Upgrade to Droid X or wait for Thunderbolt

[Chillout]

I just checked my Verizon account and it looks like I can upgrade to the Droid X over my current first gen Droid, at the discounted price. I'm thinking though do I upgrade to the Droid X or wait for the Thunderbolt. I've been jonesin for an X since they came out but...

Are there any rumors of the shelf life of the X?

I've been running my droid for nearly 2 years now, rooted, and it's been great overall.

 

[sugarnova]

I went ahead and got the DX and don't regret it at all. I came from an HTC phone (Evo) and I don't know if I'd go back to one. My Evo was nice, but it had the light leakage and screen separation issues and the battery life SUCKED. Even with a giant extended battery, I only got a workday out of my Evo. The DX still has a 60% charge when I go to bed at night with its slim extended battery. My opinion is, I wouldn't hesitate to grab a DX, unless you want to wait for the Bionic.

 

[Chillout]

Yeah I've heard great things about the X, plus I know I can root right away. Since there are always issues with new phones I may end up with a lot of headaches.

 

[Speeding Wheels]

I upgraded from a D1 to a DX 2 weeks ago and dont regret it at all.
I'm still running it stock, havent really seen a reason to root it yet... it's plenty fast and aside from the stock apps that cannot be removed there really isnt much a custom ROM can do that I cant do with it stock.


The X can be found much cheaper through alternate sources rather than VZW.
I got mine at Costco with the accessory pack for $50+tax.
Dell has it right now for $20.. wirefly is $20 as well I believe.

Just check out the retailers before you buy.. no reason to pay $150-$200 from VZW when you can find it for less elsewhere.

 

[Chillout]

Good call wheels, I'll check out some local retailers here and see what they have. Im really thinking I'm just going to go with the X at this point. I know the Thunderbolt has been rumored for weeks now, even months, and my luck it will take another 3 months and I'll get a lemon..lol

 

[echonaut]

Just last week I upgraded to a Droid X over an original MotoDroid. I debated it for a while, due to the fact that the X has been out for 6 or 7 months at this point, plus the locked bootloader -- I loved being able to load all sorts of new roms on my MotoDroid.

That being said, I'm a huge fan of the Droid X. I was considering the Thunderbolt, but after a bit of research I began to realize that the Thunderbolt is using year-old tech that has had a slight upgrade. (RAM, and the CPU was *slightly* upgraded; it's really just the same thing as the EVO with some relatively superficial improvements.)

Then there's the issue that, overall, Motorola makes handsets that are of a far superior build quality than HTC.

I'm incredibly disappointed with HTC's offerings. I bought the DX off-contract (on Craigslist for a bit more, but still, $300 for an un-used DX + dock isn't too bad) so that I'll be able to upgrade maybe in another year or so.

 

[tlozano09]

Your Joking right???

why would you buy a phone that is over half a year old when i brand new phone is about to come out???? the droid X2 is right around the corner so if you want a phone that is going to quickly get forgotten about get the droid x. I love my x but man if i was in your shoes i would get a thunderbolt! no brainer bro

 

[hemorrdroid]

I started on the D1, loved Swapping ROM's out on it. X came out, i loved the huge screen, eventually got one. Really missed being able to put a REAL ROM on it. With the locked bootloader, the "ROM's" are really just themes. I gave my wife my DX about a month ago, and am currently using her old D1, feels good to be back, and can't wait to have something as open as the D1 with a big screen.

If you like going beyond root, and actually ROM'ing with lots of ROM's available for you to choose from, wait it out. Even if you didnt want to do that, at least the 2nd gen processor and the xtra ram would be a great asset, not to mention 4g when it is available in your area.

The TB will be out within a month, it seems like forever, but it will pass.

 

[Chillout]

@tlozan I got my gen 1 droid a few months after it was released and have been quite happy with it. It's been overall pretty solid for me, and of course being rooted the possibilities are limitless for roms. Most of the major bugs were worked out when I got mine. So not having the most epic up to date is nice but not a prerequisite.

So the rooting with a droid X is just basically a theme then? Not really a performance upgrade, being able to remove the stock apps, etc.?

 

[echonaut]

I started on the D1, loved Swapping ROM's out on it. X came out, i loved the huge screen, eventually got one. Really missed being able to put a REAL ROM on it. With the locked bootloader, the "ROM's" are really just themes. I gave my wife my DX about a month ago, and am currently using her old D1, feels good to be back, and can't wait to have something as open as the D1 with a big screen.

If you like going beyond root, and actually ROM'ing with lots of ROM's available for you to choose from, wait it out. Even if you didnt want to do that, at least the 2nd gen processor and the xtra ram would be a great asset, not to mention 4g when it is available in your area.

The TB will be out within a month, it seems like forever, but it will pass.

Calling the ROMs for the Droid X "just themes" is absolutely incorrect. They change the fundamental functionality of the phone. The only difference is that they don't change the kernel -- and really, those "custom kernels" that you can install on the original MotoDroid don't actually change that much. They mostly just change the voltage on the kernel, as well as adding one or two modules (such as modules required for wifi tethering). Actual functionality of the kernel remains unchanged between so-called 'custom kernels.'

@tlozan I got my gen 1 droid a few months after it was released and have been quite happy with it. It's been overall pretty solid for me, and of course being rooted the possibilities are limitless for roms. Most of the major bugs were worked out when I got mine. So not having the most epic up to date is nice but not a prerequisite.

So the rooting with a droid X is just basically a theme then? Not really a performance upgrade, being able to remove the stock apps, etc.?

No, the ROMs for the Droid X change everything about the phone, except the kernel. And, as I previously mentioned, the different kernels don't change that significantly. There are a few kernel-level changes that ROMs such as CyanogenMod require, which is why CM can't be ported to the Droid X. Currently, I'm running Liberty 1.5 on my DX, and everything about the phone is changed -- it resembles a 'Google Experience' phone, since all the Blur apps are stripped out of it. Liberty is a nice option because it does allow you to install the Blur apps (such as the BlurCamera -- which I much prefer over the stock AOSP camera) as an option.

EDIT: You can also overclock the DroidX just fine. Milestone Overclock, on the Market, will overclock the DX just fine, without any custom ROMs required.

 

[coltzfan]

I had all intentions of keeping my D1 until the Bionic came out, but when I found out that I will not have 4g coverage in my area until the END of 2013 it made no point for me to spend the money on a 4g phone so that is why I went with the X and am very happy about that.

 

[Chillout]

I run Liquid GB on my droid now and before that Liquid FY and both have very solid with a lot of customizable options. Im overclocked to 1ghz max on my gen1 with the Liquid and since the DX has a 1ghz standard, changing the kernels isn't anything I'd worry about anyway.

I mainly root to get of the stock BS apps installed, and just have the additional functionality and customizing options...that and Im just a bit of a tech geek anyways.

So rooting on an X is indeed an "upgrade" so to speak vs just themes? ok cool!

 

[echonaut]

I run Liquid GB on my droid now and before that Liquid FY and both have very solid with a lot of customizable options. Im overclocked to 1ghz max on my gen1 with the Liquid and since the DX has a 1ghz standard, changing the kernels isn't anything I'd worry about anyway.

I mainly root to get of the stock BS apps installed, and just have the additional functionality and customizing options...that and Im just a bit of a tech geek anyways.

So rooting on an X is indeed an "upgrade" so to speak vs just themes? ok cool!

One last comment about the DX -- even at stock speeds, the DX is significantly faster than the original MotoDroid, even when the MotoDroid was overclocked to 1ghz+. One thing that I've noticed about the Droid X is that I rarely ever get the home screen 'redraws' that plagued my original Droid. I attribute that to the fact that the DX has twice the amount of RAM as the og Droid.

 

[Chillout]

I had a lot of redraw when I was running bugless, man that drove me nuts. I did find a workaround to ease the pain but it still sucked. I don't get too awful with the droid running Liquid now but not having any or significantly less would be awesome!

 

[phishfi]

If you can stand to wait, just hold off and get a dual-core phone. Nvidia is going to do everything to make their tegra processors worth the wait...

Sent from my "Stock" DX