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Too buggy to buy?

E

Eurosteve

Android Enthusiast
I'm thinking seriously of avoiding all of the new 4G phones and buying the last 4.3 inch 3G-only phone on Verizon - the Droid X. I won't see 4G in my area for a long time and I don't want to risk paying extra for 4G. Even if my area had 4G I don't want to pay anything more for my data access.

But I'm seeing lots of posts about random re-boots and other assorted problems.

Is the Droid X just too buggy at this point to jump into?

I don't want to buy it and then have to exchange it or get stuck with lots of issues. Right now, my Droid 1 is performing great. Just looking to get more screen real estate.
 
The X is not that buggy, very few actually, if you root it with a custom rom, you may never see bugs again, depending on which rom you flash. i dont have an issue out of mine, no random reboots, nothing, its all on what you do with it.
 
Coming to an Android forum to figure out if a phone is buggy is like going to an auto shop to find out if a car is reliable.

You're going to find mostly the worst case scenarios. These are, by and large, the people who have had problems and have gone seeking solutions. You do not see thousands of people posting in this forum that they've had no problems and their phone runs great.

There are several guys at my office who are non-technical and have no problems with their Droid Xs. I had a friendly chat with a guy on a plane next to me yesterday who had an X, got it at launch, and says it's a hundred percent more reliable than his iPhone was, which gave him regular crashes in Safari, frequently would not wake up from sleep, and would occasionally have his battery go from 100% to no juice with no explanation - he'd just not touch the phone for a couple hours, and when he went to use it again, it would be dead.

So... No, I don't believe the X is "too buggy" and I think people need to be careful making sweeping judgments of any device by browsing a forum on the subject. Forums are where people come looking for help, and for every one person who posts problems, there are often ten who are quietly having no issues but why would they post up to say so?

Like any complex piece of electronics, there are bugs and there are people/phones who suffer from them worse than other people/phones. That's going to happen everywhere, though.
 
Or they won't tell about problems to make their choice of phones look good....

I get a "soft reset" (from red eye on) only if I hook up the USB to charge. Has only occurred since the last update. Not a big problem really.

Other than that no real bugs to speak of.
 
Honestly, Ive never had a smartphone which didnt have a few bugs. In a perfect world everything would work just right but this isnt that perfect world. Even Windows(whichever addition) had bugs as well as that other fruit based OS. Add to this the massive number of apps that on their own have occasionally caused a problem here and there, it is just part of tech game. My blackberry had to have regular battery pulls, the Moment was infested with problems, the DX has a twitch here and there but has been very good overall. After rooting and ROMing the thing its nearly flawless.
 
After coming from the BB Storm2, the stock DX was like heaven. I left it stock for just about a week, then rooted it. I did a lot of research on ROMs before I chose to replace the existing ROM. Then I went ApeX 1.3, then 1.3.1, then DarkSlide 4.2.

Frankly, it's all up to you and what you do with a phone and what you want to do. I use mine for phone calls, texting, tethering my laptop, and email. Occasionally I'll watch a movie or listen to music but those two are rare. Mainly I like to tweak as many settings as possible to see what it can do - kinda of a hacker at heart.

I have never had a smartphone without bugs either. I have to go back to my trusty Moto e815 and that was bug-free, but I really hacked the daylights out of it. Guess it was my first hot-rod.

I do not believe you will ever regret your decision to get the DX. I do believe that you will regret your decision not to get the DX.
 
If the Droid X is too buggy for you, then don't get a smartphone. They don't get any more stable & bug-free than this phone.
 
I had a couple minor issues at the beginning; most of which were fixed by the software update. I probably didn't have more than I had on my windows laptop out of the box.

I would certainly buy the dx again.
 
+1 to all the above. No phone is without bugs, but the Droid X is probably one of the most stable smartphones money can buy. Some people have had problems and replacements...and a few of those have been very vocal about their dissatisfaction here on this forum. But you'll find a similar pattern in any forum, be it Apple's iPhone, Windows phone7, Palm, etc.

Do your research and make the plunge :D
 
Thanks for the great responses! I feel more secure with this purchase. I don't plan to root but nice to know it's an option if things get too funky. This rebooting when connected for charging. Is this common on nonrooted Xs ? What about the launcher being "laggy?"

I'm thinking maybe I'll get a 1yr contract and wait out this early crop of 4g phones. Also want to see how pricing shakes out.
 
Eurosteve said:
Thanks for the great responses! I feel more secure with this purchase. I don't plan to root but nice to know it's an option if things get too funky. This rebooting when connected for charging. Is this common on nonrooted Xs ? What about the launcher being "laggy?"

I'm thinking maybe I'll get a 1yr contract and wait out this early crop of 4g phones. Also want to see how pricing shakes out.
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Hi Eurosteve, Just my own two cents here...I've never encountered a reboot when connecting to a charger since I've owned my DX. It was unrooted the first 4 months and rooted now for another month - no charging issues whatever, and I charge from an AC adapter, USB from a computer/laptop and in the car.

My particular DX has been very stable from the start - not to say it hasn't had issues (I did have some lock-up problems from a few bad apps way back in my first month of ownership), but overall its been a great experience - and I am still learning about what this phone can do!

Launcher lag is I think caused from the Blur skin Moto adds to the Android OS. I switched to ADW and I found it lags a lot less (still a bit, but not nearly as much as the stock launcher, plus I can customize it much better than stock).

Doing a one-year contract might be a good idea, especially if you want to be an early-adopter for an LTE phone upgrade. I'm on a two-year contract and I'm OK with that - I'll wait for the new network to have its bugs worked out before I jump on the bandwagon. My phone works fast enough for what I need it to do at present and I'm very happy with it.

Best of luck with your decision! :D
 
I can only remember one time when my phone rebooted when I plugged it into the charger. And I do get occasional soft reboots too, but all in all, the issues are way outweighed by the freedom of Android. True, my iPhone 3Gs never rebooted itself out of nowhere, but even jailbroken, it wasn't nearly as easy to customize as my unrooted DX is. I jailbroke my 3Gs within a week of getting it, while I have had my DX since late September 2010 and still haven't really seen a need to root it. Definitely do not regret buying this phone.
 
Thanks again for all of the input on this. I read somewhere that the X is being discontinued as of March 31. I'm seriously thinking about upgrading to the X from my Droid 1 while I still can.
 
I've had a Droid X since late summer, and the *only* problem I had was when I tried to root it for the first time. I screwed up one of the steps, and ended up bricking it. I had a friend fix the thing (not an easy thing to do) and promptly rooted it again - the *correct* way, this time. Zero problems since the root, and this is maybe my favorite phone, of my three Droids. It's big (*love* the 4.3 inch screen), powerful and *fast* - a GREAT phone!

-Mike
 
I love my X and it is totally stock. I've had a couple reboots but I think that was because of an app, not the phone. Other than that this phone has been very good to me.
 
Verizon just posted a price drop on the Droid X to $149 (but they are temporarily out of stock!).

That puts the gap between the X and the Bolt at around $100. Enough to pay for a one year contract.

Does anyone else want to comment on their phone rebooting itself or the problems with screen lag? I get lag on my OG Droid and I don't like it (using Zeam lancher).

If I thought the X would run without lag or reboots I'd buy one today (if Verizon will let me)!
 
I just got my X over this past weekend and it has randomly rebooted on me about 10 times, screen isn't too laggy but it does at times. Also, it has froze up on me a couple times and I have had to pull the battery on it. Pretty disappointed to be honest, I installed Launcher Pro and a few other apps to customize my home screen and everything, don't think that is the problem but it's possible.

Like I said, I have only had it for not even a week, should I return it for another X or go with the iPhone 4 or what? I am pretty much at a stand-still with what to do from here.
 
ABRMess006 said:
I just got my X over this past weekend and it has randomly rebooted on me about 10 times, screen isn't too laggy but it does at times. Also, it has froze up on me a couple times and I have had to pull the battery on it. Pretty disappointed to be honest, I installed Launcher Pro and a few other apps to customize my home screen and everything, don't think that is the problem but it's possible.

Like I said, I have only had it for not even a week, should I return it for another X or go with the iPhone 4 or what? I am pretty much at a stand-still with what to do from here.
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Thanks. Your post helps me stay with my plans of buying the Bolt.
 
Eurosteve said:
Thanks. Your post helps me stay with my plans of buying the Bolt.
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Geesh, I've had my X since the day after it launched I certainly haven't seen anything like those problems. The original homescreen/launcher software was laggy, but over-the-air updates fixed most of that. I was using Launcher Pro Plus to work around this - and still do even after the updates. I've not seen any repeatable issues where I had to pull the battery or even reboot with the latest update. I'm not rooted, I'm not running a custom ROM.

There's bugs here and there with the X, nothing major. I know others with the same phone and they're happy. Don't not get an X since some people have isolated issues. Don't get one since it's getting "older" and is being replaced by a new revision (Droid X2) and newer phones.
 
_Aardvark said:
Geesh, I've had my X since the day after it launched I certainly haven't seen anything like those problems. The original homescreen/launcher software was laggy, but over-the-air updates fixed most of that. I was using Launcher Pro Plus to work around this - and still do even after the updates. I've not seen any repeatable issues where I had to pull the battery or even reboot with the latest update. I'm not rooted, I'm not running a custom ROM.

There's bugs here and there with the X, nothing major. I know others with the same phone and they're happy. Don't not get an X since some people have isolated issues. Don't get one since it's getting "older" and is being replaced by a new revision (Droid X2) and newer phones.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with you there. I just went to Verizon to figure out my issue and the guy just did a complete reset on my phone, I will see how it goes.

The X is an excellent phone though and I love it a lot. Also to think that when the TB releases that it won't have problems just like any other phone is just insane. I wouldn't commit to one for or the other until you give it a go. I would say try out the X first and seeing as the rumor is that the TB releases soon, it is safe to say that IF you REALLY don't like it, you could always just swap it out for the TB.

I am going to play around with my phone and see if I have anymore issues, I am going to stay away from 3rd party software and stick with the market for now also and see how that plays out. But just like Aardvark said, don't pass on the X because it has some minor issues that will be fixed in a new update at some point, every phone will have its problems, even the TB.

I will keep you updated on how it's running since the reset and let ya know, and FYI it is still on the system build 2.3.340 so that is apparently the culprit, so I will let you know,
 
Mine was sorta buggy when I got it. After figuring out the ins and outs of Android it runs very smooth. What's more is now I have the confidence to trouble pretty much any Android device I were to come across in the future.... with forums like this one at my disposal that is.

I consider all the trouble-shooting I had to do with this device a blessing in disguise. Those people who took their X outa the box and had it 'just work' and therefore never made it to forums, missed out on a lot!
 
There will always be the little quirks, but once you learn the phones in and outs, there are ways to get around them.
 
I bought the X on 2/11/2011, and it's fine except for one bug. If I open google map for a few minutes it freezes up the phone. One of those time, the phone rebooted after freezing on google map. I had no issues with google map on my previous phones[Droid, Evo, Epic]. I don't know what the deal is with this phone and google map.
 
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