So what's next for us?

[ObieNobie]

When I got this phone back in the glory days of 1 year contracts it was the best out. Make no mistake I absolutly love this phone and wouldn't care if I had to keep it another few years. But with all these fancy ice cream sammich phones coming, are any of us going to upgrade? I personally will wait to see what razr is all about and if I'm not impressed ill wait for the next best thing. Nexus is to big for my taste.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

 

[Gasai Yuno]

Personally, I'd love to get the European version of DROID4 once I'm ready to upgrade. Its bootloader will be unlockable, so…

 

[ObieNobie]

Personally, I'd love to get the European version of DROID4 once I'm ready to upgrade. Its bootloader will be unlockable, so…

That something exclusive to euro phones or is it the d4 that will have it?

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

 

[13th angel]

depends on how much pressure Moto puts on VZW to push a device with an unlocked bootloader through....

 

[silver6054]

When I got this phone back in the glory days of 1 year contracts it was the best out. Make no mistake I absolutly love this phone and wouldn't care if I had to keep it another few years. But with all these fancy ice cream sammich phones coming, are any of us going to upgrade? I personally will wait to see what razr is all about and if I'm not impressed ill wait for the next best thing. Nexus is to big for my taste.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

If you are in the US, the biggest thing missing from this phone is 4G, and as the roll-out spreads, that's going to become a more obvious drawback. Yes, some people will say they are mostly on Wifi or that 3G is fast enough, but I think that will sound less convincing! It's also not dual core, and even though I think that doesn't matter, I am aware "single core is good enough" is very similar to "3G is fast enough", i.e. something that gets less true as better phones and networks become available.

Currently no VZ phone has the three features I want in my next phone: global, 4G, keyboard: in fact none have the first 2. Hopefully by July or so when I can upgrade! And I guess if really necessary I can do without a keyboard. Maybe it will be the iPhone5! (Sorry.)

 

[NeXtras]

If you are in the US, the biggest thing missing from this phone is 4G, and as the roll-out spreads, that's going to become a more obvious drawback. Yes, some people will say they are mostly on Wifi or that 3G is fast enough, but I think that will sound less convincing! It's also not dual core, and even though I think that doesn't matter, I am aware "single core is good enough" is very similar to "3G is fast enough", i.e. something that gets less true as better phones and networks become available.

Currently no VZ phone has the three features I want in my next phone: global, 4G, keyboard: in fact none have the first 2. Hopefully by July or so when I can upgrade! And I guess if really necessary I can do without a keyboard. Maybe it will be the iPhone5! (Sorry.)

This is exactly how these companies make their money. That's the whole scheme behind the upgrade policy's. They jack up the price of the phone for "full retail" and offer it at what it should be at for a 2 year contract (well, 20 months). We all know these phones aren't worth $500-$600+, considering you can buy a laptop for the same money. The service providers want you to be "stuck" with a phone or pay them full full retail, so when its time to upgrade, you'll pay the considerably lower price AND lock in another 2 years, or pay an early termination fee.. So it's a win win for the service providers, they get you if you pay full retail, they get you if you terminate early, and they lock you in when you upgrade.. pretty good huh?

EDIT: forgot my main point.. my point is, their isnt a phone that incorporates ALL the features you would want in a phone, and probably wont... why the iPhone is doing so well without changing much is beyond me...look at the craze the 4s created and the only difference hardware wise is a new processor and a 8mp camera (which MP's is also a gimmick).. i think iphone is an exception because people who use apple are essentially in the Apple "cult"

Grant it a lot of us couldn't live without a cell phone, or a smartphone today..

Look at what happened when text messaging took off a while ago, every provider had different rates for so many alotted text messages a month.. now, you usually just see unlimited or pay per text... now their just pushing data, which the same thing is happening their, just backward.. when data took off (mainly from BB and iPhone) they had only the choice of unlimited or no data.. NOW you have to select how MUCH data you want to pay for... good scheme there too... for those of us who already have unlimited data, they will have to continue to offer that until we change it, because when you upgrade you are RESIGNING your contract, not a new one... whoever thought of all of this is an absolute GENIUS.. [/rant]

 

[silver6054]

This is exactly how these companies make their money. That's the whole scheme behind the upgrade policy's. They jack up the price of the phone for "full retail" and offer it at what it should be at for a 2 year contract (well, 20 months). We all know these phones aren't worth $500-$600+, considering you can buy a laptop for the same money. The service providers want you to be "stuck" with a phone or pay them full full retail, so when its time to upgrade, you'll pay the considerably lower price AND lock in another 2 years, or pay an early termination fee.. So it's a win win for the service providers, they get you if you pay full retail, they get you if you terminate early, and they lock you in when you upgrade.. pretty good huh?

EDIT: forgot my main point.. my point is, their isnt a phone that incorporates ALL the features you would want in a phone, and probably wont... why the iPhone is doing so well without changing much is beyond me...look at the craze the 4s created and the only difference hardware wise is a new processor and a 8mp camera (which MP's is also a gimmick).. i think iphone is an exception because people who use apple are essentially in the Apple "cult"

Re the iPhone: it's a little hard to win there against the critics. We can dismiss adding a new processor and a "better" camera, which might in an Android phone be hailed as a significant change, whereas if they had changed the design significantly, we could belittle it as "cosmetic changes to an older phone"

The upgrade system is messed up by and large in the US, but I don't know if any of the big carriers would take the risk to change it. First of the retail price isn't necessarily *all* that unrealistic, phones cost similar prices in other markets where they don't subsidize phones with contracts. (Yes, a big mark up, but a lot of electronics is like that too.) Ideally, the monthly service charges should be less if you sign for a longer contract, or don't get a subsidized phone (either buying full price or bring your own). But it looks like people are used to getting a phone cheaper/free up front, and not minding that the true cost is quite a lot. As others have said, it makes no sense not to upgrade, you are paying for it anyway.

 

[Byakushiki]

If you are in the US, the biggest thing missing from this phone is 4G, and as the roll-out spreads, that's going to become a more obvious drawback. Yes, some people will say they are mostly on Wifi or that 3G is fast enough, but I think that will sound less convincing! It's also not dual core, and even though I think that doesn't matter, I am aware "single core is good enough" is very similar to "3G is fast enough", i.e. something that gets less true as better phones and networks become available.

Currently no VZ phone has the three features I want in my next phone: global, 4G, keyboard: in fact none have the first 2. Hopefully by July or so when I can upgrade! And I guess if really necessary I can do without a keyboard. Maybe it will be the iPhone5! (Sorry.)

I don't have any high expectations really of Verizon's lineup at the moment. Global capability and a keyboard is really all I need. I actually tethered just to see how far I could push VZW's network once, and I believe it hit 8mbits/s down and 2mbits up at one point. That's not too shabby for 3G. On average, it's in the 3-5 down range. Frankly, as long as I have my simple 3G phone that will still work on GSM around the world, I'm happy. The global mode prompts though are a pain though.

 

[Gasai Yuno]

That something exclusive to euro phones or is it the d4 that will have it?

Verizon doesn't want unlocked bootloaders in their DROID line. Phones made for them will stay locked, and I doubt Motorola can “push” something about it. The decision is up to the carrier.

 

[The Robot Cow]

The droid 4 looks awesome!
I know i will get shot for saying this bue as long as the device works well i wouldn't mind if the bootloader is locked

But i wonder if they'll do an updated version of the d4 like they did with the d2 and d2g

 

[13th angel]

If they would release all the drivers with it then i could care less if it was locked or unlocked. Unlocked would make it easier but if we had drivers it wouldnt really matter.... And yea, the d4 looks pretty good.