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Review: Motorola Droid

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Android Market

For all of your application needs, the Android Market is the place to get them. There have been some changes to the Android market lately, which include more information about each application, screen shots, reviews and ratings, and better search. It is still a bit clunky when compared to the iPhone Apps Store but its better than RIM's BlackBerry Apps World, Microsoft's Marketplace for Mobile, and Palm's Apps Catalog.

What's interesting is that there are no Verizon-branded services on the phone. No VZNavigator, no V CAST, none of that stuff. There is, however, a "Verizon" tab in the Android Market. Right now, Visual Voicemail is the only application that is there. I expect others will follow over time.

Android Market

Bluetooth

The Droid supports Bluetooth 2.1 with two new profiles, OPP (to send photos back and forth) and PBA (syncing for cars or car kits). These are welcome additions to the Android platform. It was easily able to pair the Droid with mono headsets, stereo headphones and several computers. Sound quality in both mono (Plantronics Discovery 975 ) and stereo (Motorola S9-HD) headsets was quite good. No complaints from me at all.

Car Home

The Car Home application actually re-draws the user interface of the Droid into a facsimile of a GPS unit. It offers just five huge buttons to choose from, including voice search, navigation, view map, contacts and search. This app makes using the Droid as a navigation unit in the car much easier and safer. The application can be launched from the menu, but it automatically switches to Car Home when the Droid is placed in the navigation accessory.

Car Home

GPS

One of the stand-out new features of Android 2.0 and the Droid is that it offers voice-guided turn-by-turn directions within Google Maps. This is an excellent feature for any phone to have, as it can completely supplant a stand-alone GPS unit in a car. Google Maps for Mobile is already a powerful mobile mapping program. It delivers solid directions, and supports layers that supply additional information such as traffic, Wikipedia entries and other points of interest. In my tests, the Droid did really well at providing routes and accurate turn-by-turn directions. It was able to re-route me when I purposely got lost, and it got me to where I needed to go.

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Motorola Droid

3.7" display 480 x 854 pixels
TI OMAP 3430 processor
1,400 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Hardware Text Keyboard, Headphone Jack (3.5mm)

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