2 different bionics, a rant...

odoyle_rules

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Hello all, I am new to posting here. I have lurked around a little and I decided to register to ask and rant about a few things I have noticed about the bionics I have.

I have 2 bionics, one acquired from verizon about a year ago, and another bought used a week ago.

I immediately noticed when I got the used phone that the screen had a very noticeable blue tint to it. Its visible at all times, even when turned off (sitting the two phones side by side shows the difference most clearly, the black has a "blue-ness to it...).

When I got the used phone home (craigslist, $40), I charged it up, messed around with it for a bit and took note that it was still on .905. I let it update and it went to ICS w/o a hiccup. It got the 200mhz boost to my amazement (my other phone did not), but even on GB it seemed like a much smoother phone in all aspects. On ICS it was definately a smoother phone vs my original.

It asked me to update to JB automatically to my surprise, which I was UNAWARE of it being rolled-out up until that time (I have been out of the loop). I unfortunately took the update before i thought to root it or even read up on it, and now its unrooted on JB and I honestly could care less since its not my primary phone. My original phone on ICS will stay that way I guess, I have screwed around with it enough that it has NEVER looked for updates. I have had to manually initiate every update it has gotten so far so Im not gonna ask it to look for it, and hopefully it wont ever get it.

My question is, has anyone else ever noticed differences in bionics? I think the color of my original bionics screen is more accurate to life, the blue tint the used phone has is very noticeable to me and im not so sure about it...

BUT if not for the blue screen, it seems like a better, or more solid phone than my original bionic. The haptic feedback still works strong (it comes and goes on the other), ALL the animations are smooth, i thought my original bionic was pretty smooth but this one is almost a second faster doing screen transitions and animations; side by side it really shows how bad my original is lol. There are no "hangs", which my original is riddled with now that i am noticing them. I run the beautiful weather wallpaper, and on the same settings for FPS, the used bionic is smoother and non-jerky, unlike my original. All games are more responsive (vice city doesnt get all laggy and quit responding when i have alot of police after me).


My gf says that the blue screened bionic also has a clearer display, she says the pentile effect is greatly reduced on it vs. my original. I have never had an issue with it myself so I missed that. I went into the dev info of system panel lite, and saw one thing regarding display that's different. The exact dpi is around 368x365 on the used phone and about 258x256 on the original phone, but i didnt check it before JB; it may have been the same as the other while on ICS. Not even sure it has a bearing on the screen, it may just be a different run of displays on my two phones(?).

Anyways, I just wish I had rooted the used phone before i ever let it update to ICS, then I could have used superSU and voodo to keep root.... oh well. I will most likely delegate it to secondary phone duty. I am on a tiered data plan, and I don't like verizon violating the FCC ruling on them blocking tethering unless you are still on an unlimited plan. Therefore I will do everything in my power to keep JB away from my rooted and original phone which is stumbling along fine on ICS. I can have my jellybeans and eat my ICS as well, i guess.

I can type and play games when the cables are attached to the used phone, I cant on my original due to the keys going wild, like it will take off and type totally different letters than I hit. It only does this when plugged into either the usb or hdmi, but its annoying to say the least. At times its impossible to type and you just have to unplug it to finish. This used phone has no such issue (so far)....

I have however noticed the camera is sub-par on the used phone vs my original buggy phone, pics/vids are simply not as "real" looking color-wise.




-I have tried 3 FDR's on my original, I guess its just one of the duds. It also has the whine and thumping through the headphone jack that sounds like an automobile alternator feedback or high-pitched digital noise pulsing constantly.
 
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z96Cobra

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It's actually really easy to root your JB phone. There's a thread on it in the hacks section. You download a couple of zip files & make a few clicks... it's really that easy. I did it this morning after switching back to my stock (ICS) ROM and allowing the update. The update launched, verified everything, updated, rebooted... almost... it soft bricked my phone. So I had to do the re-root with Linux, which I've never used before, but was super easy thanks to marty45714 and his thread...

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...-easy-root-bionic-stock-4-1-2-jelly-bean.html
 
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odoyle_rules

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It's actually really easy to root your JB phone. There's a thread on it in the hacks section. You download a couple of zip files & make a few clicks... it's really that easy. I did it this morning after switching back to my stock (ICS) ROM and allowing the update. The update launched, verified everything, updated, rebooted... almost... it soft bricked my phone. So I had to do the re-root with Linux, which I've never used before, but was super easy thanks to marty45714 and his thread...

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...-easy-root-bionic-stock-4-1-2-jelly-bean.html


Thank you! I went to the thread and DL the files, and I was going good until I realized a WiFi connection was required. I fig I was screwed since I don't currently even have a home internet connection, nor a router for that matter. I never had a wireless router in the first place, just a simple cable modem.

......I remembered this small white antenna'd box I kept from an apartment clean out I did 3 years ago when I worked for HUD that looked too neat to throw in the dumpster. I dug it out of my trunk and it said "netgear" on the top, so I googled that and after an hour of looking for a big-ended usb cable and a 12v adapter, I now have a working WiFi router, minus the internet connection lol. It was enough to get the script going.

It all went smooth except for one snag, I did all this including the netgear router install w/o restarting the PC any. The script hung and said something about the PID wasn't found or something. After a reboot on both the phone and PC, I re-ran the script and it went through flawlessly!

Thank you z96cobra, and a big THANK YOU to marty45714, I read a little about rooting with the Linux method, but I have fiddled with Ubuntu on a USB stick before and it never wanted to get done loading up on any of my crappy computers, it just seemed to hang on loading a particular service or something once the home screen came up.... I really don't know enough about it to make any comments, I likely did something wrong...

I am that incompetent, and even I attained root on my phone.... IMO if I can, ANYONE can LOL! Now to put the sim card into the newly rooted JB phone, and see how I like it. I had been using the Bluetooth tethering on my ICS phone to connect the JB phone to the net, but I haven't really tried the "phone" parts of it yet. If it proves itself as a better and snappier phone all around than my ICS bionic, I may just leave the sim in the JB phone and only put it back when I need to tether (USB).

Again THANKS to all involved in the effort to attain root, I had resigned to accepting that this used phone would never have root.
 
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