T-Mobile G2 vs. Droid 2 Global?

A

Ashling!!!

New member
I've narrowed my phone choices down to these two but I can't decide which would be the better phone to buy. Verizon and T-Mobile have pretty much the same level of coverage in my area [EDIT: Never mind, they don't; check Post #3] and I'm free to pick a plan with either one so that's not a factor. From the research I've done on the net it looks like the Droid 2 Global is more popular in numbers like sales and search results but judging by user reviews the G2 seems to have a bit of an edge over it, as the G2's reviews seem a bit more positive on average. Can anyone here weigh in on this?
 
Tough, really tough choice.

HSPA+ on G2 faster than EV-DO on the Droid 2 Global.

Droid 2 Global has a 400MHz edge over the G2's chip. That's big. The Droid 2 uses an OMAP and the G2 a Snapdragon, but both are 45nm 2nd generation processors.

OMAP6 does have a faster GPU than the Qualcomm 7230 Snapdragon here.

G2 has the raw Android Froyo, likely to get updates sooner than Froyo with Motoblur of the Droid 2 Global.

Both have equal roaming capability.

Both feature neat metallic construction. Solid build on both that means business. I prefer the pure slide mechanism of the Droid 2 here over the Z hinge of the G2.

The Droid 2 Global uses a membrane keyboard. The G2 uses real buttons on the keyboard. I would prefer the G2's keyboard here.

The Droid 2 Global has a slightly more powerful battery and has more battery management options than the G2. On the other hand, EV-DO does seem to suck more juice than HSPA.
 
Got some more info...I was actually wrong about T-Mobile and Verizon having the same amount of coverage in my area; here's the map of my area that shows Voice and Data coverage from both providers:
(click for full size)



Verizon definitely has more coverage according to those maps, especially for data. I'm fairly rural so the coverage isn't going to be great no matter what, but I've been with T-Mobile for the past 5 years (contract just expired) and haven't had *too* much trouble with signal strength or data speeds. I also don't know if those maps are fully accurate or not...I'd hate to go with Verizon and then end up getting worse coverage than I had before because their map turned out to be misleading.

The other difference is that the red area on the Verizon map for Data Coverage is all 3G whereas the purple area on the T-Mobile map is, according to their site, "Mobile Web: Mobile Web access on EDGE/GPRS." I'm not sure what that even means, but the only 3G available with T-Mobile is down in at the bottom of that map (dark purple), far away from where I live.

The speed isn't going to be optimal either way and there's no 4G coverage with either one anywhere in my state so I'm not sure how much difference it would make with either phone when comparing their speeds in this area...

Overall I'm leaning towards the G2 as far as the phone itself goes but it would appear that going with Verizon and getting the Droid 2 Global would be better in terms of coverage and speed. Still a tough call though and I can't say my mind is made up yet, unfortunately :/

Any other input from anybody who wants to weigh in would still be much appreciated!
 
I wound up buying the G2 and I have to say I love the phone itself but I'm a noob to smart phones and haven't even scratched the surface of them.

The one negative I would say would be the horrendous battery life. I don't know if it's just how most smart phones are(seems to somewhat be the case), or that the battery isn't broken in(don't even know if this is a legitimate or even possible excuse), or just that this specific phone has bad battery life, but with heavy use, you're not making it more then 10 hours max without a charge before it basically dies.

I don't have much experience with the Droid 2. I played with it briefly and it seemed quite nice as well though.

As for T Mobile, I will explain it as follows in my short experience(less then a week). I got the phone home and even in the store and had full HSPA+ speeds and I must say this phone just flew, like WiFi type speed. Then I went to a friend's house about 10 miles away and was getting only one bar and it was lagging close to dial up speed, even timing out here and there. T Mobile's coverage can be outstanding, but it seems spotty. With the negatives I've listed, combined with some BS going on with the retailer I bought it from, I'm really considering returning it and going with AT&T and an Iphone, or Sprint with the Evo, maybe Verizon with the Droid 2 Global.

That said, again, the phone itself is really just awesome minus the battery life, again, see above though.

On a last note, I really thought a slide out keyboard was a must for me. I always liked that style of phone better, but even though I still find myself using it just because I honestly do enjoy a physical keyboard, within a day of having the phone I was a wiz on Swype and now find myself using the touch screen probably 75% of the time if not more opposed to the slide out and the G2 really does have a pretty pleasing physical board.

Hope this helps a little.
 
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