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Ordered daughter Bionic yesterday. Mistake?

L

larry0071

Android Enthusiast
My 13 year old daughter currently has a grandfathered unlimited 3G account on her Incredible 2. Yesterday I looked at my options for $100 and was scared of the LG phones, so went with the only Motorola phone I could get for the price.

Is this phone problematic? Seems all im reading here is problems and hate mail!

She loves music mp3 hooked to her speakers, Youtube, facebook and tons of texting. Oh, and she makes phone calls now and again as well.

Please tell me if I made the wrong choice, tomorrow is the last day I can fix it.
 
Personally I have loved my Bionic. My complaints about it are merely annoyances that deal with the Android OS that would be present on ALL Android phones.

One thing I have discovered about the forums, is this a wonderful place to get information. All of the people here like Thom and such, extremely knowledgeable. But also keep in mind they are very much what I would label power users. They like to tinker with flashing leaked versions of ROM's, updates, etc. They are usually the ones who find the problems first that many of us really don't notice at all.

That being said, yes, in my experience as a regular, non-power user, this has been a very good, stable phone. There have been some issues, especially right before the latest update of .905 went to soak test, of data hiccups. For the most part, that has cleared up, and honestly, though Verizon will say "What data hiccups?" if you call in, it seems to be more of a network thing.

But voice is always nice and clear, and just overall seems to be a good phone. And being able to swap out the battery is a wonderful thing.
 
I got my bionic on release day and it's the best phone I've ever owned. There isn't anything else out there right now, or soon to be released, that I would trade my bionic for. Don't second guess yourself, you made a good choice.
 
Im thinking that I should take advantage of the half off extended battery from the vzw website, it's currently at $25 for the big Bionic battery. I really wish I had been able to get her the lap dock for $50! That is a heck of a great deal, but no one has stick around here and it's on clearance because it's discontinued.

Does anyone know if the new version lap dock for the Razr is backward compatible?
 
You made a good choice. Only one feature separates this phone from Motorola's top of the line phone and that is the display technology. No need to restate what was written above.

I have had several LG phones and they do work but not as well as a Motorola. Relatively speaking Motorola really seams to put effort into improving the phone's firmware. At this point in time the firmware is doing OK.
 
Yes, most definately get the extended battery. If she has never had a smartphone before she will be in for a shock on battery life, I know I was.

The webdock is something I wish I had gotten for cheap, but since I have a laptop I don't really miss it, but I can certainly see the advantages of it.
 
larry0071 said:
Does anyone know if the new version lap dock for the Razr is backward compatible?
Click to expand...

I own the Lapdock 500 and it works great with the Bionic. Especially with the new Webtop 3.0 in ICS, which should be pushed out to everyone in the coming months (I'm running the .2233 leak). It works on Gingerbread as well, but a few of the features don't work (such as the webcam). They all work in ICS.

Highly recommend the extended battery as well. It adds very little bulk for the amount of extra life you get. For $25 it's a steal.
 
I also purchased the Bionic immediately after its release and I agree it has been the best phone I have ever owned. Don't let the "bad apples" scare you.

Good choice! :D
 
I have used the Bionic since the day it was released and think it is incredible.

I use the standard battery and recharge every night as I turn in.

I like to carry the Bionic in my shirt pocket and appreciate the lack of bulk form the extended battery. I like to carry it with the screen facing me to protect it. This is OK but due to perspiration in the summer the screen will not work until it is wiped dry. In the summer carry it with the screen facing away from your body.

I think she will really enjoy it.

... Thom
 
No you didn't make a mistake, in fact you made a very smart choice!
The bionic is a rock solid top of the line phone. It has the came CPU as the Razr, just clocked at 1000Mhz instead of 1200Mhz and a slightly lower resolution display. As others have mentioned I would strongly recommend the extended battery.
 
I just ordered the vzw extended battery for $25 with free 2 day shipping. This should help her greatly.

Have you folks seen a great improvement with the extended battery for getting you through his of intense teenager use?
 
Solid phone, some quirks. Generally good overall experience. Picked it up when it was first released. I have the lapdock, cardock, media dock & extended battery. My area us now 4G, pretty solid. BTW, picked one up for my wife when the price dropped, she likes it too.
 
All the 4G phones have issues because of the service, not the phones themselves. I had the Inc and Inc2. I Inc2 was an improvement but HTC tends to make cheap phones. Only Apple makes better hardware than Motorola.
 
It came in today, my daughter likes it so far. It's not thick or heavy, she actually questioned the large screen size and the ability to pocket it in her (to small and to tight :banghead: :mad: ) shorts and pants compared to her incredible 2. I told her she would likely grow to live the larger screen. The extended battery arrives tomorrow.

I need to take her to get a case and a Zagg invisible shield tomorrow.
 
The larger 2700 milli amp Motorola battery just arrived. The phone is turned off with the battery installed and charging. Let's see if this +1000 size battery can keep up with a 13 year old girl that loves music videos from youtube!
 
I'd say you got the most bang for the buck. It's now the cheapest Motorola LTE phone on Verizon currently. With the ICS update comes overclocking to 1.2GHz and Smart Actions, which will eliminate any major performance differences between this and the RAZR (though you still have the slightly worse screen, but it is nice and bright as well as uses less battery).

However, if I had the choice, I would not have bought it and just waited for the Nexus, but that's only if I had seen the future and also because I want the best phone there is. But the Bionic is working very well for me and the STS Dev team is working hard on getting everything working properly, for which I am thankful.
 
Speaking as a father to a late-teen daughter, buy an Otterbox Defender case and tell her to start wearing looser fitting clothes. :D
 
So if I understand the post two above, when the ICS upgrade comes to her phone, they are ramping the clock speed up to 1200? Or... Are you saying it can be pushed to 1200 by rooting and modifying it?

I don't really wish to customize it with root as I pay $1.99 per month for the extended warranty and want the option to use it in good faith should problems arise.
 
There have been conflicting reports that the clock speed on the Bionic will be upped to 1200Mhz with the OTA update to ICS. If it is in fact true then you will NOT have to root to get the 1200Mhz.
 
None of the overclocking programs i have found will work on the Bionic (for overclocking) rooted or not but I think you can under clock with them. As far as ICS goes some people have gotten the 1200Mhz clock speed and some have stayed at 1000Mhz, I don't think anyone except maybe Motorola knows why.
 
tehsusenoh said:
I'd say you got the most bang for the buck. It's now the cheapest Motorola LTE phone on Verizon currently. With the ICS update comes overclocking to 1.2GHz and Smart Actions, which will eliminate any major performance differences between this and the RAZR (though you still have the slightly worse screen, but it is nice and bright as well as uses less battery).

However, if I had the choice, I would not have bought it and just waited for the Nexus, but that's only if I had seen the future and also because I want the best phone there is. But the Bionic is working very well for me and the STS Dev team is working hard on getting everything working properly, for which I am thankful.
Click to expand...
Well now the Nexus can't even be sold in the US.
Samsung Galaxy Nexus Also Banned in USA
 
I updated to ics and i can confirm 1.2 ghz on my bionic. i use set CPU to keep it at 1.0 mostly though since it seems to run smoother at that pace.
 
beefyy said:
I updated to ics and i can confirm 1.2 ghz on my bionic. i use set CPU to keep it at 1.0 mostly though since it seems to run smoother at that pace.
Click to expand...

What size and speed ext SD card are you using? just saw it might have something to do with the clock speed you get on another forum.
 
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