Moto Droid (Verizon's Android Phone)

[moonpie23]

if they have SPORTACULAR i would highly recommend that.,,,,,it's awesome on the Iphone

[Acymetric]

Really? You've been USING "Where's My Droid?" You've been losing it SO much the past month that you've been using the app?

I think you just listed some "cool" apps that are available.

You know...this would really come in handy for the party-going college student. Seems like a couple times a week a new facebook group pops up "Lost my phone at a party, got a new one, need everyone's numbers." A phone locator would be great.

Does anyone know if the Motorola Droid is significantly better than the htc Droid Eris? The htc appears to be cheaper, and has a smaller screen and no slide out keyboard, but is it the same functionally?

[hc5duke]

You know...this would really come in handy for the party-going college student. Seems like a couple times a week a new facebook group pops up "Lost my phone at a party, got a new one, need everyone's numbers." A phone locator would be great.

Does anyone know if the Motorola Droid is significantly better than the htc Droid Eris? The htc appears to be cheaper, and has a smaller screen and no slide out keyboard, but is it the same functionally?

no keyboard + Android 1.5 device = probably not going to feel as nice as the Droid, though you're right it's significantly cheaper. I personally wouldn't get it only because I never get phones without a keyboard (since around 2003ish when I got my Treo 600) - if not having a keyboard doesn't bother you it should be a really nice Android phone to have.

added: It's the same phone as the Sprint Hero FWIW

[alteran]

You know...this would really come in handy for the party-going college student. Seems like a couple times a week a new facebook group pops up "Lost my phone at a party, got a new one, need everyone's numbers." A phone locator would be great.

Does anyone know if the Motorola Droid is significantly better than the htc Droid Eris? The htc appears to be cheaper, and has a smaller screen and no slide out keyboard, but is it the same functionally?

The Droid has a higher screen resolution of 854 by 480. That's a huge boost over the Eris, which, like iPhone, Palm Pre, pretty much all the late generation smartphones, has 480 by 320.

In terms of raw functionality, the Eris is comparable to the Droid, but the Android 2.0 system boost is a significant edge. My understanding is 2.0 will be released on many if not all Android phones over time, so I imagine the Eris will get it.

[Stray Gator]

Also, if I understand correctly, the Eris does not have the nifty built-in GPS navigation system with turn-by-turn directions that the Moto Droid offers. And I don't know whether the Eris has the same capacity as the Moto Droid for storing music, photos, and videos. According to at least one source, the Eris battery doesn't match the Moto Droid's, either. Of course, the price difference may justify these relative shortcomings for some consumers. I can tell you that the OTA upgrade to the Moto Droid last week has made it function even better.

[mkirsh]

How is the motorola hardware? My previous 2 devices were moto (razr and Q) and after I dumped the Q for BB Curve I swore never to go back. Battery life was dreadful (would not last a full day), OS was very very slow, and the Q would randomly decide to shut itself on and off periodically. Were these problems windows mobile related or moto, and is the driod a better manufactured device than the Q? Very interested but hesitant to get burned again.

[Stray Gator]

How is the motorola hardware? My previous 2 devices were moto (razr and Q) and after I dumped the Q for BB Curve I swore never to go back. Battery life was dreadful (would not last a full day), OS was very very slow, and the Q would randomly decide to shut itself on and off periodically. Were these problems windows mobile related or moto, and is the driod a better manufactured device than the Q? Very interested but hesitant to get burned again.

After a month, my satisfaction level with the Moto Droid--which was already off the charts--is still elevating. I keep adding these incredibly nifty free apps, and they all seem to work splendidly. (Last night my wife and I went out to the mall, so I added "SavvyShopper," which enables the Droid to read bar codes and instantly provide all kinds of information about the product, including comparison pricing for online sources and other local stores. And I was showing another Droid user the Dolphin Browser, a free app which enables multi-touch and "pinch-to-zoom" features on the Droid like on the iPhone.)

I would encourage you to Google "Moto Droid" and read some of the many reviews and comparisons--from what I've seen, my highly favorable opinion of the Droid seems to be widely shared. It is quite solidly constructed--some even say it's a little too heavy and "brick-like" for their taste relative to the iPhone, though the inclusion of the slide-out keyboard accounts for that difference. (I hear they're coming our with another version in 2010 that doesn't include the physical keyboard, if you'd prefer that.) I understand the Windows Mobile OS has been the subject of considerable criticism, but I have no personal experience with that. I can tell you that the Droid OS has been very stable--it froze or crashed on me twice in the first three weeks, but there's been no hitch at all since the OTA system upgrade last week; in fact, it's noticeably faster and smoother since then.

The only complaint I've heard was from a clerk in a Verizon Wireless store who said he isn't getting as much battery life as he'd like--but he also acknowledged that (a) he uses the device constantly throughout the day; and (b) he's running multiple apps simultaneously using the web-browser on the 3G feed, which takes more juice. He indicated that he has to recharge every night. I'd say that my use is moderate, maybe a little below average on workdays when I'm using my company-provided Blackberry Curve for certain functions, and I get 2-3 days easily on a full charge--or stated another way, with normal use, my charge diminishes between 30-40% in a 24-hour period. That's not as much battery life as I got on my Palm Treo (which would go for 4-5 days), or as much as my wife gets on her new Samsung Intensity; but then, the Droid is a whole different technological device, and I use it for all kinds of tasks that wouldn't be so easy on other smartphones.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

The only complaint I've heard was from a clerk in a Verizon Wireless store who said he isn't getting as much battery life as he'd like--but he also acknowledged that (a) he uses the device constantly throughout the day; and (b) he's running multiple apps simultaneously using the web-browser on the 3G feed, which takes more juice. He indicated that he has to recharge every night. I'd say that my use is moderate, maybe a little below average on workdays when I'm using my company-provided Blackberry Curve for certain functions, and I get 2-3 days easily on a full charge--or stated another way, with normal use, my charge diminishes between 30-40% in a 24-hour period. That's not as much battery life as I got on my Palm Treo (which would go for 4-5 days), or as much as my wife gets on her new Samsung Intensity; but then, the Droid is a whole different technological device, and I use it for all kinds of tasks that wouldn't be so easy on other smartphones.

Stray, do you leave your Droid on overnight or turn it off? Just curious if your 2-3 days are 24 hour days or 18 hour days?

[Stray Gator]

Stray, do you leave your Droid on overnight or turn it off? Just curious if your 2-3 days are 24 hour days or 18 hour days?

I leave my phone on all the time, Ozzie, except when required to turn it off on airplanes. So those are 24-hour days. Some tech website has probably conducted a study of the battery life of the Droid relative to comparable devices, and it might be worth a Google search if that information is critical to anyone. While I'm guessing the Droid's battery life is below average, I don't mind recharging every other day, or even daily if necessary, because it does seem to charge fairly quickly.

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

I have to agree with pretty much everything straygator has said. My happiness with the purchase has only gone up in time, which is odd for me, since I typically get buyer's remorse for anything other than an impulse buy.

The Android 2.0.1 update released last week made major improvements to the phone, the menus seem slicker, the camera is loads better, and the battery life improved (note, by actively managing your screen brightness, and your GPS and WiFi radios, you'll get better battery life - which is true on any smartphone).

BTW, one neat feature I read about is that you can add a Navigation shortcut to the home screen taht brings up a specific location. I setup 'Home' as a shortcut to automatically startup Navigation and input my home address as the destination, rather than opening Nav and searching or typing in my address.

[Stray Gator]

I have to agree with pretty much everything straygator has said. My happiness with the purchase has only gone up in time, which is odd for me, since I typically get buyer's remorse for anything other than an impulse buy.

The Android 2.0.1 update released last week made major improvements to the phone, the menus seem slicker, the camera is loads better, and the battery life improved (note, by actively managing your screen brightness, and your GPS and WiFi radios, you'll get better battery life - which is true on any smartphone).

BTW, one neat feature I read about is that you can add a Navigation shortcut to the home screen taht brings up a specific location. I setup 'Home' as a shortcut to automatically startup Navigation and input my home address as the destination, rather than opening Nav and searching or typing in my address.

An app that I find highly useful is "Where"--it identifies your location, and provides on a single screen access to such information as news (including sports, of course), detailed weather info, current traffic problems, movie theaters in town and what's showing (with cast and summary, plus buttons to play the trailer, list show times, link to wikipedia entry, etc.), restaurants and shopping and attractions (with reviews), gas prices, yellow pages, etc. Somebody referred to "Where" as the "Swiss Army knife" of apps. Just awesome (and available for iPhone, too, of course).

Check it out at http://www.where.com

[Indoor66]

An app that I find highly useful is "Where"--it identifies your location, and provides on a single screen access to such information as news (including sports, of course), detailed weather info, current traffic problems, movie theaters in town and what's showing (with cast and summary, plus buttons to play the trailer, list show times, link to wikipedia entry, etc.), restaurants and shopping and attractions (with reviews), gas prices, yellow pages, etc. Somebody referred to "Where" as the "Swiss Army knife" of apps. Just awesome (and available for iPhone, too, of course).

Check it out at http://www.where.com

Broken link.

[juise]

Broken link.

Not for me.

[Stray Gator]

Broken link.

I just tried it, and it worked fine for me. But if you have trouble with the link, just try Googling "Where app" and it should lead you to the site. It appears to be available for iPhone and Blackberry as well as Android.

[Acymetric]

Ok, so I'm currently trying to convince someone to stick with Verizon and go with the Droid rather than switching to AT&T and going iPhone (because we share a plan and I want a Droid). The main selling point for the iPhone in this case is mobileme...is there anything on the Droid that offers similar function? In looking at mobileme's features it doesn't seem like it does anything that my email account doesn't do on its own (syncing mail with all machines, not just the one that gets it first, and adding sent items to the sent folder on all machines). Thoughts?

[hc5duke]

Ok, so I'm currently trying to convince someone to stick with Verizon and go with the Droid rather than switching to AT&T and going iPhone (because we share a plan and I want a Droid). The main selling point for the iPhone in this case is mobileme...is there anything on the Droid that offers similar function? In looking at mobileme's features it doesn't seem like it does anything that my email account doesn't do on its own (syncing mail with all machines, not just the one that gets it first, and adding sent items to the sent folder on all machines). Thoughts?

mobileme is a really nice feature that (as far as i know) android doesn't really offer out-of-box. but like someone in this thread pointed out, i've also sold my digital soul to google a long time ago, and having gmail, gcalendar, and contacts all sync (i.e. offline access without worrying about annoying duplicates) was more important for me. i'm almost considering switching from flickr to picasa as well, but haven't done that just yet.

[YourLandlord]

So how many of you phone geeks are pissed you jumped in on the Droid and now can't get the google phone?

[alteran]

So how many of you phone geeks are pissed you jumped in on the Droid and now can't get the google phone?

Maybe they can join the support group formed by the iPhone 3G buyers who went through the 5 Stages of Grief (and added a few) when they found they couldn't upgrade to an iPhone 3GS for free.

Seriously though, mild obsolescence is just the way it is with phones, no matter who makes them. Obviously, the cycle is a little faster with Android because there's so many corporations in the game.

FWIW, I'm a little baffled as to what Google thinks they're doing releasing a Google-branded phone. That's got to make some of the carriers cautious, at the very least-- although when you look at the deal with T-Mobile, it's ultimately a very conventional phone deal. I don't get it.

And as far as I can tell, the phone does not compare favorably with iPhone in monthly cost, either. (Like, maybe 5 bucks). I don't get that, either. I love Android, but if the difference is 5 bucks I'm getting an iPhone.

My best guess is that Google wants to have a "pure" Android phone out there, so that the carriers can't muck up / lock up Android too much without it standing out, but that's totally a stab.

[hc5duke]

FWIW, I'm a little baffled as to what Google thinks they're doing releasing a Google-branded phone. That's got to make some of the carriers cautious, at the very least-- although when you look at the deal with T-Mobile, it's ultimately a very conventional phone deal. I don't get it.

It's still an HTC device - which is a plus, but I'm still holding out for the next non-Motorola Android phone with a real keyboard

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I'm waiting for Verizon to offer the iPhone later this year. If I need to upgrade my phone before then, I'd probably go with the Motorola Droid. If Verizon never offers the iPhone, I'd probably go with the Droid.