Motorola Droid 3 Review - Third Time's a Charm
by Brian Klug on July 30, 2011 12:01 AM ESTCellular Connectivity
So the elephant in the room is cellular connectivity on the Droid 3. To many people’s chagrin, the Droid 3 lacks 4G LTE connectivity, instead including dual-mode CDMA2000 1x/EVDO Rev.A and GSM/WCDMA compatibility with a Qualcomm MDM6600. We’ve seen Motorola using the MDM6600 in a host of smartphones lately, and the baseband offers a native dual-mode (world phone) solution that’s essentially fully realized in the Droid 3. To that extent, the Droid 3 does build and improve upon the connectivity of the Droid 2, but still doesn’t offer 4G LTE connectivity which would require an additional baseband and possibly larger package.
Motorola Droid 3 - Network Support | |||||
CDMA2000 1xRTT/EVDO Rev.A | 800 / 1900 MHz | ||||
GSM/EDGE | 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | ||||
WCDMA/UMTS | 850 / 1900 / 2100 | ||||
HSPA Speed | HSDPA 10.2/14.4 (UE Cat. 9/10), HSUPA 5.76 | ||||
Baseband | Qualcomm MDM6600 |
We’ve already tested Verizon Wireless’s EVDO Rev.A considerably, but I ran 243 more tests on the Droid 3 and made a histogram again to show how things fare. Again we test using the speedtest.net application in real world environments at all signal levels and times of day to get a good picture for what real-world speeds look like. MDM6600 remains a competent CDMA2000 baseband.
The obvious next part of the story is that WCDMA HSPA+ 14.4 Mbps connectivity. Unfortunately, Verizon has locked the retail Droid 3 out of seeing USA-based GSM/WCDMA networks with an MCC (Mobile Country Code) lock, so you’re out of luck if you want to use a retail Droid 3 on AT&T 3G (which it has the band support for) or T-Mobile 2G. Calling up Verizon and getting an unlock code doesn’t disable the MCC lock, but you can use the Droid 3 abroad that way. There’s another similar Droid 3 for sale outside normal retail channels that purports to have the MCC lock removed, but as we didn’t have one, I was unable to test any of the GSM/WCDMA connectivity on the Droid 3. It is there however, as evidenced by toggles in the wireless connectivity pages inside settings.
Next up is attenuation, which again we test for by holding the phone in a variety of positions and watching received signal strength move around. The Droid 3 (like all of its earlier CDMA2000 brethren) has Rx diversity, which you can additionally verify from inside the programming menu. I saw signal drop by 16 dB with the phone cupped at the top and bottom completely, which is about where we have seen other phones sit.
Signal Attenuation Comparison in dB - Lower is Better | ||||||||
Cupping Tightly | Holding Naturally | Holding in Case | On an Open Palm | |||||
Droid 3 | 16.0 | 11.3 | - | 5.0 | ||||
HTC Sensation | 15.0 | 10.0 | 8.0 | 0.0 | ||||
Samsung Droid Charge | 10.0 | 10.0 | 5.0 | 0.0 | ||||
HTC Thunderbolt - LTE | 5.3 | 2.5 | - | 4.4 | ||||
HTC THunderbolt - EVDO | 6.5 | 0.8 | - | 7.2 | ||||
Verizon iPhone 4 | 16.5 | 15.5 | 9.0 | 7.9 | ||||
LG Optimus 2X | 13.7 | 9.3 | - | 5.9 | ||||
Nexus S | 13.3 | 6.1 | - | 4.3 | ||||
Droid 2 | 11.5 | 5.1 | - | 4.5 | ||||
BlackBerry Torch | 15.9 | 7.1 | - | 3.7 | ||||
Dell Streak | 14.0 | 8.7 | - | 4.0 | ||||
Droid X | 15.0 | 5.1 | - | 4.5 | ||||
AT&T iPhone 4 | 24.6 | 19.8 | 7.2 | 9.2 | ||||
iPhone 3GS | 14.3 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 0.2 | ||||
HTC Nexus One | 17.7 | 10.7 | 7.7 | 6.7 |
One more thing to note is that the Droid 3 actually reports its signal strength bar visualization based on SNR instead of just receive power. I’ve read a few reports where people were confused by the lack of bars with the Droid 3 next to another Verizon Wireless device, and this is the reason. Remember that great signal strength and great SNR (which actually matters) are not necessarily mutually inclusive.
WLAN and Bluetooth
Next up is WiFi and Bluetooth, both of which are handled by the Droid 3’s onboard TI Wilink7 series TI1281 combo BT, FM, WLAN, GPS single chip solution. Note that the official Verizon specifications list TI1285 (which doesn’t exist yet on the TI website) but the actual Droid 3 ROM contains the necessary WLAN firmware for TI1281 client and AP mode in no uncertain terms. Either way, we at least know it's a Wilink 7 series stack. TI1281 supports 802.11a/b/g/n single spatial stream, however the Droid 3 doesn’t incorporate the appropriate 5 GHz front end for 802.11a/n, rather just 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n is supported. Likewise included is Bluetooth 3.0 and Low Energy (4.0) support, and GPS which the Droid 3 uses.
WLAN range on the Droid 3 is very good, with it being possible to use the Droid 3 in a few environments that the Droid 2 and X aren’t entirely stable in. I took a photo of the Droid 3 alongside the X I have borrowed from a friend with the Droid 3 showing -84 dBm of signal compared to the X’s -92 dBm.
I’m not entirely convinced that either are showing the proper link rate (65 Mbps seems odd considering the low signal), however I’ve been able to maintain connectivity throughout my test location. I’ve seen bursts of above 30 Mbps on the Droid 3 when doing our local PDF transfer test, however the average settled down to around 27 Mbps as shown in the graph below.
I guess that brings me to GPS on the Droid 3, which as I mentioned before is using the stack on the TI1281 instead of the stack on MDM6600. It acquires a 3D fix insanely fast, almost instantaneously. I timed under a second outside with no WiFi assist, down to 9.1 feet of accuracy almost immediately. I’m very impressed with GPS performance on the Droid 3. The only caveat is that it seems the TI1281 isn’t passing on NMEA GPS data which includes per-satellite SNR and position to the Android API. Instead, you just get a location and degree of precision measure, which makes it hard to know whether there’s some trickery going on or the GPS is really just that good.
The other interesting curiosity is that the Droid 3 is one of the first I’ve seen to list sGPS as a supported feature. The s in sGPS of course stands for simultaneous, which means that during E911 calls the GPS and voice data aren’t just slotted in a time multiplexed scheme but truly simultaneous.
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burkex90 - Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - link
Buyer beware!!!!There are only two chargers that will work properly with the Droid 3. They are as follows,
The P617 and the P510
The P617 should come in the box with the car dock and cable. Every end of the cable has a tag
with a picture of what it should be plugged into. On the large USB end of the cable it shows a picture of the P617 car charger, period end of story use this charger only!
When I ordered my car dock through Verizon $60 and change after taxes, the charger was missing. I was told to contact Motorola, they sent me a P513 charger as pictured in the article above. This charger is capable of charging the battery only, using navigation will cause the phone and battery to overheat considerably.
The P510 will charge the battery and run the phone independently of each other, leaving you with a fully charged battery after using navigation or other apps. The same goes for the P617 which should be included with the package as it is indicated on the cord.
The P510 information about its ability to run the phone independently while charging is available on the Motorola store website, click on the device then click more info. But you shouldn't have to do any of this if you received the P617 charger.
The P513 car charger fried my phone.
Please pay attention to what charger you intend on getting, the 513 ultimately cost me a $122 repair bill from Motorola.
Good luck,
Michael Burke
rinyin - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link
Droid3 still uses the QC MDM6600 GPS, and not the TI. It's the first to support GLONASS as well as GPS satellites, which is one explanation for performance gain.MISSY7X - Sunday, December 4, 2011 - link
JUST WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU FOR SUCH AN AWESOME OVERVIEW OF THE DRIOD 3 GLOBAL PHONE. I AM BEING SENT THIS MODEL BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO SEND ME 5 DROD GLOBAL 2'S ALREADY WITHIN ONE YEAR! NEVER DUE TO WATER DAMAGE OR DROPPING...INSTEAD ITS BEEN AN AWFUL OHONE FROM THE START. SO MANY PROBLEMS WITH EACH ONE VERIZONA DN ASURION HAD TO SEND ME. THEY ARE SENDING ME THE GLOBAL 3 MONDAY AND I WATCHED YOUR VIDEO AND READ YOUR SPECS AND THE IMPROVEMNTS. I APPRECIATED YOUR HONESTY AT THE END AS WELL ABOUT THE ONE THING YOU REALLY DIDNT LIKE AS WELL AS THE GALLERY CLUTTER :). ANUWAY, THANKS FOR EING SO THOROUGH AND HONEST!!! ~ MISSY ~MISSY7X - Sunday, December 4, 2011 - link
SO SORRY FOR THE MISSPELLING OF MY COMMENT...I SHOULD HAVE PROOFED FIRST...LOL! THX AGAIN! ~MISSY ~