Verizon Motorola Droid phone review
Droid | Hans | November 9, 2009 at 11:17 pm
On Friday, November 6, Verizon released their first phones running on Google’s Android 2.0 operating system: Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris phone. As I went to my local Verizon store I noticed that there were no long lines, in fact there were only two other people besides me who went in the store. Verizon has been heavily advertising this phone, as the “iPhone killer”, and mocking the iPhone for not having a lot of basic features that the Droid has. Is the Droid really an iPhone killer, and is it really worth it? Continue reading to find out. I got the Motorola Droid, so I’ll be reviewing that phone in this post.
Browser: The browser on the Motorola Droid is very nice, and in my opinion it beats the Safari browser on the iPhone. Just like the browser on the iPhone and on the Palm Pre, it uses the same Webkit engine. The Droid will get Adobe Flashplayer early next year along with the Palm Pre, while the iPhone won’t be getting it any time soon. You can double tap to zoom in or zoom out of a certain section on a web page. Unlike the iPhone or the Palm Pre, multi-touch is not enabled on the browser so you can’t pinch to zoom in or zoom out. The reason I’m saying enabled is because the Droid does support multi-touch but Google has not enabled it for some reason. I hope they do this in the next update. Scrolling through web pages on the Motorola Droid is very fast and smooth, unlike the iPhone there is no checkerboard background when you’re quickly scrolling through web pages. Holding down a link on a web page brings up a menu that shows you the URL the link leads to, and gives you the option of opening the link in a new window, bookmarking the link, saving the link, sharing the link through E-mail/Facebok/Gmail/Messaging, or just copying the URL of the link. Almost every website I go to today has a favorites icon that helps me identify which tab I have it open in, and the Droid’s browser displays the favorites icon for each website you visit. Neither the iPhone, nor the Palm Pre does that. When you open multiple windows in the browser, you can easily find and switch to the Window you want to go to. With the iPhone or the Palm Pre, you need to slide your windows left or right and find which one you want. The browser supports copy and paste, you can tap the “Select text” button from the menu, select your text, and it automatically gets copied to the clipboard. You can bookmark websites and save them to the Bookmarks menu or save them to your home screen. All the bookmarks in the bookmark menu display a screenshot of the website that you bookmarked and the title. The browser also has a “Find on page” feature that allows you to enter in some text and find a certain keyword you are looking for on a web page you’re viewing, unlike the iPhone. The browser also allows you to speak and search on Google without having to type what you’re searching for.
Multiple apps: One of the big features of the Motorola Droid is that it can run multiple apps. The iPhone can only run one application at a time. The Palm Pre can run multiple applications, but it lags whenever I have more than one application open. I was actually surprised when I opened multiple applications on the Droid, there was no lag and I was able to quickly switch between other applications without any problem.
Android Market: The applications store on the Droid is called the Android Market. You can download free applications without having to register an account, but you must register an account with Google Checkout in order to download paid applications. While browsing the Android Market, I downloaded the top Twitter application (Tweed) and noticed that the interface of it wasn’t that great compared to the interface that most of the iPhone apps use. The iPhone App Store has a lot of better applications than the ones found on the Droid, and it definitely has better games as well. If you are a games person, you definitely don’t want to get the Droid, there is no game on there that is worth buying in my opinion. Downloading applications from the Android market was a better experience than downloading applications from the App Store. I was able to download multiple apps without having to exit the Android Market application and I was also able to check how much percent of each application was downloaded. On the iPhone, I have to manually open the App Store application each time wanted to download a new app.
Keyboard: The Droid has a physical keyboard with a D-Pad and a virtual keyboard. Typing on the physical keyboard wasn’t easy at first because the keys are flat, but after trying it a couple times I am now used to it. I prefer to use the virtual keyboard though, it’s easier to type on that. I wish Motorola hadn’t included a D-Pad on the physical keyboard, otherwise the keys would have been a little bigger. Typing on the virtual keyboard was very easy, but I did tend to make more mistakes than I did when I typed on the iPhone. The iPhone’s virtual keyboard is still the best.
Camera: Despite the Motorola Droid having a 5.0 Megapixel camera, it’s camera is no better than the iPhone’s camera. It can take videos and pictures, but the quality of the pictures isn’t that great. The camera application also tends to be slow or even freezes at times. I’m pretty sure that this is a software issue and it will be fixed in the next Android 2.0 update.
Customization: You can easily customize the icons for the applications you download, the theme of your phone, or even add widgets. iPhone users don’t have much customization options without having to jailbreak.
Conclusion
As of right now, the Motorola Droid is the best and fastest phone running Google’s Android 2.0 operating system. I liked the Motorola Droid, and I’ll definitely be keeping it over the iPhone. Why am I doing this? It’s on Verizon’s network, which is far more reliable than AT&T, it supports multi-tasking, the browser experience is great and it will support flash, and the screen size of the Motorola Droid is bigger than the iPhone. As a previous iPhone user, I will miss the games that I downloaded and played but I will also be more productive. This post was just a quick review, without any screenshots/videos, so I highly recommend that you go to your local Verizon Store and actually try this out and decide if you like it or not. You can check out a full review of the Motorola Droid with pictures and video at Engadget.
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Droid Does: Pictures, specs, and release date for Verizon Motorola Droid
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Verizon Motorola Droid phone with Android 2.0 is coming on November 6
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Droid by Motorola
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Verizon Droid Pictures
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Ok…really I hate verizon…so droid is a total bust for me…I’m sorry everything u described that the droid does, I can do on my iPhone already…but since it’s made by motorola and isn’t one of the military grade phones they were known for from sprint, it’s going to break just like all of the razor phones and everyother phone they have made…dude all I gotta say, iPhone is by far the best smartphone out there next to the palm pre, and htc windows mobile phones, the android os is crap!!! Google is stretching their legs and getting them broke…sorry…I’m not a fanboy, I’m just stating my opinion based upon what I’ve seen, and tested…iPhone and htc and palm…no google mobile os phones
“Motorola: for years the name has been synonymous with… well, disappointment.” LOL, I so agree with you Dman. I’ve had other smart phones and a couple of motorola phones too and now I have an iPhone. Everything the droid does my iphone does, without stalling. And as for this review is just seems like you (the reviewer) just wants to knock the iphone. Most people who read or visit this site have jailbroken phones and can do all the things the droid can do. I’ll save my opinion on the droid until I test it out, but for now I can say it kinda looks alright when it’s closed and you’re facing it head-on but when it’s closed but open? It’s ugly, and that d-pad is an eyesore, also when it’s closed I don’t like that little lip it has on the bottom. But as for the os, like I said I’ll save my opinion on that when I test it.
Verizon’s CDMA network technology, incessant commercials, and notorious service-selling and overbilling are all shite. It’s true. They do have slightly better coverage, though.
Regardless, it’s not any worse than what makes AT&T awful as shit, too, and it’s hardly any reason to pass judgement on the Droid. The Droid’s still no jailbroken iPhone, but give it a couple years, like the iPhone’s had, to establish itself, and it may be something very special. Until then, it’s extremely unrefined.
I got the Droid two days ago and love it. The keyboard is a bit tight and the camera is slow but the browsing is excellent as noted above. I suspect that the iPhone may have a better user interface and better games but I need decent cell phone coverage and, in my area, AT&T is just not as good as Verizon.
For me a first-hand experience is required for a more solid & sound conclusion. As much as the features sound impressive, i still prefer my iphone…mostly because of the games. For Droid & any other competitor it will take ages to reach the flexibility of choices available on apple-store….by the time they reach the BUIMILLION mark, apple will be way-way ahead!
Still competition is important because it gives us, the consumers a larger variety to choose from, so let all the “iphone killers” pour out!
=)
not to beat a dead horse but moto products suck
enough said
love my jailbroken 3gs
Soooo, I am surprised by the iphone users discredit to the Droid. I just got my Droid on Friday. I compared w/ a iphone over theweekend. Droid, slightly faster. The actual key pad, can lengthen the life of your touch screen. I love the phone. I am still learning. I doubt I will ever have to “jail break” to get what I want. Who’s afraid of the compitition? does it make you feel better to say “i still have the best phone” every thing has it’s flaws, just admitting to it is the hardest part! Motorola, has been around for many years, many quality products!! yes some not so greats. Lets put that out there; Ford “mustang II”, a flop it doesn’t mean that Ford didn’t make another quality product. What ever, w/out actually using side by side and taking into consideration user preferences. How could “Dman” or others make any quality comments or review. Have a nice week!!
oh you’ll have to jailbreak it – as long as DRM exists, you’ll have to jailbreak
hey the mustang II itself might have been a flop. but it had a great frond end thats a standard for most hot rod builders. i have one under my 38 chevy :)!!!
Iv had almost every smartphone on the market paid lots of $ I cannot have the same phone for very long i have an ATT, Tmobile, and verizon account. I have all apple products imac macbook pro iphone 1st gen 3g 3gs ect. out of all phone iv used yet iv always come back to the iphone. As an apple crack head i admit i LIKE the droid. i bought one and am now using it over all its a better phone iphone does have some better things about it but over all the droid beats it. Mainly i like it because i dont have to scroll threw 1000 paige’s of apps to find what im looking for love google search on desktop and when i receive a phone call is does not kick me out of the app im in. 3g way faster and i have 3g most of the places i go. i get lucky to get 3g with att. I will be sticking with the droid.
“Jailbreak” enough said with an iPhone you can do all the things that the droid can do and way way more.
I understand that the droid has not been out but a few days and hasnt had anytime to improve. I have held and messed around with the phone on saterday and I didn’t see anything special. I understand why many get it because it is on verizon but service isn’t anything I have to worry about though.
Now with all that said I will always love the iPhone.
There are many many reasons why and one reason is unlocking for when I go out of the country.
But everybody has different needs and opinions.
Amen!
I own an iPhone and love it. I do also think Google and their products are bad arse. So I’m definitely looking forward to see the OS at work. I will though tell you this: I will not be purchasing a Moto phone any time in my lifetime. I think they make garbage phones. I’ve tried too many Motos in my lifetime to make me very hesitant to try another one. Rant sorry.
Go Android. Excited to see what Googl has to bring on other phone manufacturers. If anyone can be an iPhone killer it’ll be googl paired with a great phone maker. Googl Sony or Nokia marriage would be awesome.
Just a heads up on something the Droid doesn’t do that it should.
It will NOT natively sync to an Exchange server that has policies in place to force a password &/or allow for remote disabling/wiping the device.
You must download a third party app called “Touchdown” ($30) to make this work.
You also do NOT need the Enterprise package (which no one can explain just what that does other than add $15 to your bill) on a personal phone to sync with Exchange. We tested it with & without the Enterprise package & there was no difference.
The guys at the Verizon store we use did, however, issue a $30 credit to offset what we spent on the Touchdown app.
Barbarah
droid looks interesting from what i have seen of it. i love my iphone and have everything i want from it due to jailbreaking. i would love to get rid of AT&T but until someone matches my VVEERRRRYYY old contract price i’ll stick with them. hard to beat my $70 a month for unlimited EVERYTHING on my AT&T Iphone.
just wish my local coverage wasn’t so spotty….
I spent all weekend with a pair of Droids. At first, I thought I was going to sell the 3GS and get a Droid. Absolutely no way. Applications frequently hang or don’t work, the camera is a ******* joke and will NOT quit refocusing ARRG! Browsing is chunky and bloated feeling, and nothing that’s animated goes smoothly – it’s all stuttery. The app store is flimsy and cheap feeling and chocked full of applications priced to sorely disappoint when compared to Apple’s store.
It’s a step in the right direction, what with widgets and the likes, but the widgets don’t even come remotely close to making the phone a contender to a jailbroken iPhone.
I really, REALLY, wanted to the Droid to be the phone messiah, but as of right now, it’s got at least two years of product maturation to stand a chance. Open platform is cool. Tactile keyboard is cool. Nothing is really “great” – just “cool.” Wait, I take that back, the screen is fantastic, and that’s pretty much the only thing that’s noticably better about it than the iPhone.
24 hours after my initial Droid usage, I was sold on one. 48 hours after initial usage, I’m HUGELY thankful I didn’t prematurely pull the trigger on one. It’s too unrefined.
Oh, and something you wont hear very often – CDMA is ******* bullshit crap – while using the voice capabilities, you cannot also do data capabilities unless you’re also on WiFi – and the thing’s already got a ******* laughable battery life – you’ll immediately need to go download a task manager program to kill all the programs you run and widgets to quickly enable/disable GPS and WiFi or the thing only lasts about 5 hours.
Agreed, CDMA networks are no good compared to GSM networks.
Nothing compares to an iPhone the mini computer !!!!!,,, u can ssh your files u dowloaded from dtunes,,, dtunes let u download free music ,,, droid can’t ,,,, droid has flasH !!!! So does a jb iPhone ,, Theres so many things iPhone can do I can go on for days ,, plus u have cracked ipa ,, get any app free , I have alll the latest games all free ,, droid can’t ,,,, I can put ot so many things droid can’t ,,, I understand it’s a great phone and it’s fast and reliable but it’s not as sleek as an iPhone ,, it’s a phone ,,,,,, not an iPhone
I hope the flash come some day to iPhone.
You have to realize that an iPhone has to be jailbroken, bcuz then its easily the best phone in the market today.
I’m getting a droid on the 26 of DEC when my verizon contract is up for renew. Fist of all I have an LG chochlate right now and have done extensive research on the droid. I have a jailbroken iPod touch 2G. I have to say verizon is way more reliable when it comes to 3G coverage. I get ev-do or whatever almost anywhere and I live in mountainous southern Oregon. The droid looks amazing AND you do not have to jailbreak to get the features of a jailbroken 3G or 3GS. The droid allows you to mount it as a USB drive which eliminates the need to SSH. In my OPINION what I’ve seen of the droid and what I know of the iPhone, the droid wins the NON-JAILBROKEN race. When the iPhone is jailbroken it leads in certain areas over the droid and vice versa. Installous is first PIRACY and illegal and won’t work on the latest firmware anyway (3.1.2) If your on verizon and don’t want to switch for an iPhone the droid is a great solution. If your thinking about leaving AT&T because of their shoddy signal then the droid might be for you. CDMA. Does impair the phone from internet and calls at the same time without wifi but really who is going to send a txt AND surf the web at the same time. Multi touch ( pinch to zoom ) works on the euro version and works on 3rd party apps in the US. IMobile cinimra is a poor version of what I call flash and in my experience very unreliable. Hopefully this helped anyone who wasn’t sure of the differences in phones.
Droid does not have multi touch screen
Yes it does fucktard do some research before you post. It is just not activated yet in the native apps but marketplace apps can support it.
I love my iPhones and I learned how to Jailbreak two years ago and will be forever grateful to all the developers who taught me what I now know. I never use the phone feature on my iPhones (I HATE talking on the phone and Voicemail is always full) but I am always using them. I don’t unlock mine, but I know how to, and how to keep from having a paperweight. Apple may keep people from doing certain things without JailBreak, but if they didn’t force people to do these things they wouldn’t really know all the potential of these phones either… The people who jailbreak use applications that most people would be afraid to use, and things that you may only do on a MacBook.
Suffice it to say…iPhones rule, and still set the standard for all the new smart phones to come. Motorola was a clever marketing choice, and Lucas Films shooting off DROID bombs into the countryside and fishing waters was an attention getter but VERIZON needs to do a little better than claiming they have the better 3g coverage. Cause I haven’t switched back, and I didn’t really like them whem I used their service one bit.
This is sad. The DROID has only been out for a short time period and Apple fans have already attacked it. When the iPhone first came out, you rarely heard the valid complaints about the original iPhone’s lack of basic capabilities such as MMS or even Bluetooth/ voice commands. The DROID enters the market with everything that the iPhone DIDN’T when it first came out. Now with the DROID’s entry, everyone is simply comparing the first DROID to Apple’s latest iPhone, the 3gs. Problem is that this isn’t exactly a fair comparison. Why? Simply this: to compare Apple’s latest 3gs with the initial release of the DROID is like making a similar, illogical comparison of a today’s latest computer to earlier computers. Only after years of refinement and several firmware/hardware updates did the iPhone reach its so-called smart phone dominance today. Years. Take note of that fact. Only now do you get MMS, Bluetooth and even voice commands on the iPhone…years after the fact. Apple fans tend to forget that the original DROID can do all that the original iPhone could NOT do. Instead of comparing the first iPhone with the DROID, fans much rather point at the newest one and say that it’s the best (just because it finally caught up to the game). Sure, you can jailbreak an iPhone, but what good is that if you can’t do anything useful with the iPhone’s native OS? Again, this is making an unfair and illogical comparison. It’s like saying that comparing a performance-enhanced sports car with another car’s base model is a fair comparison.
I dont know what iphone he was using but i tried the droid and it suxs web browser is ok but with multitouch disabled its kinda a bitch on certain sites and for as for flash i dont really care at this point but would bre nice to have. the keyboard is a little stiff maybe because im used to iphones keyboard but ive typed much faster on other phones besides the iphone and this keyboard has really slowed me down. The camera is pretty much the same which is lame since its got a 5 megapixel and im just comparing to the 2 megapixel 3g not 3gs so i think 3gs camera would own droids. Android market is shit right now but who knows how it will end up. Also my iphone loaded up a webpage a few seconds faster than the droid i tried out and they were both running 3g so i dont see much improvement form verizon so i dont know why so many people are bitching at at&t theyre the same shit! In conclusion droid is a pretty nice phone but compared to the iphone id rahter take sprints pre.