Yep, another which phone I should get?

[Scouser]

I have been doing tons and tons of research over the pat 3 days. However, I am just as confused as I was a couple of days ago, perhaps even more. I am in between the Droid RAZR, HTC Rezound, the Google Nexus or the Bionic.

The Droid RAZR seems to have a great form factor, and the OS skin on it is very appealing. However, I am still a tad worried about the battery life and how big the phone is (I have small hands and I feel it'd be difficult to hold considering it has a large footprint).

The HTC Rezound, I love and I can get it at a nice price ($159). And although it boasts a 1.5 Ghz processor, I am worried that its benchmarked behind the RAZR and Nexus. On top of that, I really want to be able to have stock Android ICS on it (which I can do by rooting, but I am worried about voiding the warranty). I love the fact that it comes with Beats headphones though (they're pretty amazing).

The Galaxy Nexus seems good. I love the fact that it ships with stock ICS and will have support for a while because its a Nexus. But I have heard it's not as snappy at times and the build quality looks terrible on the pictures. Moreover, as with the RAZR, I may be overspending slightly to get it.

The Bionic. I only included the phone because of the price. It's 30 bucks on the Verizon website, but I don't know how much performance I am giving up with the 1 Ghz processor. Also, it looks like a brick.

No matter what phone I get, I am definitely going to try and put stock ICS on there. I just don't know if I can "un-void" my warranty if I ever want to send the phone back. Regardless, anybody have any input on what I should get? My upgrade comes on January 30th.

 

[JeffDenver]

The Droid RAZR seems to have a great form factor

You would think so. IMO, it is a little awkward to use. Thinner is not always better.

However, I am still a tad worried about the battery life and how big the phone is (I have small hands and I feel it'd be difficult to hold considering it has a large footprint).

LOL, its battery life is one of its strengths. It has the best battery life of any of the major phones right now. The Maxx has the best battery life of any smartphone period I think.

The HTC Rezound, I love and I can get it at a nice price ($159). And although it boasts a 1.5 Ghz processor, I am worried that its benchmarked behind the RAZR and Nexus.

I would not read too much into that...all three phones are comparable. The Razr probably has the best CPU. Dont go by ghz alone...CPU architecture plays just as much a part as frequency does. A slower clocked CPU can still be "faster" than a competitor.

The iPhone 4S is as fast or faster than these phones in many benchmarks, and it has only an 800mhz processor.

Also, keep in mind that Gingerbread is not fully utilizing both cores of the Rezound (and probably the Razr, at least from what I've heard). ICS should fix that. So the benchmark landscape might change once the Razr and Rezound get official ICS support.

On top of that, I really want to be able to have stock Android ICS on it (which I can do by rooting, but I am worried about voiding the warranty).

You should be. But in reality (on the Rezound), your warranty will probably not be voided. At worst, Verizon will refuse to service it...HTC will still service it directly though. HTC allows you to unlock the bootloader. It is likely they will still fully warranty it as long as you have not overclocked it. But nothing is guaranteed.

On the Razr...I dont know. Motorola has been hostile to rooting in the past, so it is likely that rooting the Razr will void the warranty IMO.

I love the fact that it comes with Beats headphones though (they're pretty amazing).

I like them personally. But audio nerds consider them mid-range quality (which is high quality to normal people). People are eBaying these for $70 right now, so if you didnt want them, you could still sell them. I think they retail for $120.

I do like them, but I would never pay $120 for them.

The Galaxy Nexus seems good. I love the fact that it ships with stock ICS and will have support for a while because its a Nexus. But I have heard it's not as snappy at times and the build quality looks terrible on the pictures. Moreover, as with the RAZR, I may be overspending slightly to get it.

I think the build quality issue has been exaggerated. The main drawback with the Galaxy nexus, IMO, is that it has no SD slot. I have not heard of any complaints on it's speed (quite the opposite). It is very big though...if you are worried about the Razr being too big, you will not like this phone. Also, a lot of people have had serious issues with it maintaining a 4G signal. It isnt universal (many people claim to have no problems at all), but it is enough people to be a concern IMO.

Also, it doesnt have hardware navigation buttons. The "home" and "back" buttons are all on-screen only. Some people love this (and they do look cool), but this means the buttons are not always visible. I personally found this annoying when I used it at the verizon store.

The Bionic. I only included the phone because of the price. It's 30 bucks on the Verizon website, but I don't know how much performance I am giving up with the 1 Ghz processor. Also, it looks like a brick.

Its a great phone, but all three of the others are better in every way. Well, except that the Razr doesnt have a removable battery and the Galaxy Nexus doesn't have SD. But in all other respects, both those phones are superior to the Bionic.

No matter what phone I get, I am definitely going to try and put stock ICS on there.

If that is really your biggest issue, the Galaxy nexus is probably the best choice. You can shoehorn ICS on to the other two, but it wont be as easy, and will have potential warranty consequences.

I just don't know if I can "un-void" my warranty if I ever want to send the phone back. Regardless, anybody have any input on what I should get? My upgrade comes on January 30th.

You cannot unvoid your warranty. It is a one way trip. If your warranty becomes void, it stays that way.

You are not actually voiding your warranty with the Rezound if you unlock it through HTC's website. All they are doing is warning you that the warranty may not be honored if they determine that whatever is wrong with your phone was caused by messing with it's basic settings (like changing the radio or overclocking it). If your display or audio jack goes out, it is very likely you will still have warranty coverage on it.

From what I understand, rooting the Razr DOES void your warranty. Motorola are dicks about rooting. You can expect that they will put roadblocks in your way if you want to root. As for the Nexus...I do not think rooting voids your warranty with them either.

My recommendation is the Rezound. After that, the Galaxy Nexus (if you dont care about the lack of SD...otherwise the Razr). All three are great phones IMO.

 

[Scouser]

Yeah, but I was wondering if I wanted to take it back to Verizon, could I theoretically just put the OEM OS skin back on it and have them not notice? I did that with the BB Storm but I don't know if it is similar with Android phones. I am heavily leaning towards Rezound right now, only thing holding me back is benchmarks (I know it's kind of stupid).

 

[JeffDenver]

Yeah, but I was wondering if I wanted to take it back to Verizon, could I theoretically just put the OEM OS skin back on it and have them not notice? I did that with the BB Storm but I don't know if it is similar with Android phones. I am heavily leaning towards Rezound right now, only thing holding me back is benchmarks (I know it's kind of stupid).

If you unlock through HTC, it is generally assumed that HTC shares that information with Verizon. Of course, Verizon is known to be sloppy and haphazard in their record keeping, so this might not matter. My friend got warranty replacement of his Droid 1, and it was fully rooted and ROMed and overclocked, heh heh.

With the Galaxy Nexus, I dont think there is any risk of voiding your warranty. The GN is a developer phone, so it is generally assumed that it be rootable. This is speculation on my part...I do not actually know of any GN users who have gotten warranty service on a rooted phone.

With the Razr, there is no "legitimate" way to root it. So anything you do that unlocks it will void your warranty (presumably).

On Benchmarks:
Here is an example of why they are not always accurate: When the Rezound runs quadrant, it is moving around many more pixels than the Razr (because it has a far higher resolution). So it is basically doing a lot more work. So quadrant scroes will not be directly comparable...if the Razr was moving ariound the same number of pixels as the Rezound, it's score would be a lot lower.

Another example; The Galaxy Nexus already has ICS, so both of it's cores are fully utilized...the Rezound is not yet optimized in that way. ICS is also not optimized for the Quadrant benchmark (for example)...so GN results will not be accurate.

All benchmarks available are like that right now. They are all apples to oranges comparisons on some level. It is not just the CPUs that are different...they have different video hardware as well. So one phone might do a lot better at graphics tests while the other does better at raw calculations or whatever. But when you look at benchmark apps, they are COMBINING all these variables into a single benchmark. So you are only getting a very general picture.

For that reason, I would take benchmark results with a grain of salt. You really have to know what you are looking at specifically to get a real idea of what they mean.

 

[jwladisc]

What about screens and durability? The Razr has the Gorilla glass which is similar/identical to the D1, which mine is still perfect. Are the others a concern or do they have similar, just with not as know types of glass? I really dont want a case, and really really dont want scratches...
Sorry I jumped forums

 

[dezymond]

Have you had any hands-on time with these phones?

Also regarding benchmarks, I personally don't pay any attention to them because they don't rate "real world" experience. Between all 3 of those phones they all feel smooth and snappy and if I had chose one of the others over my Nexus I'm sure I wouldn't notice a difference in performance.

 

[JeffDenver]

What about screens and durability? The Razr has the Gorilla glass which is similar/identical to the D1, which mine is still perfect. Are the others a concern or do they have similar, just with not as know types of glass? I really dont want a case, and really really dont want scratches... Sorry I jumped forums

All things being equal, yes, Gorilla Glass is better. My droid 1 has survived 2 years if heavy use and the display is pristine...not a single mark on it.

That being said, all the current phones that dont use it use special glass that is similar. Corning is not the only game in town. All I would require of a new phone is that it has a glass screen. Even a regular glass screen will be hard to scratch...the only real things that could scratch it are sand/rocks and maybe keys. Sand is probably the biggest threat, and that will scratch Gorilla Glass as well.

As for a case...I am actually less concerned with case damage on the Rezound than I was on the Droid 1...the Rezound has a hard rubber back that seems to be really resistant to superficial damage.

Have you had any hands-on time with these phones? Also regarding benchmarks, I personally don't pay any attention to them because they don't rate "real world" experience. Between all 3 of those phones they all feel smooth and snappy and if I had chose one of the others over my Nexus I'm sure I wouldn't notice a difference in performance.

This.

The performance differences are a lot less pronounced now than they used to be. They all have 1 gig of RAM and comparable CPUs. I would get hands on time with the phones and actually use processor heavy apps on them to get a feel for how fast they are.

benchmarks are not worthless, but they are not the be-all end-all either.

 

[jwladisc]

Getting my hands on training tomorrow, but wanted to go in edumacated, since I will be walking out with the new phone (my current one is dead). Does having an original D1 help, since I believe I can transfer my SD card from that into the Razr and buy the 16GB, and instantly make it a 32 with no added cost?

 

[Scouser]

So I checked out the phones. The Galaxy Nexus looks huge. I played around with the RAZR and Rezound, I loved the feel of the RAZR; but I think a part of it may be because the Rezound was very hot for some reason. Does it tend to do that, does the RAZR run cooler?

 

[Snoking]

I played around with all three the other day. Liked the Rezound the best. Maybe when the cost comes down more!

My OG D is working well on CM7. Chris

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums

 

[Scouser]

I played around with all three the other day. Liked the Rezound the best. Maybe when the cost comes down more!

My OG D is working well on CM7. Chris

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums

Yeah, I'm gonna go again tomorrow, play around with it for a longer time. Gonna root my Droid now to CM7, just to get a feel for rooting (my cherry is being popped).

 

[jchammer123]

I was dead set on the nexus. I went to Verizon and played with it and then for the fun of it, tinkered with the rezound. I walked out with the rezound. I liked the features better and love the headphones and actually love the sense, which I was skeptical of, coming from the d1. I have rooted it and see the developer community growing daily, which is nice. I personally think that there is NO comparison between the rezounds sense and the razr or bionics blur. The functionality and look and feel of sense is sooooo much better (like I said personal preference). All phones, I'm sure are great, but I couldn't be happier with my rezound.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using DroidForums

 

[DroidDex2]

I think the ultimate test is to see how well the phone will run 'Gun Bros' although this game tends to take around an hour to get fully downloaded and installed (granted I've been on 3G devices since day one of my android experiences for lack of interest in 4G) so it wouldn't be ideal for an in store test, but if the device can run the first 20 to 30 levels with out any fault or lag is a good indication that it is a strong and very fast phone. Next, I honestly don't think the Droid Milestone or D2 had true Gorilla glass because around a week or two of having my Droid2 before putting the invisishield on it, (which, by the way, is a great investment if anyones ever questioned getting it) I noticed a few small scratches on the screen. Mind you I take superb care of my phones. And I've been wondering if the Droid3 has Gorilla Glass, being that I upgraded from D2 just before christmas. According to reviews is does but I don't rely on online reviews to tell me the truth and nothing but. But this screen seems to be rejecting any damage and scratches even without any sort of protector. Although, again, I do take supreme care for my phone and haven't so much as dropped it from sitting height.

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

 

[JeffDenver]

Next, I honestly don't think the Droid Milestone or D2 had true Gorilla glass because around a week or two of having my Droid2 before putting the invisishield on it, (which, by the way, is a great investment if anyones ever questioned getting it) I noticed a few small scratches on the screen.

That might not be the actual glass...if there is a film on it (anti-glare film for example) it would show as a "scratch". I see that on my eyeglasses.

It is hard to scratch even normal glass. That is why I like glass screens so much.

 

[Scouser]

Quick question: There is no hidden cost for an upgrade right? like no $35 activation or some random charge at the end of my billing cycle? I just bought a Rezound off of Amazon and the Rep there said there was. However, the Verizon Rep said there wasn't but my mom got an upgrade and she had a charge; although it may just have been a charge for an early upgrade. My upgrade is the one that comes after 20 months, so will I just be paying for the phone and no extra charges?