Sprint’s new Power User Phone
September 7th, 2011
Sprint released the Motorola Photon 4G last month and I finally used my upgrade eligibility that had been burning a hole in my pocket since June 1st. I considered the HTC EVO 3D but I felt like the 3D capability was more of a gimmick and the rest of the phone wasn’t much different from the EVO 4G I already had (the 3D is a faster phone with a dual-core phone vs. the Evo 4G’s single core, etc.). I also really waffled on whether I should hold out for the iPhone 5 strongly rumored to be coming to Sprint this month or next but in the end I decided I was too entrenched with Google and Android to jump ship for Apple. I even gave my wife full control of the iPad and bought myself a Motorola Xoom (no, I don’t own stock in the-soon-to-be-purchased-by-Google Motorola Mobility).
I use gmail as my main personal email account, I have used Google Music Beta for a couple months and absolutely love it, I’ve purchased some apps from the Google app store and, really, being a tech geek and tinkerer I like Android for its less rigid approach to the operating system. So for me, I just felt I couldn’t leave all that for Apple’s iOS, even though I do believe the iPhone is a great phone.
The Motorola Photon 4G has a dual-core processor and a full gigabyte of ram which both allow the phone to run much smoother than previous phones with a single core and 512MB (half) ram. Videos recorded on my old Evo tended to be choppy, especially in playback. On the Photon 720p videos I’ve recorded have been very smooth and likewise played very smoothly.
The Photon has a high resolution display with inky blacks and vibrant colors. It has what’s called a pentile display that some don’t like but that would not include me – I love the display on this phone. There’s an 8 megapixel camera on back and a front facing camera for video chatting.
Unlike most other phones not named iPhone the Photon comes with 16GB of memory built-in and also has a micro-SD slot to add up to 32GB more memory to the phone. The phone is a world phone meaning it has GSM radios used in most of the world. Sprint does not lock the sim outside the U.S. on the Photon so if you take the phone to Europe, for example, you can buy a foreign sim card and use a local number rather than paying roaming fees, or as is the case with most Sprint and Verizon phones, have no service at all.
I should really emphasize how well engineered Motorola phones are as well. The radios in this phone are outstanding. I get more signal bars with this phone than I did with my Evo and many times I get reception where others are getting no signal and it has been consistently good at picking up a strong signal and giving me solid reception.
The phone also has some nice security features, including the option to encrypt the phone and any memory card installed so in the case of a lost phone your data remains unreadable. Motorola also has the unique WebTop functionality allowing you to plug the Photon into a dock and use your phone with a monitor or your HDTV and soon a laptop dock powered by the Photon (similar to the Atrix available on AT&T). I could easily see plugging the Photon into a client’s high-def TV and flipping through photos of homes or even doing a presentation from the phone. I plugged mine into a TV at my house and it just worked – no complicated setup required.
For a business user such as a real estate agent, the Photon is an excellent choice giving you a speedy feature-packed phone that will work anywhere in the world and keep you connected.
Posted by: 
George Christodoulou
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