[Motorola Triumph] bombaw8:
GROUND RULES:

Who should keep reading:

Current owners of Triumph or perspective buys who are trying to cut through all the trolls, flame wars, useless and/or misleading information from the (many) other threads, to find out what or if anything was wrong with their phone, how to identify these problems and most importantly, how to make intelligent decisions on whether to return or exchange before the 30 days run out.

Who should stop now and go read a book instead:

People who have (or think they have) perfect phones and feels it’s necessary to defend the Triumph’s honor at any mentioning of a problem. People who believes everybody else is clueless therefore it’s necessary to advertise basic settings changes as cure-alls (i.e. enable “use wireless networks,” it will fix your GPS problems). please give others more credit than that. And last but not least, people who hate the T and thinks it’s just the worst phone ever made… you have no reason to stay here.

Still with me? Good…

I have personally owned two T’s. the first one had several problems that I ended up returning, the second one was much better but not problem free. I also have access to two other T’s owned by friends. Everything I post here are based on facts that I have personally observed, not second-hand info or hear-say.

** GPS problem:

First of all, Google Map does NOT depend on GPS. Being able to see your location on the map means NOTHING when it comes to GPS location. In order to test if you have a GPS problem you have to either use an app like GPS Test or start Google Navigation. All tests should be done outdoors under open sky and while you have a valid data connection (for A-GPS data download). The GPS should lock-in within 2 minutes or less (Google Navigation should start showing your real time location as a blue arrow and start giving you turn by turn instructions).

A few minutes after a gps lock, you should have a location accurate to within 15ft or less. If google nav consistently shows a visible blue circle (of any size) around your current location, then it is unable to give you an accurate location lock, it is a problem.

If you have any problem at all with GPS lock or location accuracy, your phone has a broken GPS. Take it back for an exchange! Do not listen to people saying that you could fix it by running some magical software or do a special gps dance. You are wasting your time. If it wasn’t broken in the first place then you would have no need for those “fixes.” My first phone had an almost unusable GPS, the replacement and both of my friend’s phones have no problem whatsoever. Using GPS Test app, I was able to clearly see how the satellite signal levels were 30-50% lower on the previous T when compared to my OV, while the replacement had levels that are comparable to the OV.

** Data disconnect and/or drop to 1x when GPS is turned on.

I did not notice this behavior on any of the 4 Triumph I tested on. GPS and wireless signal can not interfere with each other, so if this happens consistently and is making data connection unstable or GPS lock problematic then there’s most likely a hardware problem. the phone should be exchanged.

** Screen flicker, white out, color cast:

If your screen ever turns white completely, or has a VERY heavy color cast, the answer is obvious, get it exchanged. meanwhile, all Triumph’s screen have overall “cooler” color when compared to my V. there were slight variations between each phone but as long as it was not extreme (i.e. making white look blue and red look purple) it should not be considered a problem. Just make sure you have removed the top layer screen protector before making a judgement.

slight screen flicker while turning on/off the phone repeatedly might not be worth an exchange for that reason alone. My first phone and one of my friend’s phone had the flickers, while my replacement and the other friend’s phone did not. The slight flicker did not both me or my friends at all.

**screen protectors:

Yes, there are two screen protectors. No, there’s absolutely no reason to keep the top layer. The second layer is very well applied and I doubt it’s meant to be taken off. You will never be able to apply another protector as well as that. If you have screen sensitivity issues, I’d suggest exchanging the phone rather than taking off that second layer of protector. None of the 4 phones I tried had any sensitivity issue with the protector attached. If you had to take it off then your phone has a problem.

** visible touch screen sensor elements:

If you can see “dots” on the screen under normal use, you are seeing the sensor elements embedded in between glass players. You should NOT be able to see them in any way during normal use. Exchange the phone if you do. it was a known LCD panels manufacturing problem on some earlier phones (mostly HTC). None of the Triumph I have seen had that problem.

** Signal level:

All four of the Triumphs had lower signal dbm numbers when compared to my OV. However, with my borderline coverage (-105dbm at home and -110dbm in the office), I had not experienced any drop calls on the T. Data connections were marginal but no worse than the OV. Do not make any decision based on dBm numbers alone. dbm is a relative value and do not mean what a lot of people seemed to think it means. In any case, exchanging the phone is not going to help in any way.

** WIFI disconnect:

I have not run into this with Triumph however, I had similar issue running AOSP rom on my OV while having no problem with other roms. This is likely something caused by the combination of router and phone software. My suggestion would be to try as many different routers as you can also try router settings such as G vs N, WEP vs WPA, hidden vs broadcast… if you have same problem everywhere then by all means try an exchange, I doubt it would help however.

** Touch button in sensitivity:

This happens randomly on all the T I have tested. It is likely a software problem that will not be fixed by exchanging the phone.

** Camera clicking while focusing:

All 4 phones had slight clicking noise while focusing but none had trouble actually gaining a focus. Exchange if you can’t get it to focus at all. the clicking seems to be normal however.

** Camera color cast:

None of the phones I have tried had problem with “green/blue color cast in the middle of the screen” as some have reported. If you have already removed the green screen protector on the camera itself then you probably have a real problem and should exchange the phone. just check your expectations – cell phone cameras have cheap plastic little fish eye lenses. Don’t expect results like your Canon or Nikon.

** phone stops charging while on:

I noticed two things: 1. some micro-usb chargers such as the one that came with OV would at times refuse to charge while the phone was turned on. Unplugging a couple of times may fix it. I haven’t had problem with stock T charger or the charger that came with my BlackBerry. 2. The charger will shut off once the phone temperature reaches 42c. this is most noticeable while in a hot car with phone on the dashboard. This is normal and is the result of an (over)sensitive overcharge protection.

** light leakage around bottom edges:

All the phones I have tired had various degrees of light leakage. It is consistent with problems reported on other versions of the same phone released earlier. the leakage was only visible in relative darkness so personally I did not think it was worth worrying about.

** Mismatched MEID:

To check your phone’s MEID, go to settings-> about phone -> status. The MEID should be an 18 digit number matching the stickers on the box, outside of the battery door and behind the battery on the back of the phone. Both of my phones had mismatched MEID. The phone itself was showing a 17 digit number while the stickers all have 18 digit numbers. an 0 in the middle is missing on the phones. One person (VM rep?) in an earlier thread had said VM was aware that 3,000 phones had this MEID mismatch so it seemed to be a known problem.

Some people have reported trouble using Google Voice on phones with mis-matched MEID. I have not been able to verify that myself.

** software version 38 vs 39:

Both of my Triumphs had version 38 software. the previous one had horrible GPS and some screen flickering while the replacement did not. There were also some obvious software differences between the two phones, despite the same software version. The replacement phone camera default to 5mp, while the previous one default to VGA resolution. The previous phone gallery had four random pictures referencing some Chinese websites (seemed to be leftover web cache). These pictures were in the ROM and did not go away after hard reset. The replacement phone had an empty gallery. One of my friend’s Triumph came with v.39 software which also had some screen flickers.

By itself, the software version did not indicate a good or bad phone. test everything!

The main thing to keep in mind is that there are many reported problems, not all of them were all that crucial. Given the obvious inconsistencies in build quality, it is a real possibility that the exchange would turns out to be much worse than the original phone. you really have to look long and hard at each problem and make an educated decision for yourself. Meanwhile, there’s absolutely no reason to put up with major things like a broken LCD or gps or insensitive touch screen. Take it back to the store!

This list was put together over several days, mostly as notes to myself. So please excuse me if it rambles a bit. Let me know if there’s something else you would like me to check.

Thanks and good luck.