How long did your smartphone last?

[zoom-zoom]

Wise move!

BTW, there must be a lot of charging issues with the Droid. A friend of ours couldn't get hers to charge with any charger. Then when I was waiting around for help at the Verizon store I was behind a couple who was also having issues with their Android phone not charging. Perhaps these are all one model that's having the issue. I forget which phone my friend has...I want to say it's the X or 2 or something. One of the larger ones with a slide-out keyboard.

[ny biker]

So, back to this thread. I've managed to make my HTC Incredible last, and I've had it for about 25 months now. I go through the running apps several times each day to clear cache and clear data/force stop the ones that Verizon insists on running automatically even though I never use them.

But, yesterday I noticed the power cord was frayed near the plug that goes into the phone. My father is going to wrap it with electrical tape, but this is just a temporary fix. I see no point in investing in new accessories, so I'll be getting a new phone shortly.

I really don't need a giant screen. 4g would be nice. I don't really want to spend lots of money.

I have decided against an iphone -- I just really want to have navigation based on google maps on my phone. So I'm looking into Motorola phones. The Droid Razr Maxx gets good reviews but is expensive and big. The Droid Bionic and regular Razr also get good reviews and are big. The Droid X is only 3g but is cheap and reviews say it's fast and it's a bit smaller than the 4g phones. The downside for all of them seems to be poor photo quality, specifically re: color reproduction.

Anyway, I'm heading to a store to look at them now, though I'm not buying anything today.

[smittykitty]

If your problem really is just the cord, I would go buy a new charger. Incredibly they seemed to have standardized for now and all of the phones are using the same size charger!!!! About time! So you could get a new charger and potentially use it when you have to upgrade.

We have both 3 and 4G is our house and their is no comparison. The 4G is really, really fast!

I've got the original Droid, 2 1/2 yrs olds. The battery is doing great. Ms. Droid gets a little tired when I try to multitask with it (ask her to do too many things in a row). I think its the memory filling up. Its a bit frustrating when I'm in a hurry and it doesn't want to do anything for 30 sec. or so. Somewhat like this laptop! (Gee I'm complaining about waiting 30 sec. What a world we live in today!)

Its not bad enough to replace it yet, but I've done a bit of looking and if she were to give up the ghost today, I would get the Razor Max for the battery life. I'm in no rush because of the size, cost and I'm too busy right now to learn a new phone. She does make me want to toss her across the room sometimes though! I wish she would either behave herself and live on or just die so I could then justify the expense.

I find the camers good enough for quick pics. I have a DSLR for anything else.

[OakLeaf]

That's right, Incredible uses a standard micro USB cable. Same as a Kindle or a lot of cameras.

Mine is hanging in there too, and now that I see how freakin big the new phones are, I REALLY don't want to replace it. Supposedly HTC's 4G phone that's coming out this summer will be a little smaller than its competition, but still bigger than the Incredible and Incredible 2. I literally can't fit another millimeter in my running vest.

I guess that's what we get instead of a new 17" MacBook - everybody has to have 17" phones.

[ny biker]

I was wearing a red shirt today and a took a photo of it with one of the Droid phones and it looked okay. Of course my regular camera is not working right anymore, so I need to get a new one of those, too. But that will have to wait until after I replace the phone.

The Razr Maxx costs $100 more than the Razr, but since the batteries are not removable, you have to replace the phone when the battery loses it's ability to hold a charge. So maybe the Razr Maxx would last longer before you reach the point of needing to replace it.

I need to go back to a store with my bike bag to see how the Razr/Maxx fits in it. But it seems like they're pretty much the choice at this point in time if you want something from Motorola through Verizon. The Bionic would cost less but the guy at the store said the battery life is not good so I'd want to get a better one (the battery is removeable on that model).

[ny biker]

Well alrighty then. I ordered a Motorola Droid Razr Maxx today. It was only $199 at Radio Shack -- $100 less than I was seeing last week, so I figured I needed to jump. And after having to nurse the battery of my old phone this weekend while the power was out, I figured it made sense to pay for the extra battery life.

It fits in my current bento box (the LG Gel Box 2), but with not much room for other things. I am going to look into the LG Gel Box Plus. I can't find any dimensions for it online except for "40 cubic inches," which doesn't tell me if it's long enough. I had to cancel my planned trip to the LBS this weekend due to the storm (they still have no power, two days later), but soon I'll head out there to get more info and hopefully buy it.

Anyway. I'm oddly not happy about my purchase. All the press reviews are great, customer reviews are also very good, though there are some potential problems that I read about. I just really would rather not need a new phone right now. I like the user interface of the Droid Incredible and was happy with most things about it. I just don't like having to go through the apps that I can't uninstall to constantly delete data from them. I also resent the forced obsolescence in this product category.

And then there's the change in Verizon's calling plans -- I'm now paying the same amount of money for limited data that I paid for unlimited data before. And they charge a $30 "upgrade fee" even though I'm not really upgrading anything. It's like they want you to be unhappy by the time the purchase experience is over.

I did spend some time playing with the new phone today -- I had to go to Verizon Wireless to do that, but they're located in the same shopping center as the Radio Shack, so it was easy enough. It got hot pretty fast, which I hope is not typical. I was able to type some texts, enter data into the address book, do some google searches, take some pictures, etc., to get a feel for the phone. It will take time to get used to the different interface, but I hope it will be okay.

Anyway, the new phone should arrive in a few days, though it may be Friday or Saturday before I have time to take it to Radio Shack to activate it.

Meanwhile, I guess I will have to re-download the apps that I like on the old phone when I activate the new phone. I could try storing them all on the sd card and using the same card in the new phone, but I don't know if that will work. Switching from one brand to another, I assume there will be some incompatibilities. They say they can transfer my photos and videos to the new phone, but I think it's easier to just transfer them to my pc and let them live there. Most of them are already on the pc already.

I'll post my thoughts on the new phone when I've had a chance to put it through its paces, in case anyone else is thinking of buying it or a similar Motorola model.

The adventure continues...

[Miranda]

DH just got that phone and broke it about a month after.

Somehow we accidently got checked outta the Verizon store with insurance on his line. Which I don't normally get and don't want to pay for every month. However, it saved us paying just the insurance deductable, versus a whole new phone retail. Btw, it was dropped and I think part of the breaking was due to the fact it's so thin.

Personally I just got a new smart phone as well. My old Droid Incredible died (wasn't 2yrs old yet, couple months short). Just about like yours. And frankly I was happy to see it die. I hated a lot of things about it since day one. And wanted the iPhone to start. But Verizon was just short of getting the iPhone at the time my cell before that died.

So far I love my iPhone.

With Verizon you do have 14 days to exchange and or change your mind. And when you originally posted this you could have also upgraded early. You just need to check you eligibility date. Thinks it's up to six months early.

ALSO, you could have possibly kept your unlimited data package and gotten it grandfathered. That's what I did. I don't know how because I thought I was going to get screwed out of it. But, I didn't.

FWIW... Good Luck!

[ny biker]

DH just got that phone and broke it about a month after.

Somehow we accidently got checked outta the Verizon store with insurance on his line. Which I don't normally get and don't want to pay for every month. However, it saved us paying just the insurance deductable, versus a whole new phone retail. Btw, it was dropped and I think part of the breaking was due to the fact it's so thin.

Personally I just got a new smart phone as well. My old Droid Incredible died (wasn't 2yrs old yet, couple months short). Just about like yours. And frankly I was happy to see it die. I hated a lot of things about it since day one. And wanted the iPhone to start. But Verizon was just short of getting the iPhone at the time my cell before that died.

So far I love my iPhone.

With Verizon you do have 14 days to exchange and or change your mind. And when you originally posted this you could have also upgraded early. You just need to check you eligibility date. Thinks it's up to six months early.

ALSO, you could have possibly kept your unlimited data package and gotten it grandfathered. That's what I did. I don't know how because I thought I was going to get screwed out of it. But, I didn't.

FWIW... Good Luck!

As of June 28, the only way to keep unlimited data is to pay full price for the phone, which is more than $600.

I have read that the screen is fragile, but also that it's the same glass as an iphone, so I don't know how concerned to be about it.

I think mostly the problem is that I don't want to need a new phone. I had my old (not smart) phone for 5 years, and the one before that lasted for years also.

I played with my sister's iphone but really didn't like the interface.

I don't remember if I mentioned this already -- I did think of a good reason to have a phone with a larger screen. As my eyes get more and more far-sighted, it should be easier to read things on the larger phone. I just hope they stop with the current sizes instead of making them even bigger. Otherwise we'll be back to carrying bricks.

[ny biker]

OMG. I generally want to support businesses that sponsor cycling teams, which is why I checked the Radio Shack site to see what they were charging for the phone I wanted, and it was a good price so I bought from them.

But I am more than paying the difference in aggravation. It is a nightmare dealing with these people.

Update: The terms of this sale are unacceptable, and were not given to me when I made the purchase, and their service is horrible. I'm returning this phone to Radio Shack.

Update 2: OMG these people are idiots. The return authorization number they gave me on the phone is different from what they sent in the confirming email. So now I have to call them AGAIN.

They actually make Verizon Wireless look good!!!!!

[OakLeaf]

First generation Droid Incredible owners, beware the latest firmware update.

There's a bit of reassurance in these threads, but since I only applied the patch yesterday and experienced the 2 a.m. reboots for the first time last night, I can't say whether mine is going to be one of the ones that finishes up and settles down.

[Blueberry]

Read this (termination fees from Radio Shack) and make sure you don't get bitten.

Good luck - I hate dealing with cell phone stuff.

[OakLeaf]

It was my only lifeline when the electric, DSL and landline went out. (We don't have cable, but that was down too.) I could charge the phone in the car on water and ice runs - otherwise we'd have been completely cut off at home.

Another good reason to have phones from multiple providers in a household. The AT&T towers went down (metaphorically, not physically) so my Verizon phone was our only connection to the outside world at home. Weather, which stores were open and had ice, what roads were closed, special notices from the emergency services, which gas stations were open and still had gas (we'd luckily filled up right before the storm and didn't need gas, but many people did - and the car was our only way of getting water) - none of that would've been accessible to us without my phone.

Other reasons to have a smartphone have been rehashed ad infinitum in other threads. But I have a new appreciation for their value in an emergency situation.

[ny biker]

Read this (termination fees from Radio Shack) and make sure you don't get bitten.

Good luck - I hate dealing with cell phone stuff.

Yes this is why I returned the phone immediately. I asked what would happen if the phone broke, and they said I would have to either buy my next one from them or pay them $400.

I sent a letter with the returned phone to explain that the people on the phone gave me one return authorization number but the email had a different one, just to be on the safe side. They processed the return quickly. My guess is they have lots of practice handling returns!!

Now that the return is done and Verizon reinstated my upgrade qualification, I will buy the new phone from them, probably tonight.

update: New phone ordered from Verizon, expected to arrive in 2 business days. Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly and that I like the new phone.

Next project: trying to figure out why I get so attached to inanimate objects just because I've had them for a while. Because I'm still wavering between looking forward to the new phone and feeling oddly sad about getting rid of the old one. I can be so weird sometimes...

[ny biker]

So, some initial thoughts about my new Motorola Droid Razr Maxx, for anyone else who might be in the market for a new smartphone...

Physically -- I think the phone is too big. At 5'7", I am not a small woman, and my hands are not small. But even with a textured case on this phone, when I hold it in one hand I feel like I don't have a secure grip on it because it's just a bit too wide. Also when writing text messages with the phone sideways, the keyboard is a bit bigger than I would like for thumb-typing. And if I want to carry it in the front pocket of my jeans, I'm lucky if half the phone is inside the pocket, so I'm always worried about it falling out.

If you do have small hands or want a smaller phone for other reasons, I don't know what your options are for smartphones. Iphones, I guess, and I noticed the new HTC Incredible 4 is smaller than the Droid Razr and Razr Maxx. The latest hot new thing from Samsung (Galaxy III? I can't keep track) is even bigger than the Razr.

<rant> It makes me really angry that so many of the phones on the market are so big. They are all clearly designed by and for men. </rant>

Another issue I have with the physical phone is the buttons. The power button wiggles and feels like it might break off the phone. (From reading the android forums, I'm not alone in feeling this way, though no one has complained about the button actually breaking off.) It's also too recessed -- I have to press it several times to wake the phone up or put it to sleep sometimes. Same with the volume rocker -- when I try to adjust the volume while talking on the phone, I can't always press the rocker from the right angle to get it to respond, so I have to move the phone away from my ear to adjust the volume.

I should note that I'm using a Motorola case for the phone. So the case might be contributing to some of the problems accessing the buttons, but with an officially sanctioned case from the same company that made the phone, that shouldn't happen.

There is one other issue I'm having with the phone -- my primary email address is with aol, and the built-in email app has known issues with aol mail. I first set up my account by choosing the aol icon from a list of common email providers, but I found the phone never updated my email. So after several days I deleted the account and set it up again by following the steps for a generic provider, and since then it sometimes updates automatically, sometimes updates if I hit the refresh button, and sometimes won't update at all.

Now, on the positive side, the battery does last longer than other phones (I generally get > 24 hours on a charge, despite a fair amount of game-playing which tends to eat the battery). The screen resolution is excellent and it does work faster than my old 3G phone. I think the added speed is both from 4G and from having a dual-core processor -- my brother has an older 3G Motorola phone and he told me that its dual core processor made it faster than his previous 3G phone.

In general I found it very easy to set up and personalize the phone with the shortcuts and widgets that I want on the various home screens. There are a couple of handy toggle shortcuts for turning on GPS, Bluetooth, airplane mode and stuff like that so you don't have to go through the settings menu to access them.

I did have problems when I transferred my contacts from my old phone via Verizon's backup assistant, but I don't know if that was the fault of Motorola or Verizon. In my old phone, you chose how to display each contact name when you entered or edited it, and for most I chose "last name, first name," but for some I used the default "first name last name" either because it wasn't relevant (for a business name) or because I just forgot to change it. When all of this transferred into the new contacts app, most of the names were messed up, with last names in the first name field and vice versa. So I had to go through and manually correct most of them.

Once those corrections were done, I created some contact groups, which was very easy to do. And on this phone there is one setting for name display that applies to all contacts, so it will be consistent for me now.

I haven't had much chance to use the camera, but it's easy enough to do. I like the slider switch that makes it fast to switch from still photos to video. It's also easy to switch between front lens and back.

As for the actual telephone functionality, I have no complaints -- call quality has been fine so far.

I copied some music to the phone from my pc, which was easy enough. HUGE BONUS: while listening to songs on the phone's music player, it displays the lyrics. Since I like to learn songs and sing them to myself while I ride my bike, this is very helpful for those lines that I could just never figure out on my own.

There are some other features of this phone (and maybe others from Motorola) that I either haven't had a chance to play with or see no point in using. For example, Smart Actions can be set up to automatically make changes to phone settings for things you do often, like turning off background data and phone volume while you sleep. And Motoprint allows you to print documents directly from your phone. And something called Motocast will sync with your pc so you can access video and music from one to the other, but I don't really see that as being useful for me.

So in general I'd say it's a good phone. I think the HTC Incredible was better from a physical standpoint, but the Razr Maxx is generally better in terms of software.

p.s. There's a lot of good information on the android user forums about maximizing the phone's battery life, as well as dealing with various issues that might crop up. In particular, the phone comes with the Gingerbread version of the operating system, and I've read that many users have had to do a factory reset after installing Ice Cream Sandwich to fix problems with shortened battery life.

p.p.s. I still don't have a bento box that is large enough for this phone. I can squeeze it into my LG Gel Box 2, but it leaves no room for anything else. I've ordered an LG Gel Box Plus, which is larger than the Gel Box 2, but it's on backorder.