Pro discontinued !!!!! AAAGGGHHH.....

[spydergirl]

They're telling me the Pro is already discontinued! Anyone have an idea what they will replace it with in the future with the same keyboard?! I love my Pro and wonder what will replace it when this becomes obsolete?????

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[hal83]

They're telling me the Pro is already discontinued! Anyone have an idea what they will replace it with in the future with the same keyboard?! I love my Pro and wonder what will replace it when this becomes obsolete?????

Sent from my DROID Pro using DroidForums

Well that's not really a surprise considering the phone is over a year old.

Anyway, there IS a successor to the Pro, but it's on Sprint and it's called the Motorola Admiral, which I'm currently using. It just came out in October and it's a good upgrade in many respects. The form is pretty much the same, except there are more hardware buttons and the keyboard is easier to use. Build quality is much better. The keyboard is softer compared to the Pro, slightly bigger and wider, and it feels like a Blackberry Bold's. Specwise, the processor is 1.2 ghz, screen resolution has been increased to VGA quality, and the video camera is now HD 720p. There are also some subtle changes but it's more or less the same experience as the Pro.

Don't worry, I'm sure Motorola will make additional versions of the Pro/XPRT/Admiral in the future. They DO have a market and as for myself I will only buy mid or high end portrait QWERTY Androids. However, as of late it seems only Sprint is really pushing for these types of phones.

[spydergirl]

Thank you so much for the information. That's very encouraging. Even though I love my Pro, I still miss alot of the features (and comfortable use) of my BB.

Do you think there is a way to buy an Admiral and unlock it to use with Verizon instead of Sprint?

Thanks!

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[guidot]

I believe that Sprint and Verizon use different CDMA radios so that would not be an option.

My wife loves her Pro, so I too will be looking for a successor!

Sent from my rooted, safestrapped, and ROM'd XT862

[hal83]

Hmm, there may be a way to put it on Verizon but I wouldn't suggest trying. You could brick or fry the phone by accident and even if you do get it to work, often times certain features will not work (e.g. data). I've asked wireless businesses if they could flash my Droid Pro to Metro PCS (Sprint) and they said it would involve too much work along with the high risk of breaking my phone in the process. I personally know nothing about flashing phones though.

Anyway, the Admiral is barely worth the upgrade in my opinion. I only got it because I had my non-contract Pro on Pageplus (not worth the $) and decided to get a line on my family's Sprint plan. The Admiral suffers from the same terrible UI as the Pro, which is MotoBlur. So, it's still somewhat laggy (I turn off animations to make it faster) and it doesn't have as many features as Samsung's Touchwiz or HTC's Sense.

My major problems I had with the Pro included the lack of a dedicated camera button, the annoying volume buttons, and general bugginess. The Admiral fixes the hardware issues and gives me a speaker button on top and a convenience key that works as a shortcut for any app I'd like which is great. Also, the speaker is VERY loud (on the front of the phone) with superb sound quality in general. However, the Admiral is around $300 or $400 full retail price (on Sprint $100) and it's not generally worth it. It seems to be gaining popularity very slowly, so I don't think there will be much development for it in the future. If I were you I'd wait for a better phone to come out, something that's 4G, with a dual-core CPU, more RAM, and preloaded with the new Ice Cream Sandwich. If none of that matters to you and you don't mind the crippling MotoBlur, then get the Admiral as it has excellent hardware. You may be able to put it on Metro PCS, Virgin Mobile, or even Boost Mobile (with some troublesome flashing of course) if you don't like Sprint.

[spydergirl]

Thanks so much for all the helpful information and taking the time to share about your Admiral. I'll wait and keep hoping for Vz to make a successor with better features, memory, and 4G.
Thanks again! :-)

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[spydergirl]

P.S. - hal83

I forgot to ask how much improved performance you gained from turning off animations? I just went into my settings and turned mine off as well. Are there any other suggestions you have to improve performance and speed?

Mine was working fine until the last OS update. Then it started lagging and freezing-up and really slowing down. I finally did a factory re-set and started all over, but that didn't seem to help. I have not rooted my phone yet because I'm still a bit confused on how to do that and don't want to do any major damage by experimenting blindly.

Thanks again!

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[hal83]

P.S. - hal83

I forgot to ask how much improved performance you gained from turning off animations? I just went into my settings and turned mine off as well. Are there any other suggestions you have to improve performance and speed?

Mine was working fine until the last OS update. Then it started lagging and freezing-up and really slowing down. I finally did a factory re-set and started all over, but that didn't seem to help. I have not rooted my phone yet because I'm still a bit confused on how to do that and don't want to do any major damage by experimenting blindly.

Thanks again!

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Hello. I'd say my phone doesn't waste time opening up animations for windows anymore so it IS faster. Once you turn them off you don't really notice a difference after awhile anymore -- they're unnecessary on laggy Moto phones.

- To improve performance and speed (and battery!) I keep my battery mode on "Performance Mode" when I'm using it (and then "Maximum Battery Saver" when it's asleep/I'm out somewhere). DON'T use live wallpapers or widgets as they eat into your RAM. I only have 2 small widgets running on mine. Turn off apps that run in the background if they're unnecessary (e.g. IM or Skype). Don't use anti-virus apps. Use Wifi instead of 3G, it's faster and better on your battery. Don't leave GPS services on when you're not using them. Don't leave Bluetooth on. I've heard you should turn off the "In-Pocket Detection" feature.

- If your browser is too slow, use Opera Mini or Opera Mobile. Opera Mini uses compressed web pages to deliver pages to you faster while using less data. I don't believe Opera Mobile compresses but it is the fastest browser I've used, with the features I need.

- Don't use the stock Gallery app. I personally use QuickPic, which is MUCH better and faster, and it has some added features.

(Credit for some of these tips goes to BayouFlyFisher in the thread "Battery Draining Too Fast!" by SAVVY_1. Check it out, it has some other great, detailed tips.)

Anyway, I've seen that a lot of people have had trouble with their Droid Pros after getting Gingerbread. I was fortunate that I didn't have any problems with it. I advise you to check the other threads about Gingerbread issues and fixes. Btw, is your phone's SD card filled up? A full SD card may cause lag.

Rooting the Pro involves a couple steps and is easy. There are a couple threads that tell you exactly what to do. And if you do mess up you can always SBF your phone, which is also easy. If you root you can also improve performance by freezing the stock apps that run in the background that you can't turn off or uninstall yourself, which also helped me.

That's about it. Good luck. (:

[zwegan]

Take a look at the droid 3.

It is a slider qwerty but the extra row for dedicated number buttons makes it nice

Sent from my rooted BAMF'd Thunderbolt using magic.

[spydergirl]

I didn't like any of the Droids with sliding qwerty keyboards because the position and upper weight of the phone was hard on my carpal tunnel. I found them to be cumbersome and uncomfortable to use. That's why I chose the Pro because it has the same (similar) form and style as my BBerry and is much easier on my carpal tunnel.

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