The "Got my D3"/ first impressions thread

[Immolate]

Another impression I haven't seen mentioned yet, I absolutely love the new exchange mail client. Its so much more user friendly, easier on the eyes, and displays your folder structure with nested folders. I have about 40 folders, and with the d1 I had to scroll through them all to get to sent, deleted, outbox even though I only had 3 top level folders. Now when I click folders I can see all of the top level folders and system folders in one screen and drill down as needed.

That and the ability to manage a signature and out of office messages is pretty sweet.

Wow. I didn't notice that. I have over a thousand folders nested in Exchange, but I've been using my phone as a glorified message reader and responder up until now. The ability to navigate my folders easily makes my phone more useful than OWA when my work computer is unavailable. Just popped in and moved a bunch of meeting accepts into the folder I keep for that. Joy!

 

[Vortec6]

Maybe you can put up some screen shots of different things like the ap drawer, media player, etc. Also I noticed they went to a single led flash I think, how bright is it?

 

[Immolate]

Maybe you can put up some screen shots of different things like the ap drawer, media player, etc. Also I noticed they went to a single led flash I think, how bright is it?

Without root it's a pain to get a screen shooter working on the phone.

The LED is pretty bright. I'm blind now. Good thing I'm a touch typist. I wonder what a braille monitor goes for these days?

 

[Vortec6]

Lmao, what about just takin pics with another camera? Man I can't wait to get the D3!

 

[jmdale1984]

I've had a little time behind the wheel of my Droid 3 now, and I'm ready to make a review.

__________________________________________________________

First, the screen. You can see SOME texture to objects on the screen. It's really not noticeable unless you're looking for it, and I honestly don't think I would have ever noticed it if I had not read about it first.

Looking at the screen side by side with my D2G, it's only slightly brighter (both phones set to max brightness). The colors are a little prettier. One thing that is noticeable is that the qHD screen is much easier to read at an angle.

You can forget about finding shade to look at your phone. In the bright Texas sun, this screen is clearly readable. Very nice

__________________________________________________________

Speed.

The phone is laggy for me. Other reviewers have stated that it is fast and never lags, but that has not been the case for me. It is noticeable slower than my rooted and ROMed D2G.

One place where it seems to struggle is when waking up the screen. It's not uncommon for it to seem to struggle when pressing the power button to wake it.

It's just a tad sluggish opening the app drawer.

__________________________________________________________

Apps & Features

MOTOblur is a BIG problem for me. It takes away some of Android OS's better features and replaces them with Motorola software that just isn't as user friendly.

There is a plethora of bloatware preinstalled. Everything my original Droid and my D2G had plus more. My phone currently has a total of 75 apps in the app drawer, 30 of which I find to be useful features, 17 of which I installed myself, and 28 that I would like to remove but cannot.

The Blur text messaging app is updated and now has bubble in the conversation.

There is an app called MOTOPrint that seems to be a wireless printing assistant. It looks interesting, but it has not managed to locate my wireless printer as of yet. It did look to have that ability to connect to my desktop and use it for printing, although I did not explore this option.

The dialer and contacts are nice. Very similar to my D2G's stock setup, which was also an improvement over the D1. It automatically opens the dialpad when calling your voicemail. The colors are contrasted well to make it easily viewable.

The task manager is capable of automatically killing any selected app when the phone locks. This is very nice, as I like for some apps to start fresh whenever I open them. Using this feature to kill off the bloatware, however, causes the phone to lag horribly.

The lockscreen isn't bad. I still miss being able to set my phone to "Sound on", "Vibrate" or "Sound off" like I could on the D1. I've purchased Widget Locker to replace the lockscreen and allow this option.

This phone is missing the Google News and Weather app that has been on every other Android phone I've ever used. My thanks to tcrews for posting a download link for that apk.

My first attempt to use the navigation was futile. After three attempts, and a total of about 25 minutes staring at a screen that said "Searching for GPS", I decided to try a soft reset. After starting back up, the navigation worked well, although it was no different than it has been on any other Android phone I've used. I often had to soft reset the phone to get my navigation working on my D2G when it had the stock ROM, also. I was hoping this problem would have been remedied by now, but it appears not.

The phone has a sleep feature in the power off menu. This looks like it will be very useful when you're away from a charger and your phone is dying.

The dock is customizable with any 3 shortcuts you'd like to have there. Very nice.

Swiping left to right on the homescreen produces a rotating effect with the screen's items. It's very similar to a feature that I saw on LauncherPro, but is done a little better and looks more natural.

__________________________________________________________

Battery Life.

This morning, my phone went from a full charge to 20% in 4.5 hours. During this time the phone was only used to check the time 4 or 5 times, and to play a word game for 3 minutes. This was absolutely unacceptable, but it has since improved.

It seems, as it was earlier mentioned, that this phone has some type of learning process with the battery.

Tonight, the phone went from a full charge to 50% in 6 hours while using the phone frequently to check Facebook and emails, and using the navigation for about 40 minutes.

I don't think the battery life will be a problem for me, but I'm almost always near a charger.

__________________________________________________________

Design.

This looks like a very solid piece of hardware.

The keyboard is a little tough to slide out, but not overly so. I have a feeling it will wear to a perfect feel with a little bit of use. It does have the plastic protection on the back of the screen (like the D1), so be sure to remove it.

Looking at this phone next to my D2G, it is slightly thinner. It has just a bit more bezel at the top of the screen. I personally like the contour of the D2G better, but that opinion may change with time.

Overall, it looks very good, and feels good in the hand. It's bigger than the D1, D2 or D2G, but not too big (like the DX is IMHO). Perfect size.

The one bad thing I can say about the design it that there is a shiny metal insert in the earpiece. It looks out of place with the rest of the phone. The lack of an insert there on previous Droids looked much better.

__________________________________________________________

Keyboard.

This keyboard was designed by God himself. Period.

__________________________________________________________

I think that's all I have to say about it. Or at least it's all I'm going to... lol.

Overall, I'm happy enough with it.

If I knew, right now, that this phone would never get rooted, I'd return it immediately. However, I'm sure it will, and I'll be able to correct the things that bother me about this phone, and love it.

 

[americanz]

Any chance you could link me to the apk you're using in case that's my problem?

Sure. I've noticed when I get a message it says "you have 2 new messages" but it only shows the one and the notification icon is just the one from this app (the old standard android messaging icon). I get the one vibration pattern I set and the blinking blue LED as set..

Index of /apps

Mms.apk

Thanks!

My messages definitely show twice. I'll give this app a try and see where that gets me. Picked up you wallpapers to check that out, too!

I use this app on my d2 but I get messages twice. Can I fix it?

Sent from my D2 on GB

 

[spacecasespiff]

I've had a little time behind the wheel of my Droid 3 now, and I'm ready to make a review.

__________________________________________________________

First, the screen. You can see SOME texture to objects on the screen. It's really not noticeable unless you're looking for it, and I honestly don't think I would have ever noticed it if I had not read about it first.

Looking at the screen side by side with my D2G, it's only slightly brighter (both phones set to max brightness). The colors are a little prettier. One thing that is noticeable is that the qHD screen is much easier to read at an angle.

You can forget about finding shade to look at your phone. In the bright Texas sun, this screen is clearly readable. Very nice

__________________________________________________________

Speed.

The phone is laggy for me. Other reviewers have stated that it is fast and never lags, but that has not been the case for me. It is noticeable slower than my rooted and ROMed D2G.

One place where it seems to struggle is when waking up the screen. It's not uncommon for it to seem to struggle when pressing the power button to wake it.

It's just a tad sluggish opening the app drawer.

__________________________________________________________

Apps & Features

MOTOblur is a BIG problem for me. It takes away some of Android OS's better features and replaces them with Motorola software that just isn't as user friendly.

There is a plethora of bloatware preinstalled. Everything my original Droid and my D2G had plus more. My phone currently has a total of 75 apps in the app drawer, 30 of which I find to be useful features, 17 of which I installed myself, and 28 that I would like to remove but cannot.

The Blur text messaging app is updated and now has bubble in the conversation.

There is an app called MOTOPrint that seems to be a wireless printing assistant. It looks interesting, but it has not managed to locate my wireless printer as of yet. It did look to have that ability to connect to my desktop and use it for printing, although I did not explore this option.

The dialer and contacts are nice. Very similar to my D2G's stock setup, which was also an improvement over the D1. It automatically opens the dialpad when calling your voicemail. The colors are contrasted well to make it easily viewable.

The task manager is capable of automatically killing any selected app when the phone locks. This is very nice, as I like for some apps to start fresh whenever I open them. Using this feature to kill off the bloatware, however, causes the phone to lag horribly.

The lockscreen isn't bad. I still miss being able to set my phone to "Sound on", "Vibrate" or "Sound off" like I could on the D1. I've purchased Widget Locker to replace the lockscreen and allow this option.

This phone is missing the Google News and Weather app that has been on every other Android phone I've ever used. My thanks to tcrews for posting a download link for that apk.

My first attempt to use the navigation was futile. After three attempts, and a total of about 25 minutes staring at a screen that said "Searching for GPS", I decided to try a soft reset. After starting back up, the navigation worked well, although it was no different than it has been on any other Android phone I've used. I often had to soft reset the phone to get my navigation working on my D2G when it had the stock ROM, also. I was hoping this problem would have been remedied by now, but it appears not.

The phone has a sleep feature in the power off menu. This looks like it will be very useful when you're away from a charger and your phone is dying.

The dock is customizable with any 3 shortcuts you'd like to have there. Very nice.

Swiping left to right on the homescreen produces a rotating effect with the screen's items. It's very similar to a feature that I saw on LauncherPro, but is done a little better and looks more natural.

__________________________________________________________

Battery Life.

This morning, my phone went from a full charge to 20% in 4.5 hours. During this time the phone was only used to check the time 4 or 5 times, and to play a word game for 3 minutes. This was absolutely unacceptable, but it has since improved.

It seems, as it was earlier mentioned, that this phone has some type of learning process with the battery.

Tonight, the phone went from a full charge to 50% in 6 hours while using the phone frequently to check Facebook and emails, and using the navigation for about 40 minutes.

I don't think the battery life will be a problem for me, but I'm almost always near a charger.

__________________________________________________________

Design.

This looks like a very solid piece of hardware.

The keyboard is a little tough to slide out, but not overly so. I have a feeling it will wear to a perfect feel with a little bit of use. It does have the plastic protection on the back of the screen (like the D1), so be sure to remove it.

Looking at this phone next to my D2G, it is slightly thinner. It has just a bit more bezel at the top of the screen. I personally like the contour of the D2G better, but that opinion may change with time.

Overall, it looks very good, and feels good in the hand. It's bigger than the D1, D2 or D2G, but not too big (like the DX is IMHO). Perfect size.

The one bad thing I can say about the design it that there is a shiny metal insert in the earpiece. It looks out of place with the rest of the phone. The lack of an insert there on previous Droids looked much better.

__________________________________________________________

Keyboard.

This keyboard was designed by God himself. Period.

__________________________________________________________

I think that's all I have to say about it. Or at least it's all I'm going to... lol.

Overall, I'm happy enough with it.

If I knew, right now, that this phone would never get rooted, I'd return it immediately. However, I'm sure it will, and I'll be able to correct the things that bother me about this phone, and love it.

I would do a factory reset and see if that helps with your issues. If not maybe you can get another one. Sorry you don't like blur. I as of now don't have the Droid 3 but soon. From what I've seen of the blur I think I will like it. I have the DROID x and I love blur so I think im the odd man out. But glad that your sticking with it and not running away like some people.


Sent from my DROIDX using DroidForums

 

[dancingcrab]

My battery lasted ~12 hours before dying today (Day 2). Not too bad considering it was being used a fair bit.

I'm not suffering much lag, but I am getting a lot of homescreen redraws, especially after extended browsing or a little camera usage. Quite annoying, and takes away from the functionality of the device if I'm having to wait around for it to load a bunch of icons and widgets.

I must admit to quite liking the new 'Motorola Application Platform' (AKA Blur), but it isn't a trim piece of software. I look forward to someone finding a means to root this device so I can experience it stock.

 

[nerdslogic]

have you ran the script? The supercharger script?

 

[jaycemiskel]

I also have problems with redraws. It's gotten a lot better with Launcher Pro but I think that this could be a sign of not enough ram and I'm not sure I want to keep it.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

 

[guidot]

have you ran the script? The supercharger script?

Pretty sure that's for root only no?

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[jaycemiskel]

have you ran the script? The supercharger script?

Pretty sure that's for root only no?

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

Yeah I don't think you can run scripts without root.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

 

[Droidrage729]

The new version of blur is awesome. I realize everyone has their own taste but seriously what will it take to make you happy I mean they improved widgets its really fast. I mean how much faster to you want it. Oh you want to be able to look at the phone and have it complete an action gotcha. I swear some people say they hate blur cause its the cool thing to say. Its really not terrible especially this build. Better then sense.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

 

[KidCuda]

I also have problems with redraws. It's gotten a lot better with Launcher Pro but I think that this could be a sign of not enough ram and I'm not sure I want to keep it.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

Yeah I just got mine yesterday and everything was fine, but this morning the long redraws started. My all time favorite Launcherpro didn't help... I can deal with the colors being off and the pentile screen, but if I can't get back home to quickly launch something with my dual-core phone, kind of questionable.

 

[mattbooty]

Another impression I haven't seen mentioned yet, I absolutely love the new exchange mail client. Its so much more user friendly, easier on the eyes, and displays your folder structure with nested folders. I have about 40 folders, and with the d1 I had to scroll through them all to get to sent, deleted, outbox even though I only had 3 top level folders. Now when I click folders I can see all of the top level folders and system folders in one screen and drill down as needed.

That and the ability to manage a signature and out of office messages is pretty sweet.

Wow. I didn't notice that. I have over a thousand folders nested in Exchange, but I've been using my phone as a glorified message reader and responder up until now. The ability to navigate my folders easily makes my phone more useful than OWA when my work computer is unavailable. Just popped in and moved a bunch of meeting accepts into the folder I keep for that. Joy!

Glad I could help hehe! This was actually one of the first things I tried when I got my D3 set up. The thing I use my phone for most is corporate email, and that was just a pain. You mentioned a thousand nested folders, the reason I was only at 40 was specifically to combat the d1 folder issue, now I'll have to go back through and start recreating folders I combined when I got my D1!