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
For a Professional IT guy it's Great
I had always been a Blackberry guy, No issues no complaints. I went to verizon 2 months ago and they talked me into trying the Droid 2, So i said what the heck. The phone is a solid phone with so weight behind it, That shows me it's not cheap made. The processor is quick the no hang-up when bringing up apps. Volume is very good on the ear piece and speaker phone, Screen has a nice color plenty of space for adding new apps for business.. I use this phone everyday for business and not an everyday toys to text my friends.. Oh Yea and for the battery life i get 2 full days out of it syncing with to servers and using remote desktop app most of the day... So what i'm saying is that i'm not seeing any problems like everyone else has with the phone. But would tell anyone to try it and see your next option for a blackberry...
Freezes, Crashes, and Malfunctions, Oh My!
This is the second Motorola DROID I have owned. I owned the original DROID, and in my opinion I had less problems with that phone. I bought the R2D2 DROID after my refurbished DROID's touchscreen completely stopped working.
After owning the R2D2 DROID since January, here are my comments on it:
Major problems:
- freezes often
- I'm an avid texter, which is why I bought a phone with a slide-out keyboard. After a few months the keyboard stopped working responsively, and I am now forced to use only my on-screen keyboard.
- The on-screen keyboard has malfunctioned completely on me twice, and I've been forced to do a factory reset twice, causing me to lose all my downloaded apps.
- Slow
- Sometimes it has a mind of its own and randomly starts choosing things.
This phone is not made to last. I've only had it since January and I'm afraid I'll have to do another factory reset soon because the touchscreen keeps wigging out.
as for the said volume issue........
there is not issue with the volume on the Droid 2 the i read all the reviews on here before i got my phone and out of the box the volume on the droid 2 is not turned all the way up. It takes but a second to turn the volume all the way up and when this is done it is actually louder then the original Droid 1 (when measured with db meter to registers around a 9 db gain over the droid 1). HERE IS THE INSTRUCTIONS TO TURN IT UP. First from the home screen press the menu button to the far left then select settings. next find and select sound from the settings screen. Last you need to select volume from the sound settings screen and slide everything over to the far right.!!!!. This is very easy to do and it took me seconds after getting the phone to find out how to do this. its sad to see so many that could not find this out on there own, but for those people here is your fix,..... enjoy Sound meter used to test side by side droid 1 and droid 2 after changing setting
Decent Phone
This phone is a pretty nice phone if you want a qwerty slide keyboard and a 3g phone. Battery is ok and can last me a whole day.
Pros:
-Sleek design
-Touch screen and qwerty slide keyboard
-Durable
Cons:
-Battery life needs improvement
-first time i got it my buttons fell off
Has its good, and bad
The good:
The keyboard is a very nice feature. It feels good and makes typing on a physical QWERTY easy. I have had no problems with it, so that has been a plus.
Pretty good 5mp camera, and has flash. Sometimes the pictures come out too dark or fuzzy depending on the lighting, but other times it comes out crystal clear, so it depends. Video quality is nice.
The okay:
For the battery, it is to be expected that it isn't great. My Blackberry could do 2-3 days, so switching to this was a little different. It can go about a day, but needs to be charged every night, and can sometimes die halfway through the day if I am using it too much. It isn't a huge flaw, I know this is to be expected of smartphones, and compared to other phones this is not awful.
It is a bit large/clunky. It also seems to have a problem with the battery door. I drop this phone kind of often (Not far from the ground, just while sitting usually), and the battery door and battery pop out most of the time. It can get pretty annoying, so it seems like it's kind of cheaply made.
The ugly:
I bought this phone back in February, and I have to say it did work very well. It ran smoothly, did not really have issues with lagging, freezing, or anything like that.
I have had this for about 9 months now. In October (so 8 months in) I started noticing that the touch screen was not responding. I suddenly couldn't unlock my phone, pick up calls, stuff like that.
At this point, it clicks what it wants, moves around, doesn't let me click anything, exits out of things, pretty much has a mind of its own. The touchscreen is either completely non responsive, or it just freaks out and starts randomly clicking things. Sometimes it cools down and will work, but it's mostly been a pain.
Overall, before the touchscreen thing, I have to say not a bad phone. Also, very user-friendly for first-time Android users. I would say give it a try, hopefully you won't run into the issues I had with the screen. But you never know.
Best Phone i have ever owned.
Best phone I have ever owned. I am one of those idiots that get a new phone every 9-12 months, and I can honestly say I have never had a better phone.
only Cons:
-horrible battery life !!!!!!!
-expensive to purchase
-only sold by/compatible with Verizon
-Not a fan of the physical keyboard, although a bit of improvement over first droid, you will find this is the first phone where the virtual keyboard is better, you can also download other keyboards.
Great phone
This is my second smartphone and I put a ton of research time in before I chose the droid 2. I really liked the original Moto Droid and my contract was going to be up right when the Droid 2 was going to be released. Every Verizon salesperson tried to push me to the Droid X and I just don't need all the extra stuff on that phone and I wanted a real keyboard. The keyboard, screen, Swype (which comes installed), build quality, are all excellent on this phone, and best of all, it works great as a phone! Android 2.2 is awesome and it's nice to not to have to run a task killer (if you are having battery and heat issues you may want to get rid of any you are running). Now, the only reason I took half a point off was because of Motoblur. You really don't need it with 2.2 and you can tell it's there, well I can anyway. Yeah, the 7 homescreens are nice, but I would have really liked to have a real Android experience without the shell. So, in a nutshell, do your homework and you'll really enjoy this phone and have a great experience with it, but if you don't you'll probably be a little frustrated with it. I hope this was helpful and enjoy.
Not bad
Just switched up from bb. It's a pretty fun phone to play around with coming from bb to android.
Not many gripes about the phone except for the following:
battery life - (though I just downloaded the newest software for the droid 2 which claims to enhance battery life)
no spell check - there is an "auto-correct" feature but not so much a spell check like the bb's have. this is probably the most downer about the phone.
I've had the phone for about 2 weeks and am really happy with it. Other than the items listed above I am glad I made the switch!
Droid R2-D2
First the phone as the Droid 2
Pros
1. Screen-very responsive bright and sharp
2. Speed-much faster than Droid
3. Signal-improved over Droid
4. Fast 1gb processor
5. Full Keyboard-if you need/want it BIG PLUS+
Not great or bad
1. 5mp camera this is droid 2 8mp on Droid X??
Cons
1. BATTERY - In 2010 why do I need 2 batteries for 1 phone!
2. It does get warm / hot with heavy use???
Overall if you like a full keyboard, good camera and a smaller form factor this is certainly an excellent choice
Now R2-D2
As a Star Wars fan and an R2 nut, this phone is great! The docking station is a very cool add. The body of the phone has people asking to see / look at my phone almost every day . . . like Han I will shoot first if you snatch my phone! The R2-D2 sounds, video, themes and all of the Star Wars features are very cool. Of course it would be nice if there was more, at the same time I do not feel that this tribute came up short!
If you are a Star Wars fan and are ready to upgrade your phone this is absolutely the way to go!
Near perfect phone, just give it time
After "window shopping" for a smartphone for about a year, I finally found one that justifies the monthly cost of data. I initially thought the original Droid was IT, but after playing with it several times, I couldn't get used to the placement of the d-pad. So I waited and waited, tried other smartphones, but never found the one that "clicked". Then came the Droid 2!
The good:
- near perfect call & speakerphone quality with exception to some digital distortion when in a fringe area, but still keeps holds the call --typical Moto excellence here
- 3.7" screen is just right for reading and watching video
- excellent hard qwerty
- "ninja"blur blends in very well with stock android
- 7 homescreens to categorize commonly used tasks is a major plus
- free Google nav (one of my main reasons for purchasing)
- non-intrusive notifications
- FAST, haven't noticed any lag opening, closing, switching between apps and functions
- good selection of helpful & fun apps
- productivity tools
- feels like a phone & not a toy, not at all plasticky, looks like QUALITY...mine is always cased and in my purse, so the weight is fine
The irritating:
- battery life: terrible at first, and I realize I was overusing it, but it was still considerably bad. You would think that with all the innovations in mobile technology, they'd be using a battery that keeps up with such powerful devices! Over the next couple days, it improved a lot, and I'm still heavily using the phone. It was also extremely warm after the first charge as well, but has somehow cooled down too. Strange I know, but with time, the Droid 2 improves.
Overall, this IS the droid I'm looking for :) I love using it, and have barely put it down since FedEx brought it to my door. After a couple glitches here and there in my first day of usage, everything seems to have fixed itself and now works flawlessly. If you're on the fence, NEED a hard qwerty (like me) and don't need a 4.3" screen--get it! You won't be let down.
