The Droid: it’s like, not love
Many of you know that I recently broke up with my iPhone due to the sad fact that AT&T didn’t seem to have coverage at my house, my office, or anywhere in between. Since then, I’ve been on a CNET-provided BlackBerry Curve, which I found perfectly serviceable, but I’ve been waiting for the perfect iPhone replacement to come along, hopefully on the rock-solid Verizon network. And lo, along came the Motorola Droid. Which I bought. So, I’ve spent a few days now with the Droid as my personal phone, and while it’s certainly a good rebound phone, it’s definitely not true love.
Here’s what I like about the Droid: it’s a nice, solid piece of hardware with an incredibly gorgeous screen. The touch-screen is responsive, the phone itself is really, really fast, and so far, I’ve been able to download pretty much all the apps I used with any regularity on the iPhone: Pandora, Facebook, Amazon, a Twitter app, a weather app, and a movies app, plus a handy little mobile version of Wikipedia. So far, the call quality is pretty good, the battery life seems to be surprisingly strong, I like the three customizable “home” screens, and the way it grabs and integrates contact information from across Facebook, Gmail, and Exchange is really nice. And I like the way new notifications of any sort appear at the top of the screen — calendar reminders, new emails, app updates, new texts, etc. It’s a great at-a-glance feature for push notifications.
Media-wise, I bought a few songs from the Amazon MP3 store and while I found the process to be a tiny bit slow (you click the Buy button and … nothing happens for a few minutes, which made me panic a bit), I think the media player seems serviceable. I haven’t figured out how to create a playlist, but I can shuffle and I actually find the Droid’s slider, which scrolls up and down a long list of songs or artists, to be easier to use than trying to tap the tiny alphabet letters of the iPhone’s song/artist list. In terms of playback, the speaker quality of this phone is amazing. It’s both loud and clear — I put on my Spanish guitar Pandora station, set the Droid in the upstairs loft of the 2,000-square-foot apartment where I’m house-sitting, and I could hear it all throughout the house. In a pinch (as long as it’s plugged in), this thing is a little portable stereo. Also, I really don’t mind mounting the Droid as a drive and dragging music to it without having to load the monstrous beast that is iTunes. I managed my iPhone with drag and drop, so I’m not missing syncing at all.
I like the auto-suggest/complete of the virtual keyboards, although it’s a bit aggressive, and I like that it sometimes gives me the “.com” key when I’m typing in an email address. I also like that when I’m texting, I have a 
emoticon key. Cute touch. I love the integrated Google search bar at the top of the home screens, which searches both the phone and the Web, and I also love the Maps. The GPS is quick to find a signal, the maps are fast, and the turn-by-turn direction feature is truly killer. Oh, and I love the application switcher — I just hold down the Home button and go from browser to Facebook to email to Twidroid. Awesome.
But enough drooling. Here’s what I don’t like. I don’t like the physical keyboard at all. I know that’s not a new revelation — no one likes it. The Droid is slightly too wide for me to type comfortably on it, especially since the keyboard is flush left and not centered on the phone (this is to accommodate the phone’s mysterious “lip” on the bottom — why is that there!?). After using it for even a few minutes, I actually feel physical pain in my right hand and wrist from stretching so far across the hardware (granted, I suffer from nagging RSI). So, I pretty much only use the virtual keyboards, and I use them in portrait or landscape mode roughly evenly. It’s nowhere near as fast as the nubby little BlackBerry keyboard, although I’m seeing a gradual increase in my speed.
The Android 2.0 interface is good but not great. I don’t understand why I have to tap a text field to get the keyboard to surface every time — if I put my cursor in a text field, shouldn’t the keyboard pop up automatically? And in landscape mode, the screen real estate with the keyboard gets weird, so when you “tab” to a new text box, you can’t actually tell what you’re supposed to type there. Awkward. Also, I love how I can customize the home screens, but the OCD in me doesn’t like how when I add an icon to a screen it shows up in a slightly random location, rather than in a nice tidy row. (Yeah, that’s just me.) I also don’t like that I can’t easily move icons from one page to the next, the way I can with the iPhone “jiggle” for rearranging icons. (CORRECTION: You can do this if you tap and hold the icon — it just takes a bit of precision to drag over to the next page. Thanks, Vance!)
The Droid’s vaunted camera and LED flash are a little overrated. Compared to the iPhone, yeah, it takes better photos in low light, and in general, the picture quality is good. But the LED flash casts a very specific blue glow so that everything within the immediate, small area is illuminated, but everything outside of it is abruptly dark — there’s no soft illumination as with a normal flash. Full disclosure: I haven’t taken any video. Also, the little button on the side that is supposedly the camera button doesn’t seem to do anything. Maybe it’s broken.
Other nitpicks: the screen, gorgeous as it is, couldn’t be less oleophobic. That thing picks up fingerprint smudges like you wouldn’t believe, and once it’s coated with unattractive schmutz, the screen itself is completely invisible in bright sunlight. Not cool.
On the app front, the Facebook app is a dog, and that is serious business. I can’t filter my news feed by friends lists or even view friends lists at all, which is a major bummer. Oh, and in other nitpicks, I don’t really love the built-in ringtones. But ok, now I’m just being annoying.
No technology is perfect, and the Droid is no exception. But I like it a lot, and I like it enough to port my number to it. It’s a keeper. Plus it’s only going to get better as the software and firmware upgrades roll out. (Seriously, somebody at Facebook? Help me.) But if you came to me and you weren’t super tech savvy and AT&T worked fine at your house (a long shot, I know), I’d probably still tell you to get an iPhone. It’s still just a hair more elegant and easy to use. For now.
Excellent review Molly! I’ll be getting a droid here in a few days and am very excited for it but pretty bummed about the keyboard not being as useful as I had wished it would be. I almost would prefer the HTC droid eris but since it doesn’t ship with Android 2.0 I’m weary about purchasing it instead of the moto droid.
Regardless…Thank you for your review as many of us love it when someone as trustworthy as yourself has something to say about a gadget!
I’ve got a Droid as well. The main reason is it fit my number one requirement, Verizon. Hands down for me the network is the deciding factor. Where I live, Vegas, Verizon just kicks butt in the network department. I carry a Sprint phone for work and oftentimes when my Sprint phone wont even get a signal, I’ve got 2+bars on a Verizon phone. And for Verizon the Droid is an obvious choice. I agree about the keyboard but for me its pretty much a non-issue. The only times I’ve even pulled out the keyboard is when someone says “does it have a real keyboard?”. Other then that, its the virtual keyboard for me. In just a week I’m almost as fast as I am on my iPod Touch keyboard.
I am anxious to see what the success of the Droid and all the other Android based phones will mean to the Android Market. I’m still waiting for a good notepad that syncs to Google Docs, a tasks app that syncs to Google Tasks, and some improvements to the camera software.
And one thing they really need to fix. If you use the unlock pattern for security, you lose the quick swipe to turn sound off and on function. Grrr, thats annoying.
Hey Molly, I enjoyed your review. I’m currently with t-mobile and had an iphone on it untill i got tired of the iphone. Currently using a blackberry but am thinking of getting the droid, so your review was helpful. …..BUT, I do have a question. Have you had any experience with Sprint? Maybe I’ve missed something, but it seems to me that everyone has totally written off the Palm Pre. I think the pre’s slim form factor and more importantly Web OS is amazing. Now I haven’t really had any personal time with the Pre other then playing with one in a store, but in my opinion the Web OS seems more beautiful then the iphones OS. I just can’t seem to find anyone who uses sprint here in the bay area. Why is that?
I have the Droid and prefer the mechanical keyboard by a wide margin. It’s probably because I’ve never had a blackberry or any phone w/ a decent keyboard. My biggest complaints are the lack of bluetooth voice dialing, and buggy software. Other than that, it’s a terrific device. I’m hoping they fix the issues in an update.
Great review. I was sorely tempted to make the jump from Tmobile this week. I was shopping with a tech-challenged friend who was going to Verizon. She isn’t interested in smartphones, so I drooled on my own. However, I was really attracted to the Eres and will wait for 2.0 to make it onto that phone and then I think I’ll give it a try. I love my Blackberry and would stay with Tmobile if they offered the BB Tour, but currently I don’t see anything compelling to keep me a customer. That’s sad. I have been a happy Tmobile user for 10 years or so. That tells you something about how stagnant they are in the market, if they are going to lose someone like me. It’s entirely about phones for me, as the coverage where I live is rock-solid and the customer service has been first-rate. I would love an Iphone, but will not go to AT&T. Dealbreaker.
>I don’t understand why I have to tap a text field to get the keyboard to surface every time
think it must be something to do with having a hardware keyboard, wonder if it’s the same on a keyboardless device.
>the Facebook app is a dog
Yep, and you have the new android 2.0 app and for a long time there was no official app, the Facebook api is very limited in what you can do as a 3rd party developer, try out babbler lite
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/28/pigs-fly-as-facebook-and-google-work-together-on-an-android-app/
>I don’t really love the built-in ringtones
try ringdroid (app)
Excellent work/opinion Molly as usual. I use a Windows Mobile 6 Q9M on Verizon. AT&T doesn’t work in my office. The IS team at work only supports iPhone and Windows Mobile (explicitly no Blackberry). My phone usage is 95% Exchange and 4% texting and 1% calling. I’ve heard that the Exchange support on the Droid does not fully support ActiveSync. This could be a deal breaker. I know the iPhone works well with our exchange server at work but Mail.app under SnowLeopard does not. I don’t really understand Exchange/ActiveSync well enough and no reviews have specifically addressed this.
Anyone have a good link to a tutorial on the various levels of Exchange Support?
Molly: I will follow you around the internet. Your intelligence and wit are a great combination. I smiled when I read that you were house sitting. My wife and I were house sitters in Boston back in the day. I loved living the life of a corporate VP or MIT researcher for a week.
Great review Molly. I have had my droid since launch day and have yet to use the keyboard. I have an iPod touch so I’m very familiar with the interface of the iPhone. Just remember where the iPhone was with it’s first release. At least with the droid you can use ringdroid to create your own ringtone. Can you even create your own ringtone on an iPhone without jailbreaking? I have been dissapointed with the camera but the 12/11 software update will take care of it. I love however, the video. I took some great high quality video of a kids birthday party yesterday and uploaded it to facebook last night and it looks nice. I did have my daughter snapping digital stills with her camera at the same time and I’m glad because those stills came out much better.
Thanks for all you do Molly in the tech space! Keep up the great work!
Great review, Molly. I’ve been an iPhone 3G user since the first day it was available and have had issues with AT&T off and on here in Minnesota….not as severe as you’ve experienced. I was considering making the move to the Droid, but with the possibility of an iPhone on Verizon next summer combined with your lukewarm review of the Droid, I think I’m just going to wait until my contract is up. While it’s clear the Droid has raised the bar in some areas, I’m sure Apple will be looking to raise it with the next iPhone. How sweet would a 4G-capable iPhone on Verizon with multitasking and flash support be?! I can dream, can’t I?
I was surprised the virtual keyboard was so good (and the physical keyboard so bad)! My stepmother recently bought the Droid. Still got to help her with it some more. It’s definitely much less intuitive than the iPhone and the UI needs a design make-over. But like you mentioned, with a few key updates, this could be a contender to “fall in love” with.
Thanks for your perspective, Molly. I’m curious if you or any of your readers are having a problem with the font size, especially in the mail application. For me, and others (https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/16874?start=0&tstart=0) it is simply to small. Mail isn’t the only application I’m struggling with. Many of the sub-text menus are smaller than I’d like.
I love so many things about the device, but if the text can’t be read, it’s useless. Hopefully, Google/Moto/Verizon will notice this & address it.
As much as I love the phone, if Verizon got the iPhone tomorrow….I’d switch.
Molly, this was an excellent review from you, someone who has had “hands-on” experience with the phone. Thank you for highlighting and linking the definition of “oloephobic.” I would have had to look that one up!
I will add one thing nobody has mentioned yet: that blinking green light on the front of the phone. Is it really necessary? It must drain the battery. Maybe not a lot, but if it saves 20-30 minutes over an entire day, then it’s probably worth getting rid of. Even though the Droid made a very big splash, if they listen to all the reviews (yours included) then they will know what to improve for their next iteration. Otherwise, those faults will remain an irritation. (How do you like that wordplay? I just thought of that!
I love your program on CNET. All I ask is for “More Molly.”
Sincerely,
Glenn
Great review! And I can say that my thoughts pretty much mirror yours.
I will sat one week into owning the Droid, my typing on the virtual keyboard has gotten WAY more accurate and I’m starting to get much faster with it as well. I rarely switch to the landscape virtual keyboard anymore. Sometimes I felt like I needed the extra size of the keys to be accurate, but I’ve started to really understand the boundaries of the keys in portrait to the point that I don’t feel it necessary to rotate to landscape… that and the whole positioning of content above the landscape keyboard can be confusing to figure out…. ie a submit button below the field, but you can’t see it cause the keyboard is so friggen huge in such a small space.
I *really* wish the predictive text would learn over time. In other words, if I commonly make a particular spelling mistake, I wish it would learn what I then correct it to be (that’s different from it’s normal suggestion) and start to correct it based on my own input. Minor gripe.
Molly,
I’m giving strong consideration to replacing my Windows Mobile Treo with an Android phone (I’m sure I’m replacing it, just not sure with what yet). It’s a company phone, and I’m locked into our network, which is Sprint, but will probably be Verizon in about 2 weeks.
Our office is not very IT intense, and I’ll need to sync my new phone to Outlook on my desktop. Will the Droid do it? We don’t use exchange and I don’t use gmail or facebook for work (which is what I will use the phone for 80% of the time).
Thanks for the help,
Dyami
The senior partner at my firm just got a Curve and I helped him set it up and I could not imagine using that phone after having used the Droid. So 2006! My major gripe with the Droid up front was the keyboard and the lack of a PC interface. But I have gotten used to the keyboard and find that being free from the PC is actually liberating. The number of apps doesn’t seem to bother me because I also have an iPod Touch so those particular apps I just loved I can still use.
I don’t own a Droid, but want one. But when I was at Best Buy yesterday I played with it some. And the keyboard was awful. It was flat, if it wasn’t so flat I would have liked because I thought it wasn’t cramped.
Best Buy didn’t have it actually turned on so I couldn’t play with the touch screen, but I did like the overall design and feel of the phone. It was pretty heavy but they had this big security thing on it so that added some weight to it.
Love the posts Molly!!