Motorola Droid
Phone Scoop Review
Nov 2, 2009 by Eric M. Zeman
Here is Phone Scoop's full-length, in-depth report on the new Motorola Droid. It easily bests most other Android phones out there, but still has a few major drawbacks. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Best Phone I Have Ever Owned!
Pros:
-Best screen on the market. Highest resolution and 24-bit color.
-Made of metal and thick glass very durable ive dropped it twice and still works great.
-Great signal reception and sound in ear-piece.
-Tons of free apps.
-Has a keyboard
-Comes with 16 GB mirco SD card!
-Excellent Battery life.
-Best network Verizon network!
-Easy to use android OS.
-Daul processor super fast.
Cons:
-The only one would be that the phone is a bit heavy but thats to be expected because its made of metal not cheap plastic.
I believe this is the best phone on the market right now. Every manufacturer has their good and bad models but Motorola has really out done themselves with this one!
DROID
One word AWESOME this is my first smart phone and I am glad I waited. I researched this phone very carefully and all the reviews were right. It is a cinch to set up everything works like it is suposed to earpiece is loud and clear,screen is awesome, have a choice of three keyboards, emailing is so easy to set up and use, camera is great I could go on and on but you get it i
I love this phone.
The best, period.
Amazing phone!
I will preface this by saying I have had a lot of time with the iPhone's 3g 3gs, and I will not "get used to" the lack of feel the screen keyboard has, and the fact that it takes up space. On the iPhone or nexus or droid eris, doesnt matter.
Since everyone wants to know I made a compilation of...
Droid vs iPhone:
Better Keyboard (it has one)
Better Processor (faster)... See More
Better Camera (5 megapixel)
Better Maps (Street view pwns)... See More
Better Navigation (free!)
Better Network (Verizon)
Better OS (imo)
High Quality youtube on 3G
Removable battery
Removable 16gb mSD expandable to as high as mSD cards go now...
More expandability (android doesnt need jail-breaking)
Widgets and more homescreens w/o jailbreak
Multiple apps and webpages running doesnt slow it down
I was playing with in class today Surfing with 5 tabs open, had texting in the backround, my calendar and youtube. I was just flying thorugh the apps I forgot what normal phones are like lol!
6months and no problems!
Amazing Device
Pros-
Amazing media capabilities
Superb web browsing experience
Very long battery life
Runs on Verizon's great network
Awesome call quality
Super snappy and quick
Android is a great Mobile OS
The touchscreen feels great
Cons-
Limited number of apps
Keyboard can be cramped
Summary-
Twice as good as my iphone 3g!!!
An amazing phone, I wish it was cheaper
Not perfect, but an amazing device
I am coming to this phone from the BB curve.
Pros:
-Battery life. If anyone says the battery life sucks, they either walk around with bluetooth and wifi on 24/7, or didn't allow it a full charge cycle before complaining. I had 50 minutes of talk time, plenty of text/email, games, listened to music, d/led apps.. and still had 50% life after a 15 hour day. That's better than my Curve.
-Web browsing. Compared to the bb browser im used to, this is luxury. Lightning fast speeds (I'm talking 3G, not wifi), press the search button and you can find pretty much anything within seconds.
-Call quality. Loud and crisp. No complaints on either end so far.
-Display. I know everyone already said it, but it has to be seen to be fully believed. Beautiful looking screen for game playing, web browsing or anything else.
-Apps. The apps are a mixed bag: the positive is there are plenty of cool things out there that will make your life easier or just plain make you say "that's awesome" (like the Locale app).
Cons:
-Apps. This is hard to take points off for, since Android is a new OS, but certain categories of apps are obviously lacking.
-Keyboard. Im glad there is a physical keyboard, and it isn't terrible, but it isn't great either. Slightly better than the virtual keyboard.
-Rough around the edges. Android OS is still unpolished. There are still some quirks or bugs- ie, droid puts your synced contacts from your old phone under a different folder than new contacts you add manually- so they aren't all displayed unless you check a box with no description buried deep in the settings menu. This is not the end of the world, but it's an example of how this phone is a little rough.
Summary:
That old iphone ad about not having to take 4 devices with you anymore because you have an all in 1 definitely applies here. Games, email, camera, music, phone, why would you need anything else? Its still unpolished, but the Android OS will only get better with time.
Awesome Phone!
Pros:
-Multi-tasking is awesome!
-Beautifully large screen.
-Turn-by-turn directions at no additional cost and 360 view!
-5.0 megapixel camera that takes great quality pictures.
-Full keyboard, not a huge fan of virtual keyboards.
-Lightning fast web browsing!
-Customizable with multiple screens.
Never freezes and runs fast all the time. I do occasionally shut down my apps using a free task killer and it works great and takes maybe 1 or 2 seconds to shut down apps running in the background. Runs great.
-The apps. Granted, not as many as the Iphone, but still tons. Who needs 8 different tip calculators anyway.
Cons:
-The phone is a little heavier than I like.
-The top keys of the keyboard can sometimes be hard to hit for my thumbs, but it's still nice to have a keyboard.
-I wish the phone were more affordable, but pretty much all advanced phones are expensive.
Overall the phone is absolutely sick. I will miss getting e-mails immediately with my blackberry, but the e-mail setup is still pretty solid. I also used to own an Iphone and I have to say this phone matches the Iphone pound for pound and in many respects is a much better phone. It has a better camera, bigger screen, is more customizable, and is just as fast. Plus there is the obvious and one of the main reasons I dropped the Iphone, the Verizon network simply blows ATT away, hands down. I would definitely recommend this phone, it is well worth it.
This IS the Droid you are looking for
This phone is as close as I've seen to perfect. This is in the same tier as the iPhone, in my opinion, even though they are focused on different things.
First of, lets clear this up right out of the gate... Despite it's ads, it is not meant to be an iPhone killer. It is a competitor. That is all. It has a few things that the iPhone sorely lacks, and has to give up a little bit to get it.
So, let's get to the meat and potatoes of the review:
Pros:
Screen - It is amazing! Blows every other screen on a phone out of the water.
Great battery life - Lasts a full day, no problems
Android 2.0 - I liked android to begin with. 2.0 is powerful, and easily customizable
Camera - Despite it's date related bug (now fixed), the camera is great, and I use it all the time
Keyboards - Both the virtual and physical keyboards are excellent, although there is a SLIGHT issue with the physical one (see cons)
Design - This one is up for debate, but I think the phone just plain looks cool.
Call Quality - The big one, of course. And by far the most important. And the Droid is among the best of the best, on the best network for calling.
Cons:
The Chin - Some people on the net joke about android phones (except the Sprint Hero) having a chin. My only issue on the Droid with this, it it does make the hand placement for typing on the physical keyboard a bit awkward. No big deal, just annoying
QUALITY of Apps - The Android Market is great, but the selection of apps reminds me of the first few months of the apple app store. Mostly random crap I'll never use. Give it a couple more months, and I think it'll be better.
Overall, I LOVE this phone. It is a Smart phone, but is easily accessible because of Android. While not as intuitive as the iPhone, it is a powerful phone that is usable by everyone.
A geek's delight!
I've had my Droid for a couple of weeks, and am still loving it. It's possibly my favorite new gadget since TiVo!
Everyone's already done the many Pros to death, so I'll focus on the Cons:
- the UI is techie-oriented, still needs some refinement in usability and intuitiveness. I still find myself lost sometimes trying to figure out how to do some things.
- some of the built-in apps aren't particularly good. The SMS client, GMail reader, etc all are surprisingly basic.
- physically it's a big bigger and heavier than I'd want. The keyboard could be better but it's not as bad as some claim.
- the multi-tasking is a blessing and a bit of a curse - it gets confusing to know exactly what is running and things don't always switch as you'd expect. For example if you have the browser open, then go Home and open another app which displays through the browser, then when you hit "Back" it goes back to the previous browser page, NOT back to the app that called it. Confusing.
The one huge Pro to yell out about is the Google Maps, Navigator and Street View... these get ooo's and ahhh's every time I show them - truly spectacular functionality - 2 separate people have remarked "that's better than Star Trek". And it's true!
An awesome first step for Verizon, can't wait to see what's coming up next.
Oh, top marks to Verizon for the flawless upgrade process and activation experience. It couldn't have been easier, and was infinitely better than anything I ever tried to do with AT&T.
Excellent but not Perfect (but neither are we)
I have had this phone for about 10 days and felt that I have played with and used it enough to write a review. I have had a Blackberry, Motorola Q, Vogue (HTC Touch) and now the Droid. My son also has an Itouch and I have played with many of my friend's Iphones as well. It is not an Iphone killer, but it was not really designed as such. It was designed to be a smartphone on an open platform to work with Verizon - and it does what it sets out to do very well. I find that Android is further along that Windows Mobile (I was running 6.5 on my Vogue), even though the latter has been around a lot longer. It also helps that I have 2 Google Apps accounts so the synchronization and setup was very easy.
Pros:
*Setup and synchronization with Google Apps was easy
*Android market is great and adding more apps each day
*Google Navigation is amazing and I will be selling my TomTom
*Email and messaging is a breeze
*Browser is great
*Google Voice and other dialing apps have made it possible to not use virtually any of my airtime minutes
*Qwerty keyboard (at least it has one)
*Reception is great
*Many many more
Cons:
*Battery life could be better
*Currently no sync for groups (but neither did Windows Mobile)
*Qwerty keyboard is a little hard to type on (but at least it has one)
*A little buggy but will get better with future updates
*Vibrate is not that strong
*Cannot charge while the power is off
All in all, a 4.5 out of 5.0 because nothing is perfect.
Blackberry? Never heard of it!
I have had this device for about 3 days now. All I can say is WOW. This is what a blackberry could have been. This device is packed with features that a business professional can use and it is also highly functional as a phone and as a mild form of entertainment. The aspect of this that really makes this device standout is the ease with which gmail calendar, contacts, etc.. sync right up with it. There's not going back to blackberry for me! Good job moto, google and vzw!
