Motorola Droid Bionic user reviews (Verizon Wireless)

Pros Dual Core
QVGA HD Screen
Slim for its components
Battery Life is upper middle of the road [for smartphones that means you should see roughly a full day or day and a half [WITHOUT BATTERY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE]

Cons 2 stars until this phone is fixed and fully operational
OVERHEATS
First OTA Update BRICKED the phone
It constantly drops the data connection [including mobile data, WiFi and Bluetooth]
Motorola Bloatware and Overlay

Summary Oh and if you need to verify what I am writing below is truthful please just search Google for bionic WiFi problem, Bionic Mobile Data problem, etc. and start counting the threads and offered fixes

Look this phone looks awesome and could be great that I don't debate, but trust me I am a computer tech and have been for a long time [I am also an Android ROM Developer] when I say this thing has some REAL issues. I am flabbergasted to see what has been posted on CNet in regards to this phone, but then I look and the editors review as well as most ALL the front page comments are from fanboys, and folks who JUST got their phone. My reports comes in after 2 weeks of having to help my boss with his new Bionic.

He has gone through 4 FOUR [not kidding] Bionics in a little over 10 days now. The problem all began after he has had it for a bit and all of a sudden he got awoken late at night by some weird noise. He looks over and the phone is stuck on a screen stating OTA update. He waits and several hours later samething so he reboots. Gets to the same point and same thing. He then restarts again, all of a sudden after he sees the bootsplash screen stating Dual Core the whole thing went dark and he could not boot it after that. He comes in and speaks with me and a Verizon tech. As soon as I get online and read up I see reports of Bluetooth Wireless [WiFi] and Mobile Data [3g, 4g] connection issues and figured thats what the OTA was about. I have him call Verizon and as soon as we got a tech on the line and he told them what happened he got 2 sentences in and the tech groans NOT ANOTHER ONE [oh great that really inspires confidence]. So they say no problem we will send you another one. He gets it in 2 days and un-boxes it and sets it up and is happy right? NOPE, he comes to find out a couple hours later that the one he got which is supposedly a "certified" reconditioned phone has no working phone speaker. The Bluetooth and wired headsets work, but come on no ringtones on phone when called, no notifications same way, etc. so he calls in again and gets another phone in a day or 2. This one has a working speaker [YAY!], but after setting it all up the next day it begins dropping his mobile data and WiFi randomly [yes when he has full signal]. I look at it and make sure no apps are getting in the way, no battery managers, etc. Still he now has to reboot his phone roughly 3x an hour to maintain mobile data. We have tried connection re-setters, juice defender etc etc etc trust me this is my boss I have been tearing through information online and all the settings to get this figured out this is NOT due to human error.

I would say this phone COULD be the best phone soo far, BUT YOU SHOULD WAIT UNTIL YOU GET TOTAL CONFIRMATION MOTOROLA HAS FIXED THE MOBILE DATA AND THE CPU AT IDLE BURNING ITSELF OUT BEFORE BUYING THIS DEVICE. DONT TRUST MOTOROLA WHEN THEY SAY AN UPDATE IS PENDING BY THE WAY MY CLIQ XT WAITED 18 MONTHS TO GET OFF DROID 1.5 AND THEN THEY JUST GAVE UP AND IT STILL TECHNICALLY DROID 1.5 [IF I HAD NOT GOTTEN IN TO BUILDING MY OWN ROM AND NOW HAVE ANDROID 2.3.7 FULLY WORKING [THANKS MOTO I COULD DO WHAT YOU COULDN'T I GUESS LoL].
Just goes to show how much they actually care about customers when they make a mistake and you end up paying for it. I used to be all about Moto for quality and good equipment, but since the "smart"phone revolution they are just as bad a crap shoot as a Chinese black market white box phone

OH AND YOU SHOULD NEVER be forced in to buying docking stations if you have a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse and a Mini HDMI to VGA or PCI-E adapter you can make a computer out of any smartphone without docks or "Webtop" crap and save the money. This guy went totally overboard spending way too much money without proper research [IMHO] Please keep this post in mind when you complete reading his for a balance as I cant just sit here and let other unsuspecting people see this as the number 1 review on the front page when it is wrong.

Sorry for spelling and grammar I am in a hurry at work cant afford to sit here for long.

Pros Fast
- 4G LTE + Dual Core OMAP 4430
- Black Chrome Accent
- Thin Bezel - Thinner than RAZR
- Removable/Upgradable Battery
- Bright Screen - Viewable in Daylight
- Battery Manager
- A lot of useful accessories: Lapdock, HD Dock w/Remote, ...
- DLNA

Cons - Delayed about 8 months
- Camera is slow in dim-dark lighting
- Although the Bionic is not a thick phone (equivalent to the Droid X2) it is not as thin as the current crop of ultra high-end smartphones.

Summary Had this phone for over 2 months with zero issues. When I purchased this phone I also bought the Lapdock, HD dock, bluetooth keyboard, HDMI cable and 32GB MicroSD card.

Found the Lapdock to be extremely useful when traveling for work or leisure. Sure makes plane rides and hotel stays a lot more enjoyable. With 16GB internal storage and 32GB external, I can fit over 24 full length HD movies and watch it on the Lapdock, mirror it on my HDMI TVs, or use DLNA to wirelessly stream media to/from any Windows 7 PCs or any DLNA enabled TVs.

The size of the phone is nearly identical to the Droid X2 in width and length. It is slightly thinner (~1mm) at the top and slightly thicker (~1mm) at the bottom than the Droid X2. It is by far thinner than the OG Droid.

Had the chance to upgrade to the Droid RAZR, but after weighing the pros and cons I decided to stay with the Droid Bionic for a few reasons:
- The processor is the same OMAP 4430 with a slightly lower clock rate which equates to better battery life.
- There is no noticeable speed increase on the RAZR.
- The Bionic docking stations looks better.
- The Lapdock is much thinner with a bigger battery.
- The Bionic looks a lot better than the RAZR.
- Other than the processor speed and thinness of the RAZR, the Bionic is equivalent in every other way.

Although it seems that I'm bashing the RAZR, I am only comparing it to the Bionic and stating the reasons why I didn't upgrade. Yes, "upgrade", the Droid RAZR is a superior phone to the Bionic. If I didn't already buy the Bionic and accessories, my first choice would have been the Droid RAZR.

I also had the chance to wait for the Galaxy Nexus, which is probably the best Android phone ever built to date, but it is way to big for me and it does not have anything similar to the Lapdock or HD Station w/Remote. Plus, (IMHO) Motorola's hardware and voice quality is by far the best.

The HTC Rezound was the "other" phone I (briefly) considered; although it is a great phone with media in mind, it too does not have any accessories similar to the Droid Bionic (or RAZR for that matter). Plus the build quality is not even close to Motorola or Samsung.

Overall, the Droid Bionic is a top notch phone that will upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The hardware should be good for a couple of years, just in time for the next big thing.

Pros Giant screen size.

Cons Battery doesn't last more than 6 hours with light use.

Summary I would stay away from this phone unless you like your wireless phone being wired to an outlet all day.

Pros Great when it works... Good connection to voice calls, and I love the setup of the interface to switch during calls.

Cons Currently the Bionic has a know data connectivity loss issue. This is a huge problem for someone such as myself that travels and uses the internet connectivity on the phone for work. Another con is that the phone is pretty bulky.

Summary Currently Motorola Droid Bionic has a know issue to drop data connectivity with 3G & 4G LTE service when connected. I have gone through 3 phones with the same issue and am currently working with Verizon on how to resolve this problem, as Motorola is working on releasing the update to fix the issue. Once the update is released, I would probably give this phone a 3.5/5 star rating instead, but until that time, don't waste your time with this phone.