droid Archives - Joe Tech

How Replace A Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx HD XT912 Screen

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Using a spudger (or guitar pick), carefully release all the clips around the edges. The back is affixed to the phone with double-sided adhesive tape. Carefully pull from each corner and edge until it comes away from the phone.

With the battery revealed, remove the three screws along the bottom , the two on the sides, and two on the top corners with a T4 bit. Beware. There is one more screw under the top plastic cover.

Use a guitar pick or similar pry tool to get underneath the camera panel. Be careful around the rear camera.

Remove the final T3 screw.

Use a guitar pick or similar pry tool to release all the clips around the edge of the bezel. Be careful around the buttons and the sim card slot. I released everything I could on the top, bottom, and around the sim card slot. Then I pried loose the sim card slot and the side with the buttons became much easier.

Using tweezers, remove the battery lead cover shown here. Be careful to not connect the two leads with your tweezers or screwdriver. Remove both T5 screws.

SLowly and carefully pry up the battery. Do not use the pull tab as the batter will be taped down pretty securely. Work your way around the edges of the battery until it feels loose enough to pry up and remove it.

Remove the three T3 screws shown here and remove the battery casing.

After removing the battery frame, remove the yellow tape shown here. Now gently release the three black ribbon clamps as shown. In this photo, the first is released and I am about to release the second.

Using a guitar pick or pry tool, release the four clips that hold the camera housing in place. There are two on the top edge of the phone and one on each side. Once those have been released, use a pry tool under the center of the top edge (even with the screw hole) to pry it up slowly. When loose, carefully pull the camera housing away while unplugging the ribbon cables.

Now remove the cable shield as shown here. In this photo, you can see that I am prying it towards me to release a sticking point. There are cables under here, so be careful and use a safe prying tool!

Once the shield is removed, gently pry up the cable connections as shown. Do all three. The section will be able to raise up a little, but do not pull it out.

Starting in the corners, pry around all the edges of the board. Pry only the edges and be very patient. The board is expensive and you can break it if you’re not careful.

Once you’ve removed the broken screen and bezel, you can now put the new one in place. Don’t forget to attach all three ribbon cables. Be patient and line them up if they don’t connect easily.

Remove the two cameras from the housing and first get the rear-facing camera (on the left) in place and attach its ribbon. Then put the housing in place, and finally add the front facing camera and attach its ribbon cable.

Now put the cable cover back in place the same way you got it out.

Replace the battery housing and secure it with the three screws you removed earlier. Then re-attach the battery cable with the screws the match it.

Now replace the plastic outer bezel and make sure all clips snap into place.

Replace all 7 screws in that hold the bezel and camera housing in place.

Now replace the camera lens and flash cover and the antenna on the bottom.

Finally, replace the back cover and give it a little pressure to get it to stick again and you’re done.

If you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll end up with a working phone and a new screen.

Droid ERIS Is The Cheaper Smart Phone With Expensive Features

On the heels of my DROID review Verizon brought me a Droid ERIS to review. As you may have guessed from the title of this review, I liked it a lot, and so did everyone I showed it to.

It’s Like DROID’s Little Sister

You’ve heard of the DROID, of course, and if you haven’t, click above to read the review. While DROID is a top phone choice for those in need of constant communication and all the bells and whistles, it can be overkill for others. The ERIS is like a smaller, curvier, little sister with a few of DROID’s key features missing. Since I’m comparing it to the DROID, I might as well point out what I couldn’t find on the ERIS.

The first is obvious. There’s no hardware keyboard. In iPhone user, I didn’t find this to be of much concern, especially since the software keyboard was pretty responsive and accurate. For some, this takes the ERIS out of the running when choosing a phone, though, so it’s important to note. The other main thing I found missing from the ERIS was voice control. DROID has it and I’ve gotten used to it in the iPhone. This is a software feature and I really don’t understand why it wasn’t included. It’s forgivable, but an unnecessary loss.

Otherwise, the ERIS runs on Android just like it’s big brother, so the environment was nearly the same.

In Its Own Class

As much as the ERIS makes me think of DROID, it really stands apart from a lot of the phones on the market. It embodies many of the features I find in the pricier smart phones but at around $100 less when bought from Verizon online (around $80 with a 2 year contract). That’s not a bad trade-off for the couple missing features previously mentioned.

Beyond having all the features that come with the Android OS, the ERIS is just really nice to look at. It’s not too flashy, but it has very smooth rounded corners and buttons that are pretty flush with the phone’s surface.

The front of the phone has Call and End Call/Power buttons that sit on either side of the combination roller ball/action button. This roller ball lights up when in use, which adds to the aesthetics of the phone, but I find myself not using this for navigation. It’s just not a natural feel for me, although it may make navigation a little easier. Above all this is a row of four navigation buttons. The buttons, which take you home, back, to a menu, or to a quick search are sensitive to the slightest touch and are completely flush for a smooth feel. Of course, there’s volume control buttons on the side and a standard headphone jack on the top.

Mass Appeal

The fact that I was a little more eager to take this phone with me to gatherings with friends says something, but what spoke volumes was how much other people wanted to play with it. At a friend’s birthday party, I think I spent a half hour talking about the phone and people were eager to play with it. These same people (one of them a DROID owner) noticed and made mention of the missing voice control and physical keyboard, but still had lots of good things to say about it as well.

Conclusions

I was excited before I ever put my hands on this phone and was more excited after I got to play with it. I was excited enough, in fact, to overlook the lack of headphones that I think every smart phone should include. Holding its own with some more expensive phones, this is a more affordable way to get your hands on a good-looking smart phone with all the benefits of the Android platform. Not only would I recommend this phone, but I tried to convince my wife to buy one (though it just wasn’t for her). This phone is an easy winner, provided you don’t need voice control or a physical keyboard.

DROID Really Does – Verizon DROID Review

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last few months, you’ve seen the commercials. “DROID does,” they say. So I asked Verizon for a DROID. I wanted to see how it would stand up to the iPhone. They let me spend a month with the latest would-be iPhone killer.

A Robotic Kind of Pretty

I had seen the DROID in photos and commercials but not really up close. What shocked me was that several times, I saw people referring to blog posts claiming this was an ugly phone. It’s not curvy like the iPhone and it’s not quite as shiny as the LG Chocolate Touch, but it’s definitely better looking than the G1. DROID pulled off just the look you would expect from a personal assistant robot phone. It’s hard, cold metal. It’s not a warm elegant aesthetic. It’s a robotic kind of pretty. While I prefer the soft roundness of the iPhone, I don’t dislike the DROID at all.

(Click here to see all the photos)

One of the notable features of this phone is the built-in keyboard. It’s something that many iPhone owners have complained about the lack of, so it’s welcomed with DROID. In addition to the slider keyboard is a slick little navigation pad. Both the face and the back of the phone are completely flat. There isn’t one button sticking out. There are four buttons on the face of the DROID, Back, Menu, Home, and Search. Under the battery cover is the SIM card, the microSD card and, of course, the battery, another “does feature”. I would rather have the microSD slot more easily accessible, but at least it’s tucked away safely. The sides of the phone include the standard volume buttons, micro USB connection and a dedicated camera start/shutter button. The power button is located at the top, where I like it, but I found it harder to use than other phones. I really had to try to get it to turn on or off. I don’t want a phone that will turn off or on unexpectedly through an accidental brush of the power button, but it shouldn’t be too hard to do, either.

The touch screen was very slick and easy, unlike most touchscreen phones, and it surprisingly seemed brighter than my iPhone’s screen (which I keep at full brightness). The screen and its response to human touch is very important in a phone of this caliber and DROID really impressed here.

A Good Smart Phone Makes You Forget It’s A Phone

Smart phones aren’t for everyone. All the features would probably be more in the way for my mom, for example, because she’d never use them. For everyone else a smart phone is an extension of their online or work life. It allows us to continue to check email, tweet, update facebook and browse the web while on the go. A smart phone is really just a super-portable computer that makes phone calls, so it should feel a little like one. The DROID does a pretty good job of this. With the built-in slider keyboard, software keyboard, GPS, 5 MP camera, WiFi, integrated turn-by-turn (which I loved, by the way), and everything else, it really lives up to the claims in the commercials that it will help you with just about everything.

One of the things I noticed as well was the notifications for new emails, tweets, etc were tucked up out of the way in the status bar at the top. We iPhone owners were happy to finally get push notifications, but they’re still often in the way. When I get a text, it jumps up in front of whatever I’m doing on my iPhone. If I’m sniping an eBay auction, too bad. With DROID, any new text messages, emails, or tweet notifications are placed visibly at the top where I can see them and deal with them on my own terms. Well done, there.

Because the DROID marketing campaign was centered around the idea that it “does” what (presumably) the iPhone doesn’t, I tried to do things on it that I couldn’t with the iPhone. One such example (and the only one that failed me, really) was Adobe Flash elements in web browsing. I hate that I can’t view/use Flash in my iPhone browser and really had my hopes up for DROID, but Flash was not available at the time of my review. At least there’s a planned date for it. I also was a little disappointed to find no “pipe” (|) key on the keyboard. For those of us who work on unix/linux servers, it’s sorely missed. The other 99.9% of you will never even notice it.

The web browsing experience was very smooth. Not only was the scrolling seamless, but it also pops up a sneak peek of the complete page shrunk way down so you can see where you are in the page and if you need to scroll up or down to get to what you’re looking for. I need that on my desktop, too! The browser offers up all the typical options like bookmarking emailing a page, etc. The zooming was not all I’d hoped for. It worked, but just wasn’t as intuitive as on the iPhone’s pinch-zoom. The screen is a good size, and pretty clear, so zoom isn’t that much of a concern, though.

An original concern I had with the Android platform and the phones that run it was the selection of applications. While there’s still room for growth, the Android application marketplace is now full of all kinds of apps for most needs. There’s a few missing gems still, but all the basics are covered, including a few I’ve never seen on the iPhone. I loved the bar code scanner (an early Android app) and one that acts as a metal detector. I’m not sure how it did it, but it could detect metal objects I placed over the phone. I was showing that off to several people. Needless to say, my original fears about the app marketplace are no more. The ones that don’t yet exist soon will and the open platform development opens the door to all kinds of possibilities.

Should I Buy A DROID?

I already have an iPhone (and the contract that comes with it), so I won’t be shelling out the money to move just yet. However, DROID has me thinking about my options. I moved to the iPhone after years with Verizon and definitely noticed a drop in coverage. DROID is on a great network, for sure and is a great buy for anyone looking for a hot smart phone on a reliable network. A friend of mine wanted to buy the review phone I had and eventually ended up buying a DROID in the store to replace his iPhone. Verdict : If I didn’t have a phone right now, I’d probably be in the Verizon store buying a DROID.