Best 4G phone... so far. September 8, 2011 Reviewer: mdanger21
I am not just an "average joe", I know a lot about cell phones, 4G, and battery usage. Please read the following review and decide if the Bionic is right for you. I highly recommend it, but you have to know its battery limitations.
This truly is the best 4G phone out to date. The main issues with 4G phones is battery life. With 10.8 hours of talk time, this far outshines the HTC Thunderbolt that only gets 6.3 hours of talk time. Caution!... Depending on where you live (i.e. the 4G signal that you get consistently), your battery life will vary greatly. When your phone switches back and forth from 4G to 3G, it drains the battery considerably. If you have weak 4G (most everyone), it will switch a lot. I owned the Thunderbolt and got slightly more than 6.3 hours of usage (with mild usage... not heavy). This is because, even though you aren't using your phone, it is switching 4G/3G and thus being used. What this means is that you never really go into standby mode, and so talk time will equal usage time. So you should expect to get about 11 hours of usage from the Bionic whether you are a heavy or light user (i.e. you may have to charge it during the day to get through an entire day), unless you live in a strong 4G area. As 4G gets more expansive, your battery life will get better. If you force your phone into 3G only, your battery life will be insanely long.
A note about JAcura's battery review... he is accurate, but I wanted to clarify it a little. He says that the 1735 is an extended battery, which is true for most phones but not a 4G phone because of the way that 4G uses the battery. He also says that after 3 hours of use, he was at 80%, which is accurate... and at 5 hours he will be at 60% and so on. Thus giving you about 11 hours. So if you unplug your phone at 7am, it will die at about 6pm without charging. And this is under normal use, not heavy use.
Aside from the battery, the Bionic is a great phone. Call quality is good, but not amazing. The dual core 1GHz processor and 1GB of DDR2 RAM make this phone very very fast. Coupled with 4G, and you have the fastest phone on the market. It is also the thinnest 4G phone, which I love. The 4.3inch screen is big, but not too big, and it's very sharp (similar to the Droid 3). Camera pictures are great, but a little on the cool (blueish) side. I has a lot of accessories to dock and turn it into a "netbook", but I think most people won't find it useful enough to spend their money on. The HDMI port is great, again for those few that use it. There are a lot of other great features, but most people will just enjoy them without really noticing them (I just stuck to the basics for this review).
Cons: I really wish it had dual LED for the camera flash, instead of single LED. I wish it had a better front camera instead of VGA (but in reality, very few people will skype with their phone because it only works well on 4G or wifi and only a handful of your friends will have a 4G phone). Battery life is better than other 4G phones, but it's still not good.
Conclusion: If you want 4G (and are willing to deal with shorter battery life), this is the phone to get. However, if you wait until October 6th, the HTC Vigor will be out which will have a dual core 1.5GHz processor, 2meg front camera, and Beats by Dr. Dre. But battery life on the Vigor is unknown and if it's worse than the Bionic, then it's not worth it.
This truly is the best 4G phone out to date. The main issues with 4G phones is battery life. With 10.8 hours of talk time, this far outshines the HTC Thunderbolt that only gets 6.3 hours of talk time. Caution!... Depending on where you live (i.e. the 4G signal that you get consistently), your battery life will vary greatly. When your phone switches back and forth from 4G to 3G, it drains the battery considerably. If you have weak 4G (most everyone), it will switch a lot. I owned the Thunderbolt and got slightly more than 6.3 hours of usage (with mild usage... not heavy). This is because, even though you aren't using your phone, it is switching 4G/3G and thus being used. What this means is that you never really go into standby mode, and so talk time will equal usage time. So you should expect to get about 11 hours of usage from the Bionic whether you are a heavy or light user (i.e. you may have to charge it during the day to get through an entire day), unless you live in a strong 4G area. As 4G gets more expansive, your battery life will get better. If you force your phone into 3G only, your battery life will be insanely long.
A note about JAcura's battery review... he is accurate, but I wanted to clarify it a little. He says that the 1735 is an extended battery, which is true for most phones but not a 4G phone because of the way that 4G uses the battery. He also says that after 3 hours of use, he was at 80%, which is accurate... and at 5 hours he will be at 60% and so on. Thus giving you about 11 hours. So if you unplug your phone at 7am, it will die at about 6pm without charging. And this is under normal use, not heavy use.
Aside from the battery, the Bionic is a great phone. Call quality is good, but not amazing. The dual core 1GHz processor and 1GB of DDR2 RAM make this phone very very fast. Coupled with 4G, and you have the fastest phone on the market. It is also the thinnest 4G phone, which I love. The 4.3inch screen is big, but not too big, and it's very sharp (similar to the Droid 3). Camera pictures are great, but a little on the cool (blueish) side. I has a lot of accessories to dock and turn it into a "netbook", but I think most people won't find it useful enough to spend their money on. The HDMI port is great, again for those few that use it. There are a lot of other great features, but most people will just enjoy them without really noticing them (I just stuck to the basics for this review).
Cons: I really wish it had dual LED for the camera flash, instead of single LED. I wish it had a better front camera instead of VGA (but in reality, very few people will skype with their phone because it only works well on 4G or wifi and only a handful of your friends will have a 4G phone). Battery life is better than other 4G phones, but it's still not good.
Conclusion: If you want 4G (and are willing to deal with shorter battery life), this is the phone to get. However, if you wait until October 6th, the HTC Vigor will be out which will have a dual core 1.5GHz processor, 2meg front camera, and Beats by Dr. Dre. But battery life on the Vigor is unknown and if it's worse than the Bionic, then it's not worth it.
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