The "Got my D3"/ first impressions thread

[Immolate]

Keyboard issues? I did not like the D2 keyboard, due to stiff key action and cramp key space. If the D3 is not better or is worse than the D2, the KB will do no good for me. I would mainly be using it for game emulators and the Quake ports, since prefer swype to hard keys for texting now.

Based on the reported bloat and low free ram (hopefull easy to root to fix) a stiff keyboard will force me to wait for the Bionic. Hoping the KB is good, or will just do without one.

Point appearing to be that the keyboard is a critical function for this device. I am hoping the keyboard is not stiff actioned like the D2.

I think the keyboard is the best I've ever seen. The keys are neither loose nor stiff. The tactile feedback is just right. Without the rocker joystick button of previous droids, the keyboard feels huge. The slide action of the keyboard is stiff without feeling stuck and has a nice positive click as it goes into position. Beautiful job of engineering.

You guys are killing me. I need to know if there is any lag with this phone and mire about the screen. Please. Those are the only two things that im concerned with. I have not herd a lot of good things about the so called better screen ( penitile screen ) .

Smooth like butter. Not sure what you mean by mire. I don't think pentile is a positive feature, but mostly because it shows jaggies on really small text.

 

[leonard]

I have a DX2 I just bought to get grandfathered. Got until tomorrow to swap it under the 14 days.

Does the D3 have a fm radio? Should I swap the DX2 for a D3?

Sent from my DROID X2 using DroidForums

 

[haproot]

I see no fm radio on mine.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

 

[JesterMX6]

d3 (according to moto.com) doesn't have FM radio.

and do all complaining about the bloat, just stop.

reimage your OG droid, (or droid 2 for that matter) and use it for a week. then switch to the D3 and share your opinions.

i've had my X running stock GB for a while now and it runs great. just switched to the D3 and its faster and more responsive than the X. the X is lightyears faster than my stock OG droid, so if you do a true comparison, the D3 is a much faster and more robust piece of equipment.

 

[Immolate]

I have a DX2 I just bought to get grandfathered. Got until tomorrow to swap it under the 14 days.

Does the D3 have a fm radio? Should I swap the DX2 for a D3?

Sent from my DROID X2 using DroidForums

Is the hardware keyboard more important to you than a bigger screen? If so, go with the D3.

What the heck is Motoprint anyway? I'll have to check this out. And a 5guys app? Really?

 

[Arachnidus]

I've got a Thunderbolt and have a serious desire to return to a Droid. I have no doubts that the D3 is a worthy successor to the D2, but does anybody's know if Verizon would let me get an early upgrade? I got my Thunderbolt using an upgrade from my grandma's line, and I have one coming in January(a NE2 one, I think).

Sent from my GT-P7510 using DroidForums

 

[mattbooty]

What the heck is Motoprint anyway? I'll have to check this out. And a 5guys app? Really?

I saw this also, it appears to let you print from your phone to a network printer! This is a huge bonus for me! I haven't tried it yet, but looking forward to testing it out tonight!

 

[Immolate]

Copied from my post on Droid Life:

I've been playing with mine for a few hours now. First thing I did was put the 32GB SDCard from my TBolt into it. The screen feels noticeably smaller after having a 4.3 for a year. Quadrant was 2432 and incidentally that is where you can see a good example of where the pentile screen comes up a bit short, with small white text you get big jaggies. Other than that, I haven't noticed the tiles without holding it up in my face.

Keyboard is sweetness on a stick. Not only is it five row, but because they didn't put the gawdawful Droid joystick button on the right, it's just a huge, expansive keyboard. It will take some getting used to. I've been using Swype and FlexT9 for a long time now, but it is a marvel of engineering. Slide out mechanism is nice and stiff, but not halting. It feels well-engineered. The key travel is perfect. Press is not too hard, not to soft, and you know when you've pressed.

Ringtones and other sounds are probably too loud at maximum. I don't know if they are as loud as the OG which set the standard for holy crap, but still louder at max than I need. That's a good thing. The power button exists, which is an improvement over the Thunderbolt. It's big enough to find in the dark without being too big.

I'm not overly impressed with the latest Motoblur, but it's not totally annoying yet. The app drawer pages left to right, which I like. The rosie looks like someone just said screw it, throw some icons down. At least I can replace the buttons on the rosie without effort.That's probably a bigger deal than it looking so boring.

As you might expect from the quadrant score, it's butter smooth. I haven't tried any games yet so I don't know what that will be like, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't solid. Camera feels good and is pleasing to take snaps with. The camcorder looks good so far as well, with good audible feedback and auto-focus.

I think if you love droids enough to have already bought one like I did, you're going to be very pleased with your purchase. If you're trying to decide between this and the Bionic, I'm going to venture that it's a choice between a best-in-class physical keyboard and a big-screen 4G phone.

 

[JesterMX6]

Copied from my post on Droid Life:

I've been playing with mine for a few hours now. First thing I did was put the 32GB SDCard from my TBolt into it. The screen feels noticeably smaller after having a 4.3 for a year. Quadrant was 2432 and incidentally that is where you can see a good example of where the pentile screen comes up a bit short, with small white text you get big jaggies. Other than that, I haven't noticed the tiles without holding it up in my face.

Keyboard is sweetness on a stick. Not only is it five row, but because they didn't put the gawdawful Droid joystick button on the right, it's just a huge, expansive keyboard. It will take some getting used to. I've been using Swype and FlexT9 for a long time now, but it is a marvel of engineering. Slide out mechanism is nice and stiff, but not halting. It feels well-engineered. The key travel is perfect. Press is not too hard, not to soft, and you know when you've pressed.

Ringtones and other sounds are probably too loud at maximum. I don't know if they are as loud as the OG which set the standard for holy crap, but still louder at max than I need. That's a good thing. The power button exists, which is an improvement over the Thunderbolt. It's big enough to find in the dark without being too big.

I'm not overly impressed with the latest Motoblur, but it's not totally annoying yet. The app drawer pages left to right, which I like. The rosie looks like someone just said screw it, throw some icons down. At least I can replace the buttons on the rosie without effort.That's probably a bigger deal than it looking so boring.

As you might expect from the quadrant score, it's butter smooth. I haven't tried any games yet so I don't know what that will be like, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't solid. Camera feels good and is pleasing to take snaps with. The camcorder looks good so far as well, with good audible feedback and auto-focus.

I think if you love droids enough to have already bought one like I did, you're going to be very pleased with your purchase. If you're trying to decide between this and the Bionic, I'm going to venture that it's a choice between a best-in-class physical keyboard and a big-screen 4G phone.

finally a decent, seemingly objective review. this is how i feel about it as well.

also i miss the dedicated camera button

 

[dancingcrab]

No one appears to have mentioned anything about Google Talk...

This is GB 2.3.4... does it come with Google Video Chat??

Please, someone check it out for me.

I'm also intrigued by the method in which the device treats the build-in 16GB... if it's its SD card, and a real SD would be SD-ext (unmountable), does that mean you can only install apps to the internal 16GB that would normally be SD transferable? How much regular app storage is there?

 

[Immolate]

No one appears to have mentioned anything about Google Talk...

This is GB 2.3.4... does it come with Google Video Chat??

Please, someone check it out for me.

I'm also intrigued by the method in which the device treats the build-in 16GB... if it's its SD card, and a real SD would be SD-ext (unmountable), does that mean you can only install apps to the internal 16GB that would normally be SD transferable? How much regular app storage is there?

Not seeing video chat from Google on it. It has Skype preinstalled however.

 

[dancingcrab]

Not seeing video chat from Google on it. It has Skype preinstalled however.

Ah hell. This makes me VERY sad.

 

[Stevelord]

How the heck am I suppose to know what kind of message I received? The icons give no indication. No asterisk or number. I have to play a guessing game with this? Are all Droids always like this?

Wait.... you DO know that your notification bar at the top is to be touched, dragged down and then you'll see all notifications which you can then touch to go to directly?

Don't like that too much at the moment. Its tiny, in the corner and dragging it down so it hopefully locks is difficult one handed. More difficult than what I'm use to anyway.

However I have hope that I either get usse to it or find an app that works better for me.

 

[Yonnor]

Don't like that too much at the moment. Its tiny, in the corner and dragging it down so it hopefully locks is difficult one handed. More difficult than what I'm use to anyway.

However I have hope that I either get usse to it or find an app that works better for me.

You'll get used to it. I've had a droid for almost 2+ years and its like 2nd nature to do it one handed

 

[rushmore]

How does the D3 display compare to the DX2 display? I actually liked the DX2 display.