Motorola Photon 4G reviews thread

[Clipp]

Post your review of the Photon 4G! I don't have one yet, but I'll start by posting review links from well-known tech sites...

CNET - Motorola Photon 4G Review - Watch CNET's Video Review
BGR - Motorola PHOTON 4G review
PCWorld - Motorola Photon 4G Phone Review | PCWorld
SlashGear - Motorola PHOTON 4G Review - SlashGear
PhoneArena - Motorola PHOTON 4G specs review - Phone Arena
PhoneScoop - Review: Motorola Photon 4G (Phone Scoop)

[trogdor1138]

I've had mine about 24 hours, and so far I love it. I did have an EVO 3D briefly, but ended up returning it after a few days. I think the two are pretty comparable, but the Photon manages to edge out the EVO for me. This isn't a scientific review, but rather my real-world impressions thus far.

Likes:
-The Photon looks and feels like a very professional, high-tech device. The cut-off corners, color scheme, textured hardware buttons, all combine to make it look and feel like the powerhouse it is.
-For me at least, the screen is great. YouTube, movies, etc., all look great. I was worried from things I had read about PenTile displays, but I have no complaints.
-Comparatively, there is very little pre-loaded and customized on this phone. For some that might be a negative, but I definitely consider it a plus. There's not even a single game already loaded on the phone! There are of course the standard Sprint apps: NASCAR, Radio/TV, etc., but these are to be expected. The Motorola customizations are also there on the home screens, but these can easily be removed.
-For me, I think the Photon takes better pictures than the EVO 3D did in 2D mode. Obviously there is a difference in megapixel count, but real-world results are more satisfactory for me.
-16GB of internal storage, plus an available MicroSD card slot adds up to a lot of space
-The Tegra 2 dual-core processor is quite snappy; I haven't seen any slow-downs yet
-4G obviously sucks battery life, but I find that the Photon overall lasts longer than the EVO 3D

Dislikes:
-The charge port is in the stupidest place ever in regard to the kickstand. I know there has been much debate about this elsewhere, but I'm going to call it a design flaw.
-I miss Sense, and the other HTC apps. HTC does a great job of making its software look and feel very professional and stock. I think I understand that Motorola was going for a very minimalist UI in terms of its customizations, but some of it seriously looks like something out of Visual Basic 6.0.
-The phone does already have 16GB of storage, but no SD card is included; you'll have to pick up your own.
-The dock accessories are very expensive for what basically boils down to a glorified USB hub. Additionally, the only way to access the Webtop and car interfaces is to use the OEM docks. This may change with time and 3rd-party accessories, but for now it's unfortunate.
-Locked bootloader (possibly with eFuse?). I do believe that Motorola has promised to start unlocking bootloaders later this year, but for now there is no rooting or custom roms to be had.

The other big feature for me is the additional GSM radio. I haven't had a chance to test this yet, but I do travel internationally occasionally and it's generally cheaper to buy a SIM abroad than pay for Sprint's international roaming. I'm coming from a Touch Pro 2 which also had this capability, and I loved it.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. The Photon promised quite a bit, and so far it delivers. I'm definitely glad of my decision to return the EVO 3D and get the Photon instead.

[AdamLeonard]

There is a reason that the charge port is on the left side even though it is the "bottom" when the kickstand is deployed: It requires you to purchase a $50+ charging dock to be able to both charge the device and have it in landscape mode such as for watching movies. Same reason the EVO3D has it on the left side even though the original EVO had it on the bottom.

[busventinc]

I appreciate your review thank you but even with all the perks of space on the phone 3D will be the phone for me as far as pictures are concerned the DEVS will cook something up for the users for better picture quality more roms and already S-off the 3vo is the way to go

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[Clipp]

Originally Posted by AdamLeonard

There is a reason that the charge port is on the left side even though it is the "bottom" when the kickstand is deployed: It requires you to purchase a $50+ charging dock to be able to both charge the device and have it in landscape mode such as for watching movies. Same reason the EVO3D has it on the left side even though the original EVO had it on the bottom.

Definitely sucks for when you want to use the kickstand and charge. That being said, I think it's more comfortable to hold in landscape, especially when gaming. I would like to hear from manufactures on why they're all moving away from the bottom port. All the new devices seem to have it on the side or top...

[trogdor1138]

I take back what I said about the kickstand. As pointed out on other sites, the stand is actually firm enough to hold the phone up when "upside down" (ie with the ports on top). I also bothered to RTFM today, and this is indeed what is suggested when charging is required while using the kickstand. Not the most elegant, but at least Motorola wasn't as underhanded as I first thought.

[OR78]

Wirelessly posted (HTC Evo : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.4; en-us; SPH-P100 Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Originally Posted by trogdor1138

I take back what I said about the kickstand. As pointed out on other sites, the stand is actually firm enough to hold the phone up when "upside down" (ie with the ports on top). I also bothered to RTFM today, and this is indeed what is suggested when charging is required while using the kickstand. Not the most elegant, but at least Motorola wasn't as underhanded as I first thought.

Good post! I laughed when I read this....very true though...

[tx_dbs_tx]

Originally Posted by trogdor1138

I've had mine about 24 hours, and so far I love it. I did have an EVO 3D briefly, but ended up returning it after a few days. I think the two are pretty comparable, but the Photon manages to edge out the EVO for me. This isn't a scientific review, but rather my real-world impressions thus far.

Likes:
-The Photon looks and feels like a very professional, high-tech device. The cut-off corners, color scheme, textured hardware buttons, all combine to make it look and feel like the powerhouse it is.
-For me at least, the screen is great. YouTube, movies, etc., all look great. I was worried from things I had read about PenTile displays, but I have no complaints.
-Comparatively, there is very little pre-loaded and customized on this phone. For some that might be a negative, but I definitely consider it a plus. There's not even a single game already loaded on the phone! There are of course the standard Sprint apps: NASCAR, Radio/TV, etc., but these are to be expected. The Motorola customizations are also there on the home screens, but these can easily be removed.
-For me, I think the Photon takes better pictures than the EVO 3D did in 2D mode. Obviously there is a difference in megapixel count, but real-world results are more satisfactory for me.
-16GB of internal storage, plus an available MicroSD card slot adds up to a lot of space
-The Tegra 2 dual-core processor is quite snappy; I haven't seen any slow-downs yet
-4G obviously sucks battery life, but I find that the Photon overall lasts longer than the EVO 3D

Dislikes:
-The charge port is in the stupidest place ever in regard to the kickstand. I know there has been much debate about this elsewhere, but I'm going to call it a design flaw.
-I miss Sense, and the other HTC apps. HTC does a great job of making its software look and feel very professional and stock. I think I understand that Motorola was going for a very minimalist UI in terms of its customizations, but some of it seriously looks like something out of Visual Basic 6.0.
-The phone does already have 16GB of storage, but no SD card is included; you'll have to pick up your own.
-The dock accessories are very expensive for what basically boils down to a glorified USB hub. Additionally, the only way to access the Webtop and car interfaces is to use the OEM docks. This may change with time and 3rd-party accessories, but for now it's unfortunate.
-Locked bootloader (possibly with eFuse?). I do believe that Motorola has promised to start unlocking bootloaders later this year, but for now there is no rooting or custom roms to be had.

The other big feature for me is the additional GSM radio. I haven't had a chance to test this yet, but I do travel internationally occasionally and it's generally cheaper to buy a SIM abroad than pay for Sprint's international roaming. I'm coming from a Touch Pro 2 which also had this capability, and I loved it.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. The Photon promised quite a bit, and so far it delivers. I'm definitely glad of my decision to return the EVO 3D and get the Photon instead.

I would take the time to write my own review but you covered everything mostly. So i will only add one mor Pro. The Photon pulls a much better signal than any HTC EVO even the 3D. I can't get a stable 3G or 4G connection inside my house with any of my EVO's but the Photon getas a stable and consistent data connection with no disconnects. Motorola makes very good radios and the Photon carries on that tradition. WIN WIN for the Photon!

[gator352]

Originally Posted by tx_dbs_tx

I would take the time to write my own review but you covered everything mostly. So i will only add one mor Pro. The Photon pulls a much better signal than any HTC EVO even the 3D. I can't get a stable 3G or 4G connection inside my house with any of my EVO's but the Photon getas a stable and consistent data connection with no disconnects. Motorola makes very good radios and the Photon carries on that tradition. WIN WIN for the Photon!

So true!

[popularbelief420]

Today's PopularBelief: Why should I upgrade to a Motorola Photon 4G?

A quick blog post I wrote up about my weekend experience thus far. Enjoy.