Posted 10.28.2009 at 4:33 pm
14 Comments
Motorola Droid: John Mahoney
Though it's touted as the thinnest landscape slider cell phone (a little more than a half-inch), don't be fooled into thinking the Droid is light; at nearly 6 ounces it outweighs most BlackBerries and the iPhone -- but at least it feels sturdy. Its 3.7-inch display is responsive and beautifully high-res (480-by-854 pixels), and there's nice haptic feedback when you press, well, anything (I'm already finding myself defaulting to the virtual keyboard in landscape mode over sliding out the physical QWERTY).
So...this whole Android 2.0 thing: it's got some nifty tricks up its sleeve. The universal search pings everything on the handset and the Web from anywhere you navigate; if, for example, I'm listening to The Roots, I can search from their artist page in the media player and get hit back with everything local, plus extra goodies like YouTube videos (which render quickly and smoothly, by the way). As for the contacts integration, pulling all the myriad ways you have to ping one person (text, Facebook, e-mail, or gasp phone call) into one spot saves the trouble of clicking back and forth between apps and windows.
Speaking of windows, if a new e-mail or text message pops up, you don't have to abandon your current task (be it Web browsing or YouTube watching); you can pull up the Droid's Notification menu, see what's up, and hop back where you started. The Web browser is similarly smart, keeping tabs on multiple windows at a time and creating a thumbnail view of your bookmarks.
And, as we said earlier today, Google Navigation Maps ain't foolin' around. Though it couldn't do much to follow me around the corridors at PopSci, I was able to track the route to the beloved burgers of Shake Shack with turn-by-turn with street view, satellite view, and a traffic layer on top. I also to added a layer for gas stations along the route in two clicks. Oh, and I entered the destination by voice.
The Motorola Droid will be available to Verizon customers on Friday, November 6 for $200 with a two-year contract.
For more photos, see our hands-on gallery
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Kind of ugly
Well, I don't know what you do with your phone, but this phone/tool has far more functionality than most of the others. I saw the HTC Hero, and I thought it was good, but I believe this one is much better and may be the incentive I've needed to leave ATT & the iPhone.
Once my 2yr contract is up, I'm going Android. The options out there are looking pretty good right now.
looks pretty cool, at secret- looks dont really matter with a phone unless ur that shallow (no offense intended)
i just hope that the data plan for the DROID isnt nearly as expensive as the iPhone plan... dropping a benjamin a month for the basic service is a hefty price for a college student
Awesome phone. It has a better UI than the iPhone, and it has a much better price. Hopefully, the service won't be as expensive, either.
Everything iDon't
DROID DOES.
(VZW commercial)
Down with Att.
-DaSonicMan
This is a nice i-phone.And price is also better.This is cool phone. Hope its service will not be much expansive
The reviewer forgot to mention if the phone has good volume and sound for communicating. Is it a speaker phone? Does it come with a wired microphone and earphone or do you have to use one of those unreliable bluetooth devices? Does it have a built in calculator, notepad, and voice command software so you can call someone by just mentioning their name? Does it have an alarm clock and voice notes capability? Touch screen and internet access are nice, but how good a phone is it?
Wow nice phone! I just wish they improved the iPhone by adding a physical keyboard, and/or by lowering the monthly service cost... dang.
I have an AT&T smart phone that's always disfunctioning and I have to call AT&T's tech a lot and AT&T told me that they follow Verizon's business leads and their iPhone was based on Verizon's pricing system, so that means that the Droid is going to be more expensive than the iPhone. Apple is coming out with an iPhone Computer that allows us to break away from these expensive iPhones companies like Verizon and AT&T that only the rich and famous can afford. We can only hope that Apple is not as greedy as Verizon and AT&T and the iPhone computer will me affordable for college students that is not supported by ultra rich parents.
this phone is amazing!
This phone is highly superior to the ipop candy put out by apple.
Sorry apple, it sux to be you.
The major consideration when picking a new cell phone is not just the features. It's content. How much content do you already have, how much is there available new for this new device, and can you transfer your content over to the new device.
If you have a couple of thousand songs for your iPhone, they will not work on this device. Neither will any of your iPhone apps, etc.
Switching devices is no longer quite so easy......