Motorola Droid 4
Phone Scoop Review
Feb 10, 2012 by Eric M. Zeman
Motorola takes its fourth shot at the Droid that started it all with the Droid 4. For the QWERTY keyboard seeker, there's a lot to like about this LTE 4G smartphone for Verizon Wireless. read review ›
User Reviews
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Still the best qwerty phone on Verizon
I am doing a retro-review of this phone as I have had it for about a year now, and still love it. Motorola has been good in supporting the software finally and upgraded the Droid 4 to Jelly Bean recently. The phone has never performed better and the keyboard is the best physical keyboard on any phone ever. I just wish it had a removable battery (and camera button). I hope that if/when they make a Droid 5 they keep the size exactly the same, if not smaller, and just pack in as big a screen as possible, this phone is verging on slightly too wide to hold comfortably. However after typing on this phone, I cannot force myself to ever deal with a touch screen keyboard or anything without a number row!
Reliable Calling, but features need improvement.
Ive always been a fan of motorola; and i prefer a keyboard. I had the droid 3 for a couple months, and decided i needed the droid 4 for 4G service for mobile hotspot with my laptop.
The mobile hotspot will work great for 15-20 minutes, then quit working for 1-20 minutes, then it will work again, very aggravating when you're trying to work using your phone as the internet. Ive called verizon customer service they had me do some resets, and even wipe my phone completely. It helped, but not for long.
Also speaker phone is junk. I still have to hold the phone inches from my ear to hear it. My gf has the iphone and her speaker is crazy loud, you can hear it in the next room in our house.
The layout on the phone is very simple to use. Everything is easy to find.
Call quality is clear, and reliable. Rarely have any issues with dropped calls, or bad connection. If all you do is talk, and text, this phone is perfect for you. Calls and messaging are very reliable.
Battery life is ok... Could be better, but i usually can make it through most of the day.
Camera isn't bad either, but deffinatly not as good as iphone or HTC incredible 4. But the phone does work well with skype. Stays a solid connection most of the time, and if it does lag and drop, i can usually quickly reconnect.
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Good, but not perfect
Using this phone for about 6 weeks, here are my results:
As my first smartphone, upgrading from a LG enV touch (with a physical keyboard as well) it took me some time getting used to it, but eventually, I found my way around pretty well.
Pros:
Excellent physical keyboard. 2 minor gripes are: The keys are not separated enough from each other. My old LG had more space between keys. Second, the symbol keys, shift/caps are not properly placed. But typing is a delight, feedback & backlighting excellent.
The video camera is very good for a phone. Even better than my P&S! Just watch out while panning it could get distorted. Also colors lacks saturation, itâs rather bland, but still good & very sharp.
Call quality is very good, w/ good speaker.
Blazing fast 4G speeds. I clocked 18 mbps download, 15 upload. WOW!
A lot of good, useful apps pre-installed.
Cons:
The PenTile screen is not the best, and very blurry when moves (like sliding from 1 home page to another).
Battery life is terrible! Full usage will drain the battery in less than 4 hours!
Add to that: the battery is non-removable!
Canât open back door to access the SD card, only with special tool! SD card should be accessible from the outside anyway!
Camera sucks. My old LG was better than that. Everything comes out blurry and grainy. No dedicated camera button is also a minus.
Although I love the keyboard, it lacks a spring-assist slider. I really miss it.
Phone charger is on the side, not at the bottom. Annoying.
The good speaker is not always good. For music, itâs not stereo and sound is muffled & tinny. Same is with Visual voice mail, very muffled. Listening to your messages via *86 is excellent though. Go figure.
Some video files canât be played back, even
simple AVI files. But others do work.
Overall, itâs a pretty good phone, with the main problem the poor battery! Where is the Razr Maxxâ battery?
Still, best phone w/ a physical keyboard.
Task Killers Can fry phone
I love the look of the phone, I also love the convience of the physcial keyboard or virtual keyboard options.
Although the battery life is that worse then the Razr.. task killers could potentially cause defects in your mobile device. Best thing to do in those types of situations is to check in settings and see what is draining the battery most. More likely then non is that the brightness on the backround is drining the most. Also any apps that use the internet to update, Facebook, twitter any type of email account will also drain battery life. If you have other apps that may not close completely but still run in the backround can be forced closed in the application settings, Which should help out.
the gf loves the phone
says its faster and better than her old phone. she just got off from the original droid phone. one problem there is with this is the fact that one of her buttons are stuck and she says even after downloading battery defender and advanced task killer, her phone battery dies sort of fast.
Pros:
â˺ Great 4g lte speeds
â˺ Very sleek touch and design
â˺ A plus gorilla glass phone
Cons:
âË» Battery life is not so great ( guess that happens when you have a superior service).
âË» Buttons stick.
Other than that, from what I see it looks like a great phone if you like to have a slide qwerty keyboard.
