I’ve had a Motorola Droid for more than 24 hours now and I’ve got a pretty good feel for the pros and cons of this phone versus it’s primary competitor, the iPhone. Here are some of my thoughts about this new phone.
There are large number of positive points to be made about the Motorola Droid. Some of them are hardware (so Motorola gets credit), but many of them are positive points for Android (so Google gets the credit there).
Hardware
So what has Motorola done right and wrong with the Droid? Let’s start with the aesthetics of the phone.
The phone is just slightly larger that an iPhone, both in thickness and footprint. That puts the Droid solidly in the running against the iPhone. However, it feels quite a bit heavier than an iPhone. That could be because they’ve packed more electronics into a comparable package (like for SD card support). It’s blockier than an iPhone, which may not appeal to some. I’ve also found that the blocky design and slide-out keyboard present some challenges to finding a good protective case for the Droid (unlike the iPhone, with a myriad choices). The rubberized protective cover I initially used added significantly to the thickness of the phone, which I didn’t like. At this point, I’ve ordered a side-loading, leather belt-holster case from Amazon instead. That way the phone is protected when not in use, but it’s still slim and sleek when I’m using it.
The Droid has a much higher resolution screen than the iPhone. The iPhone has a 480x320 screen. The Motorola Droid sports a 480x854 screen. There have been some complaints in Android forums about the change in resolution, since it may affect the screen layout of existing applications. However, I think the move will be a good one in the long run, since previous Android phones like the G1 only had 320x480 screen.
The Motorola Droid does have some issues with screen refresh, though. There’s noticeable ghosting when you scroll quickly. The iPhone doesn’t have these refresh issues.
Buttons, speakers and microphones are all well-placed. For instance, there is a gold grill that runs the width of the back of the phone (about 1/2” tall) that contains the speaker. It provides decent sound quality and works well when in speakerphone mode. There are also buttons for the camera, volume up/down and power. They work as expected, with quick response from the Android operating system.
The camera itself takes decent pictures. The 5MP camera is capable, but is sometimes slow to focus. The flash is a nice addition that Apple should take notice of. The iPhone has terrible low-light capabilities.
There are also four “soft” buttons just below the screen. These provide “Back”, “Menu”. “Home” and “Search” functions that are contextual to the application you’re in. They work great and provide haptic feedback when you press them (which can be turned off). The only issue I’ve found with this soft-button placement is that I sometimes accidentally hit one of the soft-buttons when typing on the on-screen keyboard— particularly when I hit the spacebar.
The slide-out keyboard is nicely laid out. The buttons aren’t big by any means, but if you’re moving over from a Blackberry with it’s tiny buttons, you may be happier with these slightly larger buttons. Although I understand why the buttons have a low profile (to make the slide-out mechanism easier), I really think the keyboard missed the mark by not being “bumpier”. It’s hard to tell (without looking) sometimes where one key ends and the next begins. If the keys had a bit of a hump in the middle, that would have made the keyboard much more usable. That said, the keyboard is pretty nice once you get used to it.
I do have an argument FOR using a bulkier, rubberized protective cover for the phone. Although the bottom half of the phone holding the keyboard is thicker than the top half (I use “half” loosely, of course), I do find that holding the phone while typing is a little difficult. I have really long fingers, so the phone basically sits precariously on my fingers while I type. It would be nice if the bottom were a little thicker, so that I could tuck the phone in between my thumbs and forefingers while typing. However, unless you have longer than average fingers like I do, you probably won’t have a problem here.
Software
This is all about Android. As far as I know, the version of Android 2.0 included on the Motorola Droid is mostly unmodified by Motorola or Verizon. The only exception I’ve found is that the Market application includes a Verizon application tab. Verizon doesn’t even preinstall the My Verizon app (used for checking your minutes, etc). From a tech-geek perspective, I applaud Verizon and Motorola for their hands-off approach. But I think the average consumer would benefit from having a few strategic apps pre-installed (like the aforementioned My Verizon app).
What about Android itself? Well, I have no significant experience with previous versions of the Android OS, so I really can’t speak to the improvements from 1.x to 2.x. However, I can make comparisons to the iPhone OS which I moved over from.
All told, Android 2.0 is gorgeous. The interface is easy to use and very responsive. This can be attributed both to the OS itself and to the hardware it’s running on, I suppose. But I like to think that Google has done a good job streamlining the OS.
The positive aspects of Android 2.0 are many. But to highlight a few, I particularly enjoy the integrated Google search functionality. You can search all the important data on your phone, along with real-time keyword results from Google’s search engine. And the search results are as one would expect from Google— excellent.
There are some small UI elements that have been overlooked in the OS, though. For instance, when you click the “Alt” or “Caps” buttons on the hardware keyboard, there’s no indication on the screen or keyboard of the current status of those keys. So you sometimes don’t know if you have Caps-lock or Alt-lock enabled or not. There may be a utility to correct this oversight, but I haven’t had a chance to look yet.
I really appreciate the multi-tasking support. The iPhone has very limited multi-tasking, primarily only allowing native functionality to continue running in the backgrond. Android, on the other hand, allows you to run as many apps as you like, without exiting those apps when you switch between them. I’ve particularly enjoyed the ability to listen to Pandora Radio while browsing FriendFeed, answering emails, playing a game (without sound), etc.
Application Support and Look-and-Feel
It can’t be denied— Apple has the largest application library out there. So how does Android stack up? I’m afraid that at the moment, Android’s Market is pretty sparse. You will find many of the major applications that you might expect, particularly when it comes to social media. But the overall quality of the Android Market library tends to be dragged down by the large number of mediocre applications. Although I’m not a big fan of Apple’s screening policies for the iTunes application store, I have to say that Google would do well to filter out some of the poorly written applications so users can more easily find the right application for them. Maybe that doesn’t mean deleting those less-desirable apps from the Market entirely. But it would be nice to have some more advanced search features like the ability to filter apps that fall below a given rating (like 4 stars). Market could also use a feature similar the the iPhone App Store’s Genius list to recommend apps that the user might be interested in, based on the applications the user has installed or has previously downloaded.
I’ve heard rumors that the Motorola Droid release announcement saw an increase in Android app development, so perhaps we’ll see more quality developers moving over to the platform. I’ve heard estimates that as many as 2,000 apps are being released for Android each week now. If that’s true, Android will catch up quickly to the iPhone when it comes to application offerings.
Application look-and-feel is good overall. Android applications do suffer a little compared to iPhone equivalents, since Google doesn’t have a well-defined look. When you look at an iPhone app, you know what to expect. Perhaps this is because of the strong UI library Apple provides. But when you open an Android application, it may not be obvious what to do next. I think the most important thing I’ve learned is that if I’m not sure what to do, tap the “Menu” soft-button at the bottom of the screen to see what menu items pop up. That usually leads me in the right direction.
These look-and-feel issues may be overcome if Google enforces/encourages specific User Interface Design principles. However, I think the open community culture of Android development may make that difficult. Even with those misgivings, the look-and-feel of the individual UI elements that Android provides are nice.
Overall Experience (So Far)
The Motorola Droid is a solid phone. People frequently poo-poo Motorola for shoddy hardware. That reputation may or may not be deserved, I don’t know. I haven’t owned a Motorola device since I had a Star-Tac (which I loved). But the Droid should reassure smartphone lovers that Motorola is serious about making good hardware. Putting aside the minor screen refresh ghosting, the phone is a really good piece of hardware.
Android 2.0 is the highlight of this phone. It’s a stable, attractive OS with all the bells and whistles. There are a few minor issues here and there. But I’m not surprised, considering this is a dot-Oh release.
Pricing
Make sure you bring plenty of money when you pick one up. Many geekeratti may say “$199 for a smartphone, that’s nothing.” And that may be true, but it’s still not cheap. Also, when you purchase a Motorola Droid from a Verizon store, the phone is actually $299 with a $100 mail-in rebate. So expect to spend $325 or so when you walk in the store. Accessories will probably set you back another $60. So after it’s all said and done, your immediate out-of-pocket expense will be around $400.
I found out after I purchased my phone that you can get the $100 rebate instantly if you purchase from Best Buy instead of going to a Verizon store. I’m surprised that Verizon doesn’t do this themselves, but I would imagine this is some creative accounting on Best Buy’s part so that customers aren’t inconvenienced by mail-in rebates (which I hate).
If you aren’t currently a Verizon customer, you can also get an additional $50 rebate by purchasing the Motorola Droid from Sears. I had no idea Sears was in the cellphone business. Although I didn’t qualify for this rebate (my wife still had a phone with Verizon), if you aren’t a customer it would be silly not to take advantage of the additional discount from Sears. Once you’ve got your phone, you can always go back to a regular Verizon store for customer service.
Customer Service
I had a great experience when I picked up my phone at Verizon. I called in ahead earlier in the week, took care of getting pre-approval for my 2-year contract and asked them to set aside a phone for me. The sales associate (David) who helped me was courteous, thanked me for being well-prepared when I came in for my phone and got me setup quickly.
My only complaint (and this isn’t a dig against their customer service, exactly) is that Verizon insisted on setting up a Gmail account on the phone for me before I left the store. They explained that the phone wouldn’t activate until an account was setup (true) and they wanted to make sure that customers walked out with a working phone. For the average consumer, this is a helpful thing to do. The sales associate mentioned that I was the only one who came in that day who already had a Gmail account. So they were helping customers setup new accounts. For someone who uses Google products all day, every day, this was just another line to wait in until they got the phone setup. The phone setup is wizard based, so I could have done it myself and saved myself the 20 minute wait while other customers in front of me had the same setup performed.
Conclusion
Would I recommend the Motorola Droid to my friends? I can answer that with an unqualified “yes”. It’s a great phone running a great OS. Are there little quirks to keep in mind? Sure. But that’s true of the iPhone, too.
The future is looking good for the Android phone market.
Jason Huebel is a tech geek with no discernable street cred. He’s a social network fanatic, business owner, Linux developer and technology enthusiast. You can follow him via Twitter at http://twitter.com/jhuebel.
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