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Let me start by saying that the Bionic is my favorite Android phone to date, and I'm a big fan of both Android and Motorola phones.

Initial Opening & Setup
the lens didnt have a plastic covering, but I recall thinking that it looked really cool. Rather Bionic like. ;)

I did like that the Moto logo on the back had a little plastic covering over it. Though vanity came to mind. :D

I like to charge the phone first before turning it on. So it was a welcome site to see that the Bionic did not automatically power up
when I plugged it in, like the Devour, Droid1, and Droid X did.

I also like how you can take the microsd card out without having to remove the battery.
Though I'm not sure why, because I would advise against removing the sd card with the phone powered on or plugged in.
But it did make it easier for me to pull out the sd card so I could plug it into my laptop and load it up with my music, video, and ringtones while the phone charges.

That's what I love about Android. You can just take your old sd card and pop it in your new one and you are good to go. Though I prefer a more hands on approach and I load up the new sd card myself.
And that's all there is to it.
Once done charging, I simply turn it on and login with my credentials and I have 100% working phone.

Some of My Initial Thoughts
- in a rather random order, that I've jotted down throughout the first day.

Fast. I was impressed at how fast I was able to install apps from the Market. And it just feels fast, probably because it is fast. And no little lags or glitches of any sort that I've noticed.
Cool. It is also cool to the touch, which I wouldn't have thought about except that it keeps making me think that it isn't turned on ... lol. It's that cool! Of course it will get warm or even hot when it is put through the paces, it is just that something made me notice its cool temp.
Light. And I love how light it feels in my hand. The TBolt feels heavy to me now. And the X is just a beast comparitively, at least size-wize (the X is just an odd shape and size for me).
Cool (style). I'm also really liking the style/look/feel. It is just plastic, I guess, but the outside bevel gives it a nice touch.

I do not like to be without a phone for too long. So to help with that, I always setup my new Android phone BEFORE switching to it. So I jumped thru the hoops to bypass activation and get it all setup to my liking. It worked a treat!!

I am tired of having to relearn the power button and the order of the four soft keys.

But speaking of the order, why did Moto move the Settings from the right to the left when you click the Menu button from the home screen? No biggie, but those things do make me go "hmmm?".
Also the power button is moved, again.
Something else that I didn't like about placement was that the app drawer scrolls horizontally. But once you get your head around it, you find that it is ultra simple to now swipe thru your apps with your thumb while holding the phone normally.
Now I'm liking that app drawer. But why didn't they make it scroll back to the begining when you get to the end? I suppose that's just Blur being Blur.

I miss the Restart option that Sense and some of the custom rom's use. Not sure why Moto still isn't including that. But I do like that this Moto doesn't automatically turn on anytime you plug in to a charger!
I also like the Home enough that I don't know if I'll use Launcher Pro like I normally do. I never liked the Sense Home.

Headset Audio
Audio quailty from the headset jack is really good too, even better than I expected. It sounds really, really good plugged into my hifi system. Moto is known for its radios, and this one doesn't appear to disappoint, but I also like their audio. I don't know if it has anything to do with Blur, but I find the Moto X and Bionic to have better sound from the headphones jack.
The speaker is pretty loud too, and also sounds really good.

Speaking of audio quality, I've been meaning to post something about the noise some people on the web have complained about when listening to audio.

They say there is noise in between songs. Well, it isn't that there is noise between songs, it is that the device turns on and off the headset audio when it switches tracks. As it goes from one song to the next, it briefly disables the audio during the microsecond it takes to switch tracks. I think this may be a normal Android thing. It happens no matter which media player I use.

So, depending on what you use to listen to the Bionic, you can hear that "blanking out" - and it may sound like static or just a click, or you may get engine noise during that (if you have it plugged into a car).

I've had issues using various Android handsets in my car audio setup, plugged into a headset jack. But the issues only occur when the device is not playing music. And the Moto's are worse, I think. They ground out the audio signal or something when it is not in use (or when switching tracks) - so when I plug in or unplug a Moto that is paused/stopped when the audio input is live (or press the switch my eq from input A to input B), I get a "pop" sound. But if the Moto is playing something, then I do not get the "pop", but a smooth change of inputs. But the Moto's have better sound quality out of the headset jack than the Inc did. At least to my ears.

I only get a tiny "pop" with the Bionic. One of my other phones used to give me a huge giant "pop" (I think it was the X, though maybe it was the Inc).

Display
540x960 pixels, 4.3 inches
The display is a true 16x9 as opposed to the 15x9 that the TBolt and most of the other androids are. I was wondering why everything seemed "taller".
I think I'll have to give my opinion of the video/display a little time. It seems a tad grainy and under-saturated or something, but it is also a higher resolution than I've had before.
After some time, I realized my reading glasses were not powerful enough for me to see the Bionic display properly. I increased from 1.25x to 2.0x and I was amazed. The higher resolution and more elongated display resolution makes the text smaller than it will be on the Tbolt or X, for example. But if your eyes are young, or if you have proper reading glasses, I think it will look great. But I still do not think that this pentile display will go over very well with the video watchers. Though one advantage is that it works really well in the sunlight, which is quite helpful on a planet with a Sun.

Keyboard Input
Lame keyboard. NONE of the letters have any sort of extra character. I mean come on!!!! Get with it. Why would you not make sure that one of the 2 primary methods for the user to interact with the device actually functions optimally?

That's just nuts. You have the touchscreen and the keyboard (obviously part of touching the screen). So if user input is so dependant on the keyboard, why do you give me this archaic crappy keyboard?
It is a handy feature to be able to long press a key for some of the special characters as opposed to switching back and forth from the number keypad.

I set the Multi Keyboard options. Auto caps is on but does not capitalize the first letter of all sentences or things like "i". ????
My favorite so far is Swiftkey X. It is free from the GetJar appstore app.
I dont really like them having access to all my keystrokes. But the current word suggestions and the next word suggestions are freaking great. I can type lots of things without ever hitting anything but one of the suggested words.
I haven't tried Swype in a while. I gave that a go since the Bionic comes with it. I'm not a fan of swyping, but the keyboard is much better than the default. I still prefer Swiftkey X.
Swype does not suggest the next word (only Swiftkey seems to do that?). And after you select punctation like a question mark, it doesn't add a space. What the heck????
Gads - I just cannot understand how you ignore the most important user interface on the device platform!!!! Aside from touching things on the screen, all the user has is THE KEYBOARD. I blame google for this. Their voice to text is awesome, but what you'd think would be an easier interface, well that is the interface that is lacking.

There is one other keyboard that you should try. Thumb Keyboard 4. That isn't free either, but it was free on Amazon's appstore on Oct 1st. And if you use a tablet, it is a must have.

At least "there's an app for that", right? But seriously, the average user is not a tech genius. Do not make them have to find an app just so they can have a respectable keyboard!!!!

Sleep Function and swipe-to-unlock bypass: here's what I've noticed about that
When at home or work I use the No Lock app, which is just a simple widget. It turns on/off the lock. Not the password lock, but the simple swipe to unlock.
On the Bionic, when not plugged in, the volume won't wake up the phone in "unlocked" mode. But the power button still wakes it up as it should, and no glitches (no flash or ghost of the lock screen or anything else, just directly to your last screen).
If the Bionic is plugged in, then the volume keys will always wake it up (yes, only when in "unlocked" mode). Also if certain apps are running, like a music player, then the volume will also wake up the phone.

I have all battery saving functions off and performance set where that is an option. But it does seem to do some "deeper" sleep when it can.

This doesn't seem to be a bug or anything, just posting my observations. At first I thought it inconsistent that sometimes the volume woke up the phone, and sometimes it didn't - but after a little usage, I can see that it is 100% consistent (which I like!!!). In a "deep" sleep, the volume doesn't wake up the phone, but in its "light" sleep, it does.
Obviously this is just in the "unlock" mode, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

Camera Pics & Video
The default Blur camera app seems to have an issue with focusing. It is slow and often inaccurate. So until they fix that with a software update, I'd recommend using a 3rd party camera app. Camera Advanced Lite is free and has the ability to save to either storage locations (the Bionic uses "sdcard" for its 8gig of onboard storage and sdcard-ext for the sdcard), and the zoom, and any of the other normal functions.
The video below I took with the default videocamera app. It doesnt seem to have any problems with the focus and looks pretty good. Better than I expected. The audio is also much better than I expected. That Mustang was LOUD, and it comes out great.
The pictures below were taken using a 3rd party camera app, but you can see the Bionic is capable of taking very nice pics.
Also, I'm not a big fan of the Blur gallery app yet, so I also have installed the default Android 3d Gallery from the Market.

Click for the fullsize original (these are processed thumbs below)

Screen Shots (Click for the fullsize)

Note: As a member of the Verizon Wireless Customer Council, I have received free equipment from Verizon Wireless or its partners for the purpose of evaluation and testing. This review document may be the result of that evaluation and testing.