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Incredible 2 or Droid Charge ?

I just got a Thunderbolt about 2 weeks ago and am fed up with the poor battery + occasional random reboots(already tried everything and still not satisfied)... so since I'm still under Best Buy Mobile's return policy, I'm thinking of taking it back and getting either the Incredible 2 or the Droid Charge this thursday.
I primarily use my phone for mobile data(internet browsing, downloading) followed by watching videos/games, then lastly actual talking. I'd like something decent where I can watch a movie on it or do some web browsing/music/games a bit before going to bed and not have to worry if the phone's still going to have power when i get up the next morning.
I do like the bigger sceen on the Charge, but the Incredible seems to have a bit more RAM(granted the Incredible will not have LTE capabilities but they won't be offering LTE service in my area for some time anyway).
What do you guys think?

voxigenboy said:
I just got a Thunderbolt about 2 weeks ago and am fed up with the poor battery + occasional random reboots(already tried everything and still not satisfied)... so since I'm still under Best Buy Mobile's return policy, I'm thinking of taking it back and getting either the Incredible 2 or the Droid Charge this thursday.
I primarily use my phone for mobile data(internet browsing, downloading) followed by watching videos/games, then lastly actual talking. I'd like something decent where I can watch a movie on it or do some web browsing/music/games a bit before going to bed and not have to worry if the phone's still going to have power when i get up the next morning.
I do like the bigger sceen on the Charge, but the Incredible seems to have a bit more RAM(granted the Incredible will not have LTE capabilities but they won't be offering LTE service in my area for some time anyway).
What do you guys think?
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Click to collapse
Incredible 2. I don't trust Samsung, plus the Charge just looks ugly. The Incredible 2 (aka Incredible S) is also being released in other countries in a GSM flavor, so updates should be quicker anyways.

I would think the Incredible 2 will overall be a much better experience and I think it's cheaper.

Yeah Incredible 2. If you aren't going to have LTE in your area anytime soon, why bother? they pretty much have the same specs, except for screen size and some other things. Plus the inc 2 is a world phone, so if the need arises, you can take your phone with you around the world. Plus htc sense is a lot better than samsung touchwiz in terms of custom overlays. HTC has a better track record in quality, and software updates. You should be fine with the inc 2. I have the OG inc, and it is an awesome phone. I can imagine the inc 2 will be just as good and better.

Neither one.

Definitely the Incredible 2 that phone looks so awesome. To bad your not with T-Mobile the Sensation is going to be amazing and its going to have 1080p video recording along with Sense 3.0!

Well I read it somewhwhere that you can switch back to a 3g phone from a 4g sim card. I guess once you move your number to a sim that's that. So you might have to get a new number but I'd go with the incredible 2. Awesome home keys that turn with you turn the phone. Gl
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I'd go with the Inc 2. I'm a bit surprised VZW granted a Samsung phone the "Droid" moniker.

droid charge! i dont like htc, poor battery life :/

I'd go with the Inc2, I have the Inc and it is simply incredible (pun intended). The battery life on the stock ROM wasn't great but after rooting it I have it setup to give me a good 12-14 hours of uptime and I have the same usage as you except roll in a heavy work schedule that I use my phone for also.

The Droid Charge is $300. Totally not worth it.

Product F(RED) said:
The Droid Charge is $300. Totally not worth it.
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Click to collapse
Best Buy Mobile is doing it for $249... so when i take the Thunderbolt back tomorrow it would be a straight swap.
i suppose with the Inc 2 being $199 that's an extra $50 back for all-you-can eat sushi! õ_Ô

voxigenboy said:
Best Buy Mobile is doing it for $249... so when i take the Thunderbolt back tomorrow it would be a straight swap.
i suppose with the Inc 2 being $199 that's an extra $50 back for all-you-can eat sushi! õ_Ô
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Click to collapse
I mean the upside is it gets free Mobile Hotspot, but then again you get that from rooting...

The question should be Fascinate or Charge... No point in paying $100+ more for a worse screen and GPU.
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have you tried the radio update found in the developers section? it fixed my issues and you dont have to be rooted to do it.

I would say go with the Inc2 as it looks very nice and I have heard noting but good things about it! Besides, the Charge is going to have an encrypted bootloader and that is going to prevent you from being able to do much as far as rooting and ROMing is concerned.
Kratos

I have the droid charge and i most say it worth every penny. Screen is awesome, battery life 10x better the htc senseless, and I'm not just throwing shhh out there because I own the thunderbolt as well and I pick the charge.

king kratos said:
I would say go with the Inc2 as it looks very nice and I have heard noting but good things about it! Besides, the Charge is going to have an encrypted bootloader and that is going to prevent you from being able to do much as far as rooting and ROMing is concerned.
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Where are you getting this FUD? No Samsung has an encrypted bootloader. It's the Inc that's locked down: the GSM version has been out for months and still doesn't even have permanent root!

droid charge! i dont like htc, poor battery life :/

Samsung droid charge?

Kind of new to xda and the Android community.
First smart phone was a dx,now a thunderbolt.
There has been so much talk about the next few phones to come.
Gingerbread and so on.
Today at work here, a Detroit news paper.
This guy is showing off a Verizon Droid charge.
This phone I didn't even hear about until the spot in the paper.
No specs on CPU but 4g , 282 min battery tested with YouTube.
Android 2.2 froyo still.
Front and back camera, 8 megapixel.
5 inch tall, 5 ounces.
$299. With a two year.
No inner specs listed.
The rumors about droidx2 on the 12th were false.
Then the rumor switched to the May 25.
Now in the paper the Droid charge, Samsung by the way.
It's getting hard to keep the facts and rumors straight.
A special note I thought was special anyway.
The phone is running 2.2 froyo.
So I think gingerbread may still be A ways off.
Mark w smith.
"The bottom line if your looking for a 4G smartphone,there is no better option then the Droid charge"
His words.
Any thoughts.

Well if you have a thunderbolt then you know how poor the battery life is on it. Compared to the Charge the battery life of a the Charge is suppose to be way better. The Charge is skinned. I dunno why they continue to do that, I've played with the Charge it's nice, but I don't know if I like it enough to trade in my Thunderbolt for it.
The DroidX2 is real and I believe it came out today or tomorrow. but its lacking 4G as well as a front facing camera... no surprise there really isn't much changes from the first DroidX

rooting the Thunderbolt is not easy but once you do that you can get into the uniy and tweak the rom and kernel which will improve battery and overall performance. The Thunderbolt is a great phone but for the locked bin, etc

Out of all those phones. I'd probably go for X2, it seems too nice to pass up, even without 4G, it really depends if LTE is available where you live.

Dx2 is just too much like the original droid x. Think the bionic would be better option with its front facing camera, 4g lte, and totally different design.

Please convince me/unconvince me lol

I have a thunderbolt right now... Im going to get getting rid of my girlfriends iphone so we can lock her in the 4g unlimited plan. She likes my thunderbolt so thats what she will probably get. Now i'm thinking about switching over to the charge but i'm having a hard time. I hate sense but I hate touch wiz even more. I like the fact that the thunderbolt has 2 aosp roms to choose from but the gummy rom I just saw for the charge looks pretty good. Help me decide please!

My contract has been up for a few weeks, I've been researching phones vigorously to find the best one and so far my conclusion is
#1: Samsung Galaxy S2
#2: HTC EVO 4G/3D
#3: Droid Charge
#4: HTC Thunderbolt
Galaxy S2 is a BEAST of a phone, only problem is there is no US release date as of yet, and even worse there is no US Verizon/Sprint/T-Mobile/ATT release date as of yet...
HTC EVO 4G/3D are great phones, I personally didn't look too far into them since they aren't on Verizon but you can look up their specs to see if they are in your ballpark
Droid Charge is my personal phone of choice, i WOULD get the GalaxyS2 but we aren't seeing a release date(it's expected in July-September but I can't wait)
HTC Thunderbolt was an obvious contender if the Charge was on the list but I've heard of a lot of problems with this phone such as rebooting issues, battery issues etc.
so the verdict? Droid Charge if you need/want a phone now, Galaxy S2 if you can wait(I'm not psychic but it's pretty obvious that phone is going to be HUGE, which in turn means great support from the developers & tons of easy root methods)

There's several threads along these lines that you should check out, so skim through the section and read them, even the one about "learning to hate the Charge" or something like that...you'll get plenty of pros and cons and TB vs Charge comments in those, but since I feel like whining about my Charge I'll jump in here. IF you don't read my whole post, at least check out the last paragraph, you might like the idea.
IF, and that's a big IF, the Galaxy S II ever comes to Verizon or ATT with an LTE radio, I'll be all over it once it's rootable, but since you're up against the expiring unlimited data offer, there's just the two to choose from (Charge, Thunderbolt).
I have both, and it's still a tough call for me on which I prefer. So many pluses, and so many minuses on both.
If I had to choose one right this minute to toss away, I think it would be the Charge, though. The Charge has got about the best damn display I've ever seen on a phone. iPhone 4 is sharper, but smaller, and the Charge blows away the iP4 in the contrast and inky blacks department.
The Charge is lighter than the TB, by a very noticeable amount. It's arguably got better battery life, but seriously, you won't be happy with it either. If you're in a spotty 3G area, the Charge seems to have exponentially better battery life than the TB, but in a solid 4G area, they both suck. I haven't spent enough time with both in a solid 3G area to compare yet.
The Charge's screen seems scratch proof without protection. Mine rides naked and has no mars. It fell out of my pocket on the leg press machine the other day and the front hit the metal bar on its way down. No damage to the screen but a small nick in the bezel (which is soft plastic). The Thunderbolt is a scratch magnet- treated mine with kid gloves, but no protection, and it's still somehow managed to get two nasty gouges in the screen.
The Sammies are pretty good at playing any media you throw at them, not so sure about the HTCs.
The Charge's hardware buttons at the bottom are pretty nice; I didn't think I'd like them, but once you get past the cheap plasticky feel, they're a solid competitor to the capacitive ones.
Those are about the only major plusses on the Charge for my usage.
Major minuses include a laggy as heck phone unless you do the voodoo ext4 conversion AND install the Gummy ROM. VooDoo alone, debloating, using different launchers, etc, did not fix the lag on the Charge for me. Gummy seems to have for the most part, but there's still an occasional sluggishness on waking the phone or switching some apps.
The plastic is cheap feeling compared to TB. It's a big issue for some.
There's no kickstand on the Charge. I know I'm not alone in thinking this is one of the coolest, most obvious enhancements to a phone to have. One of the big Android blogs, Android Central I think, made a blog post along those lines just recently.
There's no Gingerbread yet for the Charge, but there is (unofficially, anyways) for the TB.
You mentioned you hate Sense, but with the BAMF Sense 3 ROM I am in love with Sense. It's the slickest thing I've seen on a phone for a launcher and some cool widgets. I've been a CM7 and Launcher Pro guy for all my Androids since the N1 once CM7 became available, but for the TB, I think it will stay Sense on mine for quite a while.
We might see more activity with the Charge development-wise, it's still fairly new, but I believe that by the this time in the phone's life on the TB we had a lot more activity. We don't even have a full and proper ClockWork or Amon Ra recovery for the Charge yet. Imnuts has given us a pretty decent one, but you'll soft-brick (or worse) your Charge if you try to do a Nandroid restore with it, and unless I missed an update, you have to do a battery pull to reboot if you try a factory restore/wipe on it.
All that said, and my overall preference for the TB...why not grab a Charge and play with it for a while in daily use. GET IT AT COSTCO. You'll get locked in with the unlimited data plan, but unlike VZW purchased phones, you get 90 days to test drive the phone itself. 14-day right to cancel on cell plan still applies though. If you just hate the thing, you can go back and get the Thunderbolt, or better yet, by August or end of September when your 90 days is up we'll have some more choices (like maybe that oh-so-sweet Galaxy S II).

Thank you. I just got back home with a new Charge. Gave my girlfriend my thunderbolt. Now im trying to figure out how I root this on a mac?

You're gonna want gummy...the phone's a laggy turd with any variant of stock for me...YMMV.
Use Odin in a VMWare Windows box to flash the Imnuts Clockwork, then use Clockwork to flash the Gummy rom, which is pre-rooted.
There are plenty of tutorials around here on using Odin, so I won't bother explaining, but a good tip get the phone recognized in the Windows box while in download mode is to plug it in in regular mode first, wait for the virtual cd-rom that will open, then run the driver installer (all in the Windows box). Make sure USB debugging is off, or the virtual cd won't open.
You can try flashing Clockwork with Heimdall, but many of us can't get it to work on the Mac with the Charge.

My wife and I just got one. I rooted mine and I don't plan on rooting hers. When I try to go back from Gummy to the last touchwiz crap I want to smash the damn thing. This phone files once you get a good rom on it @ use the voodoo lagfix. My quadrant (doesn't really mean much, but FWIW) was around 800 before and 1700 after. The rom is still not perfect but it is miles ahead of stock.
Ohhh... do you self an favor and use a windows machine to root the thing. It takes half an hour if you know what you are doing.

Thank you. Yes I rooted and flashed gummy already. Huge difference!

It is amazing how much I hated this phone when I got it vs how much I love it after a Voodoo kernel and Gummy

It took me a while to figure it out, but once I got the voodoo kernel on my Charge, I tried the ROMs out and while Gummy is fast, I still think AC's Altered Beast ROM is the best. It might still be in its Alpha stage, but its crazy fast and looks very sexy. Gummy is definitely great right now, but I think once the Altered Beast is finished that will be the ROM to go to. If your looking for speed and looks, Altered Beast is a good way to go.
Also, where as the phone does seem to be made out of a cheaper material, I have also noticed that my screen seems nearly invincible. Plus it looks amazing.

Altered beast looks awesome but I love soap look I don't know if I can leave yummy... haha

cacash89 said:
Also, where as the phone does seem to be made out of a cheaper material, I have also noticed that my screen seems nearly invincible. Plus it looks amazing.
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Samsung definitely makes a damn good display, both in appearance and durability. I've never scratched a Galaxy S based phone... and I've had four of them.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
edit: edited ***** to both and been to never...sheesh the autocorrect on the phone is bad sometimes.

Went From TB to Charge
After having to many issues with the TB (4 of them) Verizon got me the Charge.
The Development for the TB is awesome and a ton of roms and kernels and themes to keep you busy for months, but I had quite a few reboots and cell issues and was about the same on all models. The Charge has excellent battery life on 3g sense 4g won't be on till July 21st for me. The Thunderbolt was good to with the right rom/kernel combo, but the Charge wins and also wins in the display department. Like another poster said the TB seemed to get dirty/scratched easy don't know why I had cases and screen protectors and never could manage to keep it looking good the Charge has yet to get any marks/ other then a cheap back that will proly wear fast, but then again can be replaced for $10. All in all I love both phones, but when it comes down to it I more then anything want a working phone which thus far seems to be the Charge.

If you're looking for a Verizon LTE phone now, the main thing is to not wait. Get a TB or Charge now and sell it later if you hate it. Its worth locking in the unlimited data before it goes away. I was wavering between all 3 LTE phones, as what I'm really waiting for is a Droid Bionic (in whatever form it finally comes in...) but at this point the unlimited data is more important to me than an extra core and some more memory. SAMOLED and battery life is what swung me from the TB to the Charge, but the TB seems to have a more lively dev community, not to mention much better dev support from HTC than what Samsung provides. Its all a tradeoff...

Any1 upgrade from Incredible?

Hey guys,
Currently have the incredible and love it but I need a bigger screen. Im due for an upgrade and like the charge. Would Anyone who upgraded to it from an incredible be down to post their experiences?
Thanks,
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession

bigsapz said:
Hey guys,
Currently have the incredible and love it but I need a bigger screen. Im due for an upgrade and like the charge. Would Anyone who upgraded to it from an incredible be down to post their experiences?
Thanks,
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on you want. There is not nearly the amount of roms to choose from as there is for the DInc, but the ones we do have are great. If I had an upgrade, and was in your situation, I'd wait for the SGS2 or HTC Vigor. The Charge is a great phone but I wouldn't use an upgrade on it considering what is coming in the near future. Just my opinion though.

I did this in a roundabout way in that I used the Incredible for a year before getting my Charge, but I didn't use an upgrade (one of my kids had the Fascinate, but since he doesn't live in a 4G coverage area, I replaced his Fascinate with my Incredible and appropriated the Charge). I can say that I'm much happier with the phone having gotten it for free than I would be if I had paid for it, but overall quite pleased.
The Charge has has better:
-Battery life (by around 40%)
-Screen (I had both the SLCD and OLED DIncs- SAMOLED+ blows both away)
-Usability (screen size is much better for typing accuracy)
-Multimedia experience- SGX540 trounces the rather dated Adreno200
-Audio quality- especially with Voodoo Sound
-Bootloader design- ODIN mode is great for recovering from ****ups
Things that really don't impact my opinion
-4G is incredible in theory- in practice, Google Music and Netflix could both stream just fine over good old EV-DO RevA, and for anything else I need to download I have home wifi and 25Mbit Comcast Xfinity, so it's still sort of unnecessary. It is cool to be able to say my phone has a faster broadband connection than my home.... I'm regularly seeing 30mbit down/6 up. I'm not using it as a hotspot as I don't feel like either shelling out or risking my service, and I will say that I'm using 3-4x the data on LTE than I did over 3G, with better battery life as previously mentioned.
-Overall usability- the Hummingbird is a tad quicker than the Snapdragon, but overall I always found the DInc to be a quite responsive phone- no problems with either
-Call quality- though the Charge has a dual mic setup, they both sound the same on my end. Hard to find fault with Verizon.
Things that I still have to hand to the Incredible
-I have the Charge in an Otterbox Commuter to protect its incredibly vulnerable back shell. While this gives it a great solid feel in the hand, it also makes it a bit on the difficult side to slide in and out of pockets. The DInc was a very convenient size.
-ROM selection is way better for the DInc- though, let's be honest, I didn't care about anything else once CM7 for DInc was out. Here's hoping it hits the Charge soon.
Final thoughts- rumor has it the Bionic could be out within a week, but even if that's premature it's certainly not more than a month away. The Galaxy S2 and HTC Vigor are also both right around the corner. The Charge is about to be replaced as a flagship model. My approval of it is tempered by the fact that I got it for free. You may want to hold off a bit.

I came from the Droid incredible as well and echo the posts above. The charge is an upgrade but at this point just wait for gs2, vigor, or nexus.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

I came from the Dinc which I treasured. The dev community was awesome for the Dinc but I love eclipse.
Not sure why you would wait for the sgs2, it may not have 4G.
And the Bionic is just a bigger droid 3 with 4G. Of course to each his own, and I personally saw the samoled+ and just had to have it. I could have waited for the bionic or sgs2 but why? Whatever phone you get, im sure you will love. Afterall, they all do just about the same thing.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

I upgraded from the Dinc a couple of months ago and I'm semi happy with my upgrade. The 2 main reasons to upgrade to this phone are the screen and 4G. I guess it depends how important those two things are to you. All the phones coming out in the next couple of months will probably have those two things AND have upgraded processors, RAM, etc. So if I were in your shoes, I would wait a couple of months to see what else is coming out.

I came from the Incredible and am in love with mCharge. Has the hardkey buttons and 4g. Plus the screen it was everything I wanted. Before I got the Charge I was considering waiting on the Bionic but I personally am happy with the choice I made.
Sent from my GummyCHARGED Charge using Tapatalk

MillionManMosh said:
I did this in a roundabout way in that I used the Incredible for a year before getting my Charge, but I didn't use an upgrade (one of my kids had the Fascinate, but since he doesn't live in a 4G coverage area, I replaced his Fascinate with my Incredible and appropriated the Charge). I can say that I'm much happier with the phone having gotten it for free than I would be if I had paid for it, but overall quite pleased.
The Charge has has better:
-Battery life (by around 40%)
-Screen (I had both the SLCD and OLED DIncs- SAMOLED+ blows both away)
-Usability (screen size is much better for typing accuracy)
-Multimedia experience- SGX540 trounces the rather dated Adreno200
-Audio quality- especially with Voodoo Sound
-Bootloader design- ODIN mode is great for recovering from ****ups
Things that really don't impact my opinion
-4G is incredible in theory- in practice, Google Music and Netflix could both stream just fine over good old EV-DO RevA, and for anything else I need to download I have home wifi and 25Mbit Comcast Xfinity, so it's still sort of unnecessary. It is cool to be able to say my phone has a faster broadband connection than my home.... I'm regularly seeing 30mbit down/6 up. I'm not using it as a hotspot as I don't feel like either shelling out or risking my service, and I will say that I'm using 3-4x the data on LTE than I did over 3G, with better battery life as previously mentioned.
-Overall usability- the Hummingbird is a tad quicker than the Snapdragon, but overall I always found the DInc to be a quite responsive phone- no problems with either
-Call quality- though the Charge has a dual mic setup, they both sound the same on my end. Hard to find fault with Verizon.
Things that I still have to hand to the Incredible
-I have the Charge in an Otterbox Commuter to protect its incredibly vulnerable back shell. While this gives it a great solid feel in the hand, it also makes it a bit on the difficult side to slide in and out of pockets. The DInc was a very convenient size.
-ROM selection is way better for the DInc- though, let's be honest, I didn't care about anything else once CM7 for DInc was out. Here's hoping it hits the Charge soon.
Final thoughts- rumor has it the Bionic could be out within a week, but even if that's premature it's certainly not more than a month away. The Galaxy S2 and HTC Vigor are also both right around the corner. The Charge is about to be replaced as a flagship model. My approval of it is tempered by the fact that I got it for free. You may want to hold off a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from the Incredible as well, and I echo everything this guy said. Although I did pay for the phone instead of free (lucky guy lol) I feel like it was worth it. I still use my Incredible (deactivated, but still works on wifi) just for random games and testing out custom roms because we all know the Inc has some great developers. Charge development is looking great too though and I can't wait to see the likes of CM7, MIUI, etc on this phone. It's not perfect, but if you convert from RFS to EXT4 it's really close.

DINC to Charge
bigsapz said:
Hey guys,
Currently have the incredible and love it but I need a bigger screen. Im due for an upgrade and like the charge. Would Anyone who upgraded to it from an incredible be down to post their experiences?
Thanks,
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I echo all the "good" comments as I came from the DINC a month or so ago. The only thing I miss is the LED that the "DINC used for letting you know it's charging. The Charge experience is a little different than the HTC experience but it just lets you know what else is out there.

I would hold out for the Bionic. I upgraded from Dinc to Charge because Verizon was changing their unlimited tier plans and I was afraid of missing the boat so I used my upgrade to lock myself in. The Charge was the best at the time but if you can wait until the Bionic comes out 9/8-ish I would. Dual core, 4G, 4.3 inch screen plus the ability to use the Motorola dock/laptop thingy (if you're interested) is a def plus. I can't remember RAM and storage specs but I think they beat the Charge as well.
One thing I did notice coming from Dinc to Charge was the snappiness of the ROMs. Once lagfix was enabled though it was pretty hard to distinguish the difference.

wenzer said:
I would hold out for the Bionic. I upgraded from Dinc to Charge because Verizon was changing their unlimited tier plans and I was afraid of missing the boat so I used my upgrade to lock myself in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do realize if you were already on an unlimited data plan, you were locked in?
Anyway to the OP. I came from the Fascinate to the Charge. I got in on the free exchange. The Charge is a great phone. I would say it's a Fascinate 2. I don't think I would have used (wasted) an upgrade on this phone. I think it's best to see what the Bionic, Vigor, SGS2 & iPhone 5 bring to the table. This is especially true when you consider Verizon did away with 1 year contracts.
On a side note, my daughter has a Dinc. She absolutely refuses to upgrade her phone. She says it's simply "Incredible". Lol.

Considering Galaxy S3 - Looking for owner input

I need a new phone. My Galaxy Nexus is shot... It was my first Samsung phone though so I'm a little gunshy due to the problems I have had. I am trying to decide if I should go with the Galaxy S3 or wait for the Motorola Razr Maxx or HD that is supposedly coming soon.
Problems I had with GNEX
Data Drops - known problem, I put up with it, but it was annoying. Data would drop and then take min to reconnect, sometimes few times a day
Screen cracked two places - First phone I ever cracked the screen, but much larger screen then I had before (Dinc). Phone still usable but annoying. Both phones I'm considering have the Gorilla Glass so I assume this wont be an issue
USB Charging port - the final straw, the port went bad. GNex sometimes thinks it is charging when not plugged in and switches every few seconds causing the display to come on constantly and kill my battery within two hours from a full charge. Other times I have to plug in and out just to get it to charge overnight. I know the USB board can be replaced but seriously, not putting money into this phone. I'm worried the GS3 has the same USB charging problem board???
Google Wallet - Verizon blocked it on GNex and GS3... I assume they will block on Razr??? I am rooted so I was able to install the APK but it was always hit or miss as far as using wallet... only worked about 50% of the time. It would connect but then say the transaction did not go thru. I really want to use NFC.
How does the rooted ROM community view each phone? Will the Razr have as many custom ROMs? I will Root whatever phone I get.
The Razr Maxx's aren't out yet so can't tell how they hold up... The GS3 worries me most with the USB charging port and the above issues I had with the Samsung line...
Any comments appreciated. I have an upgrade avaible now so I don't have to wait, but I can limp thru the day with the Gnex plugged in at work a lot so if the Razrs are worth waiting for I can... unless they're not expected till January, but they claim BEFORE the holidays so I assume November?
Also, are there any phones I'm missing? I liked the Dinc and HTC Sense (I know... I know... ) but no HTC phones seem to have NFC and the flagship is not avail on Verizon. I need to stay on Verizon. I will root.
Thanks,
Jim

First i must say the GS3 is MUCH better than the GNex and i haven't had any data drops so far, the screen seems fine but as always be careful with it. I can't say much about the port because i've never heard of that going bad on anything before. Now about rooting and custom roms. From what i can see the GS3 will have a wide arrange of custom roms and support for awhile. The Razr Hd and Razr Maxx Hd will get support but i doubt it will come near as much as the Gs3 as the Gs3 is much more popular than any other android phone. Google Wallet is also blocked on all Verizon phones. Also i personally think the Razr Maxx Hd looks awesome but i already got a gs3 so thats that. Hope this helped your decision.

calaski8123 said:
I need a new phone. My Galaxy Nexus is shot... It was my first Samsung phone though so I'm a little gunshy due to the problems I have had. I am trying to decide if I should go with the Galaxy S3 or wait for the Motorola Razr Maxx or HD that is supposedly coming soon.
Problems I had with GNEX
Data Drops - known problem, I put up with it, but it was annoying. Data would drop and then take min to reconnect, sometimes few times a day
Screen cracked two places - First phone I ever cracked the screen, but much larger screen then I had before (Dinc). Phone still usable but annoying. Both phones I'm considering have the Gorilla Glass so I assume this wont be an issue
USB Charging port - the final straw, the port went bad. GNex sometimes thinks it is charging when not plugged in and switches every few seconds causing the display to come on constantly and kill my battery within two hours from a full charge. Other times I have to plug in and out just to get it to charge overnight. I know the USB board can be replaced but seriously, not putting money into this phone. I'm worried the GS3 has the same USB charging problem board???
Google Wallet - Verizon blocked it on GNex and GS3... I assume they will block on Razr??? I am rooted so I was able to install the APK but it was always hit or miss as far as using wallet... only worked about 50% of the time. It would connect but then say the transaction did not go thru. I really want to use NFC.
How does the rooted ROM community view each phone? Will the Razr have as many custom ROMs? I will Root whatever phone I get.
The Razr Maxx's aren't out yet so can't tell how they hold up... The GS3 worries me most with the USB charging port and the above issues I had with the Samsung line...
Any comments appreciated. I have an upgrade avaible now so I don't have to wait, but I can limp thru the day with the Gnex plugged in at work a lot so if the Razrs are worth waiting for I can... unless they're not expected till January, but they claim BEFORE the holidays so I assume November?
Also, are there any phones I'm missing? I liked the Dinc and HTC Sense (I know... I know... ) but no HTC phones seem to have NFC and the flagship is not avail on Verizon. I need to stay on Verizon. I will root.
Thanks,
Jim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Spotty data and drops all over the place here... coming from all htc devices it's horrible... that being said.. the phone is very nice n fast but if u can't live with the crappy Samsung radios anymore I'd say wait.
Google wallet can be fixed via rooting.
Sent from my unlocked VZW Galaxy SIII

I live in an area where I have 4g LTE everywhere so I can't say anything bad about the radio cause I have no issues with mine nor did I have issues with My Gnex (as far as the radio)... I would say that Samsung makes THE most cheapest phones out there as far as parts and build quality but I still LOVE my phone for some reason.... Maybe cause it's just fast as hell and some of the downfalls don't affect me but I will tell you that you had better make sure that you get a solid S3 NEW cause if and when it does fail their refurbs are a JOKE and I think I am on my fourth Verizon refurb cause they keep sending me garbage but I finally have one that I "think" is going to be good minus the power button being loose as hell but I think every S3 I have had has a loose power button... Just know that the bootloader is unlocked and if you go to another phone it's gonna be locked until these kickass devs over here figure it out... And as far as development goes, I am in LOVE!! Sooo many options with my S3's and I don't see it stopping anytime soon... Read the forums and make a wise decision but I don't regret getting this phone I think I have just been cursed by Verizon.... Just please don't buy an iPhone.... LOL Have a great day!

Coming from a Droid X (rooted) to a GS3 (not rooted yet) can't really complain. In Phoenix coverage is very good, even along desolate hwy's and out in the desert far from anything. Just recently drove across country and used Sirius/XM 90% of the way and made a ton of calls. XM app only dropped out 3 times, in some very remote areas of hwy. Didn't drop a single call and sound quality was good, even traveling at 75 mph. Sent a lot of SMS with Pictures taken along the way, all w/o problem.
Will say that inside of buildings here in PHX, I do see slightly lower signal strength than my Droid X. It's not a deal breaker as the structures I'm talking about are old and mainly steel and concrete. Took a short period of time to adjust to the TouchWiz, but it's no more difficult than any other manufacture tweaked OS. The phone definitely does not have the "built US strong" feel, kinda flimsy. I could drop the DX and not worry too much. This phone I spent a few extra $'s for a stronger case.
Overall, I'd say it's a good phone for now until something better comes along. Could be worse, gotta co-worker with an LG that drives him nuts. He's gonna need therapy one day.

Haha no iphone for me. Wife has one but I wont go over to the cult. Thanks for the replies so far... Seems people like the Samsung but it still has problems that make me worry. I'm tempted to wait for the Razr just too see them both but I think the GS3 has some better specs... I live in northern NJ outside nyc so very good coverage but my nexus still just periodically losses all connections and has to reconnect... Four replacements makes me nervous....
Jim

Xmeoff said:
Coming from a Droid X (rooted) to a GS3 (not rooted yet) can't really complain. In Phoenix coverage is very good, even along desolate hwy's and out in the desert far from anything. Just recently drove across country and used Sirius/XM 90% of the way and made a ton of calls. XM app only dropped out 3 times, in some very remote areas of hwy. Didn't drop a single call and sound quality was good, even traveling at 75 mph. Sent a lot of SMS with Pictures taken along the way, all w/o problem.
Will say that inside of buildings here in PHX, I do see slightly lower signal strength than my Droid X. It's not a deal breaker as the structures I'm talking about are old and mainly steel and concrete. Took a short period of time to adjust to the TouchWiz, but it's no more difficult than any other manufacture tweaked OS. The phone definitely does not have the "built US strong" feel, kinda flimsy. I could drop the DX and not worry too much. This phone I spent a few extra $'s for a stronger case.
Overall, I'd say it's a good phone for now until something better comes along. Could be worse, gotta co-worker with an LG that drives him nuts. He's gonna need therapy one day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha... I'm a cop so I prob need an otterbox, but I didn't get one with the nexus it would make the phone huge. I'm used top the size now so am otterbox prob wouldn't bother me. Just thought maybe with gorilla glass a thinner case might be OK.
Jim

If you are really worried about wear and tear on the usb port this mod should be right up your alley: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1877191
All in all, it takes no more than 20-30 minutes to install, worst case.

It depends how much you care and flashing roms, I'd wait for the razr maxx HD. It's suppose to have a locked boot loader, but they're unlocking all there new phones. Some new phones are suppose to be coming out in the next couple months, so you might wanna wait to see what's coming.
Sent from my Cocaine White S3.

If you can, I'd at least advise waiting a few months for the next Nexus, Maxx HD etc. Phones with the next gen chipset (S4 Pro etc) are coming out soon.
My S3 is a great phone, but I have to agree the radios are worse than my previous HTC phone. If you are in an area with poor signal, the S3 will frequently drop data and gps locks.

Wow that's a really cool mod... I like. As for flashing ROMs I am pretty crazy until I find one I like then I back off and usually just do the updates. Sometimes it takes a while to find something that has all the features I want.
I'm still undecided...going to go look at the store today and hold it.
One more question... I read the reviews talk about the screen on gs3 being a little darker... Is this a problem or is it fixed with the custom ROMs?
Jim

Being in New Hampshire, with no other 4g coverage here on any other carrier, the service is awesome. The screen seems a tad darker than my epic 4g was on Sprint, but it is far from a problem. Rooting is extremely easy. Like it takes 2 minutes literally. Tons of stable ROMs. I definitely made a really good choice with the GS3, you won't be disappointed.

calaski8123 said:
I need a new phone. My Galaxy Nexus is shot... It was my first Samsung phone though so I'm a little gunshy due to the problems I have had. I am trying to decide if I should go with the Galaxy S3 or wait for the Motorola Razr Maxx or HD that is supposedly coming soon.
Problems I had with GNEX
Data Drops - known problem, I put up with it, but it was annoying. Data would drop and then take min to reconnect, sometimes few times a day
Screen cracked two places - First phone I ever cracked the screen, but much larger screen then I had before (Dinc). Phone still usable but annoying. Both phones I'm considering have the Gorilla Glass so I assume this wont be an issue
USB Charging port - the final straw, the port went bad. GNex sometimes thinks it is charging when not plugged in and switches every few seconds causing the display to come on constantly and kill my battery within two hours from a full charge. Other times I have to plug in and out just to get it to charge overnight. I know the USB board can be replaced but seriously, not putting money into this phone. I'm worried the GS3 has the same USB charging problem board???
Google Wallet - Verizon blocked it on GNex and GS3... I assume they will block on Razr??? I am rooted so I was able to install the APK but it was always hit or miss as far as using wallet... only worked about 50% of the time. It would connect but then say the transaction did not go thru. I really want to use NFC.
How does the rooted ROM community view each phone? Will the Razr have as many custom ROMs? I will Root whatever phone I get.
The Razr Maxx's aren't out yet so can't tell how they hold up... The GS3 worries me most with the USB charging port and the above issues I had with the Samsung line...
Any comments appreciated. I have an upgrade avaible now so I don't have to wait, but I can limp thru the day with the Gnex plugged in at work a lot so if the Razrs are worth waiting for I can... unless they're not expected till January, but they claim BEFORE the holidays so I assume November?
Also, are there any phones I'm missing? I liked the Dinc and HTC Sense (I know... I know... ) but no HTC phones seem to have NFC and the flagship is not avail on Verizon. I need to stay on Verizon. I will root.
Thanks,
Jim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't Verizon offer a 14 day return/exchange policy? Worst case is try it, if you don't like it return it for another phone. Just don't root it during that time frame if you want to play it safe. Otherwise, ROMS provided for the GS3 are awesome in this community. I've had both the Sprint variant and now on Verizon for it's 4G LTE service.

Personally I'd wait a few months. Reception sucks but it's not too bad.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

I would go with it and a JB ROM... I almost bought the iPhone 5 and backed out to keep my GS3 and unlimited Data..thank god I went over 2 GB today lol
Sent from VZW Galaxy SIII

I am also in the upgrade search. Thanks to all that contributed it may have helped me a bit with my choice as well coming from my Dinc.

Yes thank you for everyone's input. The opinions seem to be a little split, but that is to be expected. I'm leaning towards the GS3. I went to my local Verizon guy I've been dealing with for years. He said hands down he would go with the GS3. He said the Razr is still a bit behind in specs. I also see that the GS3 is 2GB RAM and the Razrs are only 1GB... The GS3 felt nice in hand.. sleek and smooth. The Motorola is still too clunky feeling to me.. angular and just not sleek. Personal opinion.
He also said there is no set release date for the Razrs... and I can get the GS3 cheaper. I also liked the reviews of the TouchWiz gestures...Interested to see how they are. Do any of the custom ROMs maintain the Touch Wiz gestures or features?
I think with the better specs right now I'd go with the GS3. The biggest problems, screen and reception, seem to be issues I can deal with. I rarely use my Nexus at full brightness and I the reception seems to be better than NExus in my area.
Jim

Also the battery on the GS3 seems to be pretty good considering its not promoted as such like the Maxx HD will be...

intelinside83 said:
I would go with it and a JB ROM... I almost bought the iPhone 5 and backed out to keep my GS3 and unlimited Data..thank god I went over 2 GB today lol
Sent from VZW Galaxy SIII
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Click to collapse
I almost got it too. Went to apple store and compared it hands on. I had 30 day return policy. Compared to the iphone, the colors are so much more vibrant! And the screen size is icing on the cake.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 04:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:47 PM ----------
I'll also add that I own a macbook pro, and syncing--unless you run bootcamp--can be a PITA. Even with Android file transfer, it's often hit or miss.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

skater95 said:
It depends how much you care and flashing roms, I'd wait for the razr maxx HD. It's suppose to have a locked boot loader, but they're unlocking all there new phones. Some new phones are suppose to be coming out in the next couple months, so you might wanna wait to see what's coming.
Sent from my Cocaine White S3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is no way a Verizon phone will come with a unlocked bootloader unless its that dreaded iPhone.