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Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32 to djtim21

Premium Member

to djtim21

Re: Just picked up a new phone - HTC DNA

I've had the DNA for three weeks now, with the Verizon gel case and I can't say I have any complaints. The only thing I had to get used to was having the power button in the middle instead of on the right hand side like my previous three HTC phones, but I don't find pressing the power button to be difficult with the case. There wasn't many third party cases available when I bought the phone, so I just decided to get the Verizon one, I may get another Otterbox at some point, but I probably won't have this phone long enough to warrant putting money into it for accessories.

The only two complaints I have about this phone are 1) That stupid cover for the micro USB port, which I ripped off and 2) There is no option to make the ‘Recent Apps’ capacitive button, double as a menu button and have apps that have not been designed for ICS or JB yet display in full screen rather than having the black bar with the three vertical dots be the menu button. HTC added this feature to the One X on AT&T and Evo LTE on Sprint via a software update. I thought for sure the Droid DNA would have it out of the box.

It seriously is a great phone. When I was planning to switch from Sprint to Verizon, I held off for a while until the Droid Razr HD and Razr Maxx HD came out. I was all set to get the Maxx HD until rumors of the DNA came out. It took me a few days to make my final decision between the two, but I’m so glad I went with the DNA. While the battery life with the Razr Maxx maybe be like no other, I’m pretty impressed with the battery life on the DNA, much better than my Evo LTE, which was pretty good, I thought, and the battery in not much bigger. The lack of a micro SD card slot is not a huge deal to me, although I would like to see one, it wasn’t a deal breaker, especially considering the beautiful screen on the Droid DNA. I liked AMOLED screens when they first came out. But now the colors are just too rich and unrealistically saturated for my liking. IMO, things look more natural and crisper on the DNA with its 1080p Super LCD3 display than on Moto and Samsung phones with the latest Super AMOLED technology.

djtim21
It's all good
Premium Member
join:2003-12-22
Lake Villa, IL

djtim21

Premium Member

I've always liked OtterBox cases. They never released one for the Thunderbolt. They have both the Defender & Commuter series for the DNA: »www.otterbox.com/htc-dro ··· ,sc.html

I think the Defender adds too much bulk to the phone, but the Commuter series to me looks just right. I may pick one up after Christmas.

Have you tried the wireless charging yet? I also am going to play with the NFC stuff to see if that's a benefit of going to this phone.

Post Op
Premium Member
join:2001-11-06
inside out

Post Op to Happydude32

Premium Member

to Happydude32
Steve, I too am probably going to go from Sprint to Verizon. Did you notice better speeds and call quality on Verizon. I live in the south suburbs of Chicago.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32 to djtim21

Premium Member

to djtim21
No, I have not tried the wireless charging. I was going to get charging mat as my 5th accessory (30% off of 5 accessories), but decided to get the Motorola Bluetooth FM modulator thing for my car instead as I felt I’d get more use out of that. I got two phones that day, the Droid DNA for myself and the Droid Razr M for my mother, so between cases and screen protectors for both phones and the Bluetooth transmitter I was all set. I’ve had Otterbox Commuter cases for the iPhone, the HTC Evo and HTC Evo 3D and loved them. For the Evo LTE I just used the cheap HTC rubber case Sprint sold at their corporate stores.

I haven’t tried out the NFC functionality yet since Verizon blocks Google Wallet. I did use NFC in conjunction with Google Wallet with the Evo LTE a few times and it worked well. I'd also be interested in playing with the NFC capability of this phone.
Happydude32

Happydude32 to Post Op

Premium Member

to Post Op
IMO, voice quality is about the same. The data speeds are significantly faster with Verizon due to 4G. I live in the Buffalo area, and frequent the Rochester area, both markets have excellent 4G coverage, although, I live in a small rural town, and at home, I have poor reception with all providers and no 4G access. With Sprint I’d be at about -109 dB and needed an Airrave for reliable reception. With Verizon, the Droid DNA is sitting next to me as I type this at -97 dB, which isn’t much better but it’s not low enough to get break ups when talking.

With 3G on Verizon in decent areas I get 1-1.5 Mb Down, and about 750 Kbps Up with Pings in the 125 – 175 ms range using the Syracuse server on the Speedtest.net app. Using the same server on Verizon 4G I get 5-10 Mb Down 5-10 Mb up with a ping in the 90s. Honestly after seeing how fast Verizon’s LTE was from other users around the country, I’m pretty disappointed. Even at 5AM in the morning, right in the heart of downtown Buffalo, I can’t achieve the speeds others have achieved. I’ve topped out at like 12Mb down. While neither Buffalo or Rochester has LTE coverage from Sprint, and no mention of these markets have been made, Rochester has had wimax coverage for a few years. I had good luck with Sprint Wimax, speeds averaging 12-15 Mb Down and 1.5Mb up, maxing out at over 18Mb down. I hate Verizon as a company, I hate being capped (I have the 10 GB shared plan sharing data between two smartphones and a USB air card), as soon as Sprint has a significant portion of Upstate NY covered with LTE, provided there is a very nice spec’ed premium handset available, preferably from HTC, I’m outta here, I’ll gladly pay the ETF and split.

The main reason I switched was due to Sprints 3G network becoming slower and slower. I couldn’t even stream a low quality YouTube video without it buffering every few seconds for minutes at a time. With no announcement of 4G LTE I just couldn’t take it anymore. Speedtests would get me anywhere from 150 Kbps to 800 Kbps on average. I was always excited to hit over 1Mb and that was usually before 7AM if I was within eyesight of the tower. Here’s the sad part, on Thursdays for work I’m in a rural area with no native Sprint reception so I’d always be roaming on to Verizon’s 1XRTT network. I always had significantly better speeds roaming on Verizon’s 1X network then I’d have when I got back to civilization and was back on Sprints own EVDO A network.

My stint with Verizon is more of a stop gap or bandaid then anything. I do not foresee myself staying with Verizon for the long haul. I was with Nextel since the fall of 2002 and migrated over to Sprint. A few years ago I dual subscribed to both Sprint and AT&T. I kept a Nextel flip phone and had AT&T for the iPhone, but ditched them after 16 months when Sprint launched the original Evo back in the Summer of 2010. My Sprint account is still active with a tablet plan for the HTC Evo View tablet.