Motorola DROID BIONIC - was it worth the wait

“Too good to be true”

You know what this expression means. In the field of mobile technology, we would use it to signify our admiration to a particular product or service that seems to be ahead of its time. In this relation, the Motorola DROID BIONIC, announced on January 5, seemed like a smartphone that was too good to be true, with its ubiquitous spec sheet, which almost magically combined all that was considered trendy and cool at the time.

Back at CES 2011, the DROID BIONIC made one helluva splash, with its promise to be the first handset to deliver both 4G LTE connectivity and a dual-core CPU, which would enhance the overall experience of using the phone, presumably surpassing anything we've seen up to this point. And, probably the best thing about all this was that users actually wouldn't have to wait so much in order to get it. The phone was scheduled to be released in the beginning of the second quarter of the year. Awesome plan, but eventually a teeny-tiny problem with it arose – it never happened.

Too good to be true

Tragically, it turned out the expression should have been taken quite literally. Was the concept of the DROID BIONIC superphone really ahead of its time... to the point that it was impossible to finish by the targeted launch date? We guess so. Otherwise we wouldn't have to wait until now.

Well, no wonder that we were so wowed back in January. After all, Motorola came and showed us a phone from the future, claiming it's able to produce it now. Someone there must have greatly overestimated themselves, if you ask us. The thing is that when you try and build so much hype around your upcoming product, you should be absolutely certain that nothing can go wrong with it, and your work will be able to live up to customers' expectations. Because if you fail, it gets bad. Yes, Motorola managed to rise from the ashes, producing the almighty DROID, but just one phone wasn't able to rehabilitate the company to its strong position of the past. That's why it had to continue innovating, delivering top-notch products, without screwing up a single thing. That's what would have really brought Motorola back to its feet. But, with blunders such as treating users to seemingly innumerable delays for your most expected, and most hyped smartphone, failure is somewhat inevitable.

Unfortunately, the development issues that the company encountered with the BIONIC forced it to completely redesign the model, or in its own words, to incorporate “several enhancements to make this an even better consumer experience.“ This was just Moto's way of saying “Hey, forget what you saw at CES, we'll be doing something completely different now, and call it DROID BIONIC. Well, it'll take us some time, but overall, you should be grateful for our efforts!”

So how did this sad story end? Finally, a few months more passed, September came and brought us a device that looks like a cross between a DROID 3 and a DROID X2. Not that this is bad, but it's far from exciting, to say the least. In other words, it was something completely different from what got users turned on in the first place. Indeed, it's still the first smartphone to combine LTE and dual-core, but does that matter anymore?

So, was it worth the wait?

Forgive our predominantly negative tone throughout this article. We do realize that we actually rated the Motorola DROID BIONIC a 9 out of 10 in our review, and, as a matter of fact, continue to stand firmly behind this. But our point here is different.

From purely technological point of view, the DROID BIONIC is still quite impressive, and noticeably better than most of its competition. So it deserves its high mark. The problem is that we're looking at it with a sour taste in our mouths. And every time we look at it, it reminds us of all the waiting and disappointment that have been accompanying the BIONIC throughout its whole existence. That's not how you make a great product. That's how you ruin brand recognition, and, simply put, how you lose the game.

Well, folks, this was just something we had to say. We couldn't close our eyes now that the phone is out, and pretend that nothing has happened. And now that we said it, we feel better. As strange as it may sound, it looks like Motorola screwed up big time with the BIONIC, while still making one helluva phone in the process. It surely wasn't worth the wait, because we shouldn't have waited for it in the first place. Sanjay and company should have announced it last month, instead of in January. With that said, the BIONIC is still worth getting, as it's easily one of the best smartphones out there. Though, it will never be what it could be.