Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Droid Bionic

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Manufacturer
  
Motorola

Availability by country
  
8 September 2011

Series
  
Droid

Predecessor
  
Motorola DROID X2

Droid Bionic

Slogan
  
Control it, and you control everything, and Droid Does

Compatible networks
  
CDMA 800/1900 MHz EVDO Rev. A, 700 MHz 4G LTE, 802.11b/g/n,

The Motorola Droid Bionic is an Android-based, 4G LTE-capable smartphone designed by Motorola. It was originally scheduled for release in Q2 2011 but was delayed, eventually being released on 8 September 2011.

Contents

It was introduced at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show along with the Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Xoom, and Motorola CLIQ 2.

Reception

According to several sites there have been early complaints of a high-pitched whine during audio playback through the headphones. With the first officially available update, released to testers on 9 December 2011, this issue was solved.

Software updates

Verizon Wireless announced the first firmware upgrade for the Droid Bionic, version 5.5.893, on 8 December 2011. The update was pushed to a limited test group on 9 December 2011, with plans to release it as an over-the-air (OTA) update package at a later date. The patch fixes many of the issues users reported at the Bionic's launch, with improvements including a smoother hand-off between 4G (LTE) and 3G (eHRPD/CDMA) data networks and software attenuation to eliminate the high-pitched transistor bleed ("hum") previously noticed in sound from the 3.5 mm jack.

On 19 December, some owners began receiving yet another OTA update to version 5.9.901. It was later provided as a download for manual installation. Later on, the changelog, or list of improvements was released.

A Motorola employee later confirmed the update was released to some by accident, and will be later released to all other DROID Bionic users soon.

In April 2012, an OTA update to version 5.9.902 was done, followed by one in June to version 5.9.905.

In June 2012 Ice Cream Sandwich builds 6.7.2231, 6.7.2233, 6.7.232 & 6.7.235, were pulled from Motorola's servers through cheesecake. It provided users with Android 4.0.4, with many features such as overclocking the CPU from 1.0 GHz to 1.2 GHz and including Webtop 3.0. However, the leaks included many bugs, such as the webtop launcher causing systemUI to crash, white text in the widgets menu (In custom launchers), and facelock not enabling correctly. Leak 6.7.235 will not let users FXZ back to OTA 5.9.902.

In October 2012, Verizon officially pushed Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0.4 out to users.

In April 2013, Verizon officially pushed Jelly Bean Android 4.1.2 out to users.

Features

The smartphone includes 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, HDMI output, 1 GHz OMAP dual core processor, a 4.3" qHD display, 3G/4G wireless hotspot capability, GPS, an 8 MP low-light–capable camera with 1080p HD video capture and a front-facing camera capable of Video Chat. In the United States, the handset is distributed exclusively by Verizon Wireless.

Specifications

Motorola Droid Bionic (also known as Motorola XT875) was the first dual core Android handset to use Verizon's 4G LTE network. It comes with a 4.3 inch qHD (960 x 540) display, a 1 GHz OMAP4 dual-core processor from Texas Instruments, and 1 GB of LP DDR2 RAM. It also has an 8-megapixel camera capable of 1080p HD video and a front-facing camera to support video calling. The phone comes with Adobe Flash and HTML5 support, as well as with HDMI output to an HDTV.

Motorola Droid Bionic specifications:

General info:

  • Phone type: Smartphone
  • Network technology:

  • CDMA: 800, 1900
  • LTE: 700
  • CDMA Data: 1xRTT and EVDO Rev. A
  • LTE: Yes
  • Design:

  • Form Factor: Candybar
  • Dimensions: 5.01 x 2.63 x 0.42 (127.5 x 66.9 x 10.9 mm)
  • Weight: 5.57 oz (158 g)
  • Display:

  • Resolution: 960 x 540 pixels
  • Physical Size: 4.30 inches
  • Colors: 16 777 216
  • Touch Screen: Yes (Capacitive)
  • Multi-touch: Yes
  • Proximity Sensor: Yes
  • Light sensor: Yes
  • Battery Capacity: 1735 mAh
  • Software:

  • Smart Phone: Yes
  • OS: Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
  • Hardware:

  • Processor: OMAP4 Dual-Core
  • Processor speed: 1000 MHz (Overclocked to 1200 MHz from ICS update)
  • Memory: 1024 MB RAM / 2048 MB ROM
  • 3D Graphics hardware accelerator: PowerVR SGX540
  • Camera:

  • Resolution: 8 megapixels
  • Flash: Yes (Dual LED)
  • Features: Auto focus, Digital zoom
  • Video capture: Yes
  • Resolution: 1920x1080 (1080p HD) (30 frames per second)
  • Additional camera: Yes (VGA)
  • Video Calling: Yes
  • Multimedia:

  • Music Player: Yes
  • Supports: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MIDI
  • Video Playback: Yes
  • Supports: MPEG4, H.263, H.264
  • YouTube player: Yes
  • Internet browsing:

  • Supports: HTML, Flash
  • Built-in online services support: Facebook, Picasa, Twitter, Google Play
  • Services:

  • Type: S-GPS
  • Navigation: Yes
  • Phonebook Support: Yes
  • Capacity: Capacity depends on system memory
  • Features: Caller groups, Multiple numbers per contact, Search by both first and last name, Picture ID, Ring ID
  • Organizer Calendar: Yes
  • Alarms: Yes
  • Document Viewer: Yes
  • Other: Calculator
  • Messaging
  • SMS: Yes
  • E-mail: Yes (IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange)
  • Memory

  • Memory Expansion: Yes
  • Slot Type: microSD, microSDHC
  • Maximum card size: 64 GB
  • Built-in: 8 GB or 16 GB
  • Connectivity

  • Bluetooth: Yes
  • Version: 2.1
  • EDR: Yes
  • Wi-Fi: Yes, 2.4 GHz only (802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n)
  • USB: Yes
  • Type: microUSB
  • Version: USB 2.0
  • Features: Mass storage device, USB charging
  • Headphones connector: 3.5 mm
  • HDMI: Yes
  • Version: 1.4
  • DLNA: Yes
  • Notifications

  • Service lights: Yes
  • Colors per light: Multiple
  • Other features

  • Sensors: Accelerometer, Compass, Proximity
  • Availability

  • Officially announced: 5 Jan 2011
  • Officially released: 8 September 2011
  • Webtop

    Similar to the Motorola Atrix 4G, it has the integrated Ubuntu-based 'Webtop' application from Motorola. The Webtop application is launched when the phone is connected to the external display through Laptop dock or HD multimedia dock. In Webtop mode, offering similar user interface of typical Ubuntu desktop, the phone can run several applications on external display such as Firefox web browser, SNS clients and 'mobile view' application enabling total access to the Bionic and its screen. In September 2011, Motorola released the source code of Webtop application at SourceForge.

    References

    Droid Bionic Wikipedia