Toad’s Stool

A Week with a Droid

Posted on 18. Jan, 2010 by Toad in Android, Cell Phones

So I finally got an opportunity to spend some extended time with the Motorola Droid.  Since it’s initial announcement in October there has been a lot of talk about this phone.  Some want to call it an iPhone killer while others call it the next generation of Smart Phone.  I would call it a great piece of hardware running a quality Open Source operating system.

First Impressions

After unboxing the phone, the first thing I noticed was the weight of the phone.  Though it was heavier than I expected, it was heavier in a good way.  It somehow felt more substantial than the iPhone I have grown accustomed to.  Looking it over, there were three buttons immediately available on the outside of the phone.  On the top you found power and on the right side you find a rocker for volume and a button for the camera.  There were two ports on the phone as well, a 3.5MM headphone jack on the top and a Micro USB port on the left hand side for charging and PC connections.

Sliding the screen to the right reveals a Keyboard and a D-Pad for navigation.  I’ll talk more about the keyboard later.  I went ahead and removed the battery cover and quickly noticed something.  Above the battery was a Micro SD slot with a 16GB card installed.  The 16GB of on board memory was in the form of an upgradeable SD card.  This is a fantastic idea.  This gives you the ability to swap out your card for a bigger card or even have multiple cards.  From a consumer prospective this seems like a great idea.

All in all I really like the overall design of the Phone.  It’s not all sleek and minimalistic like my iPhone but it seems to have a rugged quality.  It is the little things like the way the keyboard feels when when you slide it out, or the coating on the backing of the phone that make it feel like you could use it to kill wild game with.  It just simply feels tough.

The Screen

For me, the screen is one of the biggest parts of any phone and I don’t just mean physically.  A screen can make or break the phone.  In the past I have spent a lot of time using windows mobile phones like the AT&T Tilt and others that were great hardware but the screen was just crap.  Like most of your newer phones, the Droid does have a 3.7″ capacitive touch screen.  This is of course the same type of screen used on the iPhone and others.  It makes for a great interactive experience overall.  It also has good resolution at 480×854 WVGA which provides a crisp, clear image.  The screen definitely doesn’t disappoint.  I found that even the tiniest of print was more than readable.

The Keyboard

The keyboard is the biggest physical attribute that sets the Droid apart from the iPhone.  The unfortunate part is that the keyboard is the worst keyboard I have ever use on any device.  As I previously mentioned, I at one time owned an AT&T Tilt.  Within a couple of days of use I became rather proficient with the keyboard on it.  Same goes with the keyboard on my Blackberry bold.  The keyboard on the Droid however is so bad I dont think any amount of time could make the experience better.  Throughout my time using it I found myself gravitating toward the on screen keyboard which overall provides a much better experience.  If the Keyboard is your main reason to want a Droid over the iPhone or other touch screen only phone, keep looking.

The Camera

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the camera.  I have never been a guy to use the camera much on a phone because most camera phones take such bad pictures.  Though I was hoping for more out of the 5mp camera in the Droid, I quickly figured out it was a typical camera phone.  Even with the 2 LED flash, the pictures often seemed dark.  When taking pictures, the delay between button press and image capture almost always made the images blurry.  In the end it’s a camera built into a phone not a phone built into a camera.  You can’t expect a whole lot.

Battery Life

I was very impressed with the battery life of the phone.  For the first two days I barley set this phone down.  I was using it constantly.  Even through all of that usage the phone would still last through a full business day.  Now i know that you thinking a full business day isn’t that long but considering the extensive usage I think it did pretty well.  After the first couple of days I tried to limit myself to more normal usage and I found myself able to extend the battery life to nearly two full days.  Definitely an impressive performance.

One truly unique feature of the Android 2.0 software was the ability to break down power consumption.  When the battery would reach 20% or less it would give the same obligatory on screen warning as most phones.  The thing that makes Android different is the Power usage chart.  It shows you specifically what processes on the phone have consumed power and how much they have consumed since it was last plugged in.  This brings power management to a whole new level.

The Verizon Network

I live in an area where the cell phone service goes to die.  I live in a small town where reception is good but 3G access is not even an option.  If you get too far outside of the town that I live in the reception is noticeably worse.  As a matter of fact Verizon doesn’t even offer service in my local area.  Knowing this I wasn’t expecting much in regards to network coverage but I have to say I was completely surprised.  When around any larger urban areas, such as the town I live in, the service was excellent.  When in other areas I did get to use the 3G service and it was equally impressive.  I will say that I definitely look forward to the day  Verizon begins to offer service in my area.

The Android 2.0 OS

The Android OS is the future of the mobile OS.  I have used a lot of different types of smart phones over the years and I definitely think that the Android OS is among the most intuitive and easy to use.  The “Droid Does” campaign definitely speaks to the heart of the phone.  I have described it to a lot of people as equivalent of a jailbroken iPhone.  It pretty, its easy to use, and it lets you do anything you want to do without restriction.

The User Experience

As I have said, the phone was amazingly easy to use.  It didn’t take me long to get everything working, including email and other necessities.  Customization is just as easy.  The three home screens are yours to customize with shortcuts, widgets and apps to put all the information you want at your fingertips.  While there is no limit to how you can customize your home screens, you are limited to only three screens.  At first this may seem like a stupid limitation but really it makes perfect sense.  if you used eight screens and filled them with links to apps then you would have the equivalent of the iPhone interface.  That’s not what they wanted to do.  The applications menu is easily accessed fromt the home screen so there was no real reason for unlimited home screens.

I also got the opportunity to use the Google turn-by-turn directions that is built into Android.  While it wasn’t the most feature rich turn by turn navigation software I have ever used, it’s free!  If this same level of app were available on my iPhone at no extra charge I wouldn’t purchase an app.  It’s features like this that make the Droid such a great value and such an amazing phone.

One major complaint I have about the Droid is the navigation.  When navigating through large lists or menues, the screen would never scroll smoothly.  Whether this was a hardware problem or a software problem is was definitely annoying.  It may sound like I am being too harsh but these are they little things that make a phone feel complete.

The Applications

In the end I used the Droid as my primary phone for a full week.  I made all of my calls on it, I texted from it and I sent email from it.  As I said, I use an iPhone as my typical phone so I tried to find all of apps I use on my iPhone in the Android Marketplace.  While they were not all in the Marketplace, all of them had an equivalent if not a version that was better than the iPhone version.  Games on the other hand are a different story.  I play a lot of games on my phone and the selection of games available in the Android Marketplace is extremely limited.

Conclusion

I have to say that I definitely like the Droid.  I have seen a lot of phones that had nice software but didn’t have the hardware to back it up.  Likewise I have seen a lot of devices with great hardware but lack the software to allow you yo do what you want to do.  The Droid is an awesome piece of hardware combined with fantastic software that allows you to do whatever you want.  Though it has its minor flaws I wouldn’t hesitate to encourage anyone to take a look at the the Droid when looking for a new smartphone.  That being said, definitely take the time to give one a look ever you ever find yourself to have the opportunity.

Tags: Android, Cell Phones