My philosophy is that every new cell phone that I get should be the best cell phone that I have ever owned. Unfortunately, that has not always been the case. However, it is certainly the case with my new phone the Motorola Droid Bionic.

I have the Bionic through Verizon Wireless. Verizon is not perfect, however, I have used them for several years now and, for the most part, I am pleased with the service that I receive from them.

I have had the Bionic now for a little over 2 months and I thought I would jot down my thoughts about the phone, both good and bad. On the whole, I am quite pleased with my purchase and, if I had it do to over again, I would buy the same phone.

Below are some of the things I like about my Bionic:

• It’s fast. This may have more to do with my old phone, which at the end seemed to be painfully slow. Regardless, the Droid is much faster and responsive than any previous phone I have used.
• 4G. Yes, it is not available everywhere yet. However, when it is available, it is great.
• Hotspot. I love being able to use my phone to create a wireless hot spot. It is much more convenient than my MiFi ever was, simply because I always have my phone on me. I use this feature at least twice a month.
• The screen. The screen is big, beautiful, and bright.
• Operating System. I still like the Android operating system. This is my second Android phone and I have no real complaints about the operating system nor have I had any problems with it.

Some of the things I don’t like about my Bionic are:

• It is big. The weight is actually too bad, especially considering the size of the phone. However, this is a large phone.
• The data connection. The 4G is great. The 3G is pretty good. However, if I have lost a data connection while traveling, sometimes, I have to restart the phone to get it to obtain a data connection again.
• Contact Pictures. I still don’t understand the issue here. In Outlook I have pictures for a large percentage of my contacts. With my original Droid, all of those pictures synched to my phone (through Exchange Server). With the Bionic, these pictures do not sync. I know that this seems like a small thing, however, I have used these pictures in the past to identify other attorneys in court that I had not yet met.
• Battery life. In general, the battery life on the phone is about what I expected. Which is not great, but I can usually make it through the day (please note, however, that I have desk chargers both at the office and at home along with a car charger, just to make sure). However, when I use the phone as a hotspot, I can practically watch the battery level drain.

I recognize that, for the most part, the battery life issue is one that most smartphones have and it is something we have to live with while we wait for battery technology to improve. I would love to see either Motorola or Verizon, or the two together do something to fix the data connectivity problems. The disconnection happens often enough that it annoys me.

Regardless, if you are looking for a new Android based smartphone, I will tell you that I am quite happy with my Droid Bionic.