Last Considerations Before Getting the Motorola Droid
Today marks the public debut of the most anticipated smartphone for the holiday season, the Motorola Droid on Verizon network. Many reviewers have compared and contrasted the new device with the Apple iPhone and other high-end Smartphones. The overall verdict seems to agree that the Droid is not an iPhone killer but unarguably a stellar and capable smartphone combining the solid hardware built, a promising OS platform and a reliable network.
The “iDon’’t and DroidDoes” list is somewhat not relevant to every day users, so we put our little list for your considerations. The below items could be plus or minus depending on each situation.
- First and foremost the carrier, the Droid is only available on Verizon CDMA network, known to be the most reliable network in the US. Before you signed up for 2 year contract, note that Verizon has officially upped the early termination fees to $350.
- The app store has relatively low number of apps when compared to the Apple App store(12,000 vs 100,000). We expect the figure will drastically change as the Android platform gets more footprints moving forward
- Unlike the other smartphone platforms (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.), the user interface will be unique per vendor basis, you will embark on a new journey of learning curve.
- The Google turn-by-turn GPS is the most significant feature on the Android 2.0, in our opinion. This feature can easily exceed the jobs that your PDN (Personal Navigation Device) can do, but you need to add another $30 to get the car mount. And another $30 if you need the night stand dock
- For some unknown reasons, the Droid does not offer multi-touch option to allow the finger pinching to zoom in/out your Web page or your documents. For now, double tapping will require for the zooming actions. We hope future firmware will provide this feature.
- Tethering (using the phone as modem) will cost an additional $30 on top of the $30 data plan. This will bring the total bandwidth allowance to 10GB/mo
- Many people notice the form factor and the overall theme (angular form factor, Droiiid sound effect, menacing red eye, Stealth bomber ads, etc..), while they are bold, they seem to be geared toward male audience. So do not expect the same refinement of the Fruit phone here.
- If the physical keyboard is an absolute requirement, this is a great choice for you. For others, this might add bulk
- The higher megapixel camera doesn’t provide high quality picture as we had hoped but the LED flash is a great addition
- Be the the first on the block carrying this cool hot new device could be priceless!
- Please add your items of consideration to the comment section!
Below is the demo given by Verizon
Broadcast-quality video of customers who purchased the DROID smartphone will be posted throughout the day on Verizon Wireless’ YouTube channel at
www.youtube.com/user/VerizonWirelessTV
Motorola Droid Full Specs LeakedMotorola Droid Gets Google Maps with Multi-Touch Suppport Wake Up, Humans: DROID by Motorola Goes on Sale Early |
While most of the comments on the iDon’t commercials aren’t relevant to the everyday phone user, some of these choices are simple “new phone” issues you will have anyway.
1) The higher contract breakage fee “should” be one that can be ignored. Before you go into a service contract with a phone company you should make sure you like their service. If you are going just for the phone you… iDon’t suggest it.
2) The battle of the Apps stores?! Until recently there was only Apple’s App store. So you really can’t be too down on a store with “only” 10,000+ apps.
3) Any new phone is going to have a different UI than the old one you are using. Going from iphone to Blackberry or Instict, same issue.
4) Of course this is where the fun always come in on new phones. “Needed” accessories. Even if they aren’t needed, to be cool, or to make life easier you MUST purchase them. Just wait until they start selling the “ultra compact kung-fu grip phone case.” Totally unnecessary, but everyone will buy it because it’s there.
5) Still only the iPhone does this natively in the US. (HTC brought mutlitouch to the browser in the Hero and ?presumably? the Verizon version – Eris).
6,7,8,9) These are the tough choices. And of course the constant reminder that… more phones are just around the corner. Acer, Sony, HTC, LG… they are just starting to warm up.
I am a Verizon customer, I want the IPHONE but hate as many others, ATT’s poor service. If Verizon sold the IPHONE, first they would bring the ATT customers back, and then they would take the market. Its so simple focus on the problem.
As for the tethering and multi touch both can be achieved rather painlessly with a rooted Droid an custom rom. The cameras better as well with an ota update.