With the recent release of the Motorola Droid this month, Apple's iPhone has its best competition yet. The Droid competes highly with the iPhone and really shines overall.
Available on Verizon's large 3G wireless network "We got a map for that", a slap in At&t's face, when it comes to showing there coverage map, for there "We have an app for that" campaigns. Also the first handset running Google's 2.0 android software. I've been testing out that Droid, MSRP $199, and these are my first few good and bad impressions.
Droid's Great Features:
Turn by turn GPS and street level maps in most places. This easily replaces your need of a Nuvi or cheap GPS solution, and to top it off has amazing maps that load up inside.
Verizon's high speed reliable network is amazing. I don't think I have had 1 dropped call, Vs. my T-Mobile that dropped on a daily basis, especially at my house.
Web browsing, using the built in web browser in the Droid, it's the fastest pages have ever loaded on and off a wifi network. Pages load way faster than my 2G iPhone, and blow away every other phone like the blackberry and there built in browser on page load times.
Google's integration to this phone are amazing, upon adding my friends name to my contact book it added his email address to the contact. Unless you have friends with the same names, then I'm sure it will guess right 100% of the time when it comes to auto-assigning people to there names.
Droid's Good features:
Battery life is better than some Smartphone's I have seen, but isn't the greatest. I run an application from the android market that closes applications that are not being used; this saves on my battery life greatly, but becomes a small hassle closing apps after a certain time. Auto close should be built in for later use with this phone.
Android marketplace has a great assortment of free apps and paid apps. Most top apps were modified within days of Droid's release and had 100% working droid updates for them. Slight modifications were needed running 2.0 vs. the other Android versions.
Choice of slide out physical keyboard, or touch screen keyboard. I really don't see why 2 keyboards are needed, but there are just times that you don't want to type out every letter and you can just use the quick onscreen keyboard that recognizes words nicely.
Droid's Bad features:
Music and video are a bit weird using the media player, especially with lack of a stop button and have to pause music to stop it, and the setup could be better.
Visual voice mail is also a great feature but at an added cost of $2.99 a month it's just not worth it to me especially on a phone that offers so many competing things that iPhone cannot deliver on.
Overall the Droid might not be the "iPhone Killer" that some hype it up to be. It is a undeniable competing entry in the race for the best. With native Free GPS features and Verizon's rock solid wireless network, you will be hard to compare iPhone to droid. Its comparing an apple to oranges, and now a days I guess I'm swayed towards oranges, because of the strings it has cut away from how I use my cell phone, and how well it blows away the competition.
Overall Grade A- other than a few small problems this phone is my choice and will stay my choice for years to come. I'm sure I will have Droid 2-3, and whatever replaces it after.
Kenny has been writing articles and reviews for cellphones and consumer electronics products. Please see Breckwell Pellet Stoves for your heating needs, and quick healthy meals for healthy meal choices for your family.
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