Droid 4 vs Droid 3

[orangechoochoo]

My wife has no issues with her D3 either. While its keyboard is not as good as the D4, its definitely does not suck.

There are just as many people complaining about the D4's screen being terrible too.

 

[NoBloatware]

In my experience, the Droid 3 with extended battery lasts a loooong time. You'll have to wait for a Droid 4 MAXX or get a portable USB power supply to compete on that level.

I have had more than one Droid 3 with a keyboard problem but my current one works great. Using it right now and as you can see, no missed letters. My main problem with the Droid 4, besides non-removable battery, is the lack of symbols on the keyboard and general non-optimum keyboard layout.

 

[orangechoochoo]

Press the SYM key to get the special symbols.

 

[Grassi]

Well i got the droid 4 and i am very pleased, after a few full cycle charges i can tell this will be a great phone after rooting and freezing some bloatware, already pleased with the battery after first discharge. And also had another question, if anyone can give me some educated feedback, i am about to invest in the lapdock 500 for a nice little browser and for a bigger screen to watch movies. I live in the barracks and my sgt's wont let us have gaming devices but i had an idea that maybe i can get a psx emulator to run on the lapdock and use a playstation 3 remote to create a little game station, anyone know if this is possible?

Sent from my DROID4 using DroidForums

 

[bdsullivan76]

Their is an app on the market that allows you to pair a ps3 controller to your phone via bluetooth. The app requires root privileges but works flawlessly. Not sure of it will connect while in the lapdock but i dont see why it would not.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[marlonvps]

Battery life is good on d3 and I have a ext battery running mavrom.

 

[Thoth17]

I am About to upgrade from the Droid 2 and after a terrible, terrible exprience with the five replacement phones I had to go through, and I am a tad hesitant about upgrading to the 4. I've played around with the demo phones, read the reviews, and gone through plenty of threads but still can't decide if i should get it; or stay safe and get the droid 3 which my friend had had for over a year with little or no problems. Should I get the 4 or stay safe with the 3 in case they announce the Droid 5 a month after I upgrade?

 

[tjk629]

The D4 is going to be the one that gets the updates. The D3 is gonna be "officially" stuck with GB, while the D4 will be getting ICS, and hopefully beyond.

Besides that, there isn't a whole lot difference between them. Only some major. Mainly the D4 doesn't have a removable battery, and has LTE. Outside of that the D4 is clocked 200MHz more, has a better FFC, and doubles the RAM.

As for which is more reliable. It's hard to say. Some people have problem after problem, while other don't.

 

[Thoth17]

Alright, on the subject of reliability, if i were to bite the bullet and sacrifice the QWERTY would the Nexus be a better choice?

 

[tjk629]

I guess it ultimately depends on what you want from your phone. Do you want to ROM it up, and what not?

Also, remember you have a 14 day return window. If for whatever reason a device doesn't meet your satisfaction you can return it. No questions asked.

 

[xsylus]

It's really a matter of preference since there aren't a whole lot of differences between D3 and D4 aside from outer-case design and internal specs. The one complaint I have about my D4 is the non-removable battery. With my D1 I could swap out the low battery with a fully charged one and keep going but with my D4 I have to carry around a portable charger that really only extends the battery life by at most 40% depending on usage. I also think the key to open the back is cumbersome but then again the only reason to open the back is to swap the sdcard or sim card for the LTE. It would be nice if the D4 had NFC built-in but it doesn't. Overall I love my D4 and am satisfied with my purchase but, as with any smartphone on the market, it's not perfect.

The physical keyboard on the D4 is absolutely awesome! I use better terminal emulator a lot and it's just easier to type commands via the physical keyboard plus it supports special key functions so if you're used to using terminal on a linux PC then using terminal on the phone requires only a slight learning curve. Sometime I also get tired of the on-screen keyboard not putting the letter I'm typing. In fact I replaced the stock keyboard that comes with the D4 with the stock gingerbread one found on the market and my on-screen typing accuracy improved significantly. If I could completely remove every ounce of motoblur from my D4 and just run pure vanilla stock gingerbread of ICS I would. I ran stock GB on my D1 and loved it.

I don't have any personal experience with the D3 but from what I've seen the metallic coating on the phone chips off easily.

Hope that helps.

 

[pc747]

I would recommend the d4 for its lte capability. If you going to be sick for 2 years get the one with lte. Plus the d4 will already get ics do far the d3 will not.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[bgarlock]

I am About to upgrade from the Droid 2 and after a terrible, terrible exprience with the five replacement phones I had to go through, and I am a tad hesitant about upgrading to the 4. I've played around with the demo phones, read the reviews, and gone through plenty of threads but still can't decide if i should get it; or stay safe and get the droid 3 which my friend had had for over a year with little or no problems. Should I get the 4 or stay safe with the 3 in case they announce the Droid 5 a month after I upgrade?

This sounds like the issues I went through with my Droid 2. I am currently on a Droid 4, and had the Droid 3 for about 7 months or so, and recently used my wife's upgrade to get a Droid 4, and I would say to go with the Droid 4. I'm very happy with it, and recently installed the Leaked ICS, which makes it even better! The Droid 3 is pretty much End Of Life'd (for all intents and purposes) as Moto said no to ICS. Trust me: you want ICS. Starting with the way things scroll in ICS (which is much more 'iPhoneish', a.k.a. Fluid/Smooth) to the new UI elements, and the fact that going forward, all new apps will be ICS supported, it just doesn't make sense to step backwards and get a Droid 3.


Unless, you *want* to stay on Gingerbread for some reason, it just doesn't make sense to go with a Droid 3. Also, I think Moto learned their lesson from releasing new phones every 6 months. It's not good for them, or the customer. I would guess they would release phone lines on more like an annual basis. I know the Droid 4 came out so fast after the Droid 3, and there were petitions from angry users, and it ticked a lot of folks off. I bet Moto lost some previously loyal customers because of it.

Then, add in all the additional support costs to keep all the models updated, and it's a lose, lose situation. I personally know of (2) people who won't buy Moto products again, because there was a well known bug with the Droid-X, where it would reset while playing music after an update, and (I think) because Moto had so many darn phones to support, they didn't patch the bug in a timely manner, so it really got people upset.

So far, my Droid 4 has been rock solid, and I'm so glad I traded in my Droid 3 for it.

 

[pc747]

I should have read the OP thoroughly . if you can get a d3 with out burning an upgrade be a good move.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Thoth17]

I guess it ultimately depends on what you want from your phone. Do you want to ROM it up, and what not?

Also, remember you have a 14 day return window. If for whatever reason a device doesn't meet your satisfaction you can return it. No questions asked.

Well I definitly want ICS on there, regardless of which phone i get. And yeah, the return window definitly opens my options up.