Droid 1 owner looking to do an early upgrade. Bionic?

[suliman]

hello there, im a droid 1 user and ive been researching the bionic for a few days and hearing nothing but good things about this amazing phone. Most reviews i hear describe the phone as being solid, and should last as a definite contender for upcoming phones. My droid 1 is tired and just doesnt work the same since gingerbread, in fact it barely works now. Pretty soon its going to become a microwaved paperweight thats going to have to be replaced through insurance. I have heard that they stopped producing this phone, so even if i were to replace it via insurance i would probably be downgraded. Not going to let that happen.

I have the option right now to pay a 20$ early upgrade fee and the 2 yr agreement price of 250$ for a bionic. I will be eligible for my regular upgrade in march where i receive a 50$ credit towards a new phone. But i really dont want to wait any longer.

Coming from a droid 1, one of the most open and heavily modded phones, i would like the replacement to be something that allows me the same kind of freedom as i have experienced, flashing new roms over and over, getting new updates from developers and what not. And having a reliable device that will last me another 2 years without becoming obsolete. I come to this website daily and every week i see some new hardware being previewed and new phones being posted that will come out soon. It scares me to think that if i do this, i will screw myself over if say a really nice phone comes out in the next 6 months.

I know that the boot loader is locked on this phone, and from what ive heard, its not likely that it will be unlocked anytime soon if ever.. Im not sure what else this hinders other than being able to boot directly into CWM if your phone is bootlooped/softbricked. Could someone clarify this? What exactly are the disadvantages of having a locked boot loader other than the hindrance i described?

Anyway i was wondering for those who have the bionic rooted and are on a custom rom, how stable are these roms? Gingerbread on droid 1 is an absolute mess on my phone. Absolutely horrid. The best rom i have tried thus far is Liquid and it is not good at all. constant freezing and slowing down, apps not working correctly or hanging, 3g loss and overall terrible battery life, camera rarely works correctly, multi tasking as been reduced to 2 apps max after a fresh restart. My droid 1 doesnt even charge correctly at home anymore, thermal runaway. Im assuming that these arent often issues with bionic roms, but if there are serious issues with this phone then id like to know.

Is it worth 270$ to get this upgrade, or should i try to sit it out for 4 months for something better?

Edit: due to my loyalty to the og droid and motorola, i created this post in ignorance of the nexus. I now know better. Do not reply to this thread. ty

[droidxd00d]

I just got the bionic as a replacement for my droid 1. It really is a good phone but if i were you i would just wait another 2 weeks or so for the galaxy nexus.it is a pure google phone with an unlocked bootloader like the first droid.

[Shadez]

It doesn't hurt to wait, as each phone has its positives and negatives. I'm very happy with the Bionic. It all comes down to, if you want a removable battery, removable storage, pure google, etc etc. It's a preference thing. I also wouldn't rule out, and personally, if the bionic didn't exist, I'd be getting the HTC Rezound.

[wildride89]

I've heard a lot of good things about the bionic but if you're waiting on a phone that's not going to be out dated the minute you buy it, you'll never get a phone. Everytime I buy a phone I see something else weeks or months later that is the next new "it" phone. I have a d3 and like the phone. Since rooting and debloating/freezing stuff and an extended battery, ill be happy for a while. Check on the razr doesn't that come out soon?

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

[redwood]

Yes wait until the end of the month for the new crop of phones to come out, and watch these forums as early adopters talk about any problems they have. I bought the Bionic the day it came out, and ended up returning it. It has some issues (audio noise, and radio dropouts to name two) which Motorola says will be resolved in an OTA update, but there is skepticism about that.

The Bionic is a really cool phone, but there will be 3 more phones out in the next few weeks, so maximize you choices and wait.

[billyk]

I agree with Shadez.

Back in September, the landscape looked like we'd have new phones coming in another month that in every way exceed the Bionic. Now that we know more about the new phones, it comes down to pros/cons for each of them, more of a preference. Naturally, this is changing as the Bionic is already more than 2 months old, which is a lifetime in the cell phone world! It's cool that the Bionic is still in the conversation!!

[Bear in NM]

Suli,

I will take a stab. No way to answer the money part as only you can make that call.

As to the bootloader being locked, it does not mean no custom roms, just no custom kernels. The dev's will have to work with the stock kernel. This as you may know means no overclocking, or other kernel tweaks like tethering etc. But you can tether, I only mentioned it as some dev's like to modify those parameters. What the locked bootloader does also mean is that romming and messing with the phone takes a bit more commitment and effort, both by the developers and in installing. No problem with bricks or softbricks with the Bionic other than the fact that repair is not quite as fast and easy as with the D1. I have not seen anyone who could not get un-"bricked", by and large. It is just that the information is spread over more forums, and it takes a bit of study and commitment on your part to unravel sometimes. As an example the latest cluster you know what is that there are several versions of the "latest" leaked OTA's out there, and depending upon what version you are running, getting the latest on the phone can be cumbersome. Not like in the day where one thread and technique with one set of instructions fit everyone's solution.

There are a handful of Roms out there now. Certainly not like back in the day with the D1, but back in the day the D1 was the only game in town. The development community is much more fragmented these days, no question as there are many paths to choose. I have been actually pretty impressed with the limited level of commitment thrown at the bionic, the folks doing the tweaks seem to have their act together. Not a vast group, but very talented. I was in the same boat as you are with my D1 when I got my Bionic, and I have no regrets. But, I am not a heavy modder anymore. As long as I can get the newest updates and stay rooted, I am pretty much good to go.

The biggest question that I see on the immediate horizon is that the Nexus phone is getting pretty close, and my guess is that this phone is going to get a lot of developer support. It is just natural with it being a google device, and open for development. My guess is the Razor may get support similar to the Bionic. If you are one of the folks who are wedded to CM, or like to change Roms daily, or even like to tweak themes, colors, pulldowns etc. the Nexus phone is probably where you will want to be.

My suggestion if you are able would be to do a combination of searching here and other forums to see what is going on with the bionic. Then if you can wait a bit, you can see how much effort is being thrown at the razor, knowing that a lot will be done to the Nexus. These days if modding is your primary goal, you either get to make a wild guess about the next phone, or wait until it is out for a bit to see what happens. Just the nature of the beast. More phones out, more fragmentation of the modding world. My D1 probably would have been better off if I had just reverted back to an older stock OS to give me more functionality if I had wanted to wait. The more you push older hardware with the desire to have the latest, fastest, bestest the more you push yourself to having to make a decision. This is the holiday season, and there will be more than a few phones dropping.


Craig

[suliman]

im sorry guys.. After a bit more reading shortly after this post i realized that the nexus will be coming out this month and is rumored to have an unlocked or non encrypted boot loader. I also realized the importance of this and how it relates to overclocking and other features that i honestly cannot live without. I will now wait until this phone is released as i heard that its already been rooted.

any moderator reviewing this post should lock or delete it. ty.

[voodoodaddy]

Wait for the Droid 4....thats what I wish Id done at this point. Of course when I got the Bionic the D4 was not even on the horizon as the D3 had just come out

[donzz]

I just got the bionic as a replacement for my droid 1. It really is a good phone but if i were you i would just wait another 2 weeks or so for the galaxy nexus.it is a pure google phone with an unlocked bootloader like the first droid.

Same here!