Rumor: Droid Bionic Scrapped?

A rumor began today stating that Verizon would be scrapping the Motorola Droid Bionic in favor of the previously rumored superphone the Motorola Targa. Let me just say that it is true that the Bionic has been having some problems lately as reported by testers of the awaited dual core LTE flagship heading to Verizon.

The problems are related to the 4.3 inch device powered by a dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 and running on Verizon’s LTE network having serious issues with battery life. Motorola is working hard to correct these problems as this is easily the most powerful phone announced this year, but all of those features are huge power draws obviously.

Can The Bionic’s Woes Be Fixed In Time?

The problems the Droid Bionic is having are not all too different from the ones that plagued the HTC Thunderbolt, another Verizon LTE device that was delayed multiple times. LTE is a huge power draw at this time and though the phone is already destined to ship with a huge 1930 mAh battery, tweaks are still needed. Motorola has invested a lot into the Bionic which easily will be the star of the Droid family, and in all likelihood it will be released.

A reliable tipster from the Android Central Forums Mr. Panda weighed in on the release of Bionic:

The Bionic will not be cancelled and is well on track for the expected release date. The issues that alot of people are claiming are due to release to larger testing group. Does the device have issues?? YES.. will be killed a release? NO chance in hell.. It’s a 4.3 inch display dual core proc device running LTE, so battery and performance tweaks are ongoing with Motorola on a almost daily basis.

Motorola Targa

The codenamed Motorola Targa is going to be one hell of superphone coming to Verizon in the later part of this year, and like many I can’t wait. However, it is nowhere near ready for prime time and could not possibly replace the Bionic in any similar time frame. The Targa should ship later this year with the highest specs of any phone to date. Motorola was the first to release a dual core smartphone with their Motorola Atrix 4G and looks to be the first to quad core with the Targa powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 3.

While it is exciting and does outclass the Bionic, we will have to wait that one until at least Q3 of this year. Hopefully Motorola and Verizon can fix the problems of the Bionic sooner rather than later. It is a very close cousin to the already released Atrix 4G on AT&T, and with an almost identical spec list the solution can’t be too far off.

To be clear, I am not claiming to have any inside information from Motorola or Verizon, but this rumor, though a great headline, should be laid to rest as quickly as it spread. Hit the comment section below and let us know your take on the “Bionic will be cancelled” rumor storm.

Via Droid-Life