Is this the Droid you’re looking for?
-From Executive Producer MichaelFrancis.
References! Barf.
Five days ago I got my hands on a Motorola Droid, meaning I signed a two year contract and paid $200 (I don’t have fancy demo deals and no one likes me.) I was asked to share my experience with the lil’ guy so far so here goes…
First off, I bet you’re all like “I’m not buying a Motorola and I wear an iPhone around my neck everyday. Verizon sucks!” Well, you’re wrong and terrible. Full disclosure here, aside from any handsets I’ve actually owned (Blackberries) I’ve spent a total of about two hours messing around with your major smartphone/touchscreen players in total so, yup. I think I’ll go the standard review checklist style.
Let’s check some specs after the jump (I am 100% positive what all of the following means.)
-OMAP3430 – 600 MHz ARM Cortex A8 + PowerVR SGX 530 GPU + 430MHz C64x+ DSP + ISP (Image Signal Processor)
-Dimensions 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm
-Weight 169 g
-Battery Li-ion 1400 mAh.
-Standby 450 hours, talk time 420 minutes
-3.7-inch touch-sensitive display with a resolution of 854×480 pixels, 16 million color depth. Physical screen size is 45.72 mm by 81.34 mm.
-512MB/256MB ROM/RAM
-microSD / microSDHC expansion slot
-Camera: 5.0 megapixel with autofocus and video recorder
-Connectivity: USB2.0, 3.5mm audio jack, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, Wi-Fi
-Supported audio formats: AMR-NB/WB, MP3, PCM / WAV, AAC, AAC +, eAAC +, WMA
-Supported video formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, WMV
-GPS navigation
Wow, I’m impressed, check all that mAh!
Hardwarezzz:
I’m skipping the packaging because if you care about the box it comes in you are the worst. Inside the box it comes with a terrible 2ft long USB charger and the setup book. (BONUS TIP: It’s mini USB, dudes. Have another mini USB device? Don’t pay for a charger in your home or car if you have one already because it fitsss. I just saved you $30x2.)
The hardware on the other hand is a different story. You’ve seen it, it’s your standard layout for a touchscreen phone with the exception of a small lip(?) that sticks out just below the soft keys below the display. I guess it needs to be there so Verizon can emblazon their name on it. (I crossed it out and etched “Rock and Roll” there instead. Do what you want.) You can turn the phone sideways and slide it open to reveal the love it/hate it physical keyboard. Sliding it open feels odd at first but once you’re used to the pressure you have to apply to move it, it’s not a big deal. Feels sturdy.
Now, when I pull the phone out of my pocket to prove I have nice things, the first thing people lucky enough to hold it comment on is the weight. Listen, it’s not that heavy. What do you weigh? Unless you’re looking for something paper thin and light as a credit card, shut up. I am upgrading from a Storm 9530 (more barf) and it’s about the same, no heavier than an iPhone either. And again, once it’s had a few days in your hand it’s a non issue. Overall, it feels great and it’s not bulky for all the crap shoved in it. I’ve heard some people having issues with the battery door flying off and landing places and killing people and Droid is the worst, but nope. My battery door is solid so far. There is also a volume rocker on the right side and the power/lock button on top and camera button for snapping pictures, 3.5 headphone jack too. Nothing to scream about, relax. Plus the thing is like 16GB.
Display:
The screen is fcuking gorgeous, I don’t know what part of the unicorn it’s made of but - It. Is. NOICE. It’s one of the better displays I’ve ever seen. The touch input is just a responsive as the iPhone which pains me to say, is awesome, but there is no multi-touch. Pinch zooming is fun! Let us all do it! Also, the lack of multi touch makes the virtual keyboard kind of a bitch. At the bottom there are four soft keys : Back, Menu, Home, and Search. They are again, pretty standard. A single press does what they do, a hard press brings up a “recently used” menu on the Home key and voice search on the Search key. The menu key I’m finding super useful. It pulls up all the menus, I’m easily excited. It’s a good screen.
Camera:
Normally, I’d tell you it’s a camera on a cell phone and what do you want? But with all the hype of the Droid and it’s 5 megapixels and the iPhone 3GS’s photo capabilities despite it’s lesser pixels, it has to be mentioned that the camera is…well, yuck. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a camera on a phone and it works and you can tell what the pictures are but it’s not the quality it should be for what it is. I think my Storm’s camera was better which says nothing for the Droid’s. You can get some good shots but I hope you have all day to keep trying.
It has your typical, entry level, digital camera features. White balance and all that. There is a virtual shutter button and the aforementioned side button. Also, I dunno if I haven’t figured it out yet or what but the camera is landscape only apparently. How will I discretely take upskirts now? The dual LED flash is more made for spotting and poaching deer than it is for not blinding everyone looking at it. You can set the camera on delay and throw it for a make shift flash grenade…I’m done and there’s no delay these are jokes. There are some nice sharing features in the photo viewer that integrate with all sorts of Twits and Faceytown. No swipe to next pic! Droid also takes video, the video looks solid. Everything I’ve shot, mostly meaningless sexual encounters, looks smooth and not at all choppy. The sound picks up well too but the editing is lacking. So, camera = blech (Video is nice though). Camera features = the usual.
Keyboard:
DUN DUN DUN! Not really. Ok, the keyboard, the physical one. It’s not as bad as you think. Unless you think it’s good then skip to the next part. Probably battery life, I’m writing from the hip. Yes, the keys are slightly shallow, maybe as weak as the G1, but it’s not that bad! You don’t like it because it isn’t what you’re used to. It is admittedly a bit intimidating at first but once you start practicing with it you’re ok. We’ll all be ok. The “lip” does get in the way and if you’re hands are…bigger it may come with more of a curve but don’t worry. I’ve been using it for only a week and I’m comfortable with it. Suck it.
The virtual keyboard works too. If you’ve used an Android device before you know it. If not, it’s a virtual keyboard. The lack of multi-touch isn’t great for it but it’s speedy and the predictive text works better than most phones. Now, this probably goes more towards the software but you have to slide Droid open in order to activate landscape in alot of instances and then close it again to keep it that way. You can then use the virtual keyboard. This isn’t always the case but I’m not up on the sequence of landscape to portrait moves I have to make so this is frustrating. Both keyboards get a B-ish.
Battery Life:
Honestly, I haven’t tested it. I’ve only had the Droid for a few days and it’s new and I’ve been playing with it (that’s what she said. Sry.) so my battery estimates are off. Without all the Wi-Fi and Geo location enabled it would likely last full day with push apps running. I’ve been having to plug it in to maintain a 50% charge during the day, but it’s from heavy use. Sorry, it’s probably a good battery and you can always replace it yourself if you need to.
Android 2.0:\Software
Really 2.0 isn’t that different from 1.5. Again, I don’t have much experience outside of some mild myTouch fun but the layout isn’t a big departure from “older” Android handsets. If you haven’t used Android yet, I’m not going into a How-To for you. Combined with the guts of this thing the OS is a total beast. The Google search feature is very impressive when it comes to suggestions and finding contacts etc. There is some lag when brushing between home screens and the notification bar jumps some but mostly when you’re pushing multiple apps. Shhh, because I have had to do two battery pulls so far to uncrash the thing. I’m chalking this up to some of the apps I have not being fully compatible with 2.0 and the Droid. The boot times are quick so it ain’t no thang? I guess. Really, if you’re jumping ship from a well known mobile OS to Android 2.0 you have some learning to do. If you’re brand new to sweet phones then you still have some learning to do. Grow up, it’s awesome.
Other Stuff:
Google’s Turn by Turn Navigation is just plain rad. It is beta so they have some work to do (It drove me the wrong way down a one way street) but it works well enough and it’s more free than what you have.
The mild lag, and the camera and the Nav and keyboard issues are nothing a software update can’t fix. And Googs is always spitting updates.
I was drunk the first time I received a phone call on it but I swear the speaker was like whoa. The sound quality is stunning, really. This is not up for debate.
There is no Cut and Paste in non editable text. Linguo dead?
The Droid has an optional dock station that turns it into a little multi media hub thing. It’s $39, it is worthless.
The Droid is a super innovative phone with a great open OS and the best network around. If you’ve been testing the waters in store, it can be scary with the Android and the Linux and such but it’s arguably the best phone on the market right now with the iPhone and the Pre. Don’t let the Motorola on the Droid get you down either. It’s a great phone, it’s worth it. Srsly, I like it and I hate everything. Here’s a funny video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LkusicUL2s
UPDATED:
-From Coxy; The droid uses a micro usb and not a mini.
I also wanted to say that the droid camera (bad autofocus) problem has been resolved…at least temporarily. Something with a timestamp problem that automatically gets the camera 2 start working right on the 17th. They r working on a definite fix, but the camera is WAY better than the original reviewers thought.
