The 'First Impressions' Thread :)

[marcosv]

The Vibrant surprised me, it is an amazing device. ... This screen blew me away, especially when I watched Avatar on it. The movie just looked exceptional. I will even dare to say it looked better than in the theater. Anyways, this variant of the phone isn't in the running but if the Epic and Fascinate have a similar experience, this phone is a winner.

Now to the X, I was really looking forward to the release of it and expecting to really like it. But to be blunt, I was exceptionally underwhelmed. The screen was nice but it wasn't much better than the Evos.

I also looked at the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant. I love that screen. If it was based on screen alone, I'd buy it over the Droid X. My personal problem is that I'm really hating AT&T and my iPhone 3GS right now (too many dropped calls, failed calls, and times when the phone doesn't ring on incoming calls for me to take). I can't wait for the rumored 2 to 3 months for the Fascinate to come out. I've determined that the Droid X will meet my needs as my first Android phone on Verizon.

I went with a 1 year contract, so I can go buy another phone in 10 months. The penalty of the 1 year contract vs. 2 year being only $30 thanks to corporate discount made this a no-brainer.

The fact that the Samsung Vibrant has already been rooted suggesting the same for the Fascinate also makes me want to wait, but, 3 more months on AT&T is too long.

 

[jroc]

I'm coming from a Droid. And I ordered my X from Verizon website.

First off, THIS PHONE IS NOT THAT BIG!!! lol I thought they shipped me the wrong phone looking at the box. It being narrow helps when holding it.

The pocket issue....is no issue!! lol. It fits fine, and I had that massive 2800 Seidio hump on my Droid.

Its a lil wider than the Droid. The only thing u will notice is its longer than the Droid. If someone was to see it in the streets, it doesnt look that big. U only notice comparing it to another phone. I can make my thumb and 2 fingers touch each other holding it in one hand....The only real issue I see so far using it one handed, swiping the notification bar down. Its hard to swipe back up one handed.

(I used 2 hands when using my Droid: held it in my left, used my right to type and dial, swipe, etc. I thought everybody did that...lol It is more accurate that way......)

The decibel signal is looking alot better on the X coming from the Droid. It started out at X -74, Droid -84. It flucuated and got closer to matching each other, the closes being about -4 decibels apart. Right now, it goes anywhere from -4 to -10 decibels apart.

I'm using a baseband from Froyo that got me better reception on my Droid..I will see how it goes at my job, which is in a bad reception area. But seeing this I expect better reception at work too. This will be the deciding factor if I keep the X.

I see the lag on the lock screen. It seems to happen when the phone has been sleep for a while. I think thats a product of vanilla 2.1 I saw that lag on my stock Droid before going to Froyo..... If u manually put the phone in sleep with the power button and bring it right outta sleep, it doesnt lag.

I dont see the lag scrolling in the app drawer like some ppl have. I also havent installed any extra apps yet.

The speakephone isnt as loud as the one on the Droid. I can tell why already: the opening isnt as big like on the Droid. The speaker might actually be smaller that the Droid's.

No lag using the multi touch keyboard.

I get confused on the button setup...lol

Colors seem about the same as the Droid's, I know some ppl said the Droid's looked better. The X is brighter than the Droid's, thats why some ppl may say washed out comparing the 2. But thats why the screen is better on the X. All that means is u dont have to have the brightness as high as on the Droid to see the screen good.

The whole jagged text in the browser...thats a non issue. I saw a pic on here recently where u could see it....blown up extra large. I dont see it....The text wrap issue, just double tap for the words to re-fit screen.

If u want an idea about how fast the phone is:

Turn Window Animations off.

On the stock launcher, when the nav buttons come up at the bottom, swipe all the way across using the buttons from end to end, and back a few times...it flies doing that. I think what some ppl seeing as laggy screen scrolling is the bounce going from screen to screen. I hated it on Launcher Pro and ADW. It was the first settings I changed on both.

Scroll fast thru your contacts if u have alot.

Scroll fast thru the Settings.

Take some pictures and load the Gallery.

 

[SuperW2]

First time seeing (in person) or touching a D-X is when mine arrived today... Coming from a iPhone 3GS and only really playing an EVO 4G for a couple of days (a friends) and a few minutes with a Droid and Nexus1 here and there.

I love the feel of the phone, feels light-weight, grip in my hand feels great, screen is awesome...I didn't mess the with the camera much, but will tomorrow a little more.

It's going to take some time to get used to the Android OS, coming from iOS. A little overwhelming so far, and I still find myself fumbling and click the home when I should be clicking back, etc, etc.

I'm not crazy about the way the Facebook stuff is integrated honestly, first my FB Contacts showed up in my main Google Apps contacts, then they didn't, then people that were in both were missing pictures, and now I can't even get the FB ones there. ill probably remove and readd my FB account and see what happens. Playing with Widgets and apps and stuff and trying to figure out how I'm going to lay out my home screens.

It's just going to take some time...I think it was the same going from Blackberry to iPhone and now again going to Android...

Sw2

 

[zandroidx]

Loving everything except the camera so far. Not getting very good pics from the camera, hopefully that is addressed by an update and is just a software issue.

Keep in mind that the camera defaults to 6MP. You have to go in to settings to up it to 8. I was concerned until I found this setting. I have noticed a big difference since upping it.

 

[CarsMatic]

Pros:
Screen - Coming from the old BB Storm, this screen is amazing! ...not just in size but quality as well.
Swype - Best new way to type, period.
Camera - even though it's not a DSLR, it's still faster then my Storm so I can appreciate it. Video is awesome too!
Apps - I'm amazed at all the available apps I can download. That alone will keep me busy for a while.
Build Quality - One big sigh of relief was that I didn't need to go back in to exchange my phone the very next day like I had to with my Storm.

Cons: I'm a complete newb to the Android world so if I'm missing something here, please let me know...
Memory Card - I wish they designed it so that I can take it out and put it in without having to pull my battery each time. I'd like to leave my phone on to receive calls and texts while I upload songs or movies. The Storm had this capability so I don't see why they didn't do something similar here.
"Unlock" slide - Its a bit choppy. I'm sure it's gonna get fixed but it seems pretty basic that it should be great from the get-go.
Browser's Double-Tap Zoom - I love the multi-touch feature on this phone for zooming in and out of the web. However, I wish the double-tap part worked a little better. When I double-tap on text on this forum for example, it doesn't center it. I have to double-tap and then slide the text so that I can view it all. Seems like it should just auto-center the text section since that's what I'm trying to read.
YouTube - I'm still trying to get an answer to this one since I'm not noticing anyone else with this problem but I cannot get my YouTube videos to play properly. On WiFi, it plays about 75% of the videos and then stops (it just sits there with a black screen, no buffering, nothing). On 3G, it plays with the video and audio at different rates so it ends up looking like a dubbed Jackie Chan movie... really annoying. I'm not sure if it will finish the video or not as I usually stop it just seconds into the video since it's impossible to watch with the mismatch. Even though the quality wasn't as good on my Storm, it never had issues like this before.
Facebook App - Not as user friendly as compared to the BB version. I wish it would load right up to the latest posts instead of requiring me to "choose" that I want to see that each time vs. Messaging or my Profile, etc. I've given up on the app completely and use the web-based "touch" version which I like a LOT better. I'm not quite sure why there's even an app for phones like the Droid that do very well on the web.
and finally, last but not least...
Messages - I loved how my BB put all of my messages together under one icon/folder/app/mailbox (or whatever you want to call it). I go to one place to view SMS, MMS, emails, Google Talk, etc. Maybe I'm missing something here but I haven't figured out how to do it on the Dx yet. Kinda frustrating that I have to have multiple icons on my desktop for every single communications form that I have.

 

[albiewan]

I'm in the same boat as you. Had an iPhone 3G. Hated the crappy service and dropped calls. Switched to Sprint last week for the Evo. Great reception everywhere except at home, where I have to stand by a window. Sprint won't send me an airrave to fix this. I love the Evo, but w/o a landline, I need a phone that works. Going to look at a Droid X in person after work.

Just curious but how do you keep switching from carrier to carrier without having all those early termination fees? Are you rich? Or do you just ninja switch?

 

[albiewan]

Pros:
Screen - Coming from the old BB Storm, this screen is amazing! ...not just in size but quality as well.
Swype - Best new way to type, period.
Camera - even though it's not a DSLR, it's still faster then my Storm so I can appreciate it. Video is awesome too!
Apps - I'm amazed at all the available apps I can download. That alone will keep me busy for a while.
Build Quality - One big sigh of relief was that I didn't need to go back in to exchange my phone the very next day like I had to with my Storm.

Cons: I'm a complete newb to the Android world so if I'm missing something here, please let me know...
Memory Card - I wish they designed it so that I can take it out and put it in without having to pull my battery each time. I'd like to leave my phone on to receive calls and texts while I upload songs or movies. The Storm had this capability so I don't see why they didn't do something similar here.
"Unlock" slide - Its a bit choppy. I'm sure it's gonna get fixed but it seems pretty basic that it should be great from the get-go.
Browser's Double-Tap Zoom - I love the multi-touch feature on this phone for zooming in and out of the web. However, I wish the double-tap part worked a little better. When I double-tap on text on this forum for example, it doesn't center it. I have to double-tap and then slide the text so that I can view it all. Seems like it should just auto-center the text section since that's what I'm trying to read.
YouTube - I'm still trying to get an answer to this one since I'm not noticing anyone else with this problem but I cannot get my YouTube videos to play properly. On WiFi, it plays about 75% of the videos and then stops (it just sits there with a black screen, no buffering, nothing). On 3G, it plays with the video and audio at different rates so it ends up looking like a dubbed Jackie Chan movie... really annoying. I'm not sure if it will finish the video or not as I usually stop it just seconds into the video since it's impossible to watch with the mismatch. Even though the quality wasn't as good on my Storm, it never had issues like this before.
Facebook App - Not as user friendly as compared to the BB version. I wish it would load right up to the latest posts instead of requiring me to "choose" that I want to see that each time vs. Messaging or my Profile, etc. I've given up on the app completely and use the web-based "touch" version which I like a LOT better. I'm not quite sure why there's even an app for phones like the Droid that do very well on the web.
and finally, last but not least...
Messages - I loved how my BB put all of my messages together under one icon/folder/app/mailbox (or whatever you want to call it). I go to one place to view SMS, MMS, emails, Google Talk, etc. Maybe I'm missing something here but I haven't figured out how to do it on the Dx yet. Kinda frustrating that I have to have multiple icons on my desktop for every single communications form that I have.

I'm no expert but I think a lot of your concerns will be addressed with OTA updates that are coming very soon. In addition, if you haven't already done so, I suggest you hit the Android Market and start looking for apps that customize your phone to suit your personal taste. A good place to start might be "AppBrain" to help sort out a quickly growing market.

 

[gwlaw99]

I also looked at the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant. I love that screen. If it was based on screen alone, I'd buy it over the Droid X. My personal problem is that I'm really hating AT&T and my iPhone 3GS right now (too many dropped calls, failed calls, and times when the phone doesn't ring on incoming calls for me to take). I can't wait for the rumored 2 to 3 months for the Fascinate to come out. I've determined that the Droid X will meet my needs as my first Android phone on Verizon.

I went with a 1 year contract, so I can go buy another phone in 10 months. The penalty of the 1 year contract vs. 2 year being only $30 thanks to corporate discount made this a no-brainer.

The fact that the Samsung Vibrant has already been rooted suggesting the same for the Fascinate also makes me want to wait, but, 3 more months on AT&T is too long.

You can get a new phone every year with a two year contract

 

[thefanmyj]

Just curious but how do you keep switching from carrier to carrier without having all those early termination fees? Are you rich? Or do you just ninja switch?

Yes, I am a ninja.

I paid a $90 ETF from AT&T. Well, I'm actually fighting that fee. The last straw was when the network dropped a 911 call, and the ambulance consequently went to the wrong address.

I signed on with Sprint b/c I wanted the Evo, but reception was problematic. Phone companies have a 30 day trial period. I canceled my service within that time period and ported my number to Verizon last night. So far, I have reception EVERYWHERE! It's like a breath of fresh air.

 

[albiewan]

Yes, I am a ninja.

I paid a $90 ETF from AT&T. Well, I'm actually fighting that fee. The last straw was when the network dropped a 911 call, and the ambulance consequently went to the wrong address.

I signed on with Sprint b/c I wanted the Evo, but reception was problematic. Phone companies have a 30 day trial period. I canceled my service within that time period and ported my number to Verizon last night. So far, I have reception EVERYWHERE! It's like a breath of fresh air.

Wow, what a testimonial to what I keep hearing from all quarters about ATT/Sprint. Crazy about that 911 deal. Gotta say I've been with VZW for eons and IMHO they are the best. And now with the X...the best phone too. Good luck!