Motorola TRIUMPH allows users tο rev up thеіr smartphone experience wіth a superfast 1GHz processor, 4.1-inch touchscreen, 5MP camera аnԁ, front-facing VGA camera fοr video chat, 720p HD camcorder wіth HDMI output, tο allow fοr playback οn HDTVs (requires HDMI cable sold separately).
- 1GHZ Processor
- Multi-Tasking
- HD Video Capture, HDMI Out
- Android Powered Smartphone
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 12 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…
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|A real life review after 2 moths of use.,
I read many reviews on the internet of people claiming that this phone is the best ever. Frequently this review are written after only a few hours of owning the phone and do not represent the real life use.
Briefly, I had a many high level cellphones (HTC, Samsung, Droid and others), lately an iPhone 3GS and an iPhone 4. I don’t call much but I like to have internet and the email always with me. I also use the online calendars (Google Calendar) a lot.
In general I think the Triumph is a good phone. The design is nice (looks like a Droid) and the logo is on the back, so when somebody is looking at your cellphone (maybe on a desk) does not think “he is on Virgin… this guy must be cheap”, at least not right away.
The phone attracts a lot of attention and when I tell them I am on a prepaid (and that the prepaid is $25 a month) people does not believe it.
The PROCESSOR is snappy. It works fine. I’ve played Angry Bird (and many other games) with no issue at all, scrolling and animations are smooth.
The DISPLAY is very nice (but not superb, due to not excellent saturation of colors and a sort of blue tint), indoor. Outdoor, at least now in the summer, is hardly readable. The auto brightness takes a while (I would say a good minute) to adjust the brightness and most of the time I have to do that manually using a shortcut on the desktop.
Good speakers (loud) good mic. I think it has a noise reduction feature but is just a guess. It does not come with headphones, strangely.
Good CAMERA that takes nice pictures, however it has a small lag. You hit the button but the image is recorded a second later. When timing is crucial you will find this very annoying. iPhone did not have this problem and photos were great.
Even if I’ve read many critiques about the LED flash, I find it working fine.
BATTERY life is 16 full hours. I unplug it at 7AM and I always get to 11PM. I’ve recently installed Juice Defender Beta (free on the market) and it helps to extend it to 24 hours. Anyway you have to charge it everyday. iPhone lasted a bit longer but same thing, I had to charge it everyday. Battery cover tends to get loose easily. When it does the battery hangs in there, it does not fall off, but it is annoying to have to put it back. I don’t know why, maybe I played with it too much and I loosened it up. I’m tempted to put a little piece of tape but I’m still not at that point.
The Android operative system is nice. It integrates very well with Gmail and all the other google services (Calendars, You Tube, Maps), as expected. However I don’t find it as polished as iOS is. Sometime is not intuitive at all. You will soon realize that the menu button (the one on the bottom left with four little squares) is your best friend. Most of the options are hidden behind that shortcut.
About Virgin Service. I am lucky, I live in an area where I always have good coverage and the 3G is pretty fast, even if I don’t use it that much. The plan is cheap and allows me to save $55 a month (compared to a $49 iPhone contract, that with SMS, internet and taxes ended up being $80). Beside the saving what persuaded me to switch to a prepaid is the no-commitment. I could not stand those 2-year contracts any longer. I think I will never go back to a contract, as the prepaid are getting strong. Not only Virgin but also other, for example if you want a 4G phone look into Tmobile.
In conclusion it is a good phone, not an iPhone or the high level HTC, but definitely a nice phone. I save $55 a month, that’s a lot. Make sure Virgin has good coverage in your area. I bought a cheap virgin phone and I used it for a couple of weeks, taking it with me everywhere everywhere and trying to make some test phone calls. When I was sure that the coverage was ok, I ported my number.
If you are activating a new Virgin phone, consider using my referral code that gives you and me 60 extra minutes.
The code is pDL6Fou0
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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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