Motorola DROID 4 XT894 Release Thread

[FAUguy]

Please use this thread to discuss the Motorola DROID 4 XT894.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...edPhoneId=5845

http://developer.motorola.com/products/droid-4-xt894/

Here is John's Unboxing:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Motor...boxing_id26717
and Benchmarks:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Motor...-tests_id26718

[jo_Ny]

After watching the first quick hands on videos I don't unterstand the whole non removable battery yet removable backcover plus the weird tool supplied situation. What is up with that "solution"?

Check this review for a display vs razr comparison in the first minutes.

[kbman]

I am deciding if I want to run right out and buy this phone like a mad fool or wait a few days for some user reports to come in.

It is definitely the phone I have been waiting for since the advent of LTE on VZW, but all of the delays and disappointments with Moto of late have taken their toll on my enthusiasm.

It is still the best device in it's class available now, dual core LTE with keyboard.

[jasaero]

What was the deal with Susurro claiming it had a better display? Most reviews that mention anything about that are claiming it seems to be the same RGBW Pentile LCD variety as X2, D3, and Bionic and not improved at all really. I really can't quite figure out why Motorola can't just go back to a display type like the OG Droid in a larger and Higher resolution format?? Samsung seems to be refusing to produce them a similar grade AMOLED to theirs and they don't even seem to be using the nifty proprietary stuffs of their own like Nokia does on their AMOLED. And if these reviews are wrong, what was improved if it seems just as shoddy as D3 which I have verified on my own was quite sub par.

[TC_Mits]

Pretty much the whole story is here:

.

I am deciding if I want to run right out and buy this phone like a mad fool or wait a few days for some user reports to come in.

It is definitely the phone I have been waiting for since the advent of LTE on VZW, but all of the delays and disappointments with Moto of late have taken their toll on my enthusiasm.

It is still the best device in it's class available now, dual core LTE with keyboard.

.

After watching the first quick hands on videos I don't unterstand the whole non removable battery yet removable backcover plus the weird tool supplied situation. What is up with that "solution"?
...

.

What was the deal with Susurro claiming it had a better display? Most reviews that mention anything about that are claiming it seems to be the same RGBW Pentile LCD variety as X2, D3, and Bionic and not improved at all really. I really can't quite figure out why Motorola can't just go back to a display type like the OG Droid in a larger and Higher resolution format?? Samsung seems to be refusing to produce them a similar grade AMOLED to theirs and they don't even seem to be using the nifty proprietary stuffs of their own like Nokia does on their AMOLED. And if these reviews are wrong, what was improved if it seems just as shoddy as D3 which I have verified on my own was quite sub par.

I am with kbman, except I know that I will wait awhile. The D4 is a good phone with some serious but well known question marks & drawbacks:

For me, the non-removable battery is the #1 potential deal-killer. Not so much because of the frequency of charging as due to concerns about being able to fully reset the system especially if something should go awry while rooting, etc. A new phone doesn't often need battery pull resets; but over the life of the phone it becomes more of a problem, perhaps in connection with accumulating malware. My DX since the 605 OTA requires a *quick* battery pull reset a couple times a week. I simply don't trust a reset that gives malware 10 seconds to finish up before shutting it down -- in a gigacycle/sec. computer, that's an eternity.

The LCD pentile display is less critical to me than to some. It's not the design so much as the small size that I have trouble with. If the Note had an SD card I'd be chomping at the bit -- and I don't even know if it has a KB. It seems odd, though, in the rage of anorexia, that the inherently slimmer OLED technology wasn't used. I suspect the costs involved in the new battery tech plus the keyboard required a sacrifice there.

When the D4G MAXX arrives, if LG, HTC or some maker doesn't step into the vacuum before then, I may just break down and do the bogo on that...


Perspective instantiates reality.
( By DX w/HoFo app. )

[geekmomof3]

What was the deal with Susurro claiming it had a better display? Most reviews that mention anything about that are claiming it seems to be the same RGBW Pentile LCD variety as X2, D3, and Bionic and not improved at all really. I really can't quite figure out why Motorola can't just go back to a display type like the OG Droid in a larger and Higher resolution format?? Samsung seems to be refusing to produce them a similar grade AMOLED to theirs and they don't even seem to be using the nifty proprietary stuffs of their own like Nokia does on their AMOLED. And if these reviews are wrong, what was improved if it seems just as shoddy as D3 which I have verified on my own was quite sub par.

I am certainly out of my league to attempt to respond to this, but does this blurb from Slashgear (http://www.slashgear.com/motorola-dr...view-10212961/) have anything to do with it?

"The display here is a massive 540 x 960 pixels on 4-inches of space, putting this device at 275 pixels per inch. That’s quite impressive when it comes down to it, it being not quite as rich with pixels as the Galaxy Nexus (at 316 ppi) but certainly ready to contend with the DROID RAZR whose same resolution sits on a slightly larger display, putting it at just 256 ppi. At this close range you wont notice the difference unless you’re holding these devices up next to one another, but the difference is there."

[TC_Mits]

From another thread:

Folks...I need to pull the trigger on either a Droid 4 or a Maxx pretty soon. However, the non-removable battery seems like a source of pain in the future.

Let's say I go for a Droid 4. Sixteen months into the contract the battery starts to crap out. If I put it on a Amex card, they'll pay UP TO the initial cost of the phone ($300). But Verizon tech support tells me today that the phone battery can't be replaced, you have to replace the entire phone ($600?+).

Has anyone yet tried to replace a battery in any of these non-replaceable battery phones? Any thoughts on how to get around the possibility of having to shell out big bucks just because of a bad battery in 18 months?

thanks!

Mike Nassour / Austin TX

Interesting wrinkle...

Perspective instantiates reality.
( By DX w/HoFo app. )

[Extraordinary]

Once again, just like the Razr and Razr Maxx, this one has a non-removable battery... except you can take the back cover off and see it right there??

That's a deal breaker for me. I like being able to remove my battery. If I could remove it, I would most likely buy 2 Maxx's and 1 D4.

[jo_Ny]

Regarding a possible upcoming extended battery. If you look at the back of the D4, on the right side of the battery, you can see 4 pins. Is it possible that they are related to this?

About replacing a non-replaceable battery phone, I saw earlier that someone at xda managed to replace the original razr's battery with the razr's maxx one.

[demarco5]

bought the phone this morning because i cant live without a keyboard
only thing horrible on this phone is the screen, when you scroll the text/font becomes blurry and ugly
for gmail app for instance a slow scroll and it looks like all the font is dripping wet, terrible

[jasaero]

I am certainly out of my league to attempt to respond to this, but does this blurb from Slashgear (http://www.slashgear.com/motorola-dr...view-10212961/) have anything to do with it?

"The display here is a massive 540 x 960 pixels on 4-inches of space, putting this device at 275 pixels per inch. That’s quite impressive when it comes down to it, it being not quite as rich with pixels as the Galaxy Nexus (at 316 ppi) but certainly ready to contend with the DROID RAZR whose same resolution sits on a slightly larger display, putting it at just 256 ppi. At this close range you wont notice the difference unless you’re holding these devices up next to one another, but the difference is there."

Sorta, but not really. It's the difference between RGBW LCD and RGBG AMOLED. RAZR is RGBG AMOLED and that is not as bad to many as RGBW LCD's. The RGBW can look as sharp as RGBG at the same PPI, but RGBW creates hatching patterns in flat color spaces that don't bother many as they are very uniform screendoor sorta looks that can be mistaken for a deliberate style rather than false reproduction that they are. Also something about video just doesn't look so nice on RGBW. It's nuanced stuffs in the end that doesn't bother some, but REALLY annoys others. No matter how you cut it though nonPentile looks FAR sharper at the same PPI than pentile of any variety pure and simple. Basically requiring more PPI on pentile displays to become perfectly sharp to most eyes at most distances than nonpentile. I would be happy with qHD displays upto around 5" probably if they were nonpentile. With pentile though I find the GNex's 720p is needed for the levels of sharpness I prefer to see.

bought the phone this morning because i cant live without a keyboard
only thing horrible on this phone is the screen, when you scroll the text/font becomes blurry and ugly
for gmail app for instance a slow scroll and it looks like all the font is dripping wet, terrible

Then there is this also. I noticed this on pentile always also, but it bothered me a bit more when I tried the Bionic for a week than just checking it quick in the store, but the screen door affect in flat colored areas I knew should look flat like they would on my OG is what really forced me to return it after just one week and not even bother with a second. Weirdest part of the screen door stuffs is that as the week progressed I noticed it less and less as it seemed my brain would "fix" what my eyes could see plain as day. Everytime I would realize this fact while being wowed by the performance of the Bionic compared to my OG though I would revert back to seeing the screen door. My brain shouldn't need to "fix" what my eyes are seeing as I had never needed such a thing on my OG I concluded and returned the phone and am now uncertain if I will ever own a Moto again even though I really think I liked my OG better overall during it's first month than my keyboardless GNex.

[FAUguy]

Here's Johns full Review:
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Mo...-Review_id2959

[demarco5]

exactly how does an og droid from 2 years ago not do it, but this phone does

[jasaero]

exactly how does an og droid from 2 years ago not do it, but this phone does

The OG Droid was a standard pixel display with only 3 colors for each pixel. Pentile uses 4 colors for "more" than one pixel sorta. So from a sub pixel count perspective Pentile have less subpixels, but the resolution the graphics card has to drive is the same. My guess is that Pentile LCD is WAY cheaper in achieving various performance objectives and pretty sure RGBG AMOLED is similar but more forced once you get to certain subpixel sizes and PPI's. Brightness/Power is the biggest performance parameter that can be increased with RGBW LCDs. You either need more battery or less brightness on a standard pixel LCD to match a Pentile LCD. Overall display quality is better across the board though. I am guessing at the same brightness and most optimized efficiency points the Pentile is also much cheaper since it's using more of a "trick" to get get brightness while saving power by using white non color filtered light in bright areas. With a standard pixel LCD to increase brightness without increasing power too much you have to get the crystals to let more light through while still filtering out all but one of the three primary colors. That sorta optimization I am sure requires more costly processes in creating optimized crystal structures to accomplish such a thing.

[kbman]

Keyboard is fantasic...it is finally what it should be. I can type very quickly without looking and make very few if any errors.
The screen does look better than the D3 despite being the same size.

It will take me a couple days to make any real assessment but i am not disappointed...except in my ability to resist buying another phone!