Motorola/Verizon Droid Mini-Review, 48 hours later
Pretty!
I picked up a Motorola Droid yesterday morning, and figured I’d take some time off from transition-related running commentary to share my thoughts from the first 48 hours.
I’m coming from an HTC 5800, which I’d been using for the past two years. It’s a Windows Mobile phone, which I had fun rooting and upgrading to 6.1, along with various other tweaks. However, until recently, Verizon has been locking down their phones – not that they offered amazing phones to begin with – so I couldn’t do all that much with it.
The Droid is Verizon’s flagship in their new push to appear as a company that doesn’t try to keep a stranglehold over their phones, and as a company that doesn’t only have a good network, but good phones as well. (What a concept!) It’s running Google’s Android operating system, and is the first (and thus far, only) phone to run the 2.0 version of the OS.
I’ll get to more specifics after the break, but I’ll cut to the chase: I really like this phone. It’s almost certainly the best phone I’ve ever owned. That said, while I’d definitely recommend it to tech-savvy friends, I wouldn’t recommend it to, say, my mom. I’m not convinced this is a bad thing, though.
First, the hardware. This phone is well-built, for the most part. It’s solid, doesn’t feel cheap or like it’s going to break easily, and has a slide-out keyboard. Oh, did I mention the gorgeous screen? It’s a huge screen for a phone, and absolutely beautiful. I converted Dr Horrible to a format it’ll play, just to try out watching video. The next time I’m going on a long trip, I definitely expect to load the Droid’s 16 gigs of memory (an SD card, not on-board) full of videos to watch on a plane or a train. It’s very satisfying to watch, and handles webpages, media, games, everything really well.
The touch screen is also really satisfying. I’ve never owned a phone with a touchscreen before, and it’s taking getting used to, but it’s nice and handles taps and such responsively.
The phone has a camera, which is OK. Here’s a picture from the lake that I took on the phone. (And posted from it, too!)
It also has a slide-out keyboard, which is a mixed bag. I really like hardware keyboards, and think they’re consistently easier to use than software. However, as you can see in the image above, the Droid has a 4-way directional pad on the right side of the keyboard. In theory, this helps navigation. In practice, it gets in the way of typing. The keyboard isn’t horrible, but I’m still not sure if I like it better or worse than the on-screen software keyboard. I’m getting used to the software keyboard, and it’s growing on me. It’s too early to say for sure, but I might be convinced that a keyboard-less (and thus thinner and lighter) version of this exact same phone would have been nicer. The keyboard is also less pleasant because of the rubber case I bought, which slightly gets in the way of the (already close-to-the-screen) top row of keys.
All that said, the keyboard is really nice when playing Super Mario on an NES emulator. Which brings me to software.
I really like Android, except when it bugs the hell out of me. I love the customization options, the Google integration and syncing, the general setup and style, and think we’re going to see Android phones continue to rise in popularity as Windows Mobile phones dwindle. Unlike the iPhone, you can add widgets (weather, calendars, battery info, FaceBook notifications, etc) to the home screens. You can move everything around, make folders for icons, change the background, and so on. I also like the general setup – the slide-up application drawer, the slide-down notification drawer, and so on.
Likewise, in terms of openness, the Android Marketplace has applications the iPhone Apps Store will never ever, ever allow. I’ve downloaded NES emulators, replacement text messaging programs, replacement video programs, custom widgets, and so on. Not only that, but when you download something like a replacement text messaging program, the OS will ask you if you’d like to use it instead of the built-in text messaging program. That’s how interested Google is in letting you customize the phone.
And yet, and yet…
Some simple things seem impossible. For example, I like my phone to beep only in very specific circumstances. Basically, calls, text messages, and set alarms. Just about nothing else. By default, almost all phones (this one included) have start up noises, shut down noises, new email noises, noises to let you know there haven’t been any noises in a while… Unlike Windows Mobile, there isn’t a central place to turn all these noises off – they’re on a per-application basis. That’d be fine, and I’ve managed to turn most of them off, except some of them can’t be turned off. I can’t turn off the “I’M TURNING ON!” noise, or the “I’VE BEEN CONNECTED TO A USB CABLE!” noise, to name the two that have been annoying me the most. And, because my notification noise is on the SD card – which doesn’t activate until the OS is fully booted – the turning-on noise is an obnoxious default noise, not the custom noise I’ve specified.
Likewise, while it is possible to text multiple people, you can’t simply go through and check a bunch of contacts to text ‘em all. Or access the Contacts screen from within a text message, to choose more people. You can type a name to find someone, but if you’re not sure who else you want to text and want to just look through your contacts, you’re SOL. Most of my complaints are similar – odd interface quirks that seem not to have been thought out.
Even with these shortcomings in mind, I’m really liking this phone. Android 2.0 includes Google Navigation, a free component on top of Google Maps with turn-by-turn directions. I’ve only played around with it for places I already know how to get to, but it seems like it’ll be really nice for any long trips. The car dock is $30, which doesn’t include a car charger, so usable car package is about $40.
—EDIT— I bought a car mount (see below) and played with the GPS/mapping functions today. The turn-by-turn navigation isn’t perfect – the voice is robotic and it gave some odd directions – but it worked pretty well. Each set of directions had one point where it took me a few blocks out of my way…they weren’t wrong, but they were a bit longer than necessary. Very awesome for a free function included with the phone, though… I was considering buying a GPS, and I sure as hell won’t now. As Engadget put it, the game has changed. (The background makes it hard to tell, but those lines are the stock of Garmin and TomTom, two GPS companies, on the day Google announced their new GPS function. —END EDIT—
Speaking of accessories, I’m a little annoyed with the accessories included in the box. It comes with a single USB cable – a short USB cable at that – and a power adapter for it to plug into. (My previous phone came with a USB cable and a separate power cable.) The included manual is also significantly less complete than the full manual, which was posted online. These aren’t dealbreakers, but they are a little obnoxious. (Speaking of cases, I bought a Body Glove case at the Verizon store, which has been worth it. But if you know you’re going to want a case, save yourself some money and buy it online. I’m probably going to buy another charger cable, and sure as hell won’t be paying Verizon’s prices for that.)
—EDIT— I stopped by the Verizon store today, and learned that the Motorola dock doesn’t fit the phone when it has the rubber case. I ended up buying a $30 generic case at Best Buy, which fits pretty well. It has a long, adjustable neck, which means it bounces a bit on bumpy roads, but when you have a choice between a mount which is more solid and doesn’t fit and more bouncy but fits the phone isn’t that big of a contest…
ON the topic of cables, I bought four 3-foot USB cables and a car adapter for $8 (including shipping) from MonoPrice, who I love. Unless it’s an emergency, or you’re super impatient like I was when I bought the case, don’t buy any accessories from the Verizon store! —END EDIT—
If you’re looking for a phone that has significant ease-of-use, at the expense of openness and customization, go with an iPhone. But I really like this phone, shortcomings and all, and I can recommend it pretty much without hesitation to tech-savvy folks, and anyone who is willing to overcome some of its shortcomings. I think there’s room in the world for both types of phones, with both spurring innovation and neither detracting from the other.
Themocracy
[...] As a followup to my mini-review. [...]