Any thoughts on Droid 4?

[kellym]

I'll be eligible for an upgrade soon and am thinking of getting a Droid 4 only for the physical keyboard. I love my Bionic, especially after having discovered HOB, but after 2 years, I still type like a moron on the touch screen. Any thoughts? Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks.

 

[johnm93359]

I waited for the Droid 4 to come out because of my need for a physical keyboard. I was moving up from a blackberry storm.
I would not buy it again, as its limitations hold me back and I am overall not pleased with the experience. It was great moving up to android and having a ton of apps available, and enough memory and processor to run them. The keyboard does help me but the limitations hold me back from getting full use out of it. Before it arrived, there was much speculation that it would be a Razor, with a physical keyboard. Adding a keyboard to a very slim phone would make sense right? Not what Motorola chose to do.

1) Battery life is poor.

2) The 4 inch screen is too small for me.

3) The screen in daylight is washed out and overall lacks brightness and crispness of other phones.

Would I do it again, not sure, I don't think so.

Battery life and screen usability are more useful and a Tough trade-off for the keyboard, but I still prefer having one.

 

[bdsullivan76]

I would have to disagree. The D4 is an excellent choice for those who need a keyboard. With 4.0.4 you can disable a lot of the battery hogging apps to increase life. I was able to get 14+hrs on stock in a 4g area consistantly. My wife had the razr and the D4 is basically a razr with a keyboaed and a smaller screen.
Another phone you could check out is the stratosphere 2 that just released.
Just be prepared.... the D5 could start to surface soon. The D4 was released around jan or feb of last year. Lol.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Xparent ICS Blue Tapatalk 2

 

[bbucks36]

14+ ,i dont think so tim.. probably just letting your phone sit there most of the day will get you awesome battery life. if i was going to own a phone and use it as a paper weight id buy a iphone.. but majority of people here actually use their phone.

 

[mattjenn]

I personally love Droid 4 on stock Motorola I get 7-9 hrs of battery with extremely heavy use, if I'm running a rom (eclipse or cm10) I can get 8-11 hrs that's without any extra steps for battery saving efforts. One thing A lot of people on stock don't realize is after ics update you need to factory reset or at minimum wipe cache to fix battery life because jump from GB to ICS is a big change to OS a member told me about that cause after update I was only getting about 3-4 hrs on my battery and it fixed it almost immediately. Hope this helps someone.

 

[kellym]

I personally love Droid 4 on stock Motorola I get 7-9 hrs of battery with extremely heavy use, if I'm running a rom (eclipse or cm10) I can get 8-11 hrs that's without any extra steps for battery saving efforts. One thing A lot of people on stock don't realize is after ics update you need to factory reset or at minimum wipe cache to fix battery life because jump from GB to ICS is a big change to OS a member told me about that cause after update I was only getting about 3-4 hrs on my battery and it fixed it almost immediately. Hope this helps someone.

Battery life has declined, I'll try wiping cache. Thanks.

 

[johnm93359]

I personally love Droid 4 on stock Motorola I get 7-9 hrs of battery with extremely heavy use, if I'm running a rom (eclipse or cm10) I can get 8-11 hrs that's without any extra steps for battery saving efforts. One thing A lot of people on stock don't realize is after ics update you need to factory reset or at minimum wipe cache to fix battery life because jump from GB to ICS is a big change to OS a member told me about that cause after update I was only getting about 3-4 hrs on my battery and it fixed it almost immediately. Hope this helps someone.

For my battery issues,I will try the cache wipe first. I am running stock ICS. I didn't do a Factory reset. There seems to be no fully functional (and working) backup utilities without rooting the phone, which I dont want to do. After reading a few "top applications for Android backups" articles, then reading customer reviews on the software, I see a lot of failures where the backup works, but restores fail. Almost did a factory reset 2 days ago, phone rebooted during a application update, then shut off and wouldn't turn on. It did eventually boot back up ok. That's when I did the Backup research with disappointing results.

I do feel its a solid phone. My complaints about the screen are subjective and reflect my perception and desires.

If I can get what I feel is adequite battery life, I will be good till I need to upgrade. I dont want to give up my grandfathered unlimited data.

 

[bdsullivan76]

14+ ,i dont think so tim.. probably just letting your phone sit there most of the day will get you awesome battery life. if i was going to own a phone and use it as a paper weight id buy a iphone.. but majority of people here actually use their phone.

Really??..... your right. I like to make **** up. During the coarse of a work day I would stream pandora as well as some light browsing and the occasional pic and email. All with 4G constantly on and without battery savings apps.
But as you previously made sooo obvious I am a total liar.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Xparent ICS Blue Tapatalk 2

 

[livinginkaos]

My wife has the D4 and is a moderate user - Battery lasts the day. Physical Keyboard is not as smooth as some I've used, but she doesn't seem to have a problem. Certain key locations take a little getting used to- like the apostraphe. Haven't had any connection issues or odd crashes. It's a solid phone, just too bad that if you are upgrading now that there isn't another newer option for a physical keyboard for you.

 

[Tums]

My friend upgraded to a D4 a few months ago from I think a D2 since he is a huge fan of phones with Keyboards and he has enjoyed it so far. I don't think he has had any real issues maybe battery wise but I don't think he gets any better or worst battery than I do on my Bionic. The two phones aren't really that much different outside of the physical keyboard (I guess a few Spec wise differences) and both are slated to get Jelly Bean in the future. If a physical keyboard is what you want then this looks like a good phone to have as it seems the keyboard has generally gotten good reviews, it also won't be that great of a leap from what you are using now.

 

[deduct]

Really??..... your right. I like to make **** up. During the coarse of a work day I would stream pandora as well as some light browsing and the occasional pic and email. All with 4G constantly on and without battery savings apps.
But as you previously made sooo obvious I am a total liar.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Xparent ICS Blue Tapatalk 2

I believe you. If you know what apps to disable and how to use your phone in a battery friendly way, you can go all day on a battery that size. I like your profile pic by the way.

-Bionic eclipsed-

 

[ScottyDsntKnow]

Had a droid 3, tried the droid 4 and had a strat (epic4g but same thing). The strat keyboard blows the droid ones out of the water and it isn't even close. Going from a bionic to a d4... I wouldn't if I was burning an upgrade (which I can't do anyway or i lose unlimited but that's just me). If you have never had a phone with a keyboard for an extended period of time you might find you are disappointed. I used to be like you, HAD to have a keyboard but I always found that the soft keyboard was faster and there were never any potential issues with keys getting worn out which I DID have with the D3.

Also the bionic has removable/extended battery, the screen is bigger and you already have it. And I agree with the other poster that states the D4 is old tech. The D5 is going to start to surface soon, the strat 2 is way better if you need a new keyboard phone now. For burning an upgrade I would personally get a note 2. That screen is so big that they soft keyboard is plenty big enough to not booger up and it is quad core AND the screen itself is yoga balls amazing.

 

[kellym]

Thanks for all the feedback, much appreciated. I'm hoping to find a refurbished phone on-line so I don't lose my unlimited, forgot about that until my husband insisted on getting the iPhone 5, sigh.

 

[deduct]

Thanks for all the feedback, much appreciated. I'm hoping to find a refurbished phone on-line so I don't lose my unlimited, forgot about that until my husband insisted on getting the iPhone 5, sigh.

Iphone ??!! Looks Like its time to file for divorce.

 

[ScottyDsntKnow]

I paid $200 for a great shape bionic on eBay. Honestly if they had advertised it as new I would not have been able to tell it wasn't. That seller has another one up right now actually...

And yeah do NOT let them take away your unlimited data, limited data with lte is like a Ferrari with a gallon of gas. Jump to T-Mobile and get unlimited everything for less than what you probably paying now. Screw the icrap but you can take unlocked ones into T-Mobile or just wait a few months for T-Mobile to get them for real. I dunno iOS on the I crap USED to make that phone. Then ICS came out and well... It makes all the difference.