Motorola Droid 2
Phone Scoop Review
Aug 16, 2010 by Philip Berne
The Motorola Droid 2 succeeds the hot-selling Droid with an improved keyboard and a smoother design. Is this still the phone that should carry Verizon's Android flag? read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Great phone but...
I love the improvement over the original Droid(Keyboard,Processor,Froyo) but there are 2 big cons that stop me from giving this phone a 5.0 rating
1. Battery life. It stinks/ Even with the Extended battery there are still issues.
2. WHY DOES IT RUN SO HOT. Seriously, I have done the *228, opt 2 to see if this would fix the problems. It didn't and this is my second one.
I am going back to my Blackberry
Wait it out
I got the Droid 2 a few days ago and at first was struggling with it. The signal was buggy, the syncing wasn't working properly, and the battery was pretty bad.
It's now the fourth day and everything works PERFECTLY. Battery has lasted over 24 hours, still maintains a 30% charge, I been trying to run the battery putting the display on high, enabling blue tooth and for 3 hours it;s still at 30%.
The signal is consistent and doesn't fluctuate anymore.
Overall, extremely satisfied. In a month I'll review again just to confirm the satisfaction.
My suggestion for everyone is to wait it out, when first purchasing the phone it needs to sync everything, and whatever else it does on the network and after the fourth day it's running really well.
Sounds like the Droid X speaker
It is what it is, an update in every way except the speaker.
I suspect after playing around with a friends Droid X Motorola used the same speaker or CODEC in the Droid2.
Other than that it's a great update, much needed better keyboard.
Really, Really Good!
I came from the HTC Incredible- great phone, horrible battery life. But this isn't going to be a comparison- the Droid 2 can stand on its own!
Build:
This is phone is weighty, not so heavy as to be cumbersome, but you know when you are holding it. The hardware seems very good quality. The slide out keyboard opens and closes positively and has a good tactile feel to it.
Screen:
Great screen- OK one comparison-I can see the screen in direct sunlight! The virtual keyboards work well-very accurate. I like the slide out better because I can see the whole screen text while typing.
Sound Quality:
Superb. I have not noticed a low speaker volume at all-it's quite loud- and I am hard of hearing. I played a movie and had no probs at all.
Call Quality:
Excellent voice and signal quality uplink and downlink, even with bluetooth.
Software:
Great Android 2.2- I really missed not having bluetooth voice commands on Androids and now we do- it works flawlessly.
Summary: One of the best phones I have ever used. This one is a keeper!
Droid 2 - Speaker very low
I am in total agreement with the review today from User Kermitjr. The speakerphone for calls, music and other audio is to low. The Original Motorola Droid speaker volume is much louder.
Some Other Items:
Pros:
-Nice design
-Android 2.2
-Very Fast with 1GHZ processor
-Calls are clear (not using speakerphone)
-Reception is good
-Vibrate is good
Cons:
-Touch Screen is very sensitive and causes mistakes
-Android 2.2 build is VZW not FRG22 which is the latest 2.2 build
-All audio through speakerphone is too low
SPEAKER!!!!!!
We us humans do not have the same hearing as dogs do!! So why build these phones that the speaker is so low that us humans can't hear unless its 5 inches away? The first droid had a great speaker, so why would you guys change something that works so good in the past? Same story with these new Motorola droids.{Droid X and Droid 2} Where is the speaker? How can a communications company that is world known for building mobile devices be this bad at installing a decent speaker in these phones? Come on Motorola!!!!
Fantastic Update
While the Original Droid was an excellent phone this update corrected all of the problems that the original had.
PRO:
1 GHZ processor. Very Quick
Keyboard. I don't know about you but the origiinal Droid keyboard was bad. This one makes up for it
Froyo. A great Android update
Flash
It works with the original Droid accessories(battery, Multimedia station) No need to rebuy accessories. That saved enough to pay for it.
CONS: NONE!
IT doesn't offer all the bells and whistles the Droid X has but Motorola listened to the complaints of the first one and fixed them. Sure you can overclock the original and install the Froyo update but the bump in speed is enough to give this a 5 rating
The Droid is doing the moonwalk
This is definetly a step backwards if not considering that it has Android 2.2 Froyo. I mean the speaker stinks, the phone is extremely heavy and bulky, it doesn't feel as nicely made as the first Droid,even the plastic feels cheap. It get so hot it almost doesn't make want to make a call. On screen keyboard feel uncalibrated all the time. It freezes like a win phone. They even kept the same camera (5mp is decent but definetly not an upgrade), they should of made this phone with a 8mp camera...the original droid is better, but if you are going to upgrade then go for something like the Droid X.
Very good, could still be improved
I upgraded from the original Droid which was stellar to begin with. The Droid 2 fixes a lot of the issues I had with the original Droid, but has a few quirks of its own that hopefully will be fixed with software revisions.
PROS:
+ Call Quality is excellent, even better than the original Droid
+ Reception is outstanding, identical signal readings to the original Droid
+ 1 Ghz processor really helps
+ Outgoing call quality is much better than other touchscreen phones.
+ Motorola added a few shortcuts to make navigation easier
+ Keyboard is an improvement (still not amazing by any means)
+ Build Quality is good (smoother slider than the original Droid)
NEUTRAL:
= Would have liked to see separated keys on the keyboard
= 5 MP camera is unchanged from the original Droid (Decent, not great)
CONS:
- External Buttons still feel cheap and wiggly (Power, volume rocker, camera key)
- Phone occasionally stalls when using the app drawer, swiping between homescreens, zooming the browser, or hitting home while in an app. I'm hoping a software update will fix this
-Speakerphone volume is quite a bit lower than the original Droid. It's adequate for most situations, but in a noisy environment, forget it. The speaker for ringtones is plenty loud, so I think it's software related.
-On screen keyboard is incredibly inaccurate sometimes, and when typing long messages quickly, the phone will stall skipping letters.
Overall, I will say the phone is better than the original Droid, but if you currently have an Android phone, and DO NOT have an upgrade available, DO NOT pay more than $200 for this phone. It's very good, but not a big enough of an upgrade to warrant spending a fortune.
If you demand the latest and greatest and you have a Droid 1, look into the Droid X instead or wait for the rumored Droid Pro.
Droid 2
I have had the opportunity to play with all the Droid devices. I opted for this one because I wanted a physical keyboard.
Initially, as stated by others, the first day, everything was quirky. Signal, battery life, e-mails, sensitivity, etc.
Day 6: Everything works great! Time and patience seemed to have fixed the bugs.. Please give this time... it is worth it if you desire a qwerty...
PROS:
2.2 Interface
Touch screen very responsive
Quickness
Keyboard
Signals good
Voice Quality good
Sound Good
Flash
Bluetooth Fix
Cons:
Size and weight is hard to adapt too.
Speaker phone isn't loud enough.
