Motorola PHOTON 4G User Reviews

i like this phone, i got it when it first came out and it was top of the line then and still works now. i broke the speakers a few months ago and now i have a new phone, but i still actively use this one as an ipod and for doing stuff that could screw up my new phone. the kickstand is nice, and probably one of the best features. it is still pretty good despite being over a year old

First off this Motorola, Photon, on Sprint, was my first smartphone. Prior to this I have had very low end feature phones on Straighttalk, 2009; then switched to Sprint.
Thats when I found my friend, the Photon! For a dual core, it was fast, then at one point, I went hog wild on the apps! Having some fun on autoraps, etc.

Point about my character, I am hard, on things, so it took a beating from me. I live in Colorado, where it snows, and the first year and 3 months, I had him encased, in a, Defender, by Otterbox.
I accidently, dropped him, and have been suffering since. But guess what, after the drop, he survived, no hardware damage and it was from a 3-foot drop, on concrete.
Also, water was introduced to him as in a quick drop, with a non-water proof, case on. And once bare, it had dropped from my back-pack, into a sink of running water.
Both times, I immediately, took him apart and dried, him (my Photon), out.
After each incident, no problems. Except I have a cracked screen,......my fault.
Overall, I feel Motorola, gets a two thumbs up, in a very durable, piece of machinery, it felt rugged.
Media wise, again hooray, I was very, pleased at which, the speed this small phone/mini-computer, aka smartphone, could do. Very pleased indead. I also believe that the android system is a superior format, for todays, needs and wants, of the consumer. I usually buy Motorola cell phones, but have always been attracted to the design quality of the Samsungs. I've been in the wireless since its inception....anyways, this time I have my eye on the Samsung, Galaxy Note as my next upgrade.
You can never go wrong with Motorola, they make superior products, and have been in the game along time. I know I buy their products.

Never had problems with anything, I loved the side kick stand, so much and will miss this. However, I believe I can purchase a case for my, new phone that has this feature.
The speakers on the Photon are very nice, it was one of the top smartphones, of its release time, Which featured a dual-core.

Great for Google searches, and play store is highly recommended if you are considering leaving the closed, and expensive, system of iproducts. This could be a nice used android phone that won't hurt your pocket. Still let you experience, the flow and ebb of Android platform.
Peace every one.

Photon 4G is my 1st Android phone. I have used Nokias before and was not particularly interested in buying a Motorola. For me the price must match the relative value/usability of the phone, I've never thought of purcahsing an iphone/Galaxy/HTC phone and frankly I never will, in this backdrop, the price that I got the Photon 4G was just too good to refuse.
The build quality is impressive on the phone. Metals have the essential characteristic of unwavering durability and toughness, personally I would prefer this on a phone rather than to boast only on the benchmarks on any phone. Photon 4G sports metal on sides and scratch resistant glass on the face, so it is was biggest selling point for me;

Metal Durability > Polycarbonate/Plastic Toyness.

The phone feels solid in the hand, has enough weight on it however it is not overbearing. I appreciate the metal used on the sides which conveys a serious aptitude of the phone, unline the toy, plastic feel of the Samsung/Nokia/HTC, phones this feels prime.
The other features that I like are the above par camera, simple UI, sound reception and excellent computing horsepower under the hood. I would also like to mention the pragmatic aspect of the kickstand on the back, making video calls and even listening to music is fun. Unlike some other reviews that I read I havn't encountered any software gliches on the phone.
I have installed quite a lot of applications for office use, camera related apps and other general productivity apps, all are responsive and there is no lag in the performance.

The phone could definately have had benefited from ICS upgrade but that might be nitpicking for a general user like me, however, unlike me others might find this aspect a deal breaker.

On the software side I would like to mention "Motocast" ppersonal remote storage access application, I use it to access all office files, pdfs, projects and dataeven on the multimedia side this app complements the usage of the phone. It is a must have app for Photon 4G owners.

In the past I always shyed away from buying a Motorola, however I shall definately keep this one and in the future would like to purchase a Motorola cell phone, On the side note I got another one for my fiance and she likes it too.

The phone is sturdy without feeling bulky. It's sharp looking and the gorilla glass is great for resisting scratches. Unfortunately, there's nothing else good to say about this phone.

Features and usability are average at best. Typical Sprint bloatware doesn't help.

4G is horrible.
3G makes the slow phone seem even slower.
Crashes.
Poor speaker phone quality.
Swype is only ok, but touch is unusable. If you've ever had an iPhone, the Photon is Apples wet dream for Android.

Lack of support from Motorola and Sprint is amazing. Impressed that they managed to avoid class action suits on this one. Must be very few morons like myself who purchased this piece of dirt.

Not sure how long it will be before I even try a Motorola product - phone or otherwise.

Allow me to preface this by saying that the ONLY reason I have had this phone this long is because I have been waiting for an upgrade. However, due to Sprint's poor service, I am switching to a different carrier altogether. This phone works well long enough for the 14 day free replacement warranty to run out. I have to restart my phone daily or it will not ring when I receive a phone call or message (even with the volume at full blast). Needless to say, using this phone as my primary alarm clock in the mornings has afforded me many hectic mornings when I sleep through the non-buzzing alarm. It forcecloses most apps, even with their "refreshers" and updates. I researched and researched phones prior to making this purchase, deciding that I wouldn't allow price to be a factor in my final decision. On paper, this phone seemed like all I could ever want. And I was absolutely right! It was all I could ever want in a phone made by satan. Please don't waste your money or you just might be the next person leaving a review just like this one and the ones before mine. *** I will add, I believe in Motorola and just purchased a different Motorola phone. Don't let this piece of crap cause you to avoid a brand that actually does make incredible products. They just fell asleep when the interns started making bad decisions on how to make THIS phone.

Already replaced the unit once - about ready to again. So disappointed with the performance of the Photon. Hard reset needed at least once a day, soft up to 3 times daily. Apps fail or lock often. Sad.

Love this phone for my first dual core I have alot of fun. It has great reception havent had alot of problems that others have besides the texting issue kinda buggy. The battery for this is isnt at all enough to last you 3hrs of internet usage. Display has good viewing angles no complaints playing movies, videos work great without any problems 1080p which if you have 2.3.5 is supports it but not sure why if playing that high quality videos is slow motion maybe 5fps. Oh yeah has 1080p video recording.

I had such high hopes for my first Android (coming off the failed Palm Pre). And while this phone started out well, soon it was in BIG TROUBLE and no amount of factory resetting helped the slowness going screen to screen, the failure of the touch screen, the slowness of loading a website. And the ultimate insult: Motorola failing to live up to their promise to upgrade the Android system (I now have applications that will no longer work). The camera is crap indoors. Call quality is decent but who calls anymore? Horrid battery life; I have a battery charger cord with me at all times. I cannot WAIT for 5/1/13 when I am eligible for a new phone. Motorola has seen the last of my business.

This phone is nothing but a lemon. It fails at every single thing I try to use it for. I mean everything. I have spent hours and hours looking at the spinning blue circle because I think that's about all this phone is good for, producing a spinning blue circle on the screen. Absolute junk.

I got this phone as a swap for my s2 which has now had major over heating issues, leading to failure twice. This was suppost to be an acceptable and comparable solution. In comparison it is slow unresponsive, a lot less intuitive than my S2 and general a pain in the neck to operate in comparison. I had high hopes that phone would be acceptable and more reliable solution than my S2. It feels more solid and has a better battery life. The overheating or battery life benefits though are not reasonable comparable as my now running wifi only S2 which has a screen crack and is still overheating is, pulls faster and more reliably my e-mail txt, alarms, calendar appointments etc. Than my fully connected photon with both wifi and 4G connected even when it is connected to the charging port so there is no possible power throttling issue for the photon so I have given every chance possible and it has just been an epic disappointment.

I have owned this phone 6 months. Previous Nokia 6265 and Motorola Startac. Best carriers in my area are CDMA. I did try an HTC MyTouch with keyboard on T-Mobile before settling on this USCellular Electrify/Photon--This phone has exceptional reception in a very small mountain/hilly area. As it turns out, there is no need for a keyboard on this phone. The Haptic sense keyboard has wonderful feedback. You can also use swype which is very fast with some practice. I actually use Google Voice which came with the phone setup. You just speak it, punctuate it, send it. Wow! I hate the monthly usage fee for internet, but I use it all the time--it is very good.

I have had this phone now for about 6 months now and thought it would be a good time to write a review!
The wireless radios in this are absolutely awesome! Even in really rural locations i could still get a signal, but it would drop calls in said locations. Browsing the internet is a real pleasure! the duel core processor helps load pages extremely fast, perfectly suitable for loading full pages as well and not just mobile sites, with a good 4g or wifi it is almost as fast as my laptop.
The camera is ok, when compared to others out there in the top end spectrum it doesnt measure up and I would say this is one of this devices biggest limits. I will say that the duel led flash makes a great keychain flashlight replacement! Ui is ok, this is my first android so i do not have a base for comparison, I have swapped it out for ex launcher pro and am much much happier with the results overall, speed and battery life as well as overall functionality have been increased dramatically. The webtop function seems cool, but i have not used it yet. I do really like the zumocast software/unlimited data combo. It makes an sd card pretty much useless.
Text input stock is alright, issue I have found is installing aftermarket keyboards (slideit/stock gingerbread kb etc) I love how they work but they lag when trying to search so i have gone back to stock as it loads instantly when i press on a search query.
The display i actually like, it adjusts the brightness automatically and does so extremely quickly, it is still easy to use the phone outside on a bright sunny day and does not hurt your eyes or blind you when it is dark. I also really like the fact that it has seperate hdmi and usb, this enables me to charge while mirroring which it seems like only motorola offers at this point, which makes this feature functional for me. Now battery, I will say the standby time battery life is outstanding. With 4g on and actively browsing or playing an snes game on an emulator im thinking 4-5 hours of continuous use and its done. With ex launcher pro i can turn of 3g/4g while still having 2g enabled for calls/text and in this setting the phone can last for two days easily, I highly recommend this for people trying to extend their battery life, has worked wonders for me.
Overall: I really do just love using this phone! it makes a multitude of tasks so easy, replaces mp3 player, gps, ALMOST replaces point and shoot camera, snes,nes and sega genesis haha. All around great device and happy i went with this over evo 3d!

in short AWESOME radios 2g/3g/4g/ wifi bluetooth ALL get great reception and range. Call quality always good with motorola. Ugly color rendering on screen with low spectrum of color range. Camera may be 8MP but I've seen 3.2MP with same quality.

After using most of US Cellulars Android phones, I'm completely impressed by this Motorola. There is so much this phone can do,and do well, you have to get your hands one one and try it. Thank you US Cellular for not picking up the iPhone.

Phone is okay. I'be read some reviews on the call quality on the phone and personally that is the only thing I love about the phone. People can hear me on the other end perfectly and I can hear them perfectly as well. As for the camera, I was expecting it to be way better considering what this phone is cabable of doing. The camera seems to take pictures at a very poor quality in doors even with flash but when outside in the daylight it is good. The keyboard in the phone is horrible. I downloaded a new one as soon as I got the phone. The layout on the phone seemed to me looked like a fake phone so I downloaded a different them from the market and honestly after I did that phone runs 10x faster. I installer gingerbread 2.3 layout and keyboard. Works so much better. Other then that phone seems to be okay to me. Not what I was expecting from Motorola.

The responsiveness of the phone is excellent. No lag time at all. The screen is beautiful - very clear and not oversaturated like Samsung's AMOLED screens which seem a bit harsh and cartoonish. One reviewer mentioned that the kickstand opens in the wrong direction but in fact it works fine in BOTH directions (as mentioned in the instructions) so if you're plugged into the charger or HDMI port the phone still supports itself.

The phone is very solid and the soft touch back doesn't show fingerprints and won't slip from your hand. Reception is excellent - side by side with an Epic 4G the Photon 4G showed 5 bars to the Epic's 3. Could be just a difference in how the display is calculated but MOTO has always been known for the high quality of their radios. Coming from an LG Sentio I'm still getting used to the large size but my eyes and fingers appreciate the added acerage and the tapered corners make it easy to use with one hand.

Products always improve and today's best is tomorrow's junk but I think that the Photon 4G certainly qualifies as state-of-the-art.

and if you will buy this smartphone

It works as expected! What a change from a month from hell with HTC EVO 3D. I am new to the android OS and even though the HTC EVO 3D is crap...I loved the Andoid OS. Motorola appears to hide menu items and it is difficult to find operational procedures. At least that is my experience so far. Go Android!!!

I recently purchased this phone for my wife and was very skeptical about buying any Motorola cell phones. Sprint and Motorola have a less than stellar relationship because of issues with some of their legacy handsets, but this phone washs away any doubt that Motorola can make a great phone. Have experience with HTC Hero and EVO, and Samsung EPIC 4G.

See Pros/Cons Below.

Overall, I am very impressed by Motorola's latest offering and excited to see that the Samsung Galaxy phones have some real competitiion. Great Product.

I've been using the Motorola Photon for 2 weeks now, so I figured it's long enough to write a review. Our relationship started out very good, but has declined pretty fast. I have to rate call quality low because on several occasions, I wasn't able to make a call without doing a battery pull first. Not a real good if you're trying to make an emergency call. I also had an issue where the person I was calling, couldn't hear me until I did a battery pull. Honestly a 5 is being generous.

Build quality is pretty good, although I thought Motorola could've done a better job with the battery cover. I'm also not a big fan of the corners being cutoff, but that's more of a personal preference.

The UI is where I really think this phone falls behind. It does lag a bit, but the biggest problem is, there's just nothing there. If your a fan of Vanilla Android, you may like it. But if your a fan of the HTC widgets like I am, you'll probably not like this. When you have to download multiple apps to make your phone do something other stock phones do, there's a problem.

The Camera is OK, average just like most phones. One other disappointment is the keyboard on the Photon is horrible, definitely plan on getting a different keyboard.

My last comments are on the display and battery life. First the display, not a big fan of the pentile display, screen door effect is a problem on all these new Motorola phones. Battery life is pretty good for me, but it's about usage.