I was prepared to like the Motorola Droid. Actually, I was prepared to love it. Verizon's new Android-based smartphone has been hyped (endlessly, it seems) as an iPhone killer, so I expected great things. Maybe that's why I was so disappointed.
The Droid does have some killer features, like its gorgeous 3.7-inch display and great call quality. But it also suffers from performance that's sometimes sluggish, and a few odd design quirks. Not only is it not an iPhone killer, the Droid isn't my favorite Android-based smartphone. That honor still belongs to Sprint's HTC Hero. Read my full review of the Motorola Droid to find out why.
Image © Motorola
Comments
Even with a few marginal handset advantages I would never consider the switch from the iPhone to the Droid because of all the applications available on the iPhone. I now use applications like NeuroMobile everyday and can’t live without it. The app store has become insurmountable competitive barrier for new smart phone makers.
The idea of a “iPhone killer” is a bit absurd. I want an iPhone but I didn’t want to leave Verizon. Now that their’s a suitable smartphone in the Droid I’m good for the next two years. Even if the iPhone comes out on Verizon now I won’t switch.
I love my Droid im coming from a Windows Mobile phone and I have Horrible Battery Life. I just learned that you can turn off apps and that the phone has Multi touch .. So exciting lol I made a video showing everyone how to do it also if your interested .. Hope it helps some people out
http://www.guysfromqueens.com/?p=765
@AJ
> The app store has become insurmountable competitive
> barrier for new smart phone makers.
Uh, no – tho I can see why you might believe that line, since its been repeated so often on the iPhone fansites. Maybe that was true earlier in the year, but not now.
Look around, AJ; every major iPhone app is en hurrying to the Android market, even as I type these words. Even your fave, NeuroMobile, announced their intentions to go Android, earlier this week. Similar press releases have been coming out, just about daily; UrbanSpoon, Shazam, Photoshop Mobile, Bump…all are either here, now, or they will be in a few weeks.
Meanwhile, maybe you’ve missed the really big news: more and more developers are working on their Android app, first – before an Apple version. Why? Simple: (1) because getting into Android Market is fast & easy, while iPhone’s App Store approval process is obtuse, slow, and confusingly inconsistent, plus (2) Apple won’t allow them to do/use things needed when writing really cool apps.
That’s why your iPhone can’t use Google Voice (free) for VOIP. That’s why Android – not iPhone – will be getting Firefox Mobile (‘Fennec’). And that’s why iPhone users aren’t getting Google’s free Map Navigation app, which includes features of Google Latitude…yet another nifty application that’s been stuck in App Store purgatory for a year or more.
I guess the lesson, here, is that its dangerous to assume that any barrier is truly insurmountable. After all, barriers work in both directions; they can hinder the defending force, as well as the attacking force. And a clever attacker won’t go through your clever defensive line…he’ll look for a way around it. Ask the French how that spiffy Maginot Line worked out for ‘em.
I have to agree with Justa. I’ve had my Droid for six days now and I’ve been almost a dozen updates to applications that I am using.
Not unexpected, since it’s the first device running Android 2.0, but amazing considering the same updates can take weeks for approval on the iPhone app store.
In fact, one app, Locale, had an issue with configuring ring volumes in 2.0 and I emailed the developer to report the bug and my phone was telling me that same evening that an update was available. He had already fixed it.
Really awesome. Also, the phone’s integration with GMail, Google Voice, Maps, Latitude, Talk, etc., is all really amazingly done.
I love my new Droid. Came from Motorola Q. The only problem I had with finding comparable apps to the ones I have on the Q are in the area of eReaders and I expect that will change soon. For me, a selection among 10,000 apps is every bit as good as a selection between 100,000 apps. This thing is lighting fast accessing the internet.
iPhone, iPhone sick of fan boys always glorifying their overpriced Apple products by telling everyone how bad everything else is, yet close scrutiny proves most claims are false. So right now 1 week into the Droid release everyone expects these to be perfect, when iPhones were not. First day of release there are 10,000 apps for the Droid, and there was a handful when the iPhone was released. So now you have 10X more choices to make fart sounds on your iPhone! 98% of the 100,000 Steve Jobs approved apps are stupid and childish and useless even for entertainment purposes. The iPhone will not allow you to replace bad batteries, swap in a fresh battery, no SMS, no external memory expansion, battery replacement will cost $180 with rental charges while Steve Jobs replaces your battery because he thinks you’re too stupid to do this yourself!! the original iPhone didn’t even have a GPS capability whereas even free phones did. There are some things Apple does that are better than others, but Apple also does things that are worse than others. just accept that for once! Apple may be perfect for you but that doesn’t make them perfect!!! Droid is another option for the marketplace for people who shop for what is best and necessary for their needs. Only a fanboy will say “I’ll never switch from my iPhone no matter what!” Everyone else says “what’s the best product for my needs??”
Droid memory is a DISadvantage. It only has 256MB (or was it a whopping 512, I forget) and that is the only place apps can be stored. Graphics intensive apps should store data on the phone, not charge you to download it every time you play. (Verizon has a smaller limit too on data caps). Also, to get to the SD card you must power off your phone, take off the back case and remove the battery.
The problem with Verizon and not commonly mentioned is that you can NOT use voice and data simultaneous with their CDMA network. Thus, multi-tasking is really quite limited with the Droid. My iPhone allows me to talk on the phone and at the same time, check email, browse the web or look at the map. So, in reality, the iPhone does ‘multi-task’ where it is important and the ‘Droid on Verizon’s network doesn’t!
Hello? I left a comment yesterday
I really like the design of the Motorola Droid. Got mine about 2 days ago.
Love the alarm clock feature with the dock station. Hope they make a new version without the keyboard so it can be thinner. The digital keyboard is good enoug for me.
Navigation is really fast thanks to Android 2.0. Typing is kinda hard on the keyboard because of the 4 way navigation pad that is in the way.
Nah, whatever I think the Droid is awesome and can easily take the iPhone.
JIM is the man….I agree with everything he mentioned and comparison to the iphone. I currently have a iphone…testing it for 30days..too many dropped and missed calls…spotty service with Att. The iphone is very simple and straightforward no major complaints on the phone itself other then speakerphone volume on the iphone is low…using it as a music ipod is nice. I’m about to return it and go Droid. The benefits of the Droid out weigh the negatives on Verizon. Had verizon prior to going on Att no reception issues with them in the 408 bay area. Please more comments on your Droid…more the merrier
Jim, i couldnt agree with u more. I beleive Droid will give the iPhone a run for its money or force them to adapt to open development, maybe? The droid is great, I dropped my iphone and came to verizon, i love the networks reliability. The droid is still runing its 2.0 BETA OS, thats right BETA, we should get the official android 2.0 in january 2010 which will hopefully include more homescreens and if my sources are correct we should be able to save apps on the SD card giving us more than enough memory to save our apps on.
I’m not one to build up one thing by putting down another, but I just wanted to point out something from my experience. Even though the iPhone boasts over 100,000 apps, why is it that I’ve got more apps loaded on my Droid than almost all of my friends with iPhones have on theirs? It just goes to show that quantity doesn’t always mean quality. Just because there are over 100,000 iPhone apps available doesn’t mean that they’re all useful to iPhone users.
Now leaving that note, I love my Droid. I’ve been a loyal Verizon customer, mainly due to their superb wireless network — which is why I thought people bought mobile phones in the first place. Besides that, the Droid offered solutions to what I thought were the iPhone’s shortcomings: no replaceable battery, no expandable memory, no free GPS app (seriously…$100 for an iPhone app?), etc. Now I’m not on the bandwagon to call it an iPhone killer — I mean, there’s no rule that says the two can’t coexist in the world; but if I’m going to drop some money on a smartphone and a wireless contract, I want it to serve my needs first and foremost and not buy it just because it’s cool.
And one last thing…all of the casual iPhone users that I know (and realistically, the majority of iPhone owners are casual, not hardcore Apple fans) have ooh’ed and aah’ed over my Droid. That’s gotta mean something.
Oh yeah, and just to show that I’m not a biased Droid geek, I have no problem pointing out it’s flaws…like not supporting hands free voice dialing via bluetooth (which I hope they’ll be correcting with a software update), or the not very ergonomic slide-out keyboard.
to justa and jim and other iphone slammers
i own a iphone 3GS and im quite pleased with this phone, now im not a apple person in fact the iphone 3GS is the first apple product i’ve ever owned partly because they are so darn expensive, but the iphone however is reasonably priced or else i wouldnt own it. iphone does have SMS better late than never…..now the iphone has a lot of cool features tons of apps some i must admitt are useless but i didnt examine all 100,000 apps to tell you if 98% are stupid, all i do know is whenever something comes up in evertday life weather,movies,banking, bussiness, or whatever and i do mean WHATEVER!!, the claim apple makes seems to be true “theres a app for that” and its useful and uselly free. someone complained about memory for iphone which is true there is no expandable memory for iphone and i must admitt it would be nice, but can you tell me which smartphone has at least 8gb of internal memory ( no really! tell me i dont know if its one out there!) but i believe thats the trade off, now i dont know about the droid from what i see its a pretty cool phone, but like the iphone and any other smartphone it has its flaws im sure, so im not slamming one phone over the other. but all must admitt if you have droid, htc, mytouch, or any of the latest hottest app filled phone! you got to admitt you all got apple to thank for it. because when iphone first came out there was no other phone like it, now today you can own a phone that is equal to or better because iphone made everyone compete with it.
I like the iphone and droid phones. I’m fascinated with all the app filled smart phones that are out now but, my major concerns for any of them is battery life and durability. It sucks to have a phone that can do all these wonderful things but cant do them constantly for a full day of use. Honestly, I dont want to have to look for a charger or carry a charger with me all day. I mean, you buy the phone to make use of all these cool apps, not just tinker occasionally, right?
As for my other concern, durability… I love the smart phones but, I also would love to treat them more like a simple clamshell phone that doesn’t have a sensitive touch screen that might get scratched or banged up. It would be nice to see a droid phone that resembled the LG voyager/EnV except only had the screen on the inside where it would be protected. This would also allow for bigger keypad.
Oh well, just some thoughts.
I found the reviews here very helpful. I just bought a Droid as an upgrade to another Verizon phone. I appreciate reading about both sides of the coin here people. Intelligent comments by all. I think that the competition is great, Apple should be forced to improve, and the Droid will be too. I like Verizon’s network, never have issues with services with billing or accounts, it was an improvement from my former contract with Cingular which i ended in 2004. I could see improvement needed very soon with battery life. As these devices get closer to replacing all computers, even laptops, they will need to be able to handle it. And in a world where energy efficiency is a growing concern, there should be focus on developing better technology, including wireless charging that i’ve read about lately. I admit i was dissapointed too that the storage capacity isn’t great on the Droid, but i’m still reading up on the expandability options, with SD cards or whatever so i’m still looking at my options there. Thanks!
John (8) above is either a liar, apple shill, or just a fool. Personally, as the phone “brain” is a stored on the SD card, I would Demand my DROID insist I power-down. (And no, that is not he same issue as mounting/unmounting). But, The really dishonest thing motorola pulled on Verizon and its customers? No possibility of an extended-life battery for the Droid. Not. Ever.
I switched from one of the original iPhones (Not 3GS) on ATT to Verizon when the Droid came out. I must say, it is an amazing phone. I can certainly argue for the iPhone that it is must easier to use, and it moves faster from screen to screen when navigating around the phone’s menu. However, the Droid’s mutlitasking, 5MP camera, QWERTY keyboard (great for games!), larger screen, and removable SD card actually make it better.
I’ve had the Droid for two months now and have not had a problem finding an app i needed on the Android market, so 10k apps or 100k apps doesn’t really matter for me. I did find using the iphone that honestly, the majority of apps on the iPhone app store really are junk or goofy gimicks (steamy screen app, fart apps, fake incoming calls… come on really???).
Also, the announcement of Adobe Flash on Android is really cool, why Apple doesn’t want to embrace this technology for their browser is beyond me!
Now that I’m a Droid user, I can’t see myself changing back to Apple any time soon. Don’t underestimate Apple though, they truly are the market innovators. (Disregard the announcement of the iPad…lol what the heck are they thinking?)
-Josh
Prowse: extended life battery. See link.
I love my Droid. Im coming from a windows Mobile phone and wow what a big step .. I have seen many people say this phone sucks because it doesnt have multi touch but thats not true . the phone is fully capable of multi touch .. I made a video to show how you can do it and also save some battery life hope it helps.
I’ve had the Droid for three months now after owning an ATT Tilt WinMo phone for 2+ years. Is it an iPhone killer, insofar as such a concept is valid? Based on the green tinge around the gills of every iPhone user who checks out my Droid, I’d say yes, undoubtedly.
Yes, there are weaknesses and matters of taste, as well as different hardware and carrier requirements that will make different phones better for different people. All I know is that for me, the Droid does kill the iPhone. I have no sense of missing anything that iPhone users have, unlike the jealousy exhibited by some iPhone users for my Droid. Of course, the carriers also come into play. ATT just doesn’t work at my house, and their 3G coverage is spotty in Texas. I can drive from Houston to west of Austin where I live with interruption-free Pandora or YouTube, while Trapster alerts me of any speedtraps, and Google Navigation gives me turn-by-turn nav the whole way home.
The large, high-res screen makes an incredible e-reader, and I have no desire to own a Kindle or