Is the Bionic Worth it?

[Knowpig]

I made the leap. Verizonwireless.com has the certified preowned bionic for $79.99. I had to do it. Merry Christmas to my wife. Hope she loves it. Too good a deal to pass up.

Posted with my thought to text Liquid Droid2.

 

[droiddamon]

I ended up having 11 of these units before Verizon (after 3 months and 4 days of complaining) finally replaced me and my wifes Bionics with 2 Galaxy Nexus phones... I've had nothing but nightmares with the phones but some have had great experiences... hopefully yours will be better than mine was

 

[mackiv]

I have an identical story to the OP. Og droid lover w/ an update. Bought the bionic over last weekend for $150 certified used. I saw the deal for $79 this morning and immediately called in! After plenty of EXTREMELY POLITE pleading, 2 different supervisor managers were able to credit my bank account the difference! My wife is converting from metro just because of this success story and cheap price for such an AWSOME phone. Only con is battery life, but i hear verizon has extended batts for half off now so TIS THE SEASON!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[mikespe]

Warning. Dissenting opinion forthcoming. If you can't handle reading something negative about the Bionic, stop reading.

You have been warned.

The Bionic is a great phone if you want a never ending "hobby kit" phone... one you will continuously have to jack with to get it to connect to 3g or 4g data signal if you live in area where it needs to switch back and forth between the two.

If you don't care about that, and you like the feeling of being "smarter" than everyone else because you know exactly what the right procedure is to get your phone to recover because the phone cannot recover on it's own, then this will be a great phone for you.

If you have lowered expectations about what a phone that's "worth it" to you should be, then yes, the Bionic is the phone for you.

I would recommend trying one of the newer phones out before advising spending money on the Bionic, because no matter how cheap it is, because even if they gave this phone away, using it is annoying as crap when it refuses to connect. It makes you want to throw it against the wall, which I probably would have done if it was free.

Just my opinion.

You forgot to mention that this is how YOUR phone is...MINE is the BEST phone I ever had!

 

[k1ngr4t]

Hehe. The only thing that's out of hand is that here comes another Zealot rushing to defend the Bionic from the hateful trolls that only want to drag the Holy Bionic name through the mud.

I swear, some of you think that the world revolves around droidforums and that whatever gets posted on here is the only true representation of the world. You go on made up facts by people that have talked with supposed quad-level, ultra-stealth squad undercover tech super managers, and swallow every pro-Bionic fact on faith because the Holy Bionic can do no wrong.

Dude, the phones have problems, plain and simple. If you want to love the Bionic, good for you, I'm not hating on you or calling you a troll for loving this phone. But good god man, it's just a phone, not your girlfriend, you don't have to jump in and defend it's honor and any slightest insult to it.

Maybe you should grow up? Sheesh!!

...Can you even read? You do realize I was mostly siding with you right? I believe you that your Bionic sucks. And I told them to lay off because it's not unlikely that you had a bad phone and have every right to be pissed off. Sure you troll just as hard as anyone else, but I'd be mad too. The same thing happened to my X2, how can I emphasize this enough. This is straight up proof that it happens. Sometimes, phone are bad. Because it happens to replacements, I think it's cause the phone is being drawn from the same bad batch. Not at all unlikely considering that's how most national retail shipping is done. The only other Bionic owner I know in person has no problems. I specifically asked him about data drops and he said he'd never had one. Get off the forums and go conduct a survey and bring back some real proof, most people don't have problems. So back off, say something useful or just gtfo and get a 4s.

 

[ex0rcist]

...Can you even read? You do realize I was mostly siding with you right? I believe you that your Bionic sucks. And I told them to lay off because it's not unlikely that you had a bad phone and have every right to be pissed off. Sure you troll just as hard as anyone else, but I'd be mad too. The same thing happened to my X2, how can I emphasize this enough. This is straight up proof that it happens. Sometimes, phone are bad. Because it happens to replacements, I think it's cause the phone is being drawn from the same bad batch. Not at all unlikely considering that's how most national retail shipping is done. The only other Bionic owner I know in person has no problems. I specifically asked him about data drops and he said he'd never had one. Get off the forums and go conduct a survey and bring back some real proof, most people don't have problems. So back off, say something useful or just gtfo and get a 4s.

+1. Hate the crying.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[dlo-htown]

So back off, say something useful or just gtfo and get a 4s.

That's really what it boils down to, isn't it? For whatever inane reason it is, you think information about users like me with bad experiences with the Bionic is not useful. Just because you're stuck in some fantasy world where your phone has to be the BEST EVARR DUDE!!, don't expect the adults in the world to feel obliged to slobber all over a phone no matter even if it worked like it was supposed to. Fact is, (even though you can't handle it), the info I'm giving about my experience IS useful information to those questioning if they should get it. But ultimately, it doesn't bother ME if they buy it or not, unlike those those like you that get all upset if someone would rather buy a nexus or iphone. Really.

You want me to "gtfo" of droid forums huh? Hehe! I bet that would make you happy,... banish those that would dare insult your Bionic!! You do realize how silly that sounds don't you?

I guess lucky for you and me, I don't get on Droidforums much... I can only handle so much of the prevalent juvenile attitude here of "Ya!! My phone rocks DUDE!!! And your phone sux DUDE cuz it's not a Bionic!!!" Get over it already. Most adults I know have more important things to worry about than whether "Team Bionic" is winning the war.

BTW- Seriously? "K1ngr4t"????... ya, I can tell I'm speaking to an adult here...

 

[dlo-htown]

+1. Hate the crying.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

So then I guess you thought you were going to be reading 6 pages of Bionic love fest??? Really?

No, you wanted to find the "crying" in this thread so you could respond to it.

Well congratulations, you just contributed nothing to this thread.

 

[Stelv]

I have been debating between the Inc2 for free at BB and the Bionic for $120 at Sam's Club. I don't download movies or any other high data things, so 3G is probably fine for me. Like the Droid that I got 2 years ago, I tend to keep my phones for 2 years and wonder if I will be more happy with the Bionic over that time. We don't have LTE yet, but it is thought that we will get it in 2012. I don't want to spend $300 for the Rezound or Nexis.

The Inc2 was a very dependable device I really liked it. Some poeple had weird reception issues with it and it will drop reception if the battery door is damaged because that is where the antannea are, but I never had that issue.

Inc2....
-Great battery life
-Great speed optimized software
-Fast for a single core
-Nice build
-Decent ram
-Good camera for detail, kind of so so in low light
-Great hacking community
-Antannea in battery door wasn't a good idea
-World phone
-Low internal memory
-HTC keyboard sucks, AOSP Ginerbread one is better
-Speaker is quiet, but SRS sound is nice
-Gps and Navigation are great.

I got the Bionic because the bigger screen, hdmi out, webtop, lapdock, 4g and sheer speed of the device. The Bionic will be a better phone in the long run because it has more features than the Inc2. Since the update it has also been dependable. Some people are still experiencing the data drops after the ota but I have none, don't know what is going on there. May be a tower location thing.

-Battery is good for a 4g device, but no where as good as Inc2
-Screen is awesome to me, some other criticize it. Bright and vibrant, things look a tiny tiny bit jagged on white backgrounds.
-Camera takes nice crisp pictures but color is somewhat "drained" from the photo
-Acessories are awesome. Couple of different lapdocks (I am typing this on the lapdock 100 now), hd dock, etc
-No lag, super speedy, and no memory issues
-4g speeds are super fast for me in Rochester NY
-Great sturdy build. Battery door gets a little loose though
-Good call quality
-Speaker is fairly loud
-Blur is great now. It use to be flat out bad, but now it not so intrusive and has some nice features
-GPS and Navigation work great
-Hacking is a little trickier on this one because of the encrypted bootloader. It is a lot easier to brick your device. Getting into recovery from a bootloop can be difficult. There is a nice app called safestrap for Bionic that let's you run dual boot and select recovery on boot which helps. We have some nice roms/hacks but custom kernels and roms like miui will be difficult for this device.
-Some still have issues after the update but I mostly do not. Some of the issues were headphone hiss, frequent data drops (varies greatly amongst people), apps dissapearing after apps to sdcard, shutter lag, lapdock low memory issues. I still have a somewhat laggy camera and some sdcards issues.

On the 4g thing, I can get by on 3g too but having 4g is just that much nicer. Especially since one can usually keep their unlimited data plan. I do stream movies though and use the lapdock 100 on the go a lot, so 4g comes in handy.

All in all both devices are very good. I think the Bionic would be a better investment for the future though. Sorry for the super long post

 

[cjsmoove]

I second that.....

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[Mtig]

Got mine on launch day and I love it. I to had the OG droid and loved it up to the end. I have had 2 friends get it and they love it too. Good luck

 

[k1ngr4t]

That's really what it boils down to, isn't it? For whatever inane reason it is, you think information about users like me with bad experiences with the Bionic is not useful. Just because you're stuck in some fantasy world where your phone has to be the BEST EVARR DUDE!!, don't expect the adults in the world to feel obliged to slobber all over a phone no matter even if it worked like it was supposed to. Fact is, (even though you can't handle it), the info I'm giving about my experience IS useful information to those questioning if they should get it. But ultimately, it doesn't bother ME if they buy it or not, unlike those those like you that get all upset if someone would rather buy a nexus or iphone. Really.

You want me to "gtfo" of droid forums huh? Hehe! I bet that would make you happy,... banish those that would dare insult your Bionic!! You do realize how silly that sounds don't you?

I guess lucky for you and me, I don't get on Droidforums much... I can only handle so much of the prevalent juvenile attitude here of "Ya!! My phone rocks DUDE!!! And your phone sux DUDE cuz it's not a Bionic!!!" Get over it already. Most adults I know have more important things to worry about than whether "Team Bionic" is winning the war.

BTW- Seriously? "K1ngr4t"????... ya, I can tell I'm speaking to an adult here...

LOL! Had to pull the username card, huh? Pitiful. But yes I do wish I lived in a Bionic fantasy world. It's a world where every user has a flawless, creak free phone with unlimited apps on their SD card and internal partition. A world where someone can unlock their phone quickly and multiple times without it restarting or going black. A world where one can stay on a call or use Google Music for days on end without interruption. Yes I would love to live in this world. Sadly in the real world we have haters who like to harp on others because they weren't screwed over and feel like everyone should be angry like them. If you're not angry, you're a zealot. Funny how that works. Also, it's not like I'm a new poster here, you're more than welcome to look through the forums and know how I feel about the Bionic. Maybe then you won't run your mouth so much...seriously though this is my last post on the subject. So make sure your next shot is a good one that really puts me in my place!

 

[dlo-htown]

LOL! Had to pull the username card, huh? Pitiful. But yes I do wish I lived in a Bionic fantasy world. It's a world where every user has a flawless, creak free phone with unlimited apps on their SD card and internal partition. A world where someone can unlock their phone quickly and multiple times without it restarting or going black. A world where one can stay on a call or use Google Music for days on end without interruption. Yes I would love to live in this world. Sadly in the real world we have haters who like to harp on others because they weren't screwed over and feel like everyone should be angry like them. If you're not angry, you're a zealot. Funny how that works. Also, it's not like I'm a new poster here, you're more than welcome to look through the forums and know how I feel about the Bionic. Maybe then you won't run your mouth so much...seriously though this is my last post on the subject. So make sure your next shot is a good one that really puts me in my place!

Oh good grief! I can't tell if you just can't read correctly or if you really believe you ARE a Bionic and that I've insulted you personally.

Fact is, I wasn't harping on any user on here. Not at all. In fact, lately all I've ever done is relate my experience with the Bionic in threads that ASK for opinions and experiences on the Bionic... only to be followed around by leg-humpers like you that want to seek out and destroy any dissenting opinions on how great the Bionic is. You are the one taking it personal, not me. I couldn't care any less if you love your Bionic or if you cheat on it and use a Nexus every once in a while.

I don't care how long you've been posting on this forum either. Is that some sort of status symbol too around here? Don't tell me post count means knowledge here.

As long as people considering buying a Bionic want to know how they've been performing, then I'll give my experience, good OR bad. But theres a bunch of folks like you on droidforums that seem to take it as a personal attack... you even say so, that I'm harping on others, when I've only harped on my Bionic's problems!! I'm not hating the phone just to hate it or because i'm on a "us vs. them" mission like you, I'm just relating that my phone still doesn't work right. Get that through your head already! When a patch is finally released that fixes the problems on my Bionic, then I'll relate that, and gladly tell everyone the Bionic is worth it, but right now, in my opinion, it isn't worth it.

If you don't like what I have to say, then do what the moderators have suggested over and over: Ignore it!

I'm not attacking Bionic lovers, for the love of god. So why don't y'all just back off and chill out... if you're not willing to come back to reality at least. Sheesh!

 

[TheOldFart]

All in all both devices are very good. I think the Bionic would be a better investment for the future though. Sorry for the super long post

Thank you very much for the detailed response. I don't think that I can get the Bionic from Sam's Club, as I have to transfer an upgrade. I would need to get it at Verizon for $200 - $30 NE2. I will get it, but will wait until after Christmas to see if the price drops. No word on when we get LTE in Binghamton.

 

[Shadez]

I'm sure most of you know this, but if you have wifi enabled you will get data drop outs. If wifi is enabled and not connected that is.