you had to pay to upgrade? I have learned that it may be possible for launch Droid owners to upgrade to the D2 at verizon upgrade/new contract price (more info here from another forum I frequently visit).

I keep changing my mind as to whether or not to upgrade or not. I'm a huge root/custom ROM fan (just got SS 4.7 on my Droid and loving it so far!) and thought it was going to be a long time before the X and D2 got the encrypted bootloader unlocked to install custom ROMs, but after seeing that the X has gotten Clockwork on it already, I'm thinking it'll be the exact same process to flash the D2s bootloader so it'll be no time before it'll have the same ability as the Droid to install custom ROMs and OC.

Really, the only reason I want the D2 is for the extra RAM because it seems 256 MBs isn't quite enough to keep it snappy. But I don't want to sacrifice all the functionality of my rooted Droid (WiFi tether, LV/OC kernels, themes, all sorts of other tweaks devs allow you to do) for the D2. Really, I just want to be assured that the D2 will eventually get the cult dev following that the Droid has. But with all the other awesome phones available and coming (Droid X, Fascinate, Droid Pro), I'm not sure where the devs are going to go :(.
 
The gmail problem is something that was only specific to GMAIL since they group everything in conversations instead of a damn email string like everyone else.


I don't think I could recommend paying for the upgrade seeing as how a lot of us Droid owners purchased in December we're not eligible for upgrades until next december, BUT for anyone who's had lots of warranty issues with the droid 1 I'd push verizon to get you into a D2.

as for rooting....I don't have enough time to learn how to utilize all the benefits, I rooted my 2nd droid, over clocked it, saw NO difference, so unrooted it and went back to stock...so I'm a tech nerd but don't have enough time to become educated in the whole root phenomenon.....so this comparo is really stock to stock
 
asilver said:
factory warranty, completely unrelated to insurance.

I guess Verizon has a rule that if you have over 4 legit warranty swaps they will either upgrade you or get you a new phone...since they aren't really selling the droid 1 anymore I defaulted to the droid 2.

1st phone would turn off if you closed the keyboard too fast
2nd phone wouldn't keep some apps loaded they would dissapear
3rd phone wouldn't charge
4th phone menu key wouldn't light up

now droid 2.
Click to expand...

lucky...i went through 4 and was told to turn it in again for another shitty refurb...i'm SO lucky! I'm stuck with the one I have now cause I didn't want to deal with it.
 
1: it loads up all your old apps and updates them automatically upon activation, droid 1 doesn't do this, this is handy. I've noticed that the D1 has done this since 2.2 came out. So that's not a new feature.

I have 2.2, not rooted and just did a factory reset, let my phone sit (went to bed), by morning all but one of my apps were back on my phone. I did have to re-register my Launcher pro+ but outside of that everything was just as i left it(other than putting all my shortcuts and widgits on home screens:mad:, forgot to back that up before the reset:o, wouldn't recommend it).
 
asilver said:
booooooo......make friends with verizon rep...get new phone.....PROFIT
Click to expand...


Actually that has nothing to do with it. Reps aren't supposed to even work on friends accounts. They can get fired for doing it.

The droid 2 for Droid replacement has nothing to do with how many warranty replacements you've done in the past. The original Droid is end of life. That means that they're not being manufactured and/or sold anymore. Therefore when doing a warranty exchange you will now get the Droid 2 instead of the orignal.

This was my first droid replacement because mine messed up after the 2.2 "update"

There are tons of things different on the droid 2.

The ability to sync w/ your pc w/out downloading extra apps. Using DLNA and the Media sync app pre-installed.

Flash automatically available

Moto widgets aside from just the android widgets

Tagging of photos w/ your own tags. You can also tag with people from your contact list kind of like in facebook.

Gallery has a "go to" option that you can use to go to a certain month. This is awesome when you have hundreds of photos. Saves from having to scroll for days.

It has backup assistant. No more having to do the csv files and import/export to google contacts.

It has Swype pre installed.

Also the voice commands are awesome. You can say " send text to "john smith" call me right now. And it'll open a text to that person and type out exactly what you said. All you have to do is press send. you can do the same with emails. You can use it to navigate, to pull up maps, get directions. You can use it to set up a note on your pre installed notepad. You can use it to navigate to websites. Just say " go to yahoo.com" and it goes!

A cool widget that you can put on your extra screens that allows you to set up a quick function to certain contacts. You can set it up so that when you tap the persons pic on your screen it will either go to a text message screen or to the phone screen or other things

The "motoblur" part is where you can use a widget on your screen to show all of your facebook/twitter/myspace updates. You dont have to log into your facebook app or the browser app you just need to tap the widget and see all status updates and you can update your own as well.


Theres lots more new stuff but I suggest just exploring the phone. I hate how people just glance at the phone and say "there's nothing new" when they don't even take the time to see what it's all about.

As for battery life. Download advanced task killer then set up the widget for it. all you have to do is tap the widget and it kills running apps. I had it on my original droid and could go as much as 2-3 days without charging my phone and as you can tell from the stuff i mentioned...I do a lot with my phone. I'm always texting , emailing, listening to music, on the web. I use wifi a lot. My battery is not an issue at all. It stays charged for a long while.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom