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  • I have had my Droid 3 since the July 8. I initially loved it and had nothing but good to say. Now it is the 16th and although the keyboard is stellar, this seems to be its only strong point. I really find the phone to be laggy and buggy. The camera on this thing is crap. The pictures have a blue tint to them. The front facing camera is even worse. I thought dual-core was supposed to make this thing fast, but it seems laggier than my DX. I have been at a wedding and family festivities all day today and this phone is on the verge of going back. I took ADW off thinking it was the problem, turns out Blur was worse. But the camera on this thing is a deal breaker. Most my family has ifone4s and I was embarrassed that there pics blew mine away in the same light and conditions.It is like I have taken a step back in terms of technology. I think Motorola maybe heading for razor demise again. Don’t misunderstand me folks, I am a Moto maniac, I bought the Star-tac, most of the V60s, Razor, Droid 2, DX, and now Droid 3. This may be then end. Who knows, but if the Bionic is like this phone but just bigger screen and 4G than I see myself moving on to a new manufacturer. Samsung is looking the the future I guess. Maybe I’ll give them a try. :/

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  • Nice UI touches!  I could totally imagine some people being fooled into thinking this was early Ice Cream Sandwich if you never told them it was MotoBlur/whatever.

  • Nice UI touches!  I could totally imagine some people being fooled into thinking this was early Ice Cream Sandwich if you never told them it was MotoBlur/whatever.

  • Looks like my Droid 2 may have to have an “accident” once I learn that Asurion is out of Droid 2 and Droid 2 Globals …

  • the qhd screen killed me on the x2, was fine at first, but the more i used it the more it seemed to annoy me… that and I had wayy too many problems with it, 3 phones in two weeks is rediculous, now got the tbolt and love it. 

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  • hey does anybody know if the Droid x2 gingerbread update will be the same as the droid 3 gingerbread/blur?

  • Need my friends opinions on this one. Have an upgrade available now, and currently rocking the t-bolt, which I really like. BUUUUUUT, I do really miss the keyboard, and I absolutely hate the thunderbolts shitty battery life. Is 4g worth it? Should I use my upgrade on the D3 and get my keyboard back? Wait for the bionic and hope for better battery life? Or keep and root my thunderbolt, searching for more battery life??? What would YOU do?

    Thanks for the opinion/help.

  • I’ve been playing with this Droid because a friend of mine owns one now and I got to say VERY IMPRESSIVE, Well worthy of the Droid thrown for now. But lets not compare apples and oranges, what i mean is, a slide out keyboard phone and a virtual keyboard phone are just two very different personal choices, D3 seems to be the BEST slider out there today and the DX2 or the SGII or even the new Droid Bionic 4G can be the BEST virtual keyboard phones out today, and both should be judged differently and not really compared. 

  • I need to figure out what you guys are doing to extend the battery life…charged overnight and down to 10% by 1pm, and I don’t think I’m using it excessively (no more than my d1 or d2). Curiously, paired bt to my car, and battery usage showed 25% of battery use was bt…that was just pairing it. I wonder if there is an issue with the bt stack…I figure vzw will have an update to address initial bugs within a few weeks.

  • Good reviews, When you run the bench marks can you also use AnTuTu along with Quadrant and if possible explain the differences between the two?  

  • Would you please upload some display closeups? Didn’t see anything of the pentile matrix in the video 🙁

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  • Went and check out the D3 at the VW store yesterday, and i have to say I was a little disappointed.  It seemed cluncky and slow to respond.  for a new phone I would expect the interface to be smooth and fast(like the new htc phones or the LG phone…), but it just felt a little slow. 

    • Watch the videos above. It is fast. It could just be that the phone you played with was played with a lot and is hurting from it. Or it could be they didn’t set it up properly. The one I played with yesterday was as fast as the videos above show. An open mind goes a long way.

  • No suitable Hier to the Throne of the Droid Monarchy!!!!  Spec wise it’s good but still nothing to make me want to go out and buy. 

    I played around with the D3 yesterday and noticed the same shadow on the Pentile screen.  Moto did a nice job of poslishing up Blur but not worth my time. Next up the D4 

    • It seems a lot of the newer phones coming out lack camera buttons as well.  Definitely a shame to be without a dedicated camera button.  🙁   But it’s still an awesome phone.

  • Kellex, Thanks for the vids but one correction.  Super AMOLED + is not pentile.  That’s the whole point of it.  Regular Super AMOLED and AMOLED are.

  • I would settle for non-qHD, non-dual core and non-Blur for LTE. I went from the OG Droid to a Thunderbolt when it launched and while LTE is indispensable to me, a physical keyboard is much better than a virtual keyboard. It takes up most of the screen, my fat fingers constantly covers up the screen, I can’t use browser keyboard shortcuts (home, refresh, find, back, forward and mouse hover activation). The Thunderbolt also went past the size limit for me. A 4 inch screen with the typical bezel of a 4 inch screened phone is my limit.

    If Motorola slaps on LTE on some Droid 3+ or something like their Droid 2 Global and it’s easily rooted to remove Blur, I’ll be selling my Thunderbolt on eBay and getting it.

    • I’m hoping for a Droid 3+ too. The 4.3 inch phones just went the past the size limit. You gotta have a limit and mine is 4.0 inches. For the same reasons as you, I really want a physical keyboard.

      To bad manufacturers are not including an optical pad anymore. That helps with activating mouse hover elements on websites.

    • If that happens, my Tbolt is going on  eBay! No virtual keyboard can beat a physical one. No virtual keyboard will ever not get in your way of viewing the screen be it the keyboard itself or your fingers.

  • I have yet to play with a unit that’s actually on and functioning, but after playing with the dummy unit, I have to wonder if I’m the only person that’s disappointed off the bat?
    Devoted D1 owner, lover of the slide-out keyboard, but I just feel the D3 is a shade too thick, the keyboard too mushy. And the dummy unit I was playing with had the weirdest incandescent metallic, shiny blue all over the top slider.
    Now, I know with the slideout keyboard it’s going to be thicker than..say…the DInc2 I bought instead, but the key’s apparent responsiveness was enough to turn me off. Space key especially felt super mushy and…for lack of a better word…cheap.
    Am I the only person in the world with those observations/beliefs? Again, always just my two cents and I do have yet to play with a functional unit.
    T

    • I’ve been using the keyboard nonstop for a the past day and I have to say I enjoy the keyboard a lot better than the D1’s.  Not that it was bad, just this one has a nice “clickity” to it.

  • I love the redraws and scrolling lag!!  Android definitely has improved since 2.1.  Or not.

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  • I am attracted to this phone…Having the og droid. and the droid 2, this one only seems to make sense….

  • Have an update avail. to me What should I get
    1. Droid 3
    2. HTC Thunderbolt
    3. Droid Bionic, or
    4. Should I wait for the Samsung GSII
    coming from a rooted OG Droid.

    • Get the D3 and open 3 more lines on ur account….lol….but seriously…:
      -Had the thunderbolt, loved it, battery life didnt love me
      -Have the D3, everything is great, especially if you still want a keyboard. batt life isnt the best, YET, because i think that will change with rooting, unlocking, etc.
      -Bionic has my attention but i feel like if i had something like that in my pocket…it would give the opening to my pocket “bacon neck”(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fv-Jd_GEtc) so i dont know about a phone i’d consider carrying around in a small bookbag…

  • Kellex, that “shadow” effect is something called ghosting and is one issue with ALL LCD displays. In order to display different colors, the subpixels in each pixel let different amounts of light(from the backlight) through. This is how a picture is displayed. In order to “change the image”, the subpixels all have to change how much light they let through. The amount of time it takes for this to happen is the response time. Basically, it’s how fast the pixels respond to a change in state. In order to display motion, they all have to change states rapidly.

    The response time on a qHD screen is high, and because of this, it takes awhile for the pixels to change state. When the red bird moves across the screen, the pixels it “passes over” have to change from orange to red, and then back to orange. They take a while to change back to orange. Because of this, they are still visibly red after the bird passes them, and the shadow is the pixel slowly changing.

    The GS2 screen is an OLED. It’s pixels respond to changes in state almost instantaneously. This is also one reason I find plasma TVs better than LCDs. On a plasma, it takes just nanoseconds, and there is no ghosting. The same goes for OLEDs and CRTs.

    And to clarify, when I said “awhile”, I mean compared to other display technologies. The average LCD has a response time of 15-20 milliseconds. While this is very quick, compared to the few nanoseconds it takes a plasma, it is very slow. 

  • Dude i really do like your walkthrough videos that you do. I look forward to them every time a new device comes out. I really like this new D3 as well. 

  • I really like the Blur (or whatever it’s called. And yes, I know that it’s a sin to like Blur, but I do like this one) I can definitely see how this Blur is a step it towards the beloved union between phone and tablet that Ice Cream Sandwich is bringing. 

    • I have to agree with you. While I miss the customization that other ROM options provide (Used to have rooted OG Droid), I am more than pleased with my rooted, clockworkmod DX2. Would I prefer to have other ROM options, yes. Do I hate and cuss Blur the way some other folks do, no. It is better than it ever has been and actually has some features that make me smile. Guess I’ve moved a little closer to the “dark side” of not hating Blur with you.

    • lets not forget how much blur has grown. i mean it used to be complete shit. you cant wonder why people actually hated it. … This, on the other hand. looks actually usable. using a d2 or the X makes me wanna bite my fingertips off. i dont see myself hating life as much with this version of blur. 

  • Was just curious if the app drawer has a setting where it can be switched from side to side to up and down…anyone know?

      • Thanks…was thinking bout going to either this or the Bionic and was just curious.  Don’t like the side to side but definitely not a deal breaker.  Thanks for the info.

  • ok i have use slurr in all its forms and revisions and im still in love with stock.  my beef is not with blurr so much as with uncle googs.  i feel mr moto makes great hardware even in the razar days but software is lacking but thats ok to each its own.  for my hard earned money i just want stock and a keyboard and up to date specs but its in short supply when u consider how many android phones are in the world today.  now my beef with uncle googs where is the support for the end users that love your products and your wonderful ui?  clean,crisp,fluid,vanilla,stock ui?  that dont wanna root or have never used a launcher?  where is the support or love for us that early adopted the G1 and og Droid because it was pure and had a keyboard?  where is our freedom from skins and carrier bloat?  i know you got the nexus line but they dont come with keyboards.  i would never root stock the only reason i did was the og Droid would never see a gingerbread update(btw was extremely difficult,folks rooting doesnt always go smooth)by you or vrz.  thats why im upset about the new trend because everything that made android so anti icrap is disappearing.  but look at us for a change we are all tied in to all google products(waiting on a google+ invite star2k2@gmail.com)tablets and such to only get overlooked for believing in the pure google experience.  take a look at us the ones thats champion ur pure product over sense,touch wiz,blurr(motorola application platform), the true faithful that feel stock is flawless,sexy,free of lag(be honest it takes oems a months to get there skins to work on android updates)fluid.  the reason i left tmo for vrz was becuase of android not because of service and definitely not because of pricing.  i broke my contract with tmo to get my hands on the next android to slap icrap and brought many family,friends,co workers along for the ride only to be slapped with skins(many of my android selling or talking points only deal with pure google things not how skins make android better. FAIL!) and bloat.   so where is the love or the selling points from the i dont ads? keyboard, micro sd, vanilla android,color notification leds?  so yes im am little sensitive because after 3 years of waving the android banner,converting the minions,and sticking up for android from a wave of attacks from icrap fans i cant pay for the android phone i want.  wow! every phone site swears icrap is the utmost standard all smart phones should be judged by and for all my arguments uncle googs is sort of ditching me leaving me in the cold with all the things that made android stand on its own now it seems like a keyboard and stock android is for mid to low range phones.  so ill run my og into the ground and when my contract is up i hope there is an worthy option or i might have to give into the other platforms.  its a shame too because many people dont care about whats at the core of all android phones they just want a droid lol(not knowing that that means only vrz).  and lets all be honest there has never been another time in history were a gadget was so widely used for everything like in todays world.  hell my og droid is my daily planner keeps my apts,keeps all my media,tells me the weather,keeps all my people contacts, all social networks,and when i turn the screen off before bed its my alarm clock.  yes i love how stock android looks in dock mode at least in a landscape dock. 

  • Love my TB, but I sure do miss my OG and its slider… the dedicated number rows must be sweeeet!

  • Its about time to put my OG Droid out to pasture. No LTE and bloatware kinda kill this phone for me. I think I’m going to continue holding out for the Galaxy S II.

  • ordered mine today because bestbuy doesnt have them yet so apparently according to bestbuy mobile btw i work at bestbuy….there is only 80 for order for bestbuy in the country sounds nuts but thats what our mobile site said and i got one kinda sad this phone aside from the love its gottn on DL and other sites this phone aint got no love

  • I would get this if it didn’t have the keyboard. I love how Blur looks and I just love the design of the phone.

  • Since it has a sim card does that mean one day it can used on 4g network?

  • Surprised he didn’t complain about the “pentile” screen he always wines about. I don’t really see the big deal, I thought the screen looked very nice.

      • There’s some debate about the screen. A number of people are saying the Bionic screen will be 4.3 based on correct identification of the phone it was next to in the picture. Bionic will have a gig of RAM, but half will be for the phone and half set aside for web-top, just like Atrix. I think the reason Bionic will be a better phone will not be specifications, but the way it’s built. Motorolas are brawny, heavy, tough phones. Samsung has always been flimsy and cheap. The SII might be the bee’s knees the day it comes out of the box, but it’ll be more Kia than Countach two years later.

  • is this national droid unboxing day, yours is the best though Kellex huge fan keep it up

    • Well, it is the day of the full release of a new Droid device… kinda makes sense.

  • This is a very nice looking phone, who cares about 4G, I would rather my phones battery last more than 4 hours.
    3G is just fine for most peoples needs.
    If you need 4G that much you better off anyway getting a dedicated USB Stick LTE modem anyway.
    If I wasnt stuck with my current phone I would totally get this one.
    Makes me miss my Droid 1.

    • 1.)I am going to assume a lot of people care about 4g. 2.)I have not heard anybody say that there 4g phone can’t get over 4 hours. 3.)If somebody is trying to go compact, they would not be better off having to carry a dedicated USB stick…especially if they are mobile and don’t want to have to carry around a netbook or laptop.

      • I get way more than 4 hours of battery life from my Thunderbolt (considered to have the worst of Verizon’s 4G phones battery life). In fact, with average use, I can easily make my phone last well over 24 hours!

        • I never had a problem with my Tbolt battery life either Stevaroo01. It was adequate.

  • That’s the one thing I noticed at the verizon store today was how light it was. 

  • This thing looks sick!! If this is any sign of what’s to come for the Bionic, I can’t wait!! 

  • Probably.  Still, it’s arguably the best phone on Verizon now despite not having 4G; it should get some damn attention.

  • This is a smartphone, not a desktop computer.  There are only three phones in the world with 1 GB ram currently out.

  • Anyone notice some Honeycomb inspired stuff? At least I’ve noticed it. Some of the animations and the launcher seem like Honeycomb.

  • Mmmm… don’t you just want to chew on that keyboard… oh…. ahem. Sorry got a bit carried away there. 
    Seriously though, if you haven’t laid thumb to this keyboard, you are a keyboard virgin.

  • I went and checked it out and my worst fears where confirmed, the pentile display is not awful but it deffintily is very noticable

  • I am glade that Droid life finally got the device. They do a super job at reviewing phones and tells you like it is. They do not favor one or another company. If it sucks they say it does and if it does not they say it does not. I feel they do the best reviews of cell phones for Verizon. I cant wait for the review.

  • Can’t wait for mine. I’m sending back the Droid Charge tonight. Just reactivated my OG Droid to get used to using a keyboard again. Too bad it’ll take like three weeks to get the gift card from Verizon.

  • I have now had mine for 3 days. I love it  the keybord is the best. I wish they had a self timer for the front facing camera built in.  With the camera you only have to pixal size a 6 MP wide and an 8 mp setting, if you want to make the picture smaller you have to save it then edit it with the built in picture editing app.  Last night I had issue with the front facing camera every time I tried to turn it on it would close the app. I had to rebood the phone and it is working ok now.  It is loaded with bloat ware and a lot from verizon however with the new o.s. you can make app groups and just ignore the bloteware that is installed on the phone.

  • I WANT THIS BLUR ON MY DROID X!!!…really starting to like the new 2.3.4 blur…hope we can get it. 🙁

  •  im still trying to figure out how to have it read my SD card and store things on it

    • Back up your phone content, transfer your content on the sdcard to a computer put the sdcard back in, do a factory reset, and see if that works. It read my 32gb sdcard immediately but I did have to do this for my old DROID2. And on other forums people have used this technique and it worked. Hope it does for you as well.

    • This is a smartphone, not a desktop computer. There are only three phones in the world with 1 GB ram currently out.

      • Seriously the ram is not a big deal for me with all the apps I had running 5 of my own and the bloatware and still no lag, no drain on battery, and no overheated battery, this version of gingerbread is incredible.

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  • Enough with all the fluffy isn’t she pretty comments… let’s see a review with some hard facts that most on this forum are interested in:

    1. Has the phone been rooted?

    2. Does wireless tethering work without paying VZW their ridiculous fee?

    3. Is the sim locked to VZW / Vodafone?

    4. Has anyone called VZW to get the sim unlock code?

    Is the GSM locked so that it can’t operate on North American carriers?

    • Not meaning to be argumentative, but most people on this forum will never use the global capabilities of their Droid 3.

    • 1. Probably not yet but give it a week if not less
      2. that has nothing to do with the device
      3. no one cares
      4. no one cares
      5. no one cares

    • Not rooted yet.
      Tethering doesn’t work unless rooted, so there is your answer.
      All VZW global phones are locked to just VZW in the US.

    • Probably to cut costs. There is also 16 gigs internal, with 11-12 usable, and you can always put your old SD card in. 

  • I walked into a Verizon store on my lunch break today and played w/ their demo unit for 20 minutes or so and here are my thoughts:

    It’s fast and the build quality is excellent.

    The slide mechanism is very smooth and has a nice tight feel when all the way open(read: no slop or play).

    Overall the 4″ screen is quite clear and the pentile pixel arrangement didn’t bother me. The phone itself didn’t grow much overall from the OG
    Droid which is nice.

    I’m not thrilled with the plastic battery cover but it seems that’s where most manufacturers are going these days and the D3’s works well enough.

    Plenty of bloat software exists and doesn’t look to be easily removed. We’ll see how that gets straightened out in the near future with root.

    I’m seriously considering getting this phone for myself or the wife.

    • I like the new battery cover, a lot. The one on the Droid, D2, and DX all fall off if the device is dropped and are pretty loose. It is a bit flimsy, but at least it actually stays on the device.

      • Good to know.

        My main complaint was that it feels like it’ll break over time from memory card swaps and battery removals.

        I don’t really have too many problems w/ mine on the OG.

        • Yeah. That’s how I felt about my Fascinate’s, but I’ve pulled it off countless times, and it still hasn’t broke. And even if it does, a new battery cover is very cheap. Actually, if you’re within the one year, you can get Moto to replace it for free. I had to get my Droid’s replaced when the top right corner started sticking upm and they sent me a new one free.

    • My Charge has a plastic battery cover and it doesn’t bother me. I went out and picked this up today. Just to mess around with it and maybe give it to a family member or sell it on eBay. I know that with a new phone that the battery wears down quickly the first couple of days because you play with it more. But no lie, it seems that my Charge has a leg up on this thing. Only been 12 hours though and it definitely  wasn’t fully charged when I got it. And I’m not so sure that I agree that 4″ is the “Sweet Spot” either. I’t pretty quick and the new blur is much better than my DX. I figure I live with it for a few days and if it doesn’t work out then so be it. But if it does, I can loose that beautiful screen on the Charge, sell it on eBay and just tether with my Xoom when I want super fast speeds. 

      Note, it did not affect my unlimited data plan at all. I bought it off contract. My discounts did not apply to it though.

  • Funny story, I went into the Verizon store here in Rancho Cucamonga, CA this morning right after they had opened and they had no clue that the Droid3 was coming out today. I had to tell them to bring it out so I could play with it. 

  • they sure didn’t spend any $ on Ads for this phone?  Still remember the OG droid and everytime there was a commercial it was on the TV

  • Now that the Droid 3 is out of the way..lets see some news on the Bionic! 🙂

  • Ordered this beast last week. Love it. i wasnt too sure leaving my dx that i love but it was a good choice its equal too and slightly better then my dx just with the keyboard alone.

  • Sorry if the double post annoys anyone, but I decided to add a little to it…

    Hardware

    Calling:  Audio quality is much improved over the D1.  Voices sound much more natural and clear.  With the D1, sometimes I would notice some muffle and and distortion.  That is still here, but it is minimized to be almost negligible.    This is the best call quality I’ve heard from a smartphone.  The speakerphone is not as loud as the D1 though, and thereby more difficult to hear.  Bluetooths connect and work just fine.  Had no problems setting up my Google Voice (0.3.4 for those that know the value of this;) which installed seamlessly into the OS.  The D3 also includes bluetooth voice command, which is a nice touch.  Only complaint is that when holding the phone to the ear it can be uncomfortable due to the sharp lines, but this only becomes noticeable when in a loud venue and having to press the phone up to your ear.

    CPU: The TI OMAP4430 dual core 1ghz per core processor is arguably the most advanced processor out in the market right now. Webpages load quickly, and home screens swipe with ease. Moto’s blur seems to have an effect on going back to homescreen (more on that in a moment), but you can definitely tell that this beastly processor has power to spare.RAM: 512 of DDR2. Is it enough? Let’s just say you aren’t going to cry about it. Apps switch seamlessly unless they have been closed a while, but it will still stay in memory just enough to remember where you were, and the OMAP wastes little time in loading things back up quickly. Would be nice to have a bit more, but you’ll hardly notice. 

    3g. Not having LTE on here is an omission to be sure, but the OMAP4430 will really speed up your downloads. And you are guaranteed to NOT have the battery problems that the other LTE phone have suffered thus far. So honestly, I’ve not been missing LTE, and it’s probably a technology I’d like to see mature before I make the leap.

    Screen: Pentile display looks good. Better contrast and brightness than D1, and the Pentile tech saves battery better than D1. Pixels are juuuuust noticeable though, but only in a psycho-stickler sort of way, and only on certain colors (like pure green). Overall, without squinching your eyes and holding the phone right up to your face like a maniac, the screen IS an improvement over the D1 and pretty to look at with excellent viewing angles. 

    Keyboard: Physical keyboard is a VAST IMPROVEMENT. No more reaching around with thumbs. Keys feel good, solid, differentiate-able. Having a number row is the cat’s pajamas. Arrow keys instead of rocker is a definite improvement over OG Droid. I sort of miss having the “?” key NOT being an alt function, but this is such a minor niggle I can’t even believe I mentioned it. Thoroughly loving the physical keyboard. Little tough to get loose initially, but in the last week of use it has loosened up a bit to a level that I am comfortable with. Soft keyboard and swype included, and great too additions. 

    Camera: 1080p shooting and 8mp camera make this Droid vastly superior to its previous Droid installments. Shooting in 1080p can get a little choppy when shooting fast moving scenes, but nothing any worse than any other PHONE’s. Picture clarity for video is very reasonable, even when hooked up to your big screen through HDMI mirror mode. Lines are sharp and artifacting is minimal. The camera stills look good in daylight, but at night is when you can really tell that an improvement has been made. The light sensor is able to gather significantly more light that previous models, and you can really tell the difference. Definite upgrade from hardware and the camera software is very stylish and intuitive as well. Camera sometimes kills the home launcher though, but the OMAP4430 makes little time of getting everything back in order.

    HDMI: Mirror mode works effortlessly. Just plus it in and go. There is a minor glitch that may have not been completely thought out though. If you want to listen to music from your phone (assuming your big screen is HDMI’d to your receiver), everything works great until you set the phone down and the screen times out, thus cutting the audio. So unless you have the screen timeout to “never”, you will not have music playing. I have not found a setting to fix this. Hopefully this gets ironed out in an update.

    Battery: I have my apps on reasonable settings, aka I don’t have them to autoupdate every 15 minutes. With this phone I am able to get about 15-20 hours of battery life with moderate use. With lighter use I’m betting I could get through a day and a half at least. There are some battery saving options such as turning off 3g and wifi radios when not in use after 15 minutes, which would theoretically propel the battery even further, but I have mine set to “performance” which leaves everything on all the time and I have not had an issue. 

    Software

    Launcher: With the stock launcher I SOMETIMES notice a slight delay (honestly maybe like a half second versus instant for LauncherPro) when returning to the homescreens (which does not happen at all with the speedy LP), but the Moto widgets are so nice that it makes the stock launcher almost worth it. And the stock launcher is really stylish, nice screen transitions, a cool screens preview, but just simply is not as fast or customize-able as LP. If LP would come out with the ability to run some of these gorgeous widgets, or if stock was coded to be as speedy as LP, I’d be in Heaven. The stock launcher also does a cool lighting effect when you change screen, a subtle touch that just makes you feel good about yourself. If the stock launcher’s code would improve a smidgen, and offer the ability to scroll vertically (instead of swiping side to side like a cotton picking i*hone) through the app drawer then we’d have a surefire winner. For now, I’ve settled into LauncherPro, spruced up with the honeycomb theme from the market for some of the excellent LP widgets. I’ve been a happy camper.

    Widgets: Moto has included some outstanding widgets that really add to the wow factor of the phone. The Quick Contacts widget is my personal favorite. Swiping down on the widget produces a nifty 3D effects revealing all your favorite contacts. The problem with some of Moto’s widgets is that they don’t play nice with 3rd party launchers. Which puts you in a choice quandary. Why can’t we have out cake and eat it too??One minor omission in terms of widgets is the stock Google News widget. Moto includes a news widget to replace it, which looks better, and has a nifty 3D effect, but you can’t add custom topics like you can on Google’s offering can add custom RSS feeds from your favorite website. Maybe it’ll get updated for custom topics….maybe.

    Apps: The included gallery widget is a nice improvement over standard AOSP Android. It has the ability to pull in all your photos from your various accounts over the cloud (picasa, facebook, flickr, photobucket, etc) and all your friends facebook photos as well in addition to all the photos stored on your phone. The business class apps included here are very forward thinking and a boon to business types. GoToMeeting and Citrix, Exchange, Citrix, Motoprint, Quickoffice, are all included here, and really advance this phone as one that should be in serious consideration for those that need to do business on the go.There are two music apps included. Moto’s music app, which is just a re-skinned AOSP music app, and ZumoCast, which is Motorola’s cloud based music solution. You must create an account and then you can access all your music, video, and picture files from your home computer (assuming it’s on) on the go. I would anticipate that you can upload some stuff to their servers in the cloud, but I have not verified this.

    Bloatware is upsetting. There is crap on here waking up and filling itself in memory that I’ve never even heard of. “Social Status?” Seriously??? Do I need a widget to update my FB status every 5 seconds??? Hundreds of megs of crapware, oceans of it really. The sooner we can get some sort of root access to get Tibu on here the better, and the better this phone will run, you know, assuming it’s be loading up apps you ACTUALLY USE into memory to make the apps you ACTUALLY USE quicker to get to. But what do I know, I’m just a random idiot. BUT, some of the pre-loaded apps like the business class apps are stellar. So you are certainly taking the good with the bad in this department. You can uninstall Let’s Golf 2 and Nova, but the rest is on there for the long haul. If they are too much of an eyesore you can make an app group through the stock launcher and only put apps that you use there. Or you can hide crapware through some 3rd party launchers, but the crapware still manages to load itself into RAM I’ve noticed. You can use the built in task manager to kill it off, but task managers generally do more harm than good, and it remains to be seen whether this one is an exception.

    Should you buy?

    If you like a keyboard this one is a no brainer. If you aren’t dead set on LTE this is a no brainer as it will certainly best any LTE handsets battery life thus far by a country mile. Otherwise the Bionic is around the corner, the Galaxy S II should be arriving sometime this summer, and of course there are the rumors of the mega-showstopping Nexus Primer this Christmas. I am in a family plan that has multiple upgrades coming up, so I will have some options, but even when those options come up, I will have a hard time giving up the D3. It is definitely a hot phone and is worthy of your bucks.

      • Just trying to get the word out!  It annoyed the crap out of me that I have a phone for a solid week and couldn’t find a single review (not in Chinese) on the net.  This phone shouldn’t be slept on!

        • i couldnt agree more, theres alot of complaining about things that to most are minor and not enough praise about such a great device…no phone will ever be perfect but in this situation the positive far out weighs the negative

      • probably a copy and paste but he changed some words around :facepalm: but if it isnt great job dude!

        • Well it’s his review, he wrote it up himself. He’s just been posting it on different sites because the only good reviews around are in Chinese and so he’s helping people out. 

    • Nice review. Seems like a good device. The inc2 has good battery too though and has zero lag. I get like 20+ on this thing and no choppiness.

    • I have to give you a like for using “cat’s pajamas” and “niggle” in the same review. Well done, Sir!

    • STILL the best walkthroughs. But what is up with the horizontal app drawers…haaaate it! But this phones PS. Is just beautiful.

    • I went from bb to iphone to galaxy to iphone to droid 3 in the space of 6 weeks…….what an amazing phone; especially if you write a lot of mail etc and need/prefer a keyboard.  Super fantastic

    • I went from bb to iphone to galaxy to iphone to droid 3 in the space of 6 weeks…….what an amazing phone; especially if you write a lot of mail etc and need/prefer a keyboard.  Super fantastic

    • Thank you ever so much for this review! I’m in the market for a new Droid, my current one is the original Droid and I LOVE the physical keyboard. I’m relieved to know the Droid 3 has all the goods including a dual core CPU which will be awesome for gaming. Only down side is that LTE, but small price to pay when everything else is so awesome about this phone. 🙂

  • I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, GrabPenny.com

  • Yet? whatever, the qHD screen is awesome, We don’t need your review, just read the people who have had it for a week comments.

    • Oh calm down.  You obviously need their review or you wouldn’t have taken the time to read this article and comment you immature fool.  Why do you need someone else to validate your purchase so badly? 

  • Looks nice enough, I guess, but I have zero purpose for the QWERTY since Swype and the Gingerbread keyboards were released. It’s still sexy, though, if for no other reason than it’s reminiscent of the OG.

    • “Video will be here shortly.” Completely missed that. Boy, I feel like a horse’s patoot. 

  • now if only we can tweak the Atrix root and bootloader workaround and get this thing some Custom Rom support i would buy one right up

    • It’s not really an issue like people made it out to be. The Droid X2 had problems because the memory was poorly allocated. The Droid 3 doesn’t have this issue.

      • I agree — apps that used to crash on my Droid X2 (flash+image heavy pages, etc.) work a lot better on my Droid 3.  Also the RAM in the Droid 3 is DDR2 (OMAP is LPDDR2-333/266) vs. Droid X2 (Tegra 2 is DDR-133) — and noticeable. 

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