I've got a Motorola Droid now; one of the original Droids, from just a couple of months after their release. Two years have gone by, and I'm eligible for a price-reduced replacement and (arguably) in need of contract renewal. It's a good time to consider a new phone (as they've led me to believe), and one of the Motorola (now Google, right?) successors to the Droid is the Droid Bionic.
There have been a few reviews put out about the Bionic, all of which are encouraging. The two slights that the reviewers have are battery life (which seems to be at least a constant gripe on all phones..."could be better") and size. The Bionic is about a half-inch thick (battery to screen), or a few millimeters thicker than my current Droid, and is a little wider and longer (as you look at the screen), but that's necessary as the screen is larger than my current Droid.
I'd like a little more battery time. This is actually a leading factor in considering a replacement phone as my two-year old battery lasts about four or five hours in my pocket, or maybe as long as two if I'm using it (which is usually e-mail, or Google Reader, or some other semi-benign use. The Bionic reviews suggest four or five hours of video streaming, so my poking at the Internet will probably last longer than my interest in poking at the Internet.
I'd also like a little more screen size. I'm waiting for the day when someone who builds these things makes the mental leap and makes tablets that can also do all of the cell-phone bits. I mean, you're not going to hold that to your head, but if you're a speakerphone or Bluetooth user already (I am), what difference does it make if your phone is 4-inches or 10-inches when it's sitting on the desk or hanging in your bag. Carrying a phone-sized device is more convenient than a tablet-size, even if you go for a 7-inch tablet. I carry a 17-inch laptop most of the places I'd be using my phone anyway, so putting a 10-inch thing on the edge of the table, or in a big pocket or case with my jacket is not a big deal.
The half-inch thick doesn't bother me, as it is really just a couple millimeters thicker. The weight is about the same as my current Droid anyway. I've got big hands, and you know what that means...it's easy to hold big phones.
The size and weight are to support the bigger screen and other internals of the phone. One of the things sacrificed, and probably the only thing I'm considering a negative of the Bionic at this point, is that my current Droid has a physical keyboard while the Bionic doesn't. I like the physical keyboard for a few reasons.
First, popping it out allows full use of the screen for whatever content, instead of sacrificing some (or most) for the on-screen keyboard, which is handy for any kind of content creation (which I actually do try to do on my portable device).
Second, the physical keyboard offers at least some tactile comfort. I do type with my thumbs on the keyboard, and I've gotten pretty quick and accurate. Not as quick and accurate with the other fingers on a larger keyboard, but quicker and more accurate than I have been on the software keyboards. A compromise to this, though, is that the Bionic supports Bluetooth keyboards, and they even have a few different "webtop" adapters that would allow use of a wired keyboard and larger monitor, should I find that necessary or useful.
Finally, the physical keyboard has a thumb pad that moves the cursor about in the document. This is far more accurate than my ability to press on the right spot on the screen to reposition the cursor when I recognize a spot that needs correcting. Sadly, as quick and accurate as I am, I still miss or make other errors, and unlike many DYAC people, I try to read and correct before sending.
In addition to the bigger battery and screen, the Bionic has a couple of other plusses.
First, the storage is much more vast. Despite putting what apps I can on my SD card (which is not yet half full), my Droid is frequently telling me I'm running out of storage space. There are a number of apps that can't or won't move to the SD card, and between those, the data that won't move, and the OS stuff, the phone's built-in (I think) 512M of storage is close to full. The Bionic, on the other hand, has 16GB of phone storage.
Second, the fat, fast, dual-core processor and enhanced graphics chips make the device faster. It'll probably feel as much faster as my Droid did compared to the Windows phone I replaced. It should allow me to use Flash (which I loathe almost as much as Apple seems to), which will improve some web experiences, I guess. It should also make the things "pop" that I used to think "popped" before.
And, of course, there's the 4G network support. My current Dorid (and the Bionic) supports WiFi, which is usually what I use at home or (via sharing on my MBP) at the office when I think to do so. We're grandfathered into the "unlimited" data package for Verizon, so my switch is about speed, not size. The WiFi will probably still be faster on the Bionic than the 4G, but the 4G is touted as "ten times faster" than the 3G, never mind the hops to 1G (or no-G) that I occasionally get.
I get that the phone has changed, so the car adapter and desk mount (handed down from the missus) will need replacing, if we want to use their features. The new car adapter has a different USB plug, so you don't have to keep plugging that into the phone (just mount it in the adapter and it charges), which looks nice. There are a few different desk mounts available. There's the simple one, like we have, which has additional speaker support. There's a step up, which offers the webtop experience with an external HDMI display and USB ports. And there's the lamented webtop laptop-thing; which costs as much than the phone, so I won't be getting that one.
There are a few other options, too. The wife got the Samsung Charge, and while she's having some reboot and battery issues, she seems to otherwise like the phone. It's 4G and dual-core with the bigger display and storage. There's the Motorola Droid x3, which is still a 3G, but is dual-core, sports the bigger display, but also comes with a physical keyboard. None of them fit in our existing accessories (except the USB chargers), so there's no bonus to any other phone.
There are choices. Buzz and other things push the Bionic to the head of the pack.