Rezound vs. Bionic, initial thoughts...

[jntdroid]

I posted this in another thread in response to someone, and a few others have asked me for a comparison as well, so here you go... grain of salt and all. Oh, and for what it's worth, some of this applies to the Razr as well, given the similarities between the Razr and Bionic.

Off topic but @jntdroid how are you liking the Rezound? Still getting dropped data as much as your Bionic?

Sorry, missed this somehow...

Hard to say - I haven't had any major data drops on the Rezound. But honestly, the Bionic has been just as good, at least since I got the Rezound. I've seen a couple of brief hiccups, but never lost data for more than, maybe, 30 seconds as it was going between 3G/4G. Plus I keep switching my SIM between the two to try out different things. I'm not seeing near the reports of data drops on the Rezound, but I'm sure not near as many people have it yet either... no good answer on this one yet. :icon_eek: There have been a couple of times where the Rezound grabbed 4G in places I don't believe the Bionic ever did, but that's a really hard thing to judge since clearly this LTE network has its good and bad days.

The screen on the Rezound is impeccable. It's harder to read in sunlight outside than the Bionic, and the Razr falls somewhere in between in that regard, but man it looks good. The true, accurate RGB LCD, plus the high resolution, it's just beautiful. I think it has 342 ppi? Or 324? Can't remember, but it's the highest on the market now (higher than iPhone).

Call quality, sound quality, etc are about the same between the two - great. Beats is nice, but not that big of a deal when you mess with the "media effects" on the Bionic. I almost give the Bionic a one-up on this (and the Razr for that matter) b/c at least their effects are system-wide, as opposed to only the stock music app on the Rezound.

The Bionic seems to get better battery life, which is not a huge surprise. The Rezound is good though - it idles really well. Definitely improved since the Thunderbolt. The Bionic is also thinner, but the Rezound is very ergonomic and feels really good to hold - but that's a personal preference thing - and even I go back and forth on which I enjoy more in that regard. Could be nostalgia as I was a huge DX fan, and the Bionic feels a bit like that at times.

Rezound camera blows the Bionic's away. Not a surprise, HTC makes great mobile cameras. Given time and good light, the Bionic can take extremely good pictures. But the smoothness and speed of the Rezound's camera, plus it's ability to take decent pictures in the dark (not as washed out by the LED anyway), it's just much better.

Speed... The Bionic definitely feels faster/snappier to work with. I'm a fan of Sense, always have been, but you can feel it weighing things down at times on the Rezound. A few little jerks here and there, the occasional slight lag. It's nothing major, but for a change, a Moto phone actually feels smoother and snappier than an HTC. Now, give the Rezound some custom ROMs and some optimizing, and I would imagine it would be on par with (if not better than) any phone out there. I also remember with the HTC Sensation 4G, it's first run had a bit of choppiness, but after they pushed out a maintenance OTA to help with a few things (including that), it was much better. So this could, theoretically, easily be fixed.

That's probably more than you wanted to know, but there you go. They're such different devices and different experiences with different pluses and minuses, it really comes down to preference. Now, if the data drop thing shows itself to be a Moto only issue that the OTA doesn't patch, then I'd say Rezound hands down. But if that issue is about the same across the board, then pick your poison!

 

[Sydman]

Yeah that was the only hold backs I saw to the HTC while I was checking it out, the lag in the OS over the Razr and the size. I have not dropped a data connection on my Razr since Wed when Verizon said it was an "outage". So for me that is not a negative as of yet, I still have the ear piece rattle but I make so few calls I am not sure I can justify taking it back for that. Now if the Nexus really does come out Monday I might have to go check that out and maybe swap out from there. Other than that I really do like the Razr, and hope an OS update will fix some of the smaller issues.

 

[JohnnytheK]

Ah! My head hurts!

I've changed my mind several times, they all have great features and all one issue that makes you wince and say "damn wish it didn't do that."

Great time to be alive!

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[Cinoib]

I



Sorry, missed this somehow...

Plus I keep switching my SIM between the two to try out different things.

I went to a Verizon store to compare my Bionic to the Rezound.

Thank you for your comparison.

Like you, I found the Rezound felt good in the hand. I like the feel of my Bionic better. In fact, I took the Bionic out of it's she'll protector and was even less impressed w the Rezound.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[Cinoib]

I Plus I keep switching my SIM between the two to try out different things. /FONT]

I was going to buy the Rezound until the Verizon dude told me I couldn't switch back and forth by using the sim card. You said You switched back & forth right?

So from your experience, I gather Verizon is up to selling some cards. The dude said every time I wanted to switch I had to bring in phone and buy a new sim card (like $20 or So).

So can I use the Bionic then switch the sim to the Rezound, use it, then go back to the Bionic. Phone numbers on the sim - right?

One last thing. The display on the Rezound is superior to the Bionic and the Razr IMHO.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[ConqSoft]

I was going to buy the Rezound until the Verizon dude told me I couldn't switch back and forth by using the sim card. You said You switched back & forth right?

So from your experience, I gather Verizon is up to selling some cards. The dude said every time I wanted to switch I had to bring in phone and buy a new sim card (like $20 or So).

So can I use the Bionic then switch the sim to the Rezound, use it, then go back to the Bionic. Phone numbers on the sim - right?

One last thing. The display on the Rezound is superior to the Bionic and the Razr IMHO.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

That dude was clueless. Can move the SIM across all you want. Unless you were going from say the Bionic to the RAZR, since the RAZR uses a MicroSIM, so you'd have to active a new SIM each time.

 

[JohnnytheK]

One constant though, I keep coming back to the Bionic!

 

[Cinoib]

I still have the ear piece rattle but I make so few calls I am not sure I can justify taking it back for that. Now if the Nexus really does come out Monday I might have to go check that out and maybe swap out from there.

I believe Sammy plans to use Super Amoled HD in the Nexus. Sammy will not be using Super Amoled Plus. That means it will be Sammy's very own Pen Tile display at about 316 ppi. I believe Sammy had to shave costs somewhere (super amoled plus is more expensive to build then their pen tile screen).

Now at 316 ppi, one might not notice the fuzzy anti aliasing of text. And one might not notice two sub pixels with a thinner green sub pixel compared to three equal sub pixels per pixel in SAP. I think it will be noticeable.


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[tgyberg]

I was going to buy the Rezound until the Verizon dude told me I couldn't switch back and forth by using the sim card. You said You switched back & forth right?

So from your experience, I gather Verizon is up to selling some cards. The dude said every time I wanted to switch I had to bring in phone and buy a new sim card (like $20 or So).

So can I use the Bionic then switch the sim to the Rezound, use it, then go back to the Bionic. Phone numbers on the sim - right?

One last thing. The display on the Rezound is superior to the Bionic and the Razr IMHO.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

That vzw guy was probably planning on pocketing that $20 for himself! What a schmuck!

 

[Cinoib]

That dude was clueless. Can move the SIM across all you want. Unless you were going from say the Bionic to the RAZR, since the RAZR uses a MicroSIM, so you'd have to active a new SIM each time.

What? A MicroSIM? Thank you for that! I did not know.

So far, I am very pleased with my Bionic. I am rooted and SqLite hacked for tether. And I can unroot If I have to for an OTA. So I can do more with the Bionic then the casual user. I also installed the 2750 mAh battery So I can go a little further in a tank of gas. But I just plain got wet when I saw the 342 ppi on the Rezound.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[Cinoib]

That vzw guy was probably planning on pocketing that $20 for himself! What a schmuck!

Well, I believe I have gotten more from the big red V then they wanted me to get thanks to rooting and SqLite. But it doesn't go down well to think he nearly sold me a sim card.



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[mikespe]

I posted this in another thread in response to someone, and a few others have asked me for a comparison as well, so here you go... grain of salt and all. Oh, and for what it's worth, some of this applies to the Razr as well, given the similarities between the Razr and Bionic.



Sorry, missed this somehow...

Hard to say - I haven't had any major data drops on the Rezound. But honestly, the Bionic has been just as good, at least since I got the Rezound. I've seen a couple of brief hiccups, but never lost data for more than, maybe, 30 seconds as it was going between 3G/4G. Plus I keep switching my SIM between the two to try out different things. I'm not seeing near the reports of data drops on the Rezound, but I'm sure not near as many people have it yet either... no good answer on this one yet. :icon_eek: There have been a couple of times where the Rezound grabbed 4G in places I don't believe the Bionic ever did, but that's a really hard thing to judge since clearly this LTE network has its good and bad days.

The screen on the Rezound is impeccable. It's harder to read in sunlight outside than the Bionic, and the Razr falls somewhere in between in that regard, but man it looks good. The true, accurate RGB LCD, plus the high resolution, it's just beautiful. I think it has 342 ppi? Or 324? Can't remember, but it's the highest on the market now (higher than iPhone).

Call quality, sound quality, etc are about the same between the two - great. Beats is nice, but not that big of a deal when you mess with the "media effects" on the Bionic. I almost give the Bionic a one-up on this (and the Razr for that matter) b/c at least their effects are system-wide, as opposed to only the stock music app on the Rezound.

The Bionic seems to get better battery life, which is not a huge surprise. The Rezound is good though - it idles really well. Definitely improved since the Thunderbolt. The Bionic is also thinner, but the Rezound is very ergonomic and feels really good to hold - but that's a personal preference thing - and even I go back and forth on which I enjoy more in that regard. Could be nostalgia as I was a huge DX fan, and the Bionic feels a bit like that at times.

Rezound camera blows the Bionic's away. Not a surprise, HTC makes great mobile cameras. Given time and good light, the Bionic can take extremely good pictures. But the smoothness and speed of the Rezound's camera, plus it's ability to take decent pictures in the dark (not as washed out by the LED anyway), it's just much better.

Speed... The Bionic definitely feels faster/snappier to work with. I'm a fan of Sense, always have been, but you can feel it weighing things down at times on the Rezound. A few little jerks here and there, the occasional slight lag. It's nothing major, but for a change, a Moto phone actually feels smoother and snappier than an HTC. Now, give the Rezound some custom ROMs and some optimizing, and I would imagine it would be on par with (if not better than) any phone out there. I also remember with the HTC Sensation 4G, it's first run had a bit of choppiness, but after they pushed out a maintenance OTA to help with a few things (including that), it was much better. So this could, theoretically, easily be fixed.

That's probably more than you wanted to know, but there you go. They're such different devices and different experiences with different pluses and minuses, it really comes down to preference. Now, if the data drop thing shows itself to be a Moto only issue that the OTA doesn't patch, then I'd say Rezound hands down. But if that issue is about the same across the board, then pick your poison!

That's a good review. I agree on just about everything you said except on the screen. I just got back from comparing my Bionic to the Rezound and IMHO the Bionic won hands down! Yea I'm rooted with the leaked update installed...running Go Launcher. But to be quite honest the Rezound seemed VERY slow compared to the Bionic. I tried opening & closing apps quickly on both phones trying to get a forced close...neither phone FC's but the Rezound was slow to recover from each app closing & opening. Plus the Sense launcher seemed to take up a lot of the screen real estate. The phone felt good in my hands though & the screen was colorful but too saturated for my eyes. . IMO the Rezound is a good phone but I feel the Bionic AND the Razr (I compared it to my Bionic too) are better phones. But for me the Razr is just WAY too thin! I feel if I put it in my front pocket & squatted down that the glass on the phone would crack.

 

[tgyberg]

That's a good review. I agree on just about everything you said except on the screen. I just got back from comparing my Bionic to the Rezound and IMHO the Bionic won hands down! Yea I'm rooted with the leaked update installed...running Go Launcher. But to be quite honest the Rezound seemed VERY slow compared to the Bionic. I tried opening & closing apps quickly on both phones trying to get a forced close...neither phone FC's but the Rezound was slow to recover from each app closing & opening. Plus the Sense launcher seemed to take up a lot of the screen real estate. The phone felt good in my hands though & the screen was colorful but too saturated for my eyes. . IMO the Rezound is a good phone but I feel the Bionic AND the Razr (I compared it to my Bionic too) are better phones. But for me the Razr is just WAY too thin! I feel if I put it in my front pocket & squatted down that the glass on the phone would crack.

I agree! To me, the Bionic is still the best overall phone on vzw right now. I've had it for 60 days and I'm still so impressed with it.

 

[jntdroid]

One constant though, I keep coming back to the Bionic!

What's weird is just about every aspect of the Rezound says "I'm better" to me - yet somehow the Bionic keeps calling me back... Don't know if it's Moto nostalgia or what, it's weird... phones, they're just phones. :icon_eek:

And yes, the VZW guy was wrong. If you have both phones, and they've both been previously activated on your account, you can pop the sim back and forth all day, as has already been said. And for what it's worth, this is what I've found on the SIM cards:

Verizon Corporate: free if you activate it in store
Best Buy / VZW indirect retailer: $20
Target/Radio Shack: $10

Just FYI

I think it will be noticeable.

I agree - I think the HD will help, but colors will still be oversaturated

 

[luckybadback]

Nice review. I too was/is a big fan of my DX. Hard to find a better device that has held up so long and can still handle newer apps. Cheers

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