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Both the Motorola Droid Bionic and Motorola Atrix 4G are poised to launch sometime between February and May, but word is trickling out that a pretty major bug has been detected in the power management unit used in the handsets that causes “severe” overheating, which creates a negative impact on call reception, phone booting, and wrecks battery life.
One source reporting on the bug, a trusted insider and contributor to HowardForums, said that the flaw was unfixable by simple means, and that it could be present in some launch devices. That is if the launch isn’t forced back by some indefinite amount of time while a stable power management system can be assembled and new hardware manufactured.
Keep in mind Motorola has not offered any comment on the matter, so it could be a very limited problem or no problem at all. We’ll stay skeptical for now, if only because we don’t want to wait any longer to get our hands on these awesome devices.
[via Electronista]
i guess its LG optimus 2x for me . sorry moto
FIR … [powering down]
New phone accessory just appeared on Motorola’s site – Duralast car battery w/ convenient shoulder strap.
What do you expect. It’s Motorola we’re talking about here. They always have issues with their phones. Just because they are going to have dual core doesn’t mean they are going to be good phones. That’s why many people switching to the iphone are droid x users. I’m just waiting for the thunderbolt.
One of the most recent posts on that thread referenced states that the problem is being fixed very soon, as in today or this week. He added no more details, but was confident it would be fixed. Hopefully he’s in the know.
To Gunner: LMAO thanks!
The good news in all this, is that the problem was found “BEFORE” shipment and they are trying to correct to ensure a positive customer experience. Sure beats releasing and telling customers, “you’re charging it Wrong”
Moto has always been known for making stellar hardware. Just another moron who doesn’t know what he is saying. Surprise. I think not
“…so it could be a very limited problem or no problem at all”
So this article could be useless drivel? So your “trusted source” could be less-than-accurate? I hate to say it, but I have read rants in supermarket tabloids that held more technical water than this gossip.
I had hoped for some serious coverage, Mr. Krause. I’m guessing you have nothing valuable to add to the available information about the Atrix. That’s a shame because I think that what was seen at CES has caused the market to rethink what is possible. Rather than bash Motorola over a product that has not even been released yet we should be glad that they seem to be pushing the limits of portable computing.
gr8scott,
he is reporting a rumors and news from a credible source! thats what this site does. he is reporting news from a device tester that says their is a problem with the power management. WTF is your problem with that?
Software has bugs.. hardware has defects, flaws or poor design.. I realize that this is just a rehash of hearsay, but for a tech site to basically say “there is a bug in the hardware”.. it’s weird.. It’s like the people who talk about their desktop tower calling it a CPU.. you know what they are talking about, but you roll your eyes inside.
@dennis, the very first “bug,” the incident that coined the term, was an insect caught in a relay. Hardware indeed can have bugs.
The problem is the locked bootloader is making the Droids angry. The Droids are becoming self-aware.
Can we just label these at “ROTD” or “ROTH” for Rumor Of The Day or Rumor Of The Hour respectively?
@ROM the Spaceknight
That may be true, but nobody uses the term “bug” for hardware anymore. Get with the program bud. Bug = Software. Malfunction = Hardware. I wouldn’t use “defect” for hardware either because there can be software defects as well. I work for the DoD writing software for a joint services combat tester and all of our software “bugs” are entered into our database as defects. In fact, the database is called a “Defect Database.”
i dont mind moto og droid has been great for me and my brothers droid x is fine he loves it. every phone has problems even the iphone
MOTO poor hardware build quality yea ok. My ogd was and still steller my Droid X is rocked solid best built android on the market.
There are issues and those who are reporting those issues on hofo are privy to that sort of information. Obviously I can’t say much more but I think my record, the record of TBH, speaks for itself. And the main reporter of that problem is ………….. so he knows much more than he is even saying in that post.
First when I heard this, I thought it was an Nvidia chip problem. There some chipsets released a few years back for HP laptops that overheated and eventually caused the units to conk out within less than a year.
But the PMU issues seems to make sense for something as powerful as a dualcore phone. Can it harness this amount of power especially for a first generation device? Will we see an Atrix 4GS eventually and then a Atrix 3 to continue to use for experimenting on us guinea pigs? I have no doubt in my mind this will happen.
I was initially on the fence with getting an Atrix since AT&T as usual takes the bare minimum option when acquiring new hardware. Verizon and Sprint go all in and thats why most of their customers are happy.
@RayR
The Nvidia chip problem you are speaking about has nothing to do with the chip itself but the miss communication to the hardware manufactures on the dimensions of the chip itself which lead to miss placement of the chips heat-sink.
I must agree with Steven Skwarkowski’s post above! ROTH ROTH ROTH!