GADGET WATCH: Motorola’s Droid Bionic

It’s been several months since Motorola has announced the Droid Bionic, and only now are reviewers starting to get their hands on it. The company has been on a pretty good ride this year with the Xoom tablet and the Atrix smartphones, but can it continue its good reviews with this Android powered phone?

Hardware and features

The Droid features a dual-core 1Ghz processor, 16GB internal memory, the ability to increase capacity to 16GB through a microSD card, and a 4.3-inch screen.

It also features two cameras with an 8MB lens for the rear, with the ability to capture at 1080p, and play back at 1080p as well. It comes with HDMI out.

The Droid features four buttons at the bottom of the screen, touch sensitive, and a MicroUSB port as well, along with a headphone jack and a physical power button. It features WiFi, Bluetooth, and comes preloaded with Android Gingerbread.

What’s the consensus?

Reviewers have praised the speed of the Bionic. Slashgear wrote that while the Galaxy S II is slightly faster, the Bionic passes all benchmarks for use.

“In general use the Bionic felt fast and slick, with neither lag nor delay in loading and moving between apps, accessing webpages and playing media.”

And while it criticised the use of the camera, it noted that video capture was actually quite smooth and could film at 30 frames per second.

ZDNet wrote the build of the gadget is quite good, and said that although it feels quite thick and heavy, it’s actually quite easy to use.

“The weight is similar to the Nexus S, too. The thicker hump around the camera on the Bionic no doubt adds to the impression of a slightly clunky-looking phone. After using it awhile that impression is dispelled as the Bionic feels comfortable in the hand.”

It also wrote the device is clearly aimed at business users, saying the Citrix Receiver app had been preinstalled, along with ZumoCast which allows streaming to and from the device.

Engadget also praised the responsiveness of the device, and said battery life was more than adequate for a day’s usage of light to moderate activities, but said that anymore and a second battery may be a possibility.

“And, if you’re looking to use this phone as a wireless modem for your laptop, you won’t want to stray far from an outlet. We went from a full battery to completely dead in less than three hours of wireless tethering.”

However, it did say that customised Android software was easy to use and quite responsive.

There are some problems. ZDNet noted there was nothing special about the quality of the camera, and even said the price tag of $US300 may be a little high, and that audio quality wasn’t great.

“The Bionic works fine as a phone, although some calls had less than sterling audio. I would rate the call audio quality as adequate but nothing special. I did not experience any dropped calls while using the Bionic.”

Slashgear also wrote that while the device is the best combination of a device with LTE, dual-core power and a large display, “don’t expect perfection”.

Who’s it for

The Bionic is a competent smartphone that is built for both consumers and business users. It’s fast, responsive and the customised software is reported to work quite well. However, battery usage is a problem.

If you’re going to use this phone as a casual handset, then it’s one of the better Android handsets available. But if you’re using it for business, you may want something that will keep a charge for a lot longer.