- Thread Starter
- #16
So I just wanted to update folks on how I am coming along with my new Maxx. I just took a business trip with it and it has worked out pretty well. I enabled the voice control of the phone, which works rather well for certain things, but fails on others. I have gotten better with the virtual keyboard, although my biggest issue is I keep hitting the home button when trying to hit the space bar. I guess that will take some time. Here is a breakdown of my observations and experience with it thus far:
1> The phone is fast! Some of that is the jump from 3G to 4G, but the games I have played and browsing the web, zooming in and out of pages/pictures, everything has been real smooth for me.
2> Touchless control (voice control) works pretty well. I was able to set alarms, and do map searches all by voice. My issue is the phone doesn't do many contextual commands. (if that is the right expression) What I mean is, I can't say "OK Google, now start a slideshow" and have it show random photos. I can't say "OK Google, now play music." It will do a search for "Play Music" and not actually start playing any music on my phone. If I say "Play The Killers" it goes into the play store, to The Killers music list, but never plays music on the device. This is a big disappointment for me. Now maybe I am just saying the wrong commands, but I could have sworn in previous versions of Android you could start playing music via voice command. If you have info on this please let me know.
3> The camera is good. I don't know if I would say great. I have seen some photos and video from the SGS4 and they were very solid. Now, that being said, some of this is due to user error. I took a bunch of photos without ever checking the lens which had a big finger print mark on it, which I think was causing a loss in sharpness. In low light the few pictures I took came out pretty well (after cleaning the lens). I took a shot of someone in front of a window with the sun behind them and they appeared very clearly in the photo, which impressed me. In my prior experience those shots look like black blobs with light behind them. Getting to the camera by twisting the phone worked for me about 75% of the time. You can't do it too fast or too slow
4> I am not a huge cell phone user, I usually have a tablet or laptop with me for most tasks. That being said, I made a point to try and use my phone a LOT over the last week and I never used more than about 40 - 45% of the battery in a day. That is a mix of taking photos / video, web browsing, game playing and talking. So for me I can definitely see this lasting me 2 - 3 days per charge. Your results may vary.
After 1 week of owning the phone, I will say I am really happy with my choice. I still feel like I am on the learning curve with not just the physical phone, but with jumping so far ahead in Android revisions. (2.3 -> 4.2)
A couple notes about the accessories I bought.
1> Purchased the Verizon Bumper for the phone, It fits real solid on the phone, but it adds a decent amount of weight to the phone. . . or at least it feels like it does. It is still lighter than my R2-D2.
2> Purchased the screen protector cover. Stuck on nice and easy. The only downside to it is that is does impact the clarity of the screen. Not terribly, but to my eyes there was a noticeable difference.
3> I bought the "Motorola Flip Stand with Smart Charger" and while the stand is nice and versatile... (it is universal) the charger is not what I had hoped for. I guess there is no "smart mode" for the Droid Maxx? Also, when just using the USB cable, when hooking it up to a computer, my USB port doesn't recognize anything is plugged in. Use a regular USB cable and it charges and makes the phone accessible, swap to the "smart" cable and nada.
4> I did by the universal car mount, I have been away so I have not tried it yet.
A couple questions if anyone can answer here that would be wonderful, if not I will just repost these questions in the support area.
1> Is there a "Dock Mode" or "Car Mode" for this phone? I have the phone going into "Daydream" mode, but with the phone in landscape mode, the home screen doesn't rotate and it makes reading certain menus and screens rather difficult.
2> Is that Smart Charger supposed to work with the Maxx? If not, is there a better dock I can use that is cheaper. I use the dock in my office where I have it hooked to a computer for charging, so having to use A/C power doesn't work well for me for moving pictures and music.
Thanks for reading all of this, I hope you have found this info to be usable.
*EDIT* - Fixed some grammar because I forgot to proof read before posting.
1> The phone is fast! Some of that is the jump from 3G to 4G, but the games I have played and browsing the web, zooming in and out of pages/pictures, everything has been real smooth for me.
2> Touchless control (voice control) works pretty well. I was able to set alarms, and do map searches all by voice. My issue is the phone doesn't do many contextual commands. (if that is the right expression) What I mean is, I can't say "OK Google, now start a slideshow" and have it show random photos. I can't say "OK Google, now play music." It will do a search for "Play Music" and not actually start playing any music on my phone. If I say "Play The Killers" it goes into the play store, to The Killers music list, but never plays music on the device. This is a big disappointment for me. Now maybe I am just saying the wrong commands, but I could have sworn in previous versions of Android you could start playing music via voice command. If you have info on this please let me know.
3> The camera is good. I don't know if I would say great. I have seen some photos and video from the SGS4 and they were very solid. Now, that being said, some of this is due to user error. I took a bunch of photos without ever checking the lens which had a big finger print mark on it, which I think was causing a loss in sharpness. In low light the few pictures I took came out pretty well (after cleaning the lens). I took a shot of someone in front of a window with the sun behind them and they appeared very clearly in the photo, which impressed me. In my prior experience those shots look like black blobs with light behind them. Getting to the camera by twisting the phone worked for me about 75% of the time. You can't do it too fast or too slow
4> I am not a huge cell phone user, I usually have a tablet or laptop with me for most tasks. That being said, I made a point to try and use my phone a LOT over the last week and I never used more than about 40 - 45% of the battery in a day. That is a mix of taking photos / video, web browsing, game playing and talking. So for me I can definitely see this lasting me 2 - 3 days per charge. Your results may vary.
After 1 week of owning the phone, I will say I am really happy with my choice. I still feel like I am on the learning curve with not just the physical phone, but with jumping so far ahead in Android revisions. (2.3 -> 4.2)
A couple notes about the accessories I bought.
1> Purchased the Verizon Bumper for the phone, It fits real solid on the phone, but it adds a decent amount of weight to the phone. . . or at least it feels like it does. It is still lighter than my R2-D2.
2> Purchased the screen protector cover. Stuck on nice and easy. The only downside to it is that is does impact the clarity of the screen. Not terribly, but to my eyes there was a noticeable difference.
3> I bought the "Motorola Flip Stand with Smart Charger" and while the stand is nice and versatile... (it is universal) the charger is not what I had hoped for. I guess there is no "smart mode" for the Droid Maxx? Also, when just using the USB cable, when hooking it up to a computer, my USB port doesn't recognize anything is plugged in. Use a regular USB cable and it charges and makes the phone accessible, swap to the "smart" cable and nada.
4> I did by the universal car mount, I have been away so I have not tried it yet.
A couple questions if anyone can answer here that would be wonderful, if not I will just repost these questions in the support area.
1> Is there a "Dock Mode" or "Car Mode" for this phone? I have the phone going into "Daydream" mode, but with the phone in landscape mode, the home screen doesn't rotate and it makes reading certain menus and screens rather difficult.
2> Is that Smart Charger supposed to work with the Maxx? If not, is there a better dock I can use that is cheaper. I use the dock in my office where I have it hooked to a computer for charging, so having to use A/C power doesn't work well for me for moving pictures and music.
Thanks for reading all of this, I hope you have found this info to be usable.
*EDIT* - Fixed some grammar because I forgot to proof read before posting.
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