So I got my X2 last night and a few first impressions coming from an original Droid (special thank you to Peter Alfonso, who kept my D1 fresh for so long).
1) This thing is BIG. If you're used to being able to comfortably hold your phone in your hand and use your thumb to reach all parts of the screen, you probably won't be able to do that anymore.
2) Power button in the top middle. This sucks. I'm used to quickly turning the phone on with a quick thumb push to the upper right. No more. Now I use two hands -- one to hold the phone, the other to push the button at the top to turn it on.
3) The screen is GORGEOUS. If you're not a gadget freak (I'm not really) and haven't been physically checking out all the phones since the D1, the X2 will really make you realize how antiquated the D1's screen is.
4) Who had the bright idea to change the order of the home buttons? Home, Menu and Back are in different places. I'm sure I'll get used to them, but what a PITA.
5) MotoBlur. I hate it so far. Stock vanilla Android would be better. I think I'll just have to get rid of the social media tie-ins, maybe clear out all my screens and set it up like my old phone. I like to keep my life somewhat departmentalized.
6) Bloat. Holy crap is there a lot of crap installed on this phone that you can't remove. The nice thing is that you can now create groups of icons, so perhaps I'll just make a group called "CRAP" and put everything in there.
7) Speed. WOW is this thing fast. Even with my OC'd Droid I'd get delays once in a while as the CPU chewed through something. Not with this X2. Everything is so snappy and fast and ready at an instant (except the camera -- that still seems to be a work in progress).
8) No Gingerbread. At least not yet. Would be nice if it rolled out at the same time as the X, but that's not what I'm hearing. Amazing that the predecessor to this brand new phone will have Gingerbread first.
Anyway, just some opening thoughts. I don't much like change, and I do like simplicity, so perhaps I'm just being nitpicky about a lot of this.
UPDATE: OK, this phone is starting to annoy me. Specifically:
1) There is a popping sound whenever the audio channel is first "engaged." It comes over my car speakers and I'm afraid it's going to do damage. My D1 did not have this issue. Also, I have experienced audio stuttering on occasion. Not what I'd expect from a dual-core phone. My D1 never had this issue either.
2) When I plug the phone into the multimedia dock, this also engages the car dock icon. It thinks it is in the car dock and multimedia dock at the same time. My D1 did not do this.
3) When you use the car dock music app, there doesn't seem to be a way to get back to "albums." If you hit the return button it takes you back to the car dock menu, where among the options for navigation, phone, etc. is not "Music," but the SONG you were listening to. I had to exit the car dock and launch the music app to get out of the album I was listening to. I also tried the hardware "back" button and it did the same thing.
4) When you plug the phone into the multimedia dock and have it connected to a computer, if you go to listen to music, it says, "Sorry, your SD card is busy." This is BEFORE you select USB connection. You have to go into the USB menu and select "Charge Only" to get your media back. I wonder if there's a way to make it "charge only" by default, then select the PC mode when you want it?
I'm sure lots of these are just getting used to the new phone (except the car dock & sound popping), but they're annoying as hell.
I might try to bring the phone back and see if I can wait for the D3. Trouble is, I bought two sets of the accessories kit and would be out a bit of change.
Still thinking about it. Overall though, I think I still prefer my D1. Just the fact that I know that I won't be able to run a custom ROM that will fix some of these things is really disappointing. I have no faith that Motorola will fix these quickly. The only thing I love about this phone is the display and the speed. Other than that, I'll take my D1 any day. I can't believe I'm writing that.
1) This thing is BIG. If you're used to being able to comfortably hold your phone in your hand and use your thumb to reach all parts of the screen, you probably won't be able to do that anymore.
2) Power button in the top middle. This sucks. I'm used to quickly turning the phone on with a quick thumb push to the upper right. No more. Now I use two hands -- one to hold the phone, the other to push the button at the top to turn it on.
3) The screen is GORGEOUS. If you're not a gadget freak (I'm not really) and haven't been physically checking out all the phones since the D1, the X2 will really make you realize how antiquated the D1's screen is.
4) Who had the bright idea to change the order of the home buttons? Home, Menu and Back are in different places. I'm sure I'll get used to them, but what a PITA.
5) MotoBlur. I hate it so far. Stock vanilla Android would be better. I think I'll just have to get rid of the social media tie-ins, maybe clear out all my screens and set it up like my old phone. I like to keep my life somewhat departmentalized.
6) Bloat. Holy crap is there a lot of crap installed on this phone that you can't remove. The nice thing is that you can now create groups of icons, so perhaps I'll just make a group called "CRAP" and put everything in there.
7) Speed. WOW is this thing fast. Even with my OC'd Droid I'd get delays once in a while as the CPU chewed through something. Not with this X2. Everything is so snappy and fast and ready at an instant (except the camera -- that still seems to be a work in progress).
8) No Gingerbread. At least not yet. Would be nice if it rolled out at the same time as the X, but that's not what I'm hearing. Amazing that the predecessor to this brand new phone will have Gingerbread first.
Anyway, just some opening thoughts. I don't much like change, and I do like simplicity, so perhaps I'm just being nitpicky about a lot of this.
UPDATE: OK, this phone is starting to annoy me. Specifically:
1) There is a popping sound whenever the audio channel is first "engaged." It comes over my car speakers and I'm afraid it's going to do damage. My D1 did not have this issue. Also, I have experienced audio stuttering on occasion. Not what I'd expect from a dual-core phone. My D1 never had this issue either.
2) When I plug the phone into the multimedia dock, this also engages the car dock icon. It thinks it is in the car dock and multimedia dock at the same time. My D1 did not do this.
3) When you use the car dock music app, there doesn't seem to be a way to get back to "albums." If you hit the return button it takes you back to the car dock menu, where among the options for navigation, phone, etc. is not "Music," but the SONG you were listening to. I had to exit the car dock and launch the music app to get out of the album I was listening to. I also tried the hardware "back" button and it did the same thing.
4) When you plug the phone into the multimedia dock and have it connected to a computer, if you go to listen to music, it says, "Sorry, your SD card is busy." This is BEFORE you select USB connection. You have to go into the USB menu and select "Charge Only" to get your media back. I wonder if there's a way to make it "charge only" by default, then select the PC mode when you want it?
I'm sure lots of these are just getting used to the new phone (except the car dock & sound popping), but they're annoying as hell.
I might try to bring the phone back and see if I can wait for the D3. Trouble is, I bought two sets of the accessories kit and would be out a bit of change.
Still thinking about it. Overall though, I think I still prefer my D1. Just the fact that I know that I won't be able to run a custom ROM that will fix some of these things is really disappointing. I have no faith that Motorola will fix these quickly. The only thing I love about this phone is the display and the speed. Other than that, I'll take my D1 any day. I can't believe I'm writing that.
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