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I love my Droid 3, but.....

kf4qhk

Newbie
Hey guys.

I have the Droid 3, and have had it for about 3 months.

It's great...........except.........


The battery stinks. It may be time for another one. (Recommendations? I have a truck mount that I want to be able to use.)

It's slow at times. I have read about Bloatware, but don't know what the bloatware is, nor how to remove it.

I wish I could find a good, intuitive, big keyboard.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Jeremy
 
Bloatware is typically anything that was put on the phone by your carrier that has no real purpose on the phone and slows it down. For example, AT&T Navigator (on a AT&T carrier-locked phone). Some of these you can uninstall or disable from manage apps, and some you probably have to root your phone to uninstall.
 
Hey guys.

I have the Droid 3, and have had it for about 3 months.

It's great...........except.........


The battery stinks. It may be time for another one. (Recommendations? I have a truck mount that I want to be able to use.)

Amazon sells them for decent prices at this point. I'd recommend the Motorola extended battery, which is a little bigger than the stock battery. It does require a new back, as it is a mm or so thicker than the stock battery, but it will still fit in the Droid 3 car mount, and you'll barely notice the difference. It should give about 20% more battery life.

Amazon does have it here for $40 at the moment: Amazon.com: Motorola Droid 3 Oem Extended Battery Bf6x and Cover Door: Cell Phones & Accessories

But you can also buy the two parts separately for $12 and $13.50:

Amazon.com: Motorola Droid 3 Extended Battery (BF6X) Motorola XT862 Droid 3: Cell Phones & Accessories

Amazon.com: Motorola Brand New OEM Extended Battery Door Moto XT862/DROID 3 - Battery - Bulk Packaging - Black: Cell Phones & Accessories

If you want just a normal battery, those are really cheap:

http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Brav...id=1364342582&sr=8-2&keywords=droid+3+battery

While you may find some third party brand batteries that say that they work with the Droid 3, I really recommend sticking with Motorola batteries. The third party batteries do not always live up to their stated capacities, but Motorola batteries always work well.

It's slow at times. I have read about Bloatware, but don't know what the bloatware is, nor how to remove it.

I wish I could find a good, intuitive, big keyboard.

To remove bloatware, you need to root the phone, but I think that bloatware as a cause of slowness is overrated. Don't run the bloatware, and it won't slow down the phone. We have an All Things Root forum here to discuss issues around rooting.

I think that the Motorola home screen causes a lot of problems with the phone, especially as it runs for a long time, so you may want to try restarting the phone every day or so. If you charge it every night while you sleep, shut the phone down and restart it when you get ready to plug it in to charge while you sleep.

What do you mean by a larger keyboard? Do you mean a software, on screen keyboard with larger letters, or do you mean a Bluetooth hardware keyboard of some sort?
 
Hey guys.

I have the Droid 3, and have had it for about 3 months.

It's great...........except.........


The battery stinks. It may be time for another one. (Recommendations? I have a truck mount that I want to be able to use.)

It's slow at times. I have read about Bloatware, but don't know what the bloatware is, nor how to remove it.

I wish I could find a good, intuitive, big keyboard.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Jeremy
About the battery, I bought the slim BF6X from Ebay that is the same thickness as the stock BF5X battery but has a higher capacity by about 300 mA-hr. more, I think. It cost me about $20 and came with a small micro USB-USB cable.
 
Amazon sells them for decent prices at this point. I'd recommend the Motorola extended battery, which is a little bigger than the stock battery. It does require a new back, as it is a mm or so thicker than the stock battery, but it will still fit in the Droid 3 car mount, and you'll barely notice the difference. It should give about 20% more battery life.

Amazon does have it here for $40 at the moment: Amazon.com: Motorola Droid 3 Oem Extended Battery Bf6x and Cover Door: Cell Phones & Accessories

But you can also buy the two parts separately for $12 and $13.50:

Amazon.com: Motorola Droid 3 Extended Battery (BF6X) Motorola XT862 Droid 3: Cell Phones & Accessories

Amazon.com: Motorola Brand New OEM Extended Battery Door Moto XT862/DROID 3 - Battery - Bulk Packaging - Black: Cell Phones & Accessories

If you want just a normal battery, those are really cheap:

Amazon.com: Motorola BF5X Bravo Defy MB520 Battery SNN5877A: Cell Phones & Accessories

While you may find some third party brand batteries that say that they work with the Droid 3, I really recommend sticking with Motorola batteries. The third party batteries do not always live up to their stated capacities, but Motorola batteries always work well.



To remove bloatware, you need to root the phone, but I think that bloatware as a cause of slowness is overrated. Don't run the bloatware, and it won't slow down the phone. We have an All Things Root forum here to discuss issues around rooting.

I think that the Motorola home screen causes a lot of problems with the phone, especially as it runs for a long time, so you may want to try restarting the phone every day or so. If you charge it every night while you sleep, shut the phone down and restart it when you get ready to plug it in to charge while you sleep.

What do you mean by a larger keyboard? Do you mean a software, on screen keyboard with larger letters, or do you mean a Bluetooth hardware keyboard of some sort?

Thanks for all of the answers!

By bigger keyboard, I am liking the on-screen keyboard (as opposed to the slide out) more and more, but my thumbs keep mis-typing. I have one that I have now (the free version) but doesn't do auto-guess or auto-correct on the word. What can I find that at least has auto correct?

Thanks!

Jeremy
 
Thanks for all of the answers!

By bigger keyboard, I am liking the on-screen keyboard (as opposed to the slide out) more and more, but my thumbs keep mis-typing. I have one that I have now (the free version) but doesn't do auto-guess or auto-correct on the word. What can I find that at least has auto correct?

Thanks!

Jeremy

Swiftkey is the best software keyboard for both autocorrect and for predicting the word you will type, in my opinion.

To be honest, after reading my battery advice, I'd perhaps look elsewhere. Some people are reporting bad life, making me suspect that they are reselling used battery packs.

Perhaps directly from Motorola? Battery BF6X (Extra Capacity) - Motorola Mobility LLC. USA and Extra Capacity Battery Door for DROID 3 - Motorola Mobility LLC. USA

Or from here, with a one year warranty: Motorola Droid 3 Cell Phone Batteries | Motorola Droid 3 Battery | batteries4less.com
 
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