Verizon: Nexus/Rezound/Maxx

[flamewalker]

I'm overdue for an upgrade... been limping along with my D1 on Chevy's latest steeldroid... it has breathed a little life back into it for the time being.

I love the idea of the Nexus... the ability to easily root and mod and even get the next version or 2 of Android guaranteed, or more. I've read battery life is decent too. Price is still high though ($250 through bestbuy since I signed up for the $50 credit during February). I know Samsung usually makes good hardware as well.

I love the idea of the massive battery of the Maxx... as I live in an area with poor reception, but work most of the day in the City nearby that has great reception. My concern of course is the battery... I had to replace the battery in my D1 before my 2 years was up because it wasn't holding enough charge. It would drop from like 40% to 10 in a matter of an hour or two (depending on usage). I don't like the inability to hack it as much... as I have really enjoyed tinkering with my D1. I don't HAVE to mod, but would prefer to be able to, especially since Moto is crazy slow on upgrades. On the flipside their hardware is top of the line, which is also very important to me. Price is high.

I have read some good things about the Rezound. Good price ($199), great sound, decent battery but sometimes problematic. Top of the line screen quality/resolution. HTC can be unresponsive on upgrades as well, from what I have read, however it is unlocked, is it not? I read one article that described the Rezound as essentially a great middle ground phone the unfortunately has been largely overlooked.

So, my order of needs would be:
#1: Call quality, clarity, and ability to maintain calls. That's what a phone is for afterall, is it not??
#2: Reliability. Hardware and battery.
#3: Mild to moderate usage for 8-10 hours minimum, on LTE
#4: Ability to customize/hack/mod
#5: Price (mainly will determine how long till I can afford to upgrade ).

I usually won't root my phone for the first year to maintain the hardware warranty, and avoid the expensive monthly warranties. However I have read its usually possible to fully unroot, so I may end up rooting sooner this go around. The main reason I rooted my D1 was the lack of upgrades.

Looking forward to your input! I'm so ready for a new phone... just really torn on which one! FYI, leaning more towards Nexus or Rezound at the moment...Nexus more than Rezound by a small margin, mainly due to the hackability. The locked bootloader bothers me more than anything about the maxx...

 

[dezymond]

I have no problems with any of your needs with my Nexus.

I can't speak for the other phones, but with my time with the Rezound it was a great phone (wasn't able to judge call clarity though). I do hear alot of Rezound people recommending the extended battery though, HTC is notorious for having bad battery life. The Maxx I haven't seen yet, but that's a good choice as well.

 

[wolfman4u]

I am fairly familiar with all 3. I would say you need to figure out what features are most important and weigh them. I love my Nexus and a good friend has the rezound and we argue alot. (for fun) Both are happy with our phones. Another friend (he used to work for verizon) is a Motorola lover. He got the maxx but he isn't very technical and isn't sure what rooting is. I am envious of his battery life. But such is cell phone life.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

 

[flamewalker]

I am fairly familiar with all 3. I would say you need to figure out what features are most important and weigh them. I love my Nexus and a good friend has the rezound and we argue alot. (for fun) Both are happy with our phones. Another friend (he used to work for verizon) is a Motorola lover. He got the maxx but he isn't very technical and isn't sure what rooting is. I am envious of his battery life. But such is cell phone life.

Hows the call quality on the Rezound? I don't care about the beats thing cause I don't use my phone to listen to music. Good to know about the Nexus. That's the reason I am reluctant to get the Maxx even though the battery is amazing... I like to tinker - I'm an IT guy by trade

Thanks!

 

[Snoking]

I got my Rezound for 99.99 during the discount week end of Feb. Sold the beats for 60 and D1 for 85 on CL. Loving the Rezound. Today my Nite Ize CCCT-03-01 tall belt carrier/case showed up. Fits nice with gelcase installed on phone. LTE screams! Battery is OK. I had installed CM7 just before Christmas on D1 which really improved it, however I would not want to go back after being Rezounded! I liked the size and feel of the Rezound the best. Razr was not good to hold. NG seemed to large! D4 was not released at the time. I am just going to wait for OTA ICS. Drives mount slowly on my XP PC. PDANET works after delay to mount phone.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using DroidForums

 

[flamewalker]

One of the reviews I read last night said their rezound seemed to have better call quality than the nexus. Seems like from everything I read the only real advantage of the nexus is native ics... that and the fact the nexus is practically guaranteed the next upgrade or two.and the ability to load custom roms out of the box. Otherwise they seem pretty similar. Seems its going to boil down to ICS and upgrades vs price...

 

[ChevyNexus]

Gotta disagree flame walker your forgetting Nfc.

Also I have to say , since my friend got the rezound with extended battery, I still beat him on battery life. If my comp hadn't crashed I'd of rooted, rommed, an got a better radio for even more stellar battery life.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

 

[wildride89]

Seems as if alot of us are in the same predicament. I'm torn between the rezound and the nexus. I like the enthusiasm from the development crowd for the nexus but I like the look and feel of the rezound. I'm not sure about how much dev are liking the rezound.
I'm due for an upgrade in 2 weeks and ready for a new phone. Is there another great smartphone on the horizon worth waiting for or should these two make due?
Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

 

[flamewalker]

Gotta disagree flame walker your forgetting Nfc.

Also I have to say , since my friend got the rezound with extended battery, I still beat him on battery life. If my comp hadn't crashed I'd of rooted, rommed, an got a better radio for even more stellar battery life.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

Honestly I could care less about nfc... I don't like the idea personally. When you say better radio, you mean updated/tweaked firmware for the nexus? And when you say you beat him even with the extended, about how many hours do you get out of your nexus, and on 3g or lte? Mild, moderate, or heavy use?

Thanks!

 

[__DROID_DOES__]

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx

I'm a Moto Fan so I'd have to say the Maxx, BUT if it is 4.0 you want, hold off for the Fighter real easing on the 12th It is supposed to be like a DROID RAZR MAXX HD with a 720p display and on-screen-buttons with ICS preinstalled.

 

[1tfrot]

Hows the call quality on the Rezound? I don't care about the beats thing cause I don't use my phone to listen to music. Good to know about the Nexus. That's the reason I am reluctant to get the Maxx even though the battery is amazing... I like to tinker - I'm an IT guy by trade

Thanks!

it's really good. love mine so far. I know squat about rooting and such so mine will always remain stock. battery is really good on it as well. looked at all of them and ended up with the rezound.

I'm more of a need it to work really well as a phone and the other stuff is just extra cool stuff type of person

 

[flamewalker]

Well after keeping my droid in near new condition, just a couple nicks and dings over the last 2 years, I dropped it twice on the asphault over the weekend. Thought it survived... realized later there is a chip in the bottom left corner and a spiderweb crack in the lower right corner. Everything still seems to work, but if that crack in the lower right spreads, I may be in for a new phone sooner than I was hoping

Honestly I was seriously considering an iPhone, but after my girlfriend upgraded to an iphone over the weekend, it just feels so small compared to say, the Rezound, and especially the nexus.

Still very torn between the two... but I think for me it may come down to price and urgency/need if/when my phone does finally give up the ghost. Since you can unlock the Rezound, and the price is more in my ballpark, I'm leaning towards it at the moment. If the nexus comes down in price by time I'm ready to upgrade, will make it a much harder choice! Too bad moto is all locked up nowadays... I do like their hardware

 

[TisMyDroid]

I love my Maxx on all fronts. Have not rooted yet because I have not felt a need to (unlike other Androids I have had). I think one of the things I am must pleased with is the call quality, reception and have not hit any dead areas yet (I live in a very rural area and other phones have had trouble getting a good signal). In the Razr forums there are threads of people getting advice on Gnex compared to Razr because of their frustration with call quality on the Gnex. Those that switched were very happy they made the switch and didn't seem to mind not having ics. Check out those threads. It may help you with your decision.

Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX using DroidForums

 

[jntdroid]

I've owned all three and used all three extensively in an area where 4G is very solid and strong. Here's how I would answer your original post based on my experiences:

#1 - Call Quality / clarity / "holdability"
I'd rank them Rezound/Maxx as a tie, Gnex in second. I've actually had a few dropped calls on the Gnex, nothing on the Rezound or Maxx. Call volume/clarity is about the same, to me, on the Rez/Maxx - both are great. My Gnex is not bad on the the sound by any means, but not as good as the others.

#2 and #3 - Reliability, hardware/battery, 8-10 hours on LTE
Obviously the Maxx is #1 in the battery department. I personally felt the Rezound was a solid second place in this list. It "idles" very well, has a solid extended battery (mugen) that doesn't add bulk, and I could pretty easily get through a day on it - for me a day entails some 3G, some 4G, and some wifi. The Gnex can be tweaked to be usable, but if you want 8-10 hours, on LTE the whole time, you aren't going to make it on the Gnex, most likely anyway.

#4 - ability to customize/hack/mod
You ranked this #4, but after reading through some of these posts, I think it might need to be ranked higher for you. :tongue: Obviously the Gnex wins out here, the Rezound a close second, and the Maxx 3rd. The Maxx has more to it, out of the box, with some solid tools like Smart Actions and Motocast, and is easily rootable (so if you know what you're doing, you can still customize quite a bit). But it'll be more difficult to do custom ROMs safely (lack of a true custom recovery), and obviously no custom kernels. Though it's pretty easy to restore it with rsdlite... *fingers crossed* that Moto will eventually go the way of HTC, but I'm not holding my breath.

#5 - Price
The Maxx will be the highest priced right now b/c it's the latest/newest. The Rezound has already been dropped once I believe, as has the Gnex (depending on where you're looking).

For everything you've said so far, I'm going to guess that the Rezound might be your best bet.

 

[TisMyDroid]

Here is one of the threads of those that switched from the Gnex to the Razr... http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-razr-maxx/202996-gnex-razrr-maxx.html