D4 Rocks! February 29, 2012

Reviewer:  Richard 

I was an OG droid owner who preferred/needed a physical keyboard. Well two years later and I still prefer/need a physical keyboard. A lot of reviews I read stated the D4 has the best qwerty keyboard ever for a smartphone and quite simply it does. The keyboard is sick. Everything else is bigger, better and badder coming from the OG droid phone. I've had the phone up and running for 10 days, battery life is fine, it's really fast and the lone complaint....the headphone jack location is no bueno when plugged in and using the keyboard. No biggie, just have use that new age touchscreen keyboard when it's plugged in for music. So if your looking for an upgrade or a new phone after owning the OG droid for two years now, this is the easy choice!

More than pleased November 27, 2012

Reviewer:  K. MacDonald 

The Droid 4 is my first smartphone other than several blackberries. Glad I switched for so many reasons. I've had mine since June and am still being blown away by it. I selected the Droid 4 for several reasons. First, I couldn't wait to leave AT&T and go back to Verizon. But its really the features that drew me in. I still like a qwerty keyboard (and this one is the best), I wanted 4G. I also wanted mobile hotspot. Only one phone that I could find, offered it all. This phone is amazing.

Two small negatives - Others have said the same, and they're correct. 1st is that battery life is short. Especially when the phone is new to you because you'll be exploring it constantly. I bought a battery back-up (personally, I wouldn't buy les then 2000mah)The 2nd issue is the screen lock button on the top. It has a very weak spring and it will undoubtedly find itself just barely sticking above the phone's outer case. Mine has never stopped working. In fact, it some ways I'm probably less likely to hit it accidentally now.

That's it. Over all, best choice I've ever made with a mobile phone.

Awesome Keyboard August 16, 2012

Reviewer:  Nick M 

If you are the type of person who prefers to type on an actual keyboard instead of glass this is the perfect phone for you.

Awesome phone! August 16, 2012

Reviewer:  Alex 

Coming from an ancient LG ENV Touch, this was a huge upgrade. It was well worth it. The keyboard was an absolute must-have for me, and I am very pleased with its well lit and natural feeling keyboard. Battery lasts all day at work for 10 hours, with about 20% remaining, so it is good to say the least. The touch screen is pinpoint accurate and the display is stunning. Great buy!

TERRIBLE battery life, so what's the point? April 26, 2013

Reviewer:  Paul M. Bauer "PMB in Chilltown"  (NYC) -

I bought this phone for its (a) real kbd, (b) wide screen, (c) 4G dual core speed. But this phone sucks the life out of its (non-removable) battery very quickly. If you use anything other than phone or text, the battery will run out by mid-afternoon. There is no replaceable battery. The camera takes very grainy pictures (yes I have used all the adjustments).

Lousy pics, low battery life January 26, 2013

Reviewer:  my opinion "consumer"  (NJ) -

Selected this phone because of the keyboard. My son's iPhone 5 photos are far supeior to any photo I have taken with the Droid 4, even after much playing with settings and cleaning the lens.

I use the phone lightly and have adjusted battery use to my necessities - the battery needs charging daily.

Suffering buyer remorse when comparing this with the iPhone 5.

It's a nice phone but has some aggravating quirks. January 25, 2013

Reviewer:  C. King "bbknees"  (Hawaii USA) -

The phone insists on trying to install Motocast on any PC you plug it into. I HATE MOTOCAST! It is possibly the least useful, most aggravating, contstantly in-your-face software ever written. If you use a Motorola Droid you will constantly arm wrestle with it trying to install, update, and run.

I like the Droid 4, but be careful ordering from Amazon. January 11, 2013

Reviewer:  jsucsirczt 

I got my phone from Amazon Wireless six months ago. It has taken until now for me to really suspect that they sent me a defective unit.

The first thing I noticed when I received the phone was that the keys on the keyboard were noticeably misprinted. That is, the letters on the keys don't line up at all, and it just looks cheap and like a knockoff. So I thought, whatever, I'll see how it performs before I raise Kane about getting a bad device.

At first, it wasn't bad. Maybe not as responsive as I'd like, but hey, I do that with any electronic device. I hate to wait. I had a hard time believing that this brand new device with a dual core processor couldn't handle the very basic tasks I was throwing at it, but I let it go. Over time, however, the phone has started to be very slow and unresponsive when doing even the most basic of multitasking. I'm talking web browsing and texting and email, tops. I do very little media on my phone, and even then it's the occasional youtube video.

Now, it can barely handle web browsing - with about five tabs open and no other apps actively running, it struggled until it finally crashed. Starting recently, even after a master factory reset, when opening the stock messaging app, it takes several moments for contact information to load.

Here's what expels all doubt for me that I have bad hardware (aside from the very cheap appearance of the keyboard). Keep in mind I have checked my water damage indicator, and it is perfectly normal, so water damage has not occurred. Recently (around the time all these other abnormal problems started arising) my earpiece, during a phonecall, will cut out for a moment until I force my screen to come back in, at which point it will start to fade back in, but it is faint and fizzy.

Something is clearly wrong with the phone I received. I don't know if it's a reject that was pawned off on me or a cheap knockoff or what, but be careful when ordering a phone from here or anywhere online. I am having to convince Verizon that my phone is defective, who is of course doing all they can to deter the issue. I may have to resort to talking to Amazon. At least their customer service has always been good.

Solid phone with mediocre battery life December 29, 2012

Reviewer:  Nick 

This was my first smart phone (and therefore my first droid) and overall I am very pleased with it. I chose this phone in particular due to its physical keyboard. I have never been very good at typing on a touch screen and didn't want to make the transition so I looked exclusively at phones with real keyboards. On that front this phone is excellent; I am very pleased with the size and layout of the keyboard, the back-light is also nice. I have no complaints about the call quality or dropped calls. The camera is good enough (if not better than needed) for my purposes. The 4G is very fast and Verizon's coverage is good and only getting better. I get service in most places except the countryside. The internet browser is fast and easy to use. The layout of the apps is fine but I find that I like apple's layout/organizational style to be slightly superior, but keep in mind this is a matter of taste. The build quality is excellent. I have dropped this thing many times on a variety of surfaces (before I had a case mind you) and only got a few small scratches. At this point I decided to invest in a case and now I would drop this thing off a building without fear. In terms of size this phone is a little bulky (especially with a case) but that is to be expected with a physical keyboard. The screen is large and crisp and not unpleasant for light reading and web browsing.
My experience has been positive for the most part with a few exception, the biggest being battery life. As a moderate user I find myself needing to charge it at least once a day. Navigation/maps tends to destroy battery life so if you plan on using this as a GPS replacement I highly recommend a car charge. Even using a battery saving app I find the battery life to be seriously lacking. Towards the end of the day I have to limit the apps I use to prevent total battery death. This is annoying and defeats the purpose of having all those neat apps. I find the GPS to be pretty mediocre as well. It doesn't always know your accurate location and is not great in the city with lots of closely packed streets.
All in all I would highly recommend this phone. I'll give a brief summary below.
Pros:
-physical keyboard has a good layout and is easy to use
-lots of apps
-very sturdy phone
-large screen
-4G is very fast
Cons:
-poor battery life
-GPS is mediocre
-bulky (but not annoyingly so)

Good Overall Phone for QWERTY Users December 17, 2012

Reviewer:  Frequent Techy 

This is a five star phone for those looking for a phone with a physical keyboard. For those that aren't requiring a physical keyboard I'd give it 3 stars. Being that I bought it for the physical keyboard I gave it 5 stars.

Pros

- 4G, very fast
- Sturdy..... I've dropped maybe 30 times and no major impact on operations.
- Decent voice quality
- Android 4.x

Cons

- Battery life could be better. Motorola made a mistake in not putting the Droid Razr Maxx battery in it.
- A little more bulky due to having a keyboard

way smarter than I am !! October 4, 2012

Reviewer:  joe1 

I recieved my phone four days ago. As of now I can say Wow Smart phones are Smart!! I am just learning the basics. My kids are trying to get me up to speed, Lol. I am use to a keyboard so this was a smart move . The one down side to the smart phone thing is battery life. I read a number of reviews and I knew going in that it wouldn't be like my old phone. I however did not think I would need to charge it every day. Or even during the trip home from work. Oh well , I would like to say yea I would do it again. Hope this helps Joe From ohio

Keep your charger handy. November 15, 2012

Reviewer:  Whoever 

Kindle-for-Android Fans: better keep a charger handy. The battery in this phone is glued and screwed in place--you can't plop in a spare battery when your charge runs low and you're not near a charger. That's why I hesitated to switch from my Droid 3 to the Droid 4. I read exclusively on my Droid, and charging isn't always convenient; with the spare battery for my Droid 3, I'm good to go wherever I am. It's much lighter to carry a spare battery than a portable charging device. If you're a Kindle-for-Android reader like I am, this is probably not the phone for you.

Switch from 4g to 3g horrible September 10, 2012

Reviewer:  Hiker "Hiker"  (Seattle, WA USA) -

I live in the Seattle area and have had significant problems with this phone switching back and forth from 4g to 3g. They say its a software issue. Such a bummer to have paid for a phone like this and not be able to rely on 4G in Seattle. I had to finally change it to 3g. Think twice..

Worthless battery November 11, 2012

Reviewer:  redact 

The battery in this phone renders it useless - worst I've ever experienced. There's no point to a cellphone that must be plugged into a charger about every 8 hours, if that.

Wanted to love it, and ended up fighting EVERYTHING on it. And it's NOT Android's fault! April 4, 2013

Reviewer:  Thomas 

This phone on paper is a tower of achievement.

Let's go through what bothers me so much. (Not in order of importance):

1. Lack-luster battery. And you can't swap it out yourself----it's actually a requirement that Verizon do it for you. That's unforgivable all by itself.
2. Beautiful 8 million pixel camera (on paper) that produces 8 MILLION FUZZY PIXELS. Seriously, in order to get a sharp picture out of this phone you have to have amazingly bright sunlight behind you. And don't even try to tell me this is normal for today's sensors. It just is not. So many times I wished I had a camera, reached for my phone, and then sadly put it right back into my pocket without trying rather than face the aggravation.
3. You can FORGET about it finding any GPS satelites. Bright cloudless day, middle of my yard laying flat and held up high, and it will *not* find one.
4. Screen does not have adequate subpixel response time. You'll get ghosting galore even on simple scrolling.
5. First one had a broken headphone slot. Would not take the plug no matter what. Replaced the phone because of that.
6. You cannot use the car charger on this thing without a whine being produced into the sound. So if you're using this as your music source (or whatever) in your car, be warned you need to try a few different charging techniques to find one without the high pitch sound added in.
7. Charging heats the phone up incredibly.
8. Playing a graphics heavy app (like any of the Angry Birds variants) heats the phone up to the point of me worrying about it and cooling it down with the keyboard extended just in case. I mean, /really/ hot.

I'm going to try Samsung next because I hear that they've got a much smoother implementation all around than the motos.

If you do buy the Droid 4, good luck. You've been warned.

And I soooooo wanted to like this thing.

The good: The keyboard. HOWEVER there is a low-level bug regarding the keyboard driver & Verizon SMS app that appears from time to time where hitting the letter "a" makes an apparent "ctrl-a" (somehow) and selects everything, and anything you type from there on of course replaces the selection. The only way in and out of that debacle is to hop out of SMS entirely and hope it goes away.

Droid 4 Is Practically Indestructible March 21, 2013

Reviewer:  J. R. Welborn "J.R. Welborn"  (New Mexico) -

I would like to give one metric unit of mad props to the Droid 4 by Motorola. Since I got it in September, my butter fingers have flung it across hard floors on several occasions, and a few times, it has taken a bounce off of concrete stairs. Twice, it has been knocked into the tub by the kittens. The crowning glory for the Droid 4 is this: Two days ago, I dropped it into a full bowl of tom yum soup, and it stayed submerged until I was able to ensure nobody in the restaurant saw me do it. It still works perfectly. No buckets of rice were needed; just a damp towel and a toothpick to get the pepper flakes out of the speakers.

Not a well constructed phone. March 16, 2013

Reviewer:  Miner 

This phone would get five stars in my book if it wasn't cheaply made; I'm about to replace this phone for the third time in about a year now. The phone has a lot of features you won't find on many other qwerty phones. The keyboard is nice. The display is nice. It has a nice feel to it and it functions relatively well.

I'm left to believe this phone was made with cheap parts though. The first droid 4 I replaced was because of a faulty power/lock button that was getting stuck. The second was a blown out speaker. The third one now is because the USB-Charge port is almost busted and also the speaker on this is also going out too. The battery life leave a lot to be desired. It would of been nice to be able to swap the battery when needed because if you're constantly on it, it will be dead in 8 hours. I can generally make it through the day with it.

Not My Favorite March 7, 2013

Reviewer:  QueenMommy  (OH, USA) -

I got my Droid 4 after my son dropped my Droid 3 in a sink full of water and I didn't find it for well over an hour. Lesson learned. Needless to say, when I opened the box, I was excited because this is a sleeker Droid and I LOVED the keyboard. For the first month, I was pleased with this phone.

HOWEVER, and it's a big however, the battery life is the worst of any phone I've ever had. Disabling Wifi, GPS, decreasing screen brightness helps - but I have to recharge it fully every single night.

I don't know where the problem lies, but it will restart itself at least once every week. Randomly.

It freezes often. And because the battery cannot be removed, at times I have no option other than to hold the power button down until it finally dies. As recommended by the manufacturer, I allow the battery to drain entirely and recharge from that point.

My phone also randomly dials contacts and texts people unexpectedly. Yes, there is probably a setting or something I need to change, but I have NO. IDEA. how to fix it. Or stop it. And this is the only phone I've had this problem with.

When it works well, it's a good phone. I've gotten into a habit of plugging it in at bedtime and charging it overnight. However, I have had too many problems with it and I cannot wait to replace it when my new-in-two comes around again...

Great phone but some bugs February 24, 2013

Reviewer:  William S. Samuel "Bill Samuel"  (Silver Spring, MD USA) -

Most professional reviewers have rated this as the best physical keyboard phone on the market. In most respects it is great - great keyboard, very fast, 4G, nice screen, etc. - but it has defects. The email program has a big bug in its design which makes it hold onto all emails until you physically delete each one. With other smart phones, once the email is no longer on the server, it will delete automatically from the smart phone. I talked to Motorola, Verizon Wireless, and Verizon FIOS about this, and none could find any solution to it, altho they all insisted it should refresh from the server. Another problem is that built-in applications seem to be borrowed from non-physical keyboard phones and are awkward with the physical keyboard. The problem is that they are designed with some of the controls only working when in portrait mode. But you can really only use the physical keyboard in landscape mode, in which important controls vanish. That controls issue would be somewhat of an issue with any smart phone, but it becomes really serious in a keyboard phone which is designed for primarily landscape mode when using applications requiring input. Motorola's developers didn't sufficiently consider the user experience. Practically you have to go back and forth between portrait and landscape while using the physical keyboard, something that is very awkward and a customer-hostile design.

3/29/13 UPDATE: They have now upgraded the Droid 4 to Jellybean, and replaced the entire interface. In doing so, they have removed the ability to set the phone to vibrate only. I consider this an essential feature. It allows you to use other applications on the smart phone in a setting where a phone ringing is inappropriate (e.g., I used to set the phone to vibrate in church, and use the Bible application). I can't imagine what possessed them to remove this feature. (NOTE: I chatted with Motorola Technical Support and confirmed they removed the feature.) DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE.

Keyboard Phone November 3, 2012

Reviewer:  Chris 

I previously owned a Blackberry Storm, Droid 2, and iPhone 4. For work I end up writing long emails with the phone, and that is one thing I didn't like about the iPhone. While the iPhone has good text recognition and figures out what I'm trying to type most of the time, it still was far more cumbersome typing with the iPhone. The Droid 2 keyboard didn't have a dedicated line for the numbers. This has a larger keyboard and larger space above the keys which helps a lot. I tried keyboard phones at Verizon and this was my favorite. I think everyone should understand a keyboard phone is larger and heavier. I think any new smartphone is large in your pocket, and that's just a fact of life. I'm very happy with this phone. It has 4G and all the bells and whistles of a new phone, with the keyboard. I hope they keep making these. I would say the battery is somewhat of an issue, but with my previous phones this has also been a concern. Without trying to sound like an Apple hater, they did a good job on the iPhone 4 with battery life, but otherwise I like getting a phone that uses a universal platform, charger from my other phones and devices, and for an elevated user the Droids offer more models and customization, giving every customer their choice in a phone, rather than pushing one model every year or two for the whole population.