Last weekend, Solidus (the boyfriend) and I went to our local mall to take a look at the Motorola Droid. Solidus’ Blackberry had taken a beating and he wanted to look at options for a new phone. We were not, and will never be, interested in an iPhone. My boss and his son both have one and I am constantly called upon to figure out why their phones suddenly don’t want to receive email, usually caused by the iPhone suddenly deciding it doesn’t like the server certificate or the network settings need to be completely reset. I spend more time fixing their iPhones so they can receive their chain letter spam emails than doing my actual job. Annoying.
Anyways, we played around with the Motorola Droid and it was pretty awesome. I had read some reviews beforehand and heard about how sharp the screen was. Well, the reviews didn’t lie. We were both hooked. We went in to replace his phone, and ended up replacing mine as well. We are now officially Droid nerds.
Like I mentioned above, the screen is awesome. The easiest screen to read to date. Browsing the internet is no problem, very easy to click on small links or to navigate with the touchpad. The background and icons are very customizable once you figure it out (because manuals are for noobs). We have never owned anything like the Droid, so it took us some time to figure out that the “magic touch” on the Droid is to hold things down. To move or delete icons, you hold them down with your finger until you can drag them where you want. Or, hold your finger down on the background to chage the image or add more icons.
There were several complaints on the keypad and how tiny and flat it was, but since I had an enV before and Solidus a Blackberry, the keypad wasn’t all that hard to get used to. The only complaint I had in this area was the first Droid I purchased had a dead keypad (some of the letters didn’t work), which I didn’t find out until I got home and fully customized my phone. I promptly went back to the store for an exchange, less than 24 hours later, and was told that if they gave me a working Droid, it would use up my one exchange. If I didn’t like the Droid, then I couldn’t exchange it for a different brand/model. What? You sold me a DOA phone, then want to take my exchange option away (Verizon gives you a one-time exchange if you are absolutely unhappy with the phone so you can get a different one) because the phone was DOA? Uh, no. I got a new Droid and eventually cleared up the confusion that they should have just given me a new Droid with no strings attached. Yea, Verizon employees really don’t seem to be trained all that well in customer service.
The apps on the phone are great. Voice search works perfectly and we haven’t experienced any issues with the GPS navigation. There are a ton of free apps on the Android Market like notepad apps, games, etc. I get an error, or a “force close”, using them sometimes, but it really hasn’t been a big interruption. Email was fairly easy to set up, much more so than the iPhone. Since the Android Market is completely open, I’m even trying to build some apps for it. Seems pretty easy so far.
The camera is ok. Not great, but just ok. It seems to take FOREVER to take a picture. Huge delay there that can probably be resolved with a software update. It does have a lot of options for the camera such as turning the flash on/off, different modes, and several effects.
Photo taken using a Droid phone
Call quality is good and we haven’t dropped any calls or text messages. And let’s face it, this is the most important feature. After all, its main function is to be a phone. It’s another reason why we would not consider an iPhone. AT&T service can get pretty shoddy in parts of NM and the bottom line is I want a working phone.
Overall we would give this phone an 8 out of 10. It’s a great phone with tons of potential. I say potential because there are some bugs to be worked out and some features that are missing, but I’m sure these will get resolved with some Android updates down the line. And no, I’m not even going to call this an iPhone killer, but a good alternative if you hate the “if you don’t have an iPhone then you’re a complete loser” attitude that Apple portrays. So far, we are happy to call ourselves satisfied Droid geeks.
UPDATE: I have to say one of the most annoying things about this phone is the bluetooth voice dialing, or the lack of I should say. If the purpose of a headset is to be hands free, then why do we have to put our hands on the phone to use the headset? This is a feature I use very rarely, but I have a close friend who just got a Droid who is constantly driving around to see clients and answering calls. This must be a big pain in the butt for him. High priority fix if you ask me.
