Motorola Triumph Prepaid Android Phone (Virgin Mobile)
Motorola Triumph Prepaid Android Phone (Virgin Mobile)
- 3G-enabled, Android-powered smartphone with 4.1-inch multi-touch display and access to wide range of Google mobile services
- No monthly contracts with Virgin Mobile’s Beyond Talk unlimited data, text and voice plan (or by-the-minute PayLo plans)
- 1 GHz processor; 5-MP camera/camcorder; Wi-Fi networking; Bluetooth stereo music; access to personal and corporate e-mail; GPS navigation and location services
- Up to 4 hours of talk time, up to 72 hours (3 days) of standby time
- What’s in the Box: handset, rechargeable battery, charger, 2 GB microSD card; quick start guide
Motorola TRIUMPH allows users to rev up their smartphone experience with a superfast 1GHz processor, 4.1-inch touchscreen, 5MP camera and, front-facing VGA camera for video chat, 720p HD camcorder with HDMI output, to allow for playback on HDTVs (requires HDMI cable sold separately). A sleek and stylish smartphone packed with all the high-end performance features you expect, the 3G-enabled, Android-powered Motorola TRIUMPH for the prepaid Virgin Mobile network offers excellent on-the-go multimed
List Price: $ 299.99
Price: $ 222.00
Great value on Virgin Mobile and an excellent phone.,
If this phone came out a year ago, it would be among the top performing phones from any carrier on the market. Its very fast Snapdragon processor, vivid 4.1″ touch screen, and rock-solid Android 2.2 performance were cutting edge 12 months ago. I don’t say that in a disparaging way, but rather want to show where this phone fits into the spectrum of available devices. If you want the newest, best, phone, you’ll still have to go to the contract carriers.
That said, this phone does everything I need very well, and at $300 upfront and $25 a month for service, can’t be beat. It works even better than the Samsung Intercept that I replaced with it, and is reasonably priced. $25 a month, compared to what plans cost on the contract carriers, and you’ll make up the $300 upfront cost in about 6 months. Brand new customers, may have to pay the $35 a month that they are changing their bottom plan to, but that is still a great deal ($35 a month for 300 minutes, unlimited web/text; $45 a month for 1200 minutes unlimited web/text; or $55 a month for unlimited everything).
This is my second phone on Virgin Mobile, and it made me realize that a lot of the problems that I was attributing to the network were actually the fault of my Samsung Intercept. This phone is more stable in every way. Wifi, GPS, 3G, Voice, the touch screen, applications, everything about this phone works better and is more stable than they did on the Samsung.
Beyond this comparison to my previous Virgin Mobile phone, here are a few comments about the phone:
+ very thin and lightweight. I miss the physical keyboard of my Intercept, but only slightly. The thinness makes up for it.
+ durable design. There aren’t many cases available yet for this phone, but even without a case it seems durable. I already dropped it once, on concrete, and other than having to replace the back cover, there were no issues. The battery didn’t even come out.
+ vibrant screen. The screen looks great on this phone. I almost say that it looks as good as the display on my wife’s iPod Touch. The only concern with the screen is that it is 4.1 inches instead of 4.3, which has kind of become the new standard for Android phones, but I don’t really think that .2 of an inch makes much difference.
+ very good touch screen. The touch screen on the Intercept had issues, compared to this phone. We are finally able to play games on it, and type quickly on the touch screen. Again, I think it is safe to compare it to the iPod Touch’s performance. Very good.
+ fast processor. Cutting edge Android phones are now starting to have dual-core chips. The Snapdragon chip in this phone is single core, but that hasn’t stopped it from doing everything that I’ve asked it to instantaneously. Very snappy.
+ Cameras. The main camera on this phone is awesome. Probably not as good as in an iPhone 4 or a real camera, but every bit as good as the stellar one in the iPod Touch. The pictures and video it takes are amazing. I don’t think I’ll ever be taking my real camera or my video recorder with me again. Even the flash works well and doubles nicely as a flashlight.
+ battery life. The battery life on this phone is very good. With any Android phone you can expect to have to recharge it daily, but this one at least uses its battery consistently and gradually. That might not seem like a lot to ask for, but even with Android 2.2 many phones have battery management issues. This one does not.
+ GPS. The GPS gets its signal pretty quickly and does a good job. Not perfect in that sometimes you have a wait a few seconds, but none of them are.
+ Vanilla Android. I really like the fact that Virgin Mobile doesn’t “Skin” their phones or put a bunch of bloatware on them. This phone is pretty much stock Android 2.2 with a couple extra applications pre-installed. Much better than the experience with other carriers that fill the phone up with their own software and interface.
A few comments on Virgin Mobile:
+ Network. Network performance always depends on your location. In some cities Verizon is great and AT&T is terrible. In others they both work great. Virgin Mobile’s phones operate on their parent company, Sprint’s network. Sprint and T-Mobile’s networks as a whole, are not as good as Verizon’s, but that does not mean they are terrible. In my experience, this phone works very well in metropolitan areas, and pretty well in rural areas. If your cell phone is your life-line and you spend time in rural areas, you may want to check the coverage for your area on Sprint’s website. Otherwise, I really having had any problems with the network.
+ International. Sprint and therefore Virgin Mobile only have network coverage in the US. That means you can’t roam internationally, which is both good and bad. International roaming…
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|Triumph Means a Win for Users,
The Motorola Triumph is a thing of beauty and comes closest to the handheld device I’ve been dreaming of. Ever since the days of the Palm T/X I’ve longed for a versatile PDA that could also make phone calls in a pinch. Using Wi-Fi to communicate makes so much more sense to me. Since then, I’ve watched communication devices increasingly become locked down money makers. (I get that you love your idroid, or whatever, but for me, I just don’t see the value of paying a hundred bucks a month for what I always had for practically free.)
So for me, the biggest advantage of the Triumph is the very reasonable cost of ownership thanks to Virgin Mobile. VM has cut their service to the bone, but like other savvy tech providers, has set up a mechanized operation that works on its own. If you need help from Virgin, as a general rule for tech, stay away from the phone line and go to the forums, or use email. Virgin Mobile Facebook is all you need to get over the hump of confusion caused by new adoption.
I have had no problems with the Triumph once I got dialed in. The signal matches my LG Optimus V and both data and calls are clear even indoors in my suburb digs. The Triumph has a larger screen, easier to use data entry, longer battery life, and a front facing camera for those “free” video chat calls. All of that makes it worth the initial cost to me. Once the setup (rather challenging at times) is over, it all works like a champ.
Thanks to Motorola, Google, and Virgin, my dream of a handheld device that doesn’t make me feel like I’m being gouged by the big providers has been comfortably sublimated. Every time I pick up the Triumph, I feel like I’m sending another kind of message: a wake-up call to the big providers. Triumph indeed.
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|A few key facts – UPDATED with Problems,
[UPDATE: My initial review was posted after using the phone for 2 or 3 days. I've now used it for one or two more weeks, and numerous problems have been revealed, leading to me downgrading my review from 5 stars to 2. See my new comments further down.
UPDATE 2: I've had the phone for nearly a month now and it is getting returned. The final update is at the bottom.]
I won’t do a comprehensive review of this phone because they’re already out there. In general, I will just say that this phone is far faster and smoother than the LG Optimus V I was using. Download speeds are also greatly increased – apparently this has as much or more to do with the phone itself as it does with the network. It’s easiest to see the difference in download speeds over your Wifi at home, where the speed should be the same as it was with a different phone yet in fact it’s now much, much faster.
A few key facts then, both pros and cons:
Swype: The phone does not ship with the Swype keyboard pre-installed. Nevertheless, it is possible to get Swype for the phone easily, and without rooting the phone. Just go to Swype’s official website and click on the “join” link to get access to Swype “beta” (I’m not sure what’s beta about it, it’s unbelievable and vastly improved over the version of Swype I was using on the Optimus V). Swype will then send you an e-mail with a link in it. Open that e-mail *on your phone*, click on the link, and the rest just happens.
Screen Protection: I’m 99% sure this phone ships with a screen protector already on it. I know this because 1) I saw a video somewhere (I think Howard Forums) of a guy who claimed that his came with a screen protector on it, and who then removed that protector on the video (he didn’t like screen protectors), and 2) now that I have the phone myself, I can see that at the *very* edge of the screen, there is a line that can be seen that seems to divide between a layer underneath and something that’s on top of it but doesn’t *quite* perfectly cover every millimeter of the surface – though that’s probably on purpose, so that you can remove it if you want to or it becomes necessary. With the factory screen protector on, the screen nevertheless looks vibrant and clear, and feels quite smooth. I’d think it was just glass if I didn’t know better. It’s pretty glossy and picks up a fair amount of glare, and is prone to lots of smudges and fingerprints. FYI, the guy on Howard Forums claimed that after removing the screen protector the screen was somewhat more vibrant but also had more glare. However, he was most impressed by how much more responsive the screen felt now that there was no separation between his finger and the actual glass. If you don’t want a screen protector, or want to swap out the factory one for a different one (perhaps at a later time if the one from the factory gets scratched up), you can remove the factory one. The video guy pulled up the edge with a thumbtack.
Internal Memory: Initial reports indicated that this phone had only 512MB of internal memory, and as of now the Virgin Mobile site also indicates that. That appears to be incorrect. According to the App2SD app, I have 1.05GB of internal memory. By contrast, the Optimus V had only 140MB of internal memory, and for me that ran out VERY quickly. With Android Version 2.2 and above, many apps can now be “moved” from the phone’s internal memory to an SD card. Nevertheless, how much usable *internal* memory you have is critical, because 1) many apps are not movable to the SD card, regardless of what version of Android you’re running, 2) many apps only have full functionality if you’re keeping them on the phone’s internal memory (this most commonly comes up for apps that have widget functionality – the widgets cannot be used if the app is on the SD card), and 3) EVEN when you move an app to the SD card, all apps *still* leave portions of themselves on the internal memory. You can see how much internal memory an app is using by going to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications and looking up the particular app (if you want to see how much memory an app is taking up on an SD card, use App2SD). On the Optimus V, I had a number of apps that, even though officially “on the SD card”, still left 2, 4, even 10 MBs on internal memory. Thus, having 7 1/2 times the internal memory of the Optimus V is huge.
Conclusion: I give the phone 5 stars because it not only does everything I expected of it but is also snappier and has more internal memory than reported. The addition of a factory-installed screen protector (without air bubbles!) is also, to me, a plus. The only negatives are that the screen is prone to smudges, and that the phone ships without Swype – but, as I explained, that’s easily rectified.
UPDATE: After using the phone for another one or two weeks, numerous problems have cropped up…
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