Looking at a razr: bootloader and dev community

fry-lock

New Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
21
Reaction score
0
Location
Florida
Some backstory, I had an OG Droid, and I absolutely loved it's ability to run custom kernels, which really made the phone run at it's true potential in both speed and battery life. Against my better judgement, I made the ginormous mistake of getting an OG Droid X, which I regret it to this day. The locked bootloader, made custom kernels impossible, and greatly slowed the release 'real' roms. I say that because for the first year, all the roms were still based on the black hole of fail that is blur. Don't take this as me trashing the X's rom devs, they have done an amazing job despite being curb stomped by the locked bootloader.

Anyways, I swore I'd never buy another Motorola and was planning on getting a Nexus, because well let's face it, Motorola's upgrade timetable blows, and a locked bootloader means there is little hope for running new, stable versions of Android until a blur version is released. But my wife stopped by verizon today and they told her the Razr is buy one get one free; I personally think the guy was lying to her because that deal is not listed on Verizon's website, and Verizon always offers their best deals through their website. But if it's true, I'm willing to consider the razr so long as it's not handicapped like the X is.

My questions:
1) How is the big is the Razr dev community?
2) Do razrs come with a locked bootloader? I've read conflicting reports, some say the bootloader is locked, and some say it isn't. This really is the determining factor for me.

I absolutely refuse to get another phone with a locked bootloader. OEMs have demonstrated no remorse about the fact they continually **** on their customers when it comes to Android upgrades and fragmentation. If they refuse to fully support their phones by keeping Android current, I'll do it myself. However, if they make it impossible for me to do so, I will simply go elsewhere.

When I saw Motorola's timetable for ICS, I was furious because the X, a phone that hasn't even been out for two years, isn't getting it, and by the time their their flagship phones get it, ICS will have been out for a year. I'm actually pretty pissed at Google for letting it continue, and when they started playing semantics about fragmentation, I have to admit, I started seriously considering switching to either an iPhone or Windows Mobile. That says a lot, because I really, really, really hate both Apple and MS. I've been a strong android supporter ever since the rumors surfaced about Google entering the mobile OS arena, but, they have done a horrendous job at reigning fragmentation, and it will ultimately be Android's undoing if they don't get a handle on it soon. I can easily Windows catching up to android because of users who are frustrated with lack of software support.
 

smalltowngirl13

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
7,044
Reaction score
912
Location
Kansas
Current Phone Model
Z Force 2
Twitter
smalltownlife13
The Razr does have a locked bootloader but ROMs can be flashed thru either Bootstrap or Safestrap...right now, the Razr seems popular - there are several good ROMs out and about...we are not seeing near the dev support that the gNex has but we have some pretty good ROMs and Devs supporting us :)...
 

busab

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
250
Reaction score
8
Location
Greer, SC
Exactly. There may not be as many ROM's as the nexus has but it has some really good ones. I'm running a ICS rom right now and it is nearly flawless.

Sent from my AOKP AXI0M [R] using Tapatalk
 

ChevyNexus

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2010
Messages
506
Reaction score
10
Location
Toledo Ohio
the bootloader is locked. That will stop you from doing anything with kernals , but you can at least put roms on it.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums
 
OP
F

fry-lock

New Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2010
Messages
21
Reaction score
0
Location
Florida
The Razr does have a locked bootloader but ROMs can be flashed thru either Bootstrap or Safestrap...right now, the Razr seems popular - there are several good ROMs out and about...we are not seeing near the dev support that the gNex has but we have some pretty good ROMs and Devs supporting us :)...
Damn.

Yea, the X is the same way, you can flash roms through bootstrap, but not being able to flash custom kernels really sucks. I had my D1 almost running as good as my X. The only bottleneck was it's puny 256mb of ram and laughable built in memory.
 

smalltowngirl13

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
7,044
Reaction score
912
Location
Kansas
Current Phone Model
Z Force 2
Twitter
smalltownlife13
Damn.

Yea, the X is the same way, you can flash roms through bootstrap, but not being able to flash custom kernels really sucks. I had my D1 almost running as good as my X. The only bottleneck was it's puny 256mb of ram and laughable built in memory.

I never modded by D1 so I was happy with the progress of the X & locked bootloaders when it came to ROMs and flashing...but I can understand ones desire to have full modding control ;)...
 

Droid-Xer

Super Moderator
Premium Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2010
Messages
2,377
Reaction score
55
Location
El Paso, TX
Yup the gnex will have support for quite some time because it will get the latest updates. Google updated the nexus s to iCS. So it will have a longer dev support than most other devices.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2010
Messages
36
Reaction score
4
My first smartphone was the OG Droid and I had that until getting the Razr. I loved the custom kernals and various ROMS to choose from. The only real down side was the 256 MB of RAM, but other than that I had it overclocked and running Liquid's GB ROM with 2.3.7 before I switched and sold it (last weekend to be exact). I too, was hesitant with going with a phone with a locked bootloader, especially with all the fun I had with my OG Droid. I gave in because of the big performance jump, 4G LTE, because it was already rootable and because of the increasing development in ROMS. My fiance and her mother took advantage of the BOGO about two weeks ago and they both got white Razrs (I heavily urged them from the iPhone, lol). They both love their Razrs. Unfortunately, Only the GSM Razr has an option for an unlocked bootloader. I had considered the Nexus because of the unlocked bootloader, but overall, I didn't like the design and figured that the Razr would be better when ICS came to it (whether officially or unofficially).
 

Devo_

Member
Joined
May 16, 2011
Messages
35
Reaction score
0
Was in the same position, ended up biting the bullet and getting the nexus. Haven't looked back since.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums
 
Top