There are quite a few notable reviews for the Droid Bionic available now that the phone has been out for a bit. We thought it would be useful, especially for those folks that are still undecided, to have a post and thread with a master compilation of Bionic Reviews from around the web. We are including 12 of the most noteworthy reviews compiled from reputable sites in the main story of this post. However, we also want you guys to either write your own mini-reviews in the thread, and/or add links to more reviews that you have found beyond the 12 in the main article. That way, we can compile a true master list of Bionic Reviews. Also, it's important to note that we did not choose these particular reviews over others for any particular reason. These were simply a smattering of the many well written reviews available and serve as a broad sample of what is out there.
Obviously, we can't include every detail from the reviews on these sites, so here is how we are organizing it. At the top, there will be a list of links to the 12 different reviews. Then, below that, we will list each one with a brief summary of notable features in their article, and a synopsis/conclusion quoted directly from their respective review. That way, if you just want to read some brief final thoughts, or you want to pour over every detail in their articles, you will have options.
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Droid Bionic Review Links:
- MyDroidWorld - [Review] Droid Bionic
- AndroidPolice - DROID BIONIC Review: This Is The Phone That The DROID X2 Should Have Been
- PhoneArena - Motorola DROID BIONIC Review
- PhanDroid - Droid Bionic Review
- UberGizmo - Droid Bionic Review
- AndroidCentral - Motorola Droid Bionic review
- ThisIsMyNext - Droid Bionic review
- BGR - Motorola DROID BIONIC Review
- SlashGear - DROID BIONIC Review
- Engadget - Droid Bionic review
- IntoMobile - Verizon Motorola Droid Bionic review: Worth the wait?
- AndroidandMe - DROID Bionic Review: Too little, too late?
[*]MyDroidWorld - [Review] Droid Bionic
This review from the techies over at MyDroidWorld was really more of a quick summary, and definitely not in-depth; however, the article is quick and too the point and shared some useful tidbits about the Bionic. Interestingly, this author had better things to say about battery life than most of the other articles. He enjoyed the look and feel of the device, and made note of the responsiveness of the phone. Overall, the reviewer seems very pleased with his purchase. Here's a quote,
[*]AndroidPolice - DROID BIONIC Review: This Is The Phone That The DROID X2 Should Have Been
In the AndroidPolice review we definitely step up to a more in-depth coverage of the device. There were many notable comments that the author made. For example, he was blown away by the "astounding" 4G LTE performance of the phone. He didn't hate the pentileqHD screen, but described it as "still not there." Also, the reviewer commented that he had mediocre battery performance because he tended to leave the 4G on, as he felt that doing otherwise was a "copout." The reviewer seemed impressed with the build quality and called it "neo-rugged," and even made mention that the new version of Motoblur (which they no longer call Motoblur) was "bearable." Here is a few pieces of the author's excellent conclusion,
[*]PhoneArena - Motorola DROID BIONIC Review
PhoneArena's review was fairly exhaustive, and covered a full four pages! Ultimately, although they had much to say about the device, they didn't come away very impressed. The review did share several positive qualities. The author indicated that it had a solid design, they really liked the HDMI output, and the UI effects had impact. The reviewer indicated that the camera quality was much improved over the Droid 3, and they described the 4G LTE speeds as "wickedly fast." The thing they seemed impressed with the most was the call quality, and they called it "one of the best devices we’ve had the pleasure of using for phone calls." In the end, they compared it to the HTC Thunderbolt and actually suggested that phone as a more economical alternative. But, it wasn't all bad, and here is some of their conclusion,
[*]PhanDroid - Droid Bionic Review
This review was the second most well developed and thorough of all twelve. What was most impressive about Phandroid's review were all the videos they included. Grab some popcorn if you intend to peruse everything. This review was almost "glowing" in its praise of the device. That's not to suggest that you are left with a false impression... the reviewer just seemed genuinely happy with the phone. Of particular note was the way the reviewer described the device as "the Bionic Trio", referring to the three best features of 4G + Dual Core + 1GB RAM, for which this phone is the first on Verizon to offer. The author was highly impressed with the performance of the phone, both network and processing. He called it quick and without lag. The author found the multimedia functionality to be a "mixed bag," with some features he liked and some he didn't. Although the reviewer took some gorgeous pictures with the device, and his skill really showcased the quality of the phone's camera, he did ultimately indicate that it, "isn’t one of the best mobile cameras on the market by a longshot." Interestingly, this review had more realistic things to say about the battery life. The author seemed to indicate that you could get almost a full days worth of moderate use out of the phone, if you turned off functions like 4G when you weren't using them. Here's a part of the final verdict,
[*]UberGizmo - Droid Bionic Review
The UberGizmo article was the number one most exhaustive and in-depth treatment of the Bionic out of all these twelve reviews. There was almost too much information packed in, but that isn't really a bad thing. This review made it easy because the author gave their own highlights in the title of each section. Here are some of them, but please keep in mind that the, very long article, covered much more:
- External Design (Nice)
- Display (very good) - other than the “moire” effect from the pentile design
- Call audio quality (normal)
- Web browsing (excellent)
- Email (excellent)
- Facebook (very good)
- Google Maps (awesome)
- Photo and Video Capture (Good+)
- Gaming (good)
- Video Playback (excellent)
- Battery Life (very good)
[*]AndroidCentral - Motorola Droid Bionic review
This was another thorough coverage of the Bionic's strengths and weaknesses. In the long run, AndroidCentral liked the device, and indicated that it was the best LTE device for Verizon; however, the author didn't believe the phone lived up to the hype and that it should have been the Droid X2 or the Droid3. They found most of the features well done, and the performance was top-notch, but most if it had really been done before. They came to the conclusion that the phone, while the best at what it does, simply couldn't live up to the eight months of hype. Here's their wrap-up,
[*]ThisIsMyNext - Droid Bionic review
ThisIsMyNext had an interesting take on the Bionic. They started their article suggesting that the phone was something of a "unicorn" because of all the redesigns and changes it went through just to make it to market. The reviewer indicated that its performance was excellent and "snappy". They liked many of its features, and in fact the author likened it to a high-quality expensive and upscale device. This review also had a large number of pictures of the device, and a small few taken with it. Overall, this reviewer, like several others, did not find the phone to be as noteworthy as the hype would suggest, although it was solid. The author compared it to Droid X2, Droid 3, and Photon 4G (on Sprint), with both the good and bad features of those same phones. Here's this reviewer's final thoughts,
[*]BGR - Motorola DROID BIONIC Review
BGR's review of the Bionic wasn't very long, but was concise and clear. The reviewer points out that the Bionic combines everything you could possibly want into one "lust-worthy package." The author described the design as "robotic and edgy", which goes very well with the marketing campaign. They were impressed with the build quality and performance, but did not like the speakerphone. This reviewer had good things to say about the battery life, although he made mention that it is relative to the fact that it is a 4G LTE device. Here's the final quote from the BGR review,
[*]SlashGear - DROID BIONIC Review
SlashGear's review of the Bionic was another of the most exhaustive of all these reviews, and could actually tie for first or second with some of the others. They even included a full writeup about the dock and several other accessories for the phone. They also had more pictures of the device than I have ever seen for a review. In fact, their list of pictures was longer than some of the other complete reviews! At any rate, the author's comments were straight-forward and too-the-point without a lot of gushing or morose hyperbole. The reviewer seemed to find the performance, call quality, network speed, and HDMI multimedia playback to be very good; however, the amount of bloatware, camera quality, and mediocre battery life were not what they expected. Most of what they went into with the dock and other accessories was more of a description, rather than a critique. Here is some of their wrap-up,
[*]Engadget - Droid Bionic review
Engadget's review was well written and professional, and included the most important details without becoming overly verbose. As we have seen so far, the reviewers sometimes flip-flop on their opinions about battery life. The Engadget author came away fairly impressed with the battery life considering it is an LTE device. Like everyone so far, the reviewer liked the performance and "responsiveness" of the phone. They indicated that the software seemed very solid and that they haven't yet encountered "any repeatable bugs." They found the camera to be of the same average quality of the Droid X2. Engadget also covered several of the accessories and the lapdock for the phone. They were unimpressed with the lapdock and found that most of the accessories were dull and overpriced. Here is Engadget's final thoughts,
[*]IntoMobile - Verizon Motorola Droid Bionic review: Worth the wait?
The folks at IntoMobile give a handy numeric rating at the beginning of their review. Their reviewer indicated that the Bionic was and overall 7 out of 10 as an aggregate of an 8/10 for design, a 9/10 for performance, a 7/10 for software, and a 5/10 for battery. This numeric rating makes it a bit easier to breakdown their ideas, so now we will just share their final thoughts,
[*]AndroidandMe - DROID Bionic Review: Too little, too late?
The final review of this list of twelve comes from AndroidandMe. At the beginning of their review, they pose the question "too little, too late?" In the end, they had many things to say about the Bionic and most of them were quite good. They liked the performance of the LTE and TI OMAP4430 Processor. They liked the form factor, the call quality and the display. They even liked the accessories, the cameras and the applications. They didn't like the battery life and the Motorola UI. Ultimately, they gave the phone an 8.5 our of 10, although you can't say that they give it a "glowing" recommendation. Here are their final thoughts,
Don't forget to add your Droid Bionic comments in the forums. Also please add more links to reviews that you found helpful an interesting.
