Motorola Photon 4G Android Phone (Sprint)

Motorola Photon 4G Android Phone (Sprint)
by Motorola

Motorola Photon 4G Android Phone (Sprint)

I would not describe myself as "technically savvy," and I'm finding Motorola Photon very easy to use and reliable. I tried the Motorola EXPRT for three weeks and went through three phones before giving up. It was with the EXPRT that I had the problems described here: not being able to hear or be heard on incoming calls and the phone would reboot when I tried to call the caller back. I'm not having this problem with the Photon and am, in fact, very happy with the quality of the phone's sound and reception. I've also been receiving consistent four and five bar reception on my Photon, and I have traveled with this phone experiencing similar results. I've been a Sprint customer for over ten years, and my problem with the EXPRT was the first issue I have had with any of their devices or reception. The Sprint reps were more than courteous when I received my two replacement EXPRTs and changed to the Photon. I have no complaints with their handling of my problems. 

1. Call quality: The Photon has amazing call quality. Voices are loud, sharp and clear, and people on the other end report no noise or garbled speech. My Evo sounded like a toy compared to the Photon. A note on call quality: some people reported a "silent call" bug where they would connect a call but hear nothing, and this was admittedly a problem for a small number of users. However, Sprint recently released an update that seems to have fixed this issue for the majority of those suffering from it (for the record, I never did). 


2. Battery life: I got good at managing my Evo's battery and could go a whole day with moderate use. I don't really worry about that with the Photon, however. Aside from some minor adjustments to app settings, I have done very little battery tweaking and it easily lasts all day with moderate to heavy use. It also has some basic battery management settings (reducing load at night is the default), something the Evo lacked. 

3. The screen: The screen has great brightness and clarity, with good color. It also has a functioning auto-brightness function, something I gave up on using on my Evo after one week. The Photon's screen is easily visible under the direct summer sun, something my Evo struggled with. It's also more energy efficient than the Evo, helping reduce battery drain with equivalent brightness. HOWEVER: the screen is what's known as a PenTile screen, a different display technology than what many people are used to. This results in a pixelated appearance if you're not used to it. When I first looked at the Photon, I thought the screen looked terrible. After playing with some other phones and taking a second look at the Photon, however, I didn't notice it as much. Now, after two weeks, I only notice it if I look for it. When I powered my Evo up to wipe it in preparation for selling it, I was struck by how dull and muddy a screen I once considered gorgeous looked to my eyes. I recommend looking at the Photon in person before you buy it, and do it more than once if you notice the pixelation from the start. 


4. Speed: It's fast. Everything seems faster than my Evo: boot up, browsing, launching apps, scrolling through screens, turning on the 4G antenna. Whatever I throw at it, the Photon handles. The few times it did lag was due to an app misbehaving, nothing a quick force close couldn't fix. 

5. Signal strength: it's hard to compare across phones without a cell signal strength app (which I have not bothered with), but the Photon seems more stable than my Evo. The only times I've lost a call was talking to another cell phone user, and it was their location that caused it. My Evo was pretty solid in this regard, so for the Photon to surpass it really impresses me. 


6. Build quality: the Photon is light but solid. It's comfortable to hold and the Gorilla Glass screen is not only durable but beautiful as well, with a very subtle taper where it meets the bezel. Note this does make a little gap that can attract pocket lint, but it's easy enough to blow out. My Evo was a joy to hold as well, but like many early adopters mine had minor cosmetic issues that I just don't see on the Photon. 

7. It's Android!: not a plus over the Evo, of course, but I wanted to point it out as it means the phone is incredibly customizable compared to other phone OSes. If you don't like Motorola's stock UI (and I'm not overly fond of it; HTC's Sense blows it out of the water), you can easily change or hide it and not worry about it at all. Don't like the widgets? Replace them! Don't like the launcher? Replace it! Want a different lock screen? Replace it! Some people forget that the stock UI of any Android phone is not what you have to use. 


8. Root: the Photon has been rooted and the bootloader unlocked, all within about two weeks of its launch. It will have good developer support.


Overall, I'm very pleased with the Photon. I do miss HTC Sense, but as I noted above it's easy to customize the UI to your liking. The Photon is everything I loved about the Evo, only better.