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I've climbed a cellphone tower
I am waiting for Winston or russell to confirm the specs. Silence can mean just that.
Phone Collector
It really is a shame. The Targa done right would have been THE phone to have in '11. Especially with all of the OG Droid early adopters coming up with upgrades.
The way it stands now though, I guarantee you that whoever puts out a real vanilla Android beast on VZW will take that crown this year.
Pentile. You've got to be freaking kidding me.
Smartphone Addict.
I've climbed a cellphone tower
Yeah, I figure it's pretty much a given they are pentile with some of the commentary such as "go check them first hand before you knock them". The DPI wouldn't even be NEARLY as high as the iPhone4 even if not pentile, but I think qHD is enough it should look just as sharp to most, but the fact these displays ARE pentile and are a good bit larger than iPhone4 make them obviously less sharp than the stupid "Retina Display" that probably really is overkill unless it was maybe a 4.5-5" device.Originally Posted by ronaldheld
I just want another phone from Motorola that takes a leap like the Droid. I really wish Motorola would just focus on maybe 2-4 smartphones and make them as good as they can be. Which would mean it's ALWAYS obviously superior to any existing similar device when introed. Have the Droid(Qwerty) one, Droid X/Bionic(Thin no keyboard, but similar to the QWERTY otherwise), and one or two more value oriented devices. Then deal with operators like apple does for the top two devices(This is the design, it's as good as you can get today, take it or leave it). Basically none of the extreme hardware customization from one operator to the next.
Build that Motorola brand, on your hardware, rather than letting operators dictate it. And really I think the way ALL the Android hardware building manufacturers are trying customized UI's that there is a lot of room for someone to try and scale back expenses there and feed them to the hardware side. When you don't have to spend much on software other than to get good stable android builds, I think you could really stick it too all your competitors on the hardware side. I just feel a lot of STUPID cost saving decisions are being forced on the hardware side because of the amount being invested into software than NO ONE actually asked for. The first Android manufacturer to take this as their approach will become my primary phone supplier, it's as simple as that. Right now though all we get that I really want are the devices that are dictated pretty heavily by Google.
OK, enough complaining. Figure I will be waiting for the Droid Charge samsung Galaxy SII based replacement to replace my OG Droid though. Pretty sure that will happen not too far off the Bionic anyhow as Samsung seems to have pushed out these single core SAMOLED+ devices just to offer an interim answer between Galaxy series releases. If it goes like 4G did on the tablet side, I wouldn't be surprised to see Samsung have a Dual core 4G before Moto anyhow AND it will have a far superior screen. If I CAN'T get the extra sharpness, I would rather have the extra contrast and more vivid colors even if they might not be quite as accurate. Shoot, might even have some HTC with some TRUE qHD Super LCD and dual core in the same time frame as Bionic really as those are starting to hit now also.
Please Moto, quit being a One or Two Hit Wonder!
Where's the power button?
I think they just like to toy with us with this phone. Getting kind of frustrated with it
Phone Collector
Man, pentile displays sure to get people's dander up, don't they?? Personally, I don't see why such strong emotions for a display technology. The PPI of a 4.3" qHD Pentile display is virtually identical to the PPI of the OG Droid's 3.7" display. I know, I know, fewer sub-pixels but that is not what we are talking about.
The real question is: How does the 4.3" Pentile do in the REAL WORLD and how does it compare to the OG Droid (IMO one of the best phone displays still out there) and to the SAMOLED+ on the Charge? So, off to my local VZW store I went to check these 2 displays out next to my trusty OGD:
My opinions after an extensive first look at these 2 phones:
A. The OG Droid - maybe one of the best displays you can still see on a phone. I really don't think the Retina display has much of anything on this bad boy.
The positive: Almost everything. Accurate colors, almost no dot pattern no matter how close you look, bright whites. Just a great looking display.
The negative: Only thing I don't like is performance in bright outdoor conditions. It is very hard to see and read the display even with the brightness all the way up.
B. The Motorola Droid X2 qHD Pentile display. Sorry, but I have to say that this is a very nice display. Not quite up to the OG Droid, but very good none the less.
The Positive: Bright, man is this thing bright. I didn't even check to make sure it was turned up all the way and it was very bright. Made my OGD look like it was at 50% brightness when it was all the way up. Text on a white background also looked very good no matter how much I zoomed in. From a normal viewing distance (about 10") any dot pattern was virtually indistinguishable. Most colors also looked very accurate to me. Holding the screen next to my OGD on the same web page the colors looked very close from one to the other.
The negative: Okay, yes there is a dot pattern that you can see. The closer you look the more you can see it. If you also zoom in to maximum on something with a solid tinted color it is pretty obvious. Like most people have said it is worse on solid backgrounds, especially green ones. From a normal viewing distance and page zoom I could make it out on some objects, but not all. It was very hare to see on Pictures and video, because they are usually not large areas of a single color . These looked very very good. Right up there with my OGD.
There was also a cool bluish caste to some medium gray colors. This surprised me a little as most colors looked very accurate to my eye.
C. The Charge - this is a very nice display but I don't see why everyone holds it up as the most amazing thing they have ever seen.
The positive: very nice resolution. Right up there with the OGD for not being able to make out any dot pattern at all. Very good color saturation, however this is also a negative to me for this display.
The negative: I had to check and make sure that the brightness was all the way up several times on this phone. Also checked to make sure the display Power Save feature was disabled twice. The whites looked down right dim on this thing, almost a light gray color. Holding next to my OGD looked like the brightness setting was all the way down.
Colors - to my eye they are over saturated. I know that most people like that and, when they see bright saturated colors they go "WOW," but to me they were almost garish. Also, the mid grays appeared to have a bit of a yellow-brown caste to them. Not significant, but it was there.
If I had to rank them the OGD is way out on top - it's the best of almost everything. If it was more visible outdoors then I would consider nearly perfect. Give me that display in a 4.3" form factor with the same PPI and I would buy it in a second.
The Charge SAMOLED+ and Moto qHD pentile I would actually give almost a tie to. They each have pluses and minuses. Personally, I think the Moto qHD would bother me less in the long run than the Charge's SAMOLED+ because of the great brightness of it and the overall better color accuracy. However, that opinion is after spending about 15 minutes with each display. I might change my mind after a couple days or weeks but I don't think so.
So pentile is not, in my opinion, the devil that everyone makes it out to be, just like SAMOLED+ is not the holy grail that some people espouse it to be. How a display looks and whether or not it's deficiencies bother you or not is a very personal thing. What works well for me may make someone else cringe and vice versa. My point: Don't listen to the information, and in some cases misinformation, about any display technology. Biases are formed for a variety of reasons that may or may not have to do with the actual technology. Go and look for yourself because, as far as I can see, there is no phone with a 4.3" display on the market that is vastly superior to any other.
I've climbed a cellphone tower
Technically I think they blew it pretty big with Bionic at this point.
If the Bionic came out in the same time frame as the Thunderbolt and Charge as it seems it was supposed too it would have been a sorta OG Droid like moment for Moto. By the time it ACTUALLY shows up, even with the tweaks it gets by being Targa rather than what was initially shown as Bionic, isn't going to be quite enough to really overshadow the competition of the moment and might be seen as somewhat inferior to some intros in the same time frame.
In the August/September time frame I am pretty sure it will just be ANOTHER dual core LTE device. It will probably even be somewhat successful. I will even admit that as far as LCDs go even Moto's qHD are probably better than HTC's SuperLCD from a contrast and brightness perspective in a lot of cases. I just would prefer the extra sharpness if they are going to BRAG about a qHD display. Really though Moto NEEDs a HUGE screened MINIMUM bezel, no soft button Ice Cream Sandwich 720p HD 16:9 4.5-5 screened phone by they end of the year or EARLY next year. Or atleast be the first to do such a phone with a QWERTY. Something like this could be their next Droid. Would also need an extreme low light 5mp cam.
Sorry for the long winded posts, I am just REALLY unsatisfied with the choice of Moto phones to replace my OG droid as I am now eligible for my first VZW upgrade. I need 4g as I have that in my area and technically I would like the best screen, cam, and processor possible. I would LIKE a QWERTY phone will all of these also, but Droid 3 is 3G only. If Droid 3 was LTE it would probably suffice just by being QWERTY even if some of the other aspects were at the top. Got my wife the Droid Charge already, but I would like Dual Core myself.
I've climbed a cellphone tower
This is basically my take also, BUT my BIG problem is that I want a 4.3" display with an obvious advantage over my OG Droid now that it's two years out. qHD on a 4.3" size go my hopes up this might be the ticket. Also, iPhone4 "retina display" although a bit of overkill for such a small screen IS noticeably sharper than the OG Droid without much examination and is pretty similar in most other aspects. Basically I think 2 years later we should get 4.3", equal and preferably better DPI since we have the extra processing power for it, and a bit better brightness and contrast. And to me displays on phones are usually just a cost/quality decision. Anything less in anyway than the OG Droid was a cost cutter/margin increaser in my opinion. They need both now that they are investing MORE THAN EVER in BLUR. That's why I get worked up. It's not that the competition has anything better so much as that it's pretty equal and available at the same time or sooner while some aspects are a bit of a downgrade from the OG droid(DPI) for no GOOD reason.
Basically Moto has always been good at throwing out a somewhat revolutionary device here and there, but has always failed to build on that success or identify whats need to stay ahead after that and I just feel they are kinda doing the same here. I think with the Android focus and experience making wonderful hardware they COULD challenge Apple instead of having to team all Android vendors to compete with Apple sales wise. To do that though EVERY device has to be as ahead of the rest as the OG Droid was from a hardware standpoint. I understand you won't always get the latest Google Android release like we did with OG Droid. The hardware should do that though.
A lot of this is a timing thing also. Bionic should have hit earlier. Even OG Droid got sorta overshadowed by subsequent Android devices pretty quick, but it retained it's status by being a google device and the first out the gate. Instead of focusing on Blur and other nonsense moto should be focusing on replicating what they did with Droid.
Phone Collector
You are assuming that the qHD display somehow costs less... It may, but it also may not. I work for a company that manufacturers and sells products for the commercial print market. Decisions almost always have many factors with cost being just one of them. The fact that most casual users will not mind the pentile display "drawbacks" and that the brightness of the technology is amazing while actually being less hard on the battery are also, in my mind, key factors in this decision. Personally I don't think it is nearly as bad as most people on these forums make it out to be and I would have no problem using it as my everyday phone. That said, other than outdoor visibility it is a step back from the display of my OGD.
Mobile Pro
Some of the articles I read a while back addressed this in stating the manufacturers are trying to further differentiate their Android phones from competitors with a customized UI. I can understand their thought process behind this, but I have to slightly disagree with them if that's accurate. There is a lot a manufacturer can do with the hardware, form-factor, and looks to differentiate. However, I will concede to the notion that the average buyer will make a purchase decision more on how much prettier the UI is than other features or even build quality.
I think the manufacturers are trying to prevent what's happened to the PC market. The average Joe can't tell the difference between the 100s of different models and the sales reps couldn't explain it either. NewEgg is pretty much on the mark with their Ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYk0dQrz3uc
I agree with you that I would much rather them make a phone with high build quality and a stable, clean OS. Take the development money put into that customized UI and instead put some of it into the hardware and the rest into making the OS as stable as possible.
I know a lot about somethings and enough about most things, but not everything on everything.
Phone Collector
They need to make built-to-order phones. There has got to be a big market of us phone nerds who would love that.
I've climbed a cellphone tower
That would be nice, but how much more than full retai price would it be? Seems uneconomical for one who upgrades a phone every year or so.
Phone Collector
It wouldn't cost that much more to add some on-board storage or better screen resolution. Maybe they'd make a bare-bones version for a bit under what they go for now, and add $25 for more storage and an extra $50 for better screen, etc.
Phone Collector
in regards to the pentile screen, im pretty sure the majority of customers that motorola is targeting prefer better battery life.. so in most cases they arent "ruining the phone"
you tell the average consumer that the samsung charge has a super amoled plus screen or tell them it has the best screen, and to them that means very little. you tell them that the bionic is the 4g phone with the best battery life and now you have their attention, then you can add that it also has the fastest processor of the 4g phones
of course i do not know if the bionic will have the best battery life, but going by motorolas track record i am assuming it will
Phone Collector
Saw the HTC Sensations qHD and it's a lot better than Motorola's. What a difference.
Phone Collector
I'm yet to hear of a smartphone with even decent battery life. We should all be used to having to have a charger at work and charge our phones overnight. Not really that huge of a deal unless you're a long ways away from an outlet and don't have a car charger or spare battery. And that brings me back to my point about batteries needing to evolve into something that stores more in a smaller space.
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