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Rooted Droid 1 to Unrooted Droid 3: Still worth it?

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vertigoelectric

Member
I was about to post this in the "all things root" section, but I wasn't sure if I should since my post focuses a bit more on the lack of root.


I've been using the original Droid 1 for a couple of years now, and have had it rooted for most of that time. Even though it doesn't seem to be supported any more, I still use the UD 2.5 ROM and I love it.

Well I'm due for an upgrade and discounts and have everything I need to walk into Verizon and pick up the Droid 3, however I've been really hesitant because I'm sooooo used to having a rooted Droid.

For someone who is used to a rooted Droid 1, do you think moving on to an UNrooted Droid 3 is still worth it? I know a lot of people upgraded from the D1 to the D3. I'd love to get as many opinions as possible about this so that I can feel better about whatever decision I make.

Thanks in advance.
 
You'll likely get widely varying opinion on that. ;)

Coming from a rooted Fascinate to the Droid 3 did remind me of the bloatware annoyance; I was spoiled by my well pared down app drawer, for sure, as I look at all this &*&%$#!! crap in my D3. :D

But it's fast, stock. The keyboard is great, solid and set up just right for my uses.

...etc.

Heck, it'll be exploited at some point down the road anyway. Probably about the time the Droid 4 hits the stores. :eek:
 
Frisco said:
Coming from a rooted Fascinate to the Droid 3 did remind me of the bloatware annoyance; I was spoiled by my well pared down app drawer, for sure, as I look at all this &*&%$#!! crap in my D3. :D
Click to expand...

Yeah that really annoys me too. I noticed some kind of NFL app in there. Isn't that an irremovable stock app, too? I hate football. I don't need that. I seriously don't understand why these developers force us to have these useless apps on our devices we pay for.

Thanks for your input. I'm eager to see what others have to say.
 
If you liked root because it sped your phone up, then definitely make the jump, this sucker is fast stock.

If you were rooted for wireless tether or something of the sort, then no, I would say keep the D1, at least until this rooted.
 
imnotmikal said:
If you liked root because it sped your phone up, then definitely make the jump, this sucker is fast stock.

If you were rooted for wireless tether or something of the sort, then no, I would say keep the D1, at least until this rooted.
Click to expand...

Actually my phone is been really slow for a very long time and nothing I've tried doing has seemed to help in any way. It's actually extremely annoying.

I don't use the wireless tether for anything.

I like root because I like having more customizations to the phone's look and feel. I REALLY like being able to use the drocap application to take screenshots of my screen, too. However, these aren't necessarily deal-breakers.
 
With my OG Droid running Simply Stunning 5.4 and overclocked (sometimes at 1.1GHz), I was faced with the same dilemma when the Droid 3 became available, and my NE2 upgrade date arrived just a few days before.

I arrived at the Verizon store as they opened on the in-store launch day and spent over an hour playing with the Droid 3. Taking my current phone (above) into consideration, I wasn't impressed enough to buy the Droid 3.

Why not?


  1. It won't be rooted (right away), which means imposing limits on what Tasker can do (including turning GPS on/off), and third party dialers won't be able to clear the Missed Call notification, Titanium Backup won't be able to restore anything, I won't be able to create or restore nandroid backups, I'll be stuck with a bunch of bloatware until it's rooted
  2. I won't have the features of my ROM that I've grown accustomed to, such as the notification power widget, lockscreen gestures, notification profiles, locking apps in memory, etc.
  3. 512MB of RAM doesn't seem like that much of an upgrade when my OG Droid struggles with 256MB
  4. No holster available for the naked device (like the one for the OG Droid), a generic holster (likely leather with a flap) won't cut it, and I HATE the way two-piece cases attach to devices with a slider keyboard (poorly)
  5. The squared, non-beveled edges make it feel too bulky (probably just me)

That said, I'm still holding out hope for the Bionic, but if that doesn't pan out I may still opt for the Droid 3 anyway.
 
Those are all good, valid reasons to wait.

I'm actually really, really excited about the camera, though. I enjoy taking pictures and recording videos and the 8mp camera is right up my alley... along with the 1080p video recording...

Hmmmm... this is a hard decision.

Well, I guess it all boils down to whether I want the Droid 3 or any other verizon phone. Compared to the other options out TODAY, I'd say the D3 is probably my best choice.
 
Yes, definitely worth it from a D1. Especially if you shop around, you can get the D3 for a lot cheaper than $199. I didn't think the DX, D2, and D2G was a worthy upgrade to the D1 but the D3 is a total upgrade rooted or not.
 
vertigoelectric said:
Those are all good, valid reasons to wait.

I'm actually really, really excited about the camera, though. I enjoy taking pictures and recording videos and the 8mp camera is right up my alley... along with the 1080p video recording...

Hmmmm... this is a hard decision.

Well, I guess it all boils down to whether I want the Droid 3 or any other verizon phone. Compared to the other options out TODAY, I'd say the D3 is probably my best choice.
Click to expand...

Have you played with a Droid 3 yet? That is what got me to get the danged thing. :D I went to the Verizon store with my upgrade to a T-Bolt or Charge or Revolution in mind.. then I messed with the Droid 3.

I love the keyboard and having the whole screen available to see as I type in forums, etc. Plus the speed of the thing.. just the whole setup is nice.

The app drawer is full of junkola, but the internal memory is very nice, along with my 32 Gb sd card.
 
Well I've got $125 in Verizon gift cards, and with the upgrade price plus loyalty discount the phone would only be $150 anyway... so I'd be paying $25 for the thing at the most.

I actually JUST got back from the Verizon store, and I almost bought the Droid 3. The only reason I didn't was because they were out of stock, and seeing as I was already hesitant, I took that as a sign that I should wait some more.

I tried a few screenshot apps while I was there but none of them worked, unfortunately. I saw one app that said that you could even record video (screen capture) on some higher end phones and that's something I've always wanted to do on my Droid... but alas, lack of root means no-can-do.

I made sure the LG Camera (no relation to LG electronics) app worked with the Droid 3 and it does so brilliantly from what I could tell. Setting the white balance to fluorescent and allowing me to take photos with enormous dimensions worked nicely...

Anyway... I guess I'll keep waiting. I'd still like to continue to get input as I haven't made a decision. Although honestly... compared to the other phones currently available, the Droid 3 is really the only one I would get... whether it was rooted or not... so I'm not entirely sure what I'm waiting for. Someone said something about the "Bionic"... when does that come out?
 
I came from an OG Droid rooted with Peter Alfonso's GPA16 Gingerbread ROM, overclocked anywhere between 800 GHz and 1.2.
Even overclocked and streamlined, the OG was occasionally laggy and I often (at least once per month) reflashed to restore performance.
The most annoying thing to me about the OG was the onboard RAM, as even with apps2sd, I was constantly juggling apps due to the lack of room on the device.

Anyway - do it - the bloatware can be effectively 'ignored' by using the app drawer folders so you don't see them anymore. I had used wireless tethering on occasion with my OG, but haven't needed that yet with my D3.
The added speed, and various improvements on the D3 easily outweigh the cons in my opinion. I jumped on the BOGO for my wife and I, and reflashed the OG Droid so the kids have a power toy to play with now.
 
pbwhite said:
I came from an OG Droid rooted with Peter Alfonso's GPA16 Gingerbread ROM, overclocked anywhere between 800 GHz and 1.2.
Even overclocked and streamlined, the OG was occasionally laggy and I often (at least once per month) reflashed to restore performance.
The most annoying thing to me about the OG was the onboard RAM, as even with apps2sd, I was constantly juggling apps due to the lack of room on the device.

Anyway - do it - the bloatware can be effectively 'ignored' by using the app drawer folders so you don't see them anymore. I had used wireless tethering on occasion with my OG, but haven't needed that yet with my D3.
The added speed, and various improvements on the D3 easily outweigh the cons in my opinion. I jumped on the BOGO for my wife and I, and reflashed the OG Droid so the kids have a power toy to play with now.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. I'm starting to think that I should just get it. I suppose my bottom line thought is this... Of all the available Verizon phones I've seen, the Droid 3 is the only one I'm really interested in, so it's pretty much either the Droid 3 or sticking with my original Droid 1 and not getting anything new... and as of now the worst case scenario is that the Droid 3 never gets root, although honestly... these root devs seem to be really on top of things and I know some of them have got to be working around the clock trying to find a way. I think it'll probably happen before the next great smartphone comes out, so why wait...

Being able to 'hide' the bloatware apps in a folder would really make me happy. Just seeing them there is irritating to me because it's as if they're taunting me, saying "HAHA! You can't get rid of us!". So I'll just say, "Maybe not yet, but I'm gonna stuff you into this folder so I don't have to see your ugly faces!" Sorry... got carried away there.

I love the multi-layered wallpapers, too! I was wondering if there would be a way for me to create my own. Anybody know?

I might go ahead and just get this phone... I'll make a decision soon. Thanks to all of you for your input, and anyone has any more to share about this please do so. No such thing as too much information in this particular case.
 
vertigoelectric said:
Being able to 'hide' the bloatware apps in a folder would really make me happy. Just seeing them there is irritating to me because it's as if they're taunting me, saying "HAHA! You can't get rid of us!". So I'll just say, "Maybe not yet, but I'm gonna stuff you into this folder so I don't have to see your ugly faces!" Sorry... got carried away there.
Click to expand...

You can put all of your apps into an app group and then make a shortcut to the app group. This is what I did I even created a few groups for games, etc so everything is organized and the bloatware apps are hidden, but still there if you go to all apps.
 
spunker88 said:
You can put all of your apps into an app group and then make a shortcut to the app group. This is what I did I even created a few groups for games, etc so everything is organized and the bloatware apps are hidden, but still there if you go to all apps.
Click to expand...

Just got a d3 used. My d1 was just too laggy. It would be blank screen for like 20 seconds, i had to reboot daily, etc.

1. Can you tell me how to hide the apps I don't want in a folder, and also a way to have my apps in a folder I can have a shortcut to?

2. I had thought my apps would come back by themselves? I could have sworn this happened automatically when I tried out a d2 for a week. Somehow all my apps were on the d2. Doesn't google sync apps?

Thanks.
 
I had the same question that you did about whether or not to upgrade. I was running UD 2.5 as well overclocked to 600-800mhz(anything more and my battery life would drop from 7-8 hours to like 3).

The bloatware is annoying but you can just put it all into a folder and forget about it.

I did not miss the lag of the OG Droid like when you go to the homescreen maybe that was my Droid cause of the amount of ROMs I had put on it but that doesn't happen on the Droid 3 and that alone was worth it.

The whole ROM experience as a whole I didn't really miss it was more the little perks that came with rooting(I.e. the battery % increments on the battery)

If you have any questions before you go through with it feel free to ask because we were in very similar situations.

My overall decesion? I'm happy I upgraded to the Droid 3. The keyboard takes getting used to but is so much nicer than the OG Droid's after you use it for a while and that was my favorite thing about the Droid 1.
 
Knitewulf said:
I had the same question that you did about whether or not to upgrade. I was running UD 2.5 as well overclocked to 600-800mhz(anything more and my battery life would drop from 7-8 hours to like 3).

The bloatware is annoying but you can just put it all into a folder and forget about it.

I did not miss the lag of the OG Droid like when you go to the homescreen maybe that was my Droid cause of the amount of ROMs I had put on it but that doesn't happen on the Droid 3 and that alone was worth it.

The whole ROM experience as a whole I didn't really miss it was more the little perks that came with rooting(I.e. the battery % increments on the battery)

If you have any questions before you go through with it feel free to ask because we were in very similar situations.

My overall decesion? I'm happy I upgraded to the Droid 3. The keyboard takes getting used to but is so much nicer than the OG Droid's after you use it for a while and that was my favorite thing about the Droid 1.
Click to expand...

What do you mean about the battery percent increments? I never found ANYTHING that showed me anything more specific than tens... but wasn't that normal?

How does the on-screen keyboard on the D3 compare to the D1? I have found in the last several months that I am having a really hard time typing on the on-screen keyboard with the D1. Sometimes it's because of some sort of lag. I've found it far too easy to hit the wrong letter. In some cases, I'll hit a letter and the wrong one will come up (usually the one next to it), and I'll try deleting and hit something else instead, and it'll take like 5 tries just to delete correctly and try again. I'm not sure why I have had so much trouble with it. I've occasionally attempted to try using the physical keyboard because I figured I couldn't accidentally hit the wrong keys that way, but I found it to be almost completely unusable to me anyway because my thumbs are just too big, I guess.

I've also tried overclocking, although I never noticed any difference no matter what I ever did. Eventually I stopped caring.

My phone is slow. It's too slow. One way I test the phone's speed is by playing The Impossible Game. The music is supposed to flow with the game, but I've noticed that the level progression is always behind. I used to have problems with homescreen redraws. That was the worst. I'd go to the homescreen and everything would be blank for maybe 30 seconds... sometimes more. I don't remember how I remedied that. I looked it up and changed a recommended setting somewhere.

Sometimes tapping something on-screen would be delayed. I press an icon to run an app and it would take a second or two before it would register. I have a 3rd party camera app that I use to record video. Sometimes when I press record, nothing happens, so after a few seconds I press it again thinking I missed the button or something, but then it dings twice suddenly because it starts the recording from the first tap and then stops because of the second, and I'd end up with a split second video in my gallery. That might be partially from the app itself but it still shouldn't be that slow.

I can go on, but why?

Here's a good question for you. Is there any improvement in 3g/wifi connection/data-transfer speeds? You can use the Speedtest app to find out for me if you're willing. I shoulda done that at the verizon store, but I didn't think of it at the time.

That's another thing... always too much pressure to really test out a phone at the store...
 
I should have specified that, I meant that showed it in the notification bar like ontop of the battery icon.

As for the onscreen keyboard if you're using that more than the physical keyboard maybe you should look into another phone :p, but anyways the onscreen keyboard is very smooth and easy to use unless your using swype then you just need a giant hand to make it easy... The hitting the wrong letter thing hasn't happened to me, but I don't use the onscreen keyboard as much as the physical one so you might have to ask someone else. Another plus is on this phone its keyboard is more spaced out than the original Droid's and a lot easier to use you might end up liking it.

This phone is so fast you don't need to overclock it.

I haven't played The Impossible Game on my phone, but that problem might have been your 3g I'm not entirely sure. The homescreen lag doesn't happen on this phone unless you are running a million things at once and even then it happens to me for at the maximum a second.

The touch delay happened to me on my Droid as well and I haven't noticed anything like that on the Droid 3 its VERY responsive.

If you want to go on feel free, I'm happy to answer the questions :p


I downloaded speednet for you(although it doesnt seem very consistent), but that might just be because I have 3g set to turn off when my phone is asleep. Either way here were my best scores out of 2 tries on 3g and 2 tries on Wifi

The server is in Philadelphia and I am about 45 minutes out of Philly.
Wifi:
Download: 8.77mbps
Upload: 4.11mbps
Ping: 30ms
3g:
Download: 1.69mbps
Upload: .78mbps
Ping: 128ms

Everytime I test the 3g it gets a little higher in DL and Upload speeds so take those with a grain of salt. Also my battery is at less than 15% and I have it so my data is slowed down after that so that as well might effect it. I'll do another test when I have a full charge.

Hope that helps :).
 
I ran 5 speed tests for wifi and 3g each, and my highest down/up rates were:

Wifi: 7.23 / 4.79
3g: 1.07 / .71

That's in Mbps.

Looks like there probably wouldn't be very much change in that area. If only 4G were more available.
 
vertigoelectric said:
I ran 5 speed tests for wifi and 3g each, and my highest down/up rates were:

Wifi: 7.23 / 4.79
3g: 1.07 / .71

That's in Mbps.

Looks like there probably wouldn't be very much change in that area. If only 4G were more available.
Click to expand...
I highly doubt the correctness of the speedtest app, but downloading apps on the market and updating apps etc, Is a hell of a lot faster than it was on the Droid. The only speed complaint I would have about it would be I wish the browser was a little faster, but its still leaps and bounds above the OG Droid's.

I ran a few more tests and ended up with 2Mbps for download. These tests have gone from 1.5Mbps up to 2Mbps.
 
vertigoelectric said:
Well I use the Dolphin HD browser anyway... I never use the stock browser. I'm sure that would make a difference.
Click to expand...
Thats what I use as well. Its fast enough and a lot faster than the Droid 1, but I guess I'm just used to the computer haha.

If you buy the Droid 3 I would recommend buying an extended battery for $40. You don't necessarily need it, but its nice to have.
 
Oh yeah, that's right. What's your typical battery life? I don't text often, and I talk even less. Honestly if I were to make 5 calls in one day, that'd be above average. I use my phone for the occasional game, I do research online, I use it for GPS and other info like what movies are playing or whatever. I would also be using the camera a lot. I know a lot of factors go into battery life. I just want your experience.
 
vertigoelectric said:
Oh yeah, that's right. What's your typical battery life? I don't text often, and I talk even less. Honestly if I were to make 5 calls in one day, that'd be above average. I use my phone for the occasional game, I do research online, I use it for GPS and other info like what movies are playing or whatever. I would also be using the camera a lot. I know a lot of factors go into battery life. I just want your experience.
Click to expand...

Well... my experience with battery life hasn't been a good one and it's not because the phone has bad battery life its because I had a faulty battery and it would only last me 7-8 hours with everything off. I just went and picked up the extended battery and I have dropped 10% in about 6-7 hours and thats with about 50 texts in and out a couple calls and a lot of web browsing.

People have reported 16 hours and still on 40% battery. Just take a look around an see what people say. Even with the faulty battery I found it to be about the same if not more than my Droid. I'm gonna run my extended battery out tomorrow so I'll be able to tell you how long that lasts.
 
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