By Yesterday, the DROID Bionic popped up in Best Buy guides everywhere, leading us to believe that an early September launch would still be a strong possibility after missing many hopeful August dates. Specifically, we’ve been hearing that it would drop September 8th, which fits in with Verizon’s trend of releasing devices on Thursdays.
Now, they’ve given the DROID Bionic its own pedestal on the front page carousel of their site letting everyone know that the phone to “rule all machines’ with 4G is coming soon. The carousel links to the same signup page we’ve been seeing for a bit now, but it’s just further evidence that we’re finally getting close to a launch after waiting more than half a year.
Other recent rumors give us pricing – $300 after signing a new two-year agreement – as well as confirmation that it will still be compatible with a forthcoming laptop dock that’ll have web-printing capabilities. As for the Bionic itself, we’re getting a 4.3 inch qHD device with Android 2.3, a 1GHz TI OMAP4430 (dual-core) processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.
More specs include HDMI-out with mirroring, an 8megapixel camera with HD video recording and a front-facing camera to go along with it. We also can’t forget about that nice 4G LTE radio sitting inside, as well as the other usual bells and whistles.
So, we’ve got potential pricing ($300) and a potential date (September 8th) alongside Verizon ramping up buzz about the phone. I’d say we’re only a few ticks away from the light at the end of this tunnel.
512MB of RAM? o.O
512mb of ram? I thought they changed that to 1gb?
Next! Next Nexus that is!
I thought it was 1gb of ram?
It is and has always been 1GB of RAM. Also, 16GB internal storage, 16GB SD card included. SD card slot will handle 32GB. None of anything is reserved for webtop. That debate has been had and empirical proof given. Unless the phone is plugged in to the webtop, none of its resources are diverted to it.
The rest of the article is accurate, but we’re also hearing from field testers that the battery life is excellent, and that the screen is better than expected (expected = Droid X 2).
This is good to hear. I am considering buying a Bionic, but if I see any pixelation like I saw on the D3 I’ll wait for another device. In the store I switched the wallpaper on the D3 to “Grass” and the pixelation was awful.
The pixelation isn’t the fault of the D3’s display; the pixelation is a result of a picture made for a device with lesser resolution being displayed on a device with higher resolution. A good example of this is taking on older video game system (say, a Sega Genesis,N64, PS1, etc.); plug it into an old CRT TV and play it for a few minutes, then plug it into an HDTV and try it. What happens is the resolution in HDTV is approximately 5x (depending upon resolution) sharper than an old SDTV (most of which didn’t actually even have 480 lines of horizontal resolution). This causes the picture itself (especially the edges of images) to exaggerate the fact that it was originally created at a lower resolution, giving it a pixelated look.
Thanks for the info. I had read so many complaints about the qHD displays and pentile. I assumed that was why. The live Grass wallpaper (which I use and like a lot) is one of the optional live wallpapers that comes standard with the phones. You would think they would upsample the resolution of the image be compatible with the phone model it’s installed on.
i had droid x and i loved the display i have droidx2 and its not the pixelation that used to bother me it was the brightness i could not set it up the way i had it on my droidx on the lowest brightness. Trust me pentile its bad because people on the android sites are putting negative comments towards android users. You will rock your display and not to mention if you go to the beach and u set it on the highest brightness no other display will look as sharp and nice as pentile :) I hope this help
The only thing that disturbs me is the price.
The Photon on Sprint is almost identical (except for the inductive charging thing), and that went for $200 retail. I will probably have to wait for it to hit Amazon at a discount… :-(
Nobody is happy about the price, but this is not new ground for Verizon. They know they have something special with their 4G LTE and they intend to ride that pony until the other carriers catch up. For the same reason, it’s kind of pointless to compare prices of similar phones on other carriers. Add to that the conundrum that many of us on Verizon are pretty-much stuck, especially if we have family plans.
It is so they don’t have to raise rate plans. Atleast its only 100 and not added on every month to your plan.
Yup, you got it. Bad enough I have to pay $150 a month for five data plans. Those incremental costs hammer me hard.
Wrong. In January at CES it debuted with 512mb of RAM while the Atrix had 1gb of RAM.
Maybe you haven’t been keeping up with current events pal, but that Bionic got its *butt* kicked!
Excuse the Bill Paxton paraphrase.
The original design of the Bionic, the rounded candy bar phone featured at CES, died officially around April of 2011. Since then, Motorola has focused on the base design of the Targa as the foundation of the Bionic. That design has always featured a gigabyte of RAM (DDR2) which was probably informed by the Atrix.
“It is and has always been 1GB of RAM.”
“Wrong. In January at CES it debuted with 512mb of RAM”
“Maybe you haven’t been keeping up with current events pal, but that Bionic got its *butt* kicked!”
…
The Bionic has NOT always had 1gb of RAM. It ORIGINALLY had 512MB.
Maybe you haven’t been keeping up with the past.
You’re right. A phone (not this one) called the Bionic (not to be confused with this Bionic) had 512MB of RAM before Motorola pulled the plug on it. I apologize for your confusion.
the bionic had 512 because it was not going to be feature the webdock like the atrix
I thought it was 1gb of ram?
it is it used 512 of ram when u have ur webdock conected if you dont the device will use the whole 1g
what is the cost off-contract?
unlocked bootloader, and I might buy – especially if the next Nexus isn’t on Vzw
Cost off contract would be something close to $600.
589
If it has 512MB of RAM there is no way I’m paying $300 for that crap. I’ll wait for the Vigor.
1GB of RAM is confirmed.
It better have a gig of Ram or I am going to be upset.
If 512mb RAM is confirmed, I’ll keep juggling my D-Inc1 and Fascinate until something good comes out. GSII, Vigor, or Droid HD. Idiots.
Its not 512. It’s a typo. They’d be out of their freaking minds charging $300 for this then.
Been waiting since CES. Now will it work properly? On buying first day upgrade from The OG DROOOOOIIID
Not there now… When I do a search for Bionic on the site, I get the old coming soon page…
I think they prematurely put that Bionic section up. It doesn’t appear to be on VerizonWireless.com anymore. Usually they only place stuff like that one or two weeks in advance of a target date; since Sept 8 is 3 weeks away it could be stretching it.
Yeah first thing I did was check. I wonder how these tech blogs are so fast to catch this stuff.
I’m sure they check constantly… It’s how they keep loyal readers. We also give them tips on info.
“we’re getting a 4.3 inch qHD device with Android 2.3, a 1GHz TI OMAP4430 (dual-core) processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.” and a battery life that’s better than the Thunderbolt’s?
Uhh yes. Is that surprising? The Thunderbolt has a meager 1300mAh battery. That’s a SHAME in the smartphone world, and even worse since it’s a 4G phone.
The Bionic will have a 1900+ mAh battery.
That’s like a Tesla roadster with a 9volt…
I would’ve bought this if it released in July…but it doesn’t look as impressive when up against the HTC Vigor. I couldn’t care less about the Beats features, but a better screen, better processor, and Sense instead of MotoBlur make for an easy choice for me.
Motorola screwed up big time. I’ve been waiting for this phone FOREVER, the specs are pretty impressive now, but from what I’m hearing the Google Nexus Prime will be coming out in October with specs that one up the Bionic almost in every aspect…if I get confirmation that the Google Nexus is running Android Ice Cream Sandwich before the Bionic comes out. I think I’ll go with that instead and I think a lot of people will do the same with the Nexus Prime, HTC Vigor, Galaxy S II and iPhone 5 coming out just a month later.
I’ll take a motorola products over samsung any day.
i could not agree more lets just compare nexus s with droid x and lets see which phone looks better and feel better in our hands :) everything its about the build quality
Whats funny is I did see it this morning, except when you moused over the Bionic Pedestal, it was giving you the picture for “Free Phone when you Add a Line” for the first few minutes. Eventually it did show the correct Bionic Picture as shown in the screen above.
They are already out of their minds charging $300 for this hunk. I know it is a good phone, but it is inferior to what will be out 2-3 weeks later.