By According to a Motorola rep, the Motorola Droid X is not running MOTOBLUR. The device isn’t running NinjaBlur, either. Just what is this thing running then?
You still have the same MOTOBLUR widgets and the same MOTOBLUR UI customizations (albeit with slightly different visuals), but Motorola’s not too keen on calling it anything, at this point. Perhaps Verizon asked them to make a custom skin that’s like MOTOBLUR, but is unique to the Droid X. Whatever the case, just take the skin for what it is: the phone itself still looks awesome.
[via AndroidCentral]
I want this phone sooo bad, but I can’t “upgrade” untill ’11. Anyone know how much it will cost to buy it outright from the manufacturer?
Take a look at the running services with an appropriate app. You’ll see Blur listed. Also, check this out:
http://www.unwiredview.com/2010/06/2…or-custom-uis/
“Another interesting takeway from Droid X launch, was the total absence of Motorola Blur custom user interface from the event. When asked about it, Sanjay Jha, Motorola CEO, confirmed that MotoBlur is running on Droid X, but it has been hidden from the user.”
“Motorola must be the first to see the writing on the wall, and let Google take over the overall user experience. Motoblur is now just another Android app, that comes pre-installed on the handset. It does what it does pretty well, some Droid X users may love it. And, if they keep investing and developing it, Blur service can be a good point of differentiation for Motorola. But, by relegating the Blur to an Android app status, Motorola can move much faster both with OS, and Blur app upgrades.”
Sounds like it’s a different and lite version of blur to me.
Maybe the skin is Droid X’s skin? I would love and hate if individual phones had different skins..
I think they key thing is, regardless of what the skin is called – can you turn it off? I hated the HTC Incredible because there was no option to disable the unnecessary Sense UI.
Seconding FG’s comment. This is obviously the communities key concern and sites like this are not addressing it at all.
@Harley Most likely $600 :(
@Harley
~ usually $529.99 to $599.99 — I’m gonna guess here and go with the old price of the Droid 1 and say $559.99 – Verizon did start a Certified Pre-Owned program too which sells you the phone at 1 year pricing, still has a warranty and can be insured. You may check with customer service on that option to save some money. CPO price is probably gonna be $289-$349 for the X once they have some people return it.
@Harley – 2 reports I saw say retail of X is $599. Andrew @ BGR said moto engineers emailed him to correct him – there is no blur on X. Just a skin. And you can remove the elements so its pretty close to stock w/o being stock. He just could not find a global way to shut it down.
Soon all manufacturers will stop this nonsense custom skin on top of android(apart from sense UI, none are even good) and will compete on hardware features, design aspects and how soon they can manufacture. And prices will go down and we will be able to get droid X like phones for 300~350 $$$. Motorola is not going to worry much, since their average selling price for last quarter is 192 $$$. Any phone sold above 192 $$$ is a win for them.
What ever this is running it SUCKS big time.
Keeping my Incredible
As long as it isn’t baked into the OS like Sense, it wont hold up OS upgrades.
What’s the best way to get this phone if you bought a Droid in November. I do not have anyone related to me that has an upgrade.
@trustkill there are a lot lot lot of rumors flying about the incredible being EOL within vzw walls. I wouldn’t wasn’t to hang on to a dead phone lol
I guess we’ll call it non-blur? My biggest concerns were about how embedded this Blur would be into the OS. IF it’s not then I’ll definitely go from my Inc to the Moto.
Kind of love my Incredible now that I’ve modified certain components that were huge gripes for me. Using the Droid X keyboard that’s been ported over is making me think about staying with the Inc.
Key selling points for me: Actual Multimidia and Car Docks available by OEM. Proposed 8 hour talk time.
I talked to a VZW rep. I bought my Droid1 at release. I should be able to cancel my contract, pay the ETF of $175. ETF goes down $5 every month so know its about $150 now. Then sell my Droid1 on ebay then get the Droid X. How much could I get for the Droid? WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK.
This time though I’m going to wait for an actual review of the hands AFTER its been released instead of ordering the phone and finding out that Droid 2 was the right decision after all…
Thanks for the video share..I wish I can buy a phone like that soon. I like this site, keep on posting.
So the skin isn’t called Blur or Ninjablur or whatever. You can call it, or not call it, whatever you want. The point is, it IS a skin, a custom UI. And the reason people are concerned about having any custom UI is that it will not get OS updates as fast as the UI guys will inevitably have to take some time to re-adapt their UI to the update.
That said, personally I’m not all that hot on straight Google Experience phones. Motoblur was pretty bad, but I actually like both HTC Sense and this Motorola skin. So the onus is really on Google to maybe put in a little more work to their stock GE UI so the manufacturers don’t feel such a need to tart it up a bit. (I’ve heard that that is pretty much what they’re trying to do in 2.3)
As long as the X gets 2.2 in the next couple of months I think I’ll be fine with it. It will clearly be the fastest phone and graphics should be about twice as fast as the next guys. This thing vs Evo looks to be no contest. Better battery, speed, network, camera. One good thing about Motorola vs HTC is that they don’t have 30 different Android models – with their eggs is fewer baskets it ought to be easier for them to stay on top of updates. And they seem to offer more accessories like official docks for car and home.
I’m sold on this phone. Going to Best Buy today to see if I can reserve one.
Can’t wait to buy it! It doesnt have too many elements going on to slow it down from updating quickly
I cannot imagine paying 599 for this phone. Wow, lots of money for a motorola… =/
After hearing that Best Buy is taking pre-orders for the X, I called my local Verizon store. I asked them about pre-orders/reservations, fully expecting them to tell me they weren’t doing that yet. To my surprise, they asked me for my account phone number, my name, and checked my account to see if I am eligible for an upgrade (my current phone is 3.5 years old, so I am definitely eligible.) They put my name in at #2 on the store waiting list, and said they will contact me as soon as they get the first shipment…..no deposit required to hold the phone.
You might want to give your local store a call, and get on the reservation list. I suspect Verizon stores will be getting shipments of the X before resellers like Best Buy will.
@Todd – Lucky bum! I just called my corp Verizon store and they said “really”, its not even in the system”. Then he left for a few and said “yeah, it’s not in the system, where did you hear you could do that and where is the region of the store. I’d like their number?”. I just pointed him to this forum. Do you have their number or city?
I’ll be keeping my Incredible as well. This phone should be pretty awesome but I don’t think it would be such a dramatic difference to warrant selling my Incredible for it.
Once MAJOR differences start coming out on Verizons Android phones (such as LTE) then I will definitely put up my Incredible on Craigslist.
I’m really excited for the future of Android as it keeps getting better and better, and feel very happy about being with the best carrier Android wise :)
@anthony Might want to check your info again on ETF’ing your contract. If you term your contract early, VZW may not allow you a new contract for 180 days. Just double check that before you do it.
will not buy any phone from Verizon until LTE phones show up. no sense in updating until then .
@ Hampteezy
Motorola has shown they have best quality in the market, and this phone is really awsome.
So u mean you would pay 700 for an HTC like EVO?
What an idiot!!
Dyster, it’s my local Verizon store here in Smyrna, TN (just outside of nashville). Perhaps it was nothing “official” she did for me….it may have just been a local store policy that they can do this. They don’t have the X in thier system yet either I suspect, but they do know they will be getting them, and are taking reservations.
@waaxxuuppp, Any of us who have $175 ETF’s (that includes me) are past 6 months into contract, as the ETF doubled from $175 to $350 about 10 days or two weeks after the Droid was released. I think it was Nov 15, 2009 to be exact.
I am tempted to upgrade to the Droid X, as it is impressive, but as I told my wife, I think I will slap my hand as many times as necessary to keep from pulling the trigger on the Droid X and wait until latter in the year for that 2 Ghz phone, which might just be the first LTE capable phone.
First off what are you cry babies whining about a skin on this phone for? MOTO has already said to expect 2.2 in August, one month after its expected to hit the original DROID and those wanting to keep the incredible that’s cool too but this phone will absolutely blow that out of the water, this will be the top Android phone in both quality and performance for the time being even when Droid 2 ships which will be missing a few features like HDMI smaller screen and camera you just gain a hardware keyboard.
@ Todd – Big thanks for the reply!
I can understand you guys waiting for LTE, but what’s with this 2ghz phone!? I was amazed at how fast the INC is already. What are you doing, Thermonuclear calcs?
@ dyster- Lol ….. I was wondering the same thing. Root has my Droid up to 1.25ghz from 550 . This TI should handle overclocking very well. And the reality is that even though i love android , there really are not any apps that push the phones that hard any way . Android get me some good games
I’m all for a major spec war so that we can have xbox360 games on our phones and not get excited over some cartoony 2D game about a bunch of birds.
ari-free, i got more addicted to that corny 2d bird game than I have to any of my xbox360 games so far. ;-) FYI….that corny bird game should be released to Android this summer.
You guys can’t be talking about “Club Penguin”? I hope not.
Millions of people are also addicted to that game where you get to plant wheat and cotton on a virtual farm…doesn’t mean it’s good :)
Many of these iphone games can be completed in 24 hours. I want more games with more depth, some sense of real adventure.
I wish Android had Plants vs. Zombies :(
Just a shame for those people like myself who had just recently upgraded to the motorola droid a couple of weeks ago, and are now locked for another 2 years for an upgrade. The moto droid doesn’t even have a 1 year shelf life yet for crying out loud. They tell you at the store how the phone is great and its the best thing in the market, yet they fail to mention to wait for more phones to come just to close the sale on the spot. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the hell of verizon, but just frustrates the hell out of me.
“You guys can’t be talking about “Club Penguin”? I hope not.”
I was refering to Angry Birds. Probably the most addictive and most downloaded app on iPhone right now.
Google has enough engineers to develop some nice games. Replica Island is a pretty good game. Maybe they want to bring the best games to chrome oS devices. They think android is now so popular that people might forget chrome OS.
@ Harold, if you got your MotoDroid only a couple of weeks ago you are still well inside the 30-day return period. At worst, you’ll only have to pay the $35 restocking fee. If you think you can live without a physical keyboard, definitely get the Droid X. If you want a keyboard, go for the Droid2. It believe it has many improvements beyond the original Droid. Then just hold on tight to one of these great phones until the LTE network is running strong.
i dont care wtf its running i just want that phone!!!
Just because Blur isnt ‘officially’ on the device doesn’t meant they didn’t put the same ‘pieces’ on it and then just say “it doesn’t have blur” while the whole time, there are elements of Blur on their. Its just denial.
what ever this is, it’s ugly as hell… why can’t they use stock android ui. i think all of these hardware makers need to stick with hardware and not mess with the software and ui.
Looks like they got the hint form Cliq owners and are trying to make it seem as though Blur isn’t there. This custom UI B.S. is what has kept an upgrade to 2.1 away from the Cliq. I hope we get this version of 2.1 with a hidden, less memory and power hungry version of Blur.
hey i really want this phone but my contract doesnt expire until 2011. but i am willing to pay some one 350 for theirs in cash of course. Please let me know if you are interested by e mailing me at [email protected]
I wish this was being shipped with no skin. With the emphasis of Gingerbread being on UI, I would think companies would want to start moving away from skins anyway.
I just wanna know ONE THING .. IF I HOLD this phone in my LEFT HAND .. Will I lose signal strenght ? cuz Steve Job said ALL CELL PHONES do it? haven’t seen it YET on any i’ve owned? But maybe all the new ones do it? or is it just the apple Iphone4 that does that?? lol
Steve Jobs is an idiot. Yes if you hold any phones in a certain aspect they will most likely lose a little signal. However, most phone companies put their antenna at the top of the phone to prevent this. Apple obviously didn’t test their phone enough otherwise this would have been a perdominant issue to fix. It is their own fault.
Is the phone still realy nice and great for those who want/use it? Yes, absolutely.
They should have done a better job for the release though. Saying things about how they’re behind on copy/cut/paste because they want to do it right, well they need to make a phone that actually does what a phone is supposed to…make calls…no matter how you hold it.
Follow up…
Jobs only said what he said to try and make users write them off as just another common mistake. They know what they did. Him saying that is nothing more than a cover-up.
I reserved my Droid X at Best Buy the first day it was available. I am so excited to own the device. Best Buy is a lot better way to reserve the phone if you are able to. I’m excited about the potention “moto-ninja-blur”. I’ve never owned a android device before, and even after being such an “apple head”, I sold my iTouch to preorder the DX… hype!
i just read the Terms of Service and Privacy Statement for MotoBlur (im that bored), basically, yelling all of your deepest secrets through a megaphone into a crowd is more private, they can use ALL of your personal information(text messages, emails, photos) freely as if it was their own(their privacy statement says they WILL give your information to business partners), give it to the government and any other third parties they wish, and if they decide to sue you, you have to pay their legal fees. basically never do or say ANYTHING that can remotely get you in any legal trouble, no matter how private you think your conversation is. again, a megaphone would be a more private (and cheaper) way of communication. and a main point to discredit your article, it says that any oral or written information regarding Motoblur service from a motorola representative is overruled by the contract.
I guess I don’t see the bigger picture I have a droid x got it a month ago for 199.00 out the door w/2year contract. But I don’t see what the rave is about yea it’s cool but…. I guess I just am dumb when it comes to phones these days I seem to mess it up everyday like right now my _RAM is full my 16 gig men crd empty also internal mem hardily touched. And it wont let me move stuff around it took over a hour to just register at my Verizon wireless and at least 30 min.to type this please instruct me because this is frustrating …. help for a lost soul with what’s to be a ridiculous cool phone please show me the way.
My T-mobile G2 drops its signal if I touch its bottom-left corner.
My T-mobile G2 drops its signal if I touch its bottom-left corner.
My T-mobile G2 drops its signal if I touch its bottom-left corner.
My T-mobile G2 drops its signal if I touch its bottom-left corner.
My T-mobile G2 drops its signal if I touch its bottom-left corner.
My T-mobile G2 drops its signal if I touch its bottom-left corner.