My work is switching to Verizon. Choices.

[Fetch Questman]

So the company I work for is switching to Verizon and I finally have the option to switch from a Blackberry to a Android for my work phone. (using a Blackberry every day for the past year has been horrible, but that's another topic..)

So my options. I can get a Droid X for no cost out of my pocket. The specs and reviews look solid enough to do the job. But the phone is a bit old already and I will probably be using this phone for a year or two.

If I shell out my own cash (looking at $100-$200 depending on phone) I can choose any phone I want. I like the keyboard on the Droid 3 and I have been hearing a lot of talk about this Galaxy thing that's coming out soon.

I send and receive a lot of emails, and I need a nice camera. I use maps and nav a lot too. And of course, I am a bit of a technophile so the latest and greatest will score points with me.

Suggestions?

 

[BigRedNole]

Unfortunately, VZW does nothing to announce phones. You will find out only a couple days before they are available. Also, specs on most phones that are leaked are only speculation at the moment.

Samsung Galaxy S II:
Pros: One of the best screens (arguably). If it comes with the Exynos processor, it will have the best performance. It is unlocked already and with Cyanogen to create custom ROMs.
Cons: It is vaporware at the moment. There are no known dates for release. Cannot confirm if it has 4G LTE. May be a little more flimsy than others.

Droid 3/Droid Bionic
Pros: In my experience, Moto makes a very high quality phone. 3 has a slide out keyboard, Bionic doesn't. Moto usually under clocks their processors.
Cons: Locked bootloader. No custom ROMs until it is hacked. Vaporware. May not be out before the iPhone 5.

Nexus Prime:
Pros: Specs are insane and trumps all current phones. Speculated for a holiday release. If all leaks are true, this will probably be the best phone on the market for a while come Nov.
Cons: Nothing really to go on at the moment. It is too far out and VZW does not even talk about phones that will be available in 2 days.

If you need a phone now, look at the Droid 3. If you can wait, hold off for the Bionic, SGS2, iPhone (if you like that). If you can hold off longer, wait for the Nexus Prime.

 

[urdaddi]

Unfortunately, VZW does nothing to announce phones. You will find out only a couple days before they are available. Also, specs on most phones that are leaked are only speculation at the moment.

...............
Droid 3/Droid Bionic
Pros: In my experience, Moto makes a very high quality phone. 3 has a slide out keyboard, Bionic doesn't. Moto usually under clocks their processors.
Cons: Locked bootloader. No custom ROMs until it is hacked. Vaporware. May not be out before the iPhone 5.

.................................

I recently gave up my Droid X for a Droid Charge. I got my DX on its launch day last year. Spent a year of not getting timely information from Moto - they simply do not communicate well with their customers. Even with this lack of communication, I used my DX a lot and loved it.....right up until the end of May when they pushed one of the worst upgrades I have ever seen out onto my phone. It made the phone not dependable. Sometimes it would miss incoming call, at times you could not make outgoing calls. It would restart itself after shutting down. It would rebott at various times. I tried to work through the problems on it, but the last straw was when I needed to make a call in an emergency situation and the darn thing would not work.

I immediately went to Costco and bought a Droid Charge.

Mot hardware quality seems stron....but beware that they have pushed out very buggy software more than once. And they lack communication with their customers. Visit the Moto forums for the DX to see a lot of what I am saying.

 

[x026092]

I like BigRedNole's assesment. Seems to be on the money.

 

[Fetch Questman]

Yeah, it looks like the Droid 3 will be perfect. I won't have the luxury of waiting for something better. When we switch I will have to pick a phone that day. Thanks for the input,

 

[jer.lawrence]

I commented earlier about how the Microsoft exchange mail on my new incredible 2 is the best that I've ever used. The Dinc2 isn't 4G and I don't know whether or not that's important to you bit the exchange mail and calendar integration into this thing is nothing short of amazing so far.

 

[Fetch Questman]

Already put in my order for the D3.

4G isn't huge for me. Won't be doing much web browsing or streaming movies with this since its my work phone. I may UL and DL some videos and pics, but I think 3G will be fine. Working well with Exchange is important.