Now that the day to day testing of the Motorola Droid is over, what more can be said? The truth is, considering the answered questions, usage journal, and countless articles online, not much. The bottom line is this, either an iPhone or a Droid. There are only two Smartphones worth your money, I have a clear favorite, and this review explains why.
The Tech Herald\'s review of the Motorola Droid.
[Note: Some of this review references the daily usage journal, which is here.]
It’s heavy, it looks cool, but it isn’t sexy. The keyboard leaves a bit to be desired, and it costs $199.00 USD with a 2-year contract and a $100.00 USD rebate. (The rebate will be a debit card that can be used anywhere, decent of Verizon to do this actually.) So if this review starts in a negative light, why would you want to get one? Because, the cost, the keyboard being flat, and less than stellar cosmetic look, are about the only bad things to really be said about this phone.
When you are a tech reviewer, you’re supposed to remain neutral, objective, and keep an open mind. Well, for the last week, I have tried and failed to do that. Since the daily usage journal was a rolling review of sorts, you got both technical details, as well as honest commentary from me on what I experienced with the Motorola Droid. I even went so far as to tailor the testing based on questions from readers. During all of this, the notion that I had to be objective went right out the window. I’ll tell you why.
The first thing that rocked my objectivity was the device and the operating system. Android is an open development platform, and Verizon Wireless is about the least open network that has ever existed. They locked down anything and everything. That is, until they released the Droid. Nothing is locked, not a single thing. Once I tested Google Maps Navigation (Free), something that not only works great but beats the hell out of VZ Navigator ($10 a month form Verizon), I realized that Verizon was not only allowing this on their network, but actively supporting and encouraging it.
While I didn’t mention it in the journal, this really did shock me. Imagine, knowing that a network has blocked GPS and other tools for years, and then seeing it in full use live and in color. The other thing that knocked objectivity out of the water was the application store itself, the Android Marketplace.
There are thousands of applications, and some of them are in direct competition with Verizon’s offerings. Paid offerings mind you. Sure not all of those apps are free, but neither are some of the most popular iPhone applications. The big deal here is that Verizon allowed them. Again, this company has a long history of blocking things, but not when it came to this phone. I was impressed, astounded, and filled with glee.
So after the objectivity removal, what was I left with? I can’t say this is by far either the best phone I’ve ever had the privilege to review, or close to it, without offering solid reasons why. So, I’ll be blunt, and recap some of the things from the usage journal, as well as things I didn’t mention.
First off, I’ll start with the bad things. The Droid isn’t going to win a beauty contest any time soon. The keyboard is flat, but at the same time it is easy to use and comes in handy. If you wanted to nit-pick little things, then the video recording isn’t all that either, but the camera takes good still shots.
Continuing with the nit-picking, the little slide used to answer a call when the device is locked can be annoying. I think I hung up on four or five people before I got the hang of it. The speaker has no bass, making some music sound mono, but the sound quality is fine when using the speaker phone. There is no dual-band support, so this Droid is bound to the U.S., other versions will be released overseas in the near future. That’s about it for the bad stuff.
What about memory? One reader, Dan, recently asked, “I've heard that Droid is limited to 256Mb worth of apps (i.e. they are stored in ROM - of which there is 512Mb half of which is used by the O/S). Can you confirm or deny?”
Dan’s question was echoed by another person who posted the following on a site hosting an article about the Droid itself. It’s related, so I will quote it here.
“Verizon may want to stop telling folks that this phone has 16GB of "onboard storage". Wrong! It has a 16GB SD card included with the phone…It only has 512mb of onboard memory, of which only ~256mb can be used for apps!! Google Android does not allow apps to be loaded onto a SD card. This is Google’s (flawed) way of preventing pirating…In short, by doing this, Motorola and Google assured that Droid and Android Market could never compete with iPhone.”
According to Verizon, the Droid is not necessarily limited to 256 MB worth of applications.
“Keep in mind that there is 512 MB worth of internal Flash on the device. It's up to each developer to determine whether the data files of an app (that tend to make an app larger) can be stored on the internal Flash or even an external SD card,” a spokesperson said.
“All Droids come with a 16GB card and consumers do not have to buy a new device if they want to upgrade to 32GB flash. They can simply replace the memory card.”
During all of the testing, and downloading of applications left and right, I never encountered a limit other than the amount of applications that can be displayed (widget style) on any one of the three home screens. In truth, it’s amazing to see the number of things that are able to run at any given moment on the Droid. You can flip between six applications at a time if you wanted.
Making calls on the Droid, the reception, network coverage, and Internet connection speeds were all top notch. No dropped calls, and as long as I had one bar on the signal meter, everything worked as expected. The Wi-Fi works wonders in the house, and I even tested it in a public library, with no issues.
When it comes to browsing, there is only one flaw, and that is Flash. Once Flash 10 is available, this will cease to be an issue. Android will get the Flash 10 Player, once available, as an over-the-air update. Otherwise, missing Flash aside, there were no problems with the browser.
How about Battery life? Well, it will take some effort to kill this thing. What worked best was a mix of calls, games, and lots of pictures using the flash. I took about 80 on Halloween night, and that helped cut the battery power in half. It’s rated with 385 minutes of talk time or 270 hours of stand-by. With our tests, the Droid delivered. Usage is the key here, and the more you use it, naturally the more power it will consume.
Bluetooth worked well, and during testing we hooked into a laptop and headset. Using the headset with voice dial took a few tries, but I got it working eventually. Make sure you speak clearly.
Speaking of speaking, the voice search abilities worked great. However, activating them and then placing the device next to a radio playing Top 40 music can lead to strange search results. (Just a friendly warning.)
Multitasking was something I didn’t expect. One of the multitasking tests required a call to Jen, our image guru on the site. I do think at one point I used the terms awesome and bad ass in the same sentence as I flipped from application, to menu, to Web, all while talking to her on the speaker.
[Note: I did another test. This time, I started by switching off the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections in the settings menu to ensure they were inavtive. The ability to surf and talk at the same time is only when you use the Wi-Fi connection. I apologize for not tripple checking the connection methos when I did that test during the update journal.]
The display itself is bright and offers a clear view of images, video, and the Web itself. There is good resolution, so things like various menus and instructions are easy to read. The zoom ability on the browser helps for sites that are not mobile ready.
Since I’m talking visuals, there are three home screens to place all the links, bookmarks, widgets, and other toys from the Android Market. However, space is a premium, so pick only your highly used applications and place links or the actual widget on the screen. The rest of them can be left in the main menu. After some usage and trial and error, I learned that the home screens are each customizable, and you can move icons about by pressing them and dragging.
Watching video on the screen is a solid experience as well. We used the TV.com application with positive results. In addition, the YouTube application will offer up plenty of things to view while killing time waiting in line at the post office. (This is what I did on day two with the Droid. The speaker can get loud, so there were several moments when someone would send a look in my direction.)
The video that you can record on the Droid will turn out okay, but it wasn’t what I expected. However, the camera, which you can see from the images in the usage journal, were clean, and for a phone, came out great. My favorite is the one of my son walking, how it caught just him, and left the little bit of motion just gave the image a great, albeit accidental, effect. (I didn’t expect that type of shot when I took the image, but liked the results.)
My love for music was expanded thanks to my new found friend in Pandora, one of the other applications downloaded from the Android Market. Music sounds okay on the Droid, it does, but it lacks bass. However, the headset jack is how I fixed that little problem, by using a set of Bose headphones. It’s a standard 3.5 mm jack, so most headphones will fit.
The preloaded applications include GMail, Google Talk, Google Maps, YouTube, a calendar application, Visual Voicemail, Facebook, and Amazon MP3 Store. Naturally the Android Market is installed as well.
Those applications are all solid, but the only one I really didn’t use was Amazon. It works, and the free MP3 was so-so, but I liked Pandora and the MP3 collection from my PC I loaded onto the Droid better. If you like Twitter, then Swift is the application to use, and it’s free. Open Table, WHERE, Barcode Scanner / Shop Savvy, AK Notepad, and Advanced Task Killer are all handy little downloads. There are over 12,000 applications to pick from, so you can be choosy if you like.
So is the Droid an iPhone killer? No, but who wants an iPhone killer anyway? If you are wanting a Droid because you refuse to live on AT&T’s network with an iPhone, then get one. If you want the Droid because you think it’s the next super cool gadget to have, so you’re going to trade your iPhone for it, don’t. Keep your iPhone.
Will the Droid save Motorola? Who knows? Motorola has been around for many years, and weathered some nasty economic times, no need to think they will hang their hopes on one device. However, if that is speculation you agree with, then I'm not going to argue. One thing is for sure, they hit a home run with the Droid.
You know, the only thing I can honestly think of when I think negative of the Droid is its overall looks. It’s the kind of ugly only a mother will love. At the same time, I don’t want a sexy phone. I want one that works, one that will do what I need it to do, right then and there. For years, this is why I had my BlackBerry, which if you have seen some of the earlier ones, you know they were “mother only” ugly too.
There are two choices for a Smartphone if you want both usability and functionality. On one hand you have the well developed iPhone, which is supported by a massive community of fans and developers. The catch is you might have to move to a network that is known for less than stellar coverage and support.
On the other hand, you have the Droid. The Droid is running on the Android platform, which is open and new. At the same time, it's building quite the community and following. Exactly the same way the iPhone did.
The catch here isn’t the network, no one will ever call Verizon’s network sluggish or slow. No, the catch is that Android is still an infant, where as the iPhone is in its teens, and ready to move into adulthood. If you are willing to follow the young crowd, get a Droid. If you want to stick with the more mature crowd, then the iPhone is your best bet.
It’s far from sexy, but the Motorola Droid is, in my opinion, the first generation of the next generation of Smartphones. It’s fast, it’s open, bad ass, and awesome. I’m a convert. After using it for more than a week, despite some minor issues, I’ll take my BlackBerry 8830 and trade up to the Droid in the near future. For me, that’s a big step, one I think will be worth it in the long run.
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