So – I bought it and as most of you predicted – I love it! It took a while to get used to not being as simple or intuitive as the Palm 700p, but once I caught on, it was very easy to use and unlike Windows Mobile – it actually works! Is it the iPhone killer? I don’t know but I bet it will be the windows mobile killer because if I were a cell phone manufacturer I would pull WM from all my products and install Android.
Having said that, you can tell that it is a young operating system in need of more work. First, and this it Motorola’s fault, the wallpaper it comes with is hideous. Who uses a gray background for a color phone? The navigator is cool, but will need some work. It would be far better if apps had a help selection with online documentation.
Just playing with some of the cool stuff, like there is a bar code reader app that ties into the camera so you can scan a bar code and look it up on the web. I found a cool compass app. Voice recognition is good. I can say “navigate to sushi” and it will pull up a list of sushi places close to me. When I pick one, it then tells me how to drive there.
Things the iPhone can’t do are impressive. I like having a real keyboard option. The SD card can be upgraded and the battery can be changed. In other words – the back opens up. The audio is clear and loud when making phone calls and using the speakerphone, but you also notice the multitasking. I can be talking on the phone, checking my email and running SSH on a server all at the same time.
There are a number of things I want to do but haven’t figured out yet. I’d like to:
1) Get root access to a command line.
2) Be able to turn the phone into a WiFi hotspot.
3) If an email has an attached WAV file I want to click on it and have something play it.
4) Need some sort of good file browser.
5) Like to have some setting program that sets stuff other stuff that they don’t normally give you access to.
6) Recommendations for some must have applications.
Bottom line – I love this phone. I recommend it.
Most reviewers just read the literature and review on that. I think you have to actually use a cell phone for a few days to review it.
Regarding #5 (having a settings app that makes you adjust hidden settings).. There’s an app in the Android Market called ‘Spare Parts’. It has a bunch of settings you normally don’t get access to. Also, every Cyanogen-mod (are those available for 2.0 yet?) comes with the app.
My initial impression is that battery life is good. Charging however seems a little slow.
I’m surprised there is no backup application that comes with it. The Palm had the Palm Desktop that backed up everything.
“I got one! I got the Motorola Droid!”
There’s a shot for that.
I picked one up too. Been waiting for Verizon to get a decent smartphone, and preferably an android-based one, for a long time.
Battery life — I don’t know many people who can go two full days of real use (i.e. not mostly standby) without recharging on a high powered smartphone with big screens, MP3 player, etc. Mine gets me to the end of the day handily, so I just plug it in each night. I suspect a lot of the people complaining didn’t come from another smartphone, and aren’t used to that reality — combine that with all the people constantly pulling out their toy to look things up because they can, map navigate to the corner store, etc…. I think the battery life is par for the industry. Removable battery does mean you can swap in a spare, and that’s the key for me when on the road. Heck, I carried a spare for my dumb-phone every time I hit the road.
I do agree charging seemed slower than I’d expect, at least when done via USB. Maybe from the wall socket it pushes more juice – I don’t know.
I recommend the power control widgit – lets you quickly see (and one-touch change) your WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a few other settings. Turning off WiFi and GPS when you don’t need them probably has a big impact, and the widgit makes it easy. The setting screen that shows you what’s used the battery since the last charge seems helpful – need more time to tell how much so.
I’ve not played with a lot of apps yet. I find most apps to largely be a waste of time, but over time I’m sure I’ll adopt a few favs. The Nav process and GPS maps are handy. My hundreds of gmail contacts synced seamlessly — Brilliant. The gmail (mail and calendar) integration is excellent. I haven’t tried the normal mail client and I don’t use exchange.
As for downsides or dissapointments so far, only two.
#1 The keyboard is usable but truth be told I find myself having to take enough care that I’m about as fast with the onscreen keyboard in landscape mode. I often resort to using a fingernail instead of the pad of my finger to make sure I don’t hit the wrong button with my fat fingers. I’m splitting time 50-50 between them right now, and with no strong preference I would seriously consider a similar phone without the physical keyboard that would just be that much smaller, lighter, and less moving parts. (But I wasn’t about to wait for one!)
#2 – As widely reported via reviews, the camera is only so-so for a 5MP. I expected this to be better. It’s not visibly any better quality than the new iPhone as far as pictures to my eye (though I didn’t do side-by-sides of the same subject or anything.)
Overall – I’m quite happy with it so far, but it’s going to take awhile before I know how good it really is (or isn’t).
Oh – Sea Lawyer/#31 —
Never noticed a lag scrolling that was worse than friend’s iPhones. I did notice that pages load slower than I’d like. I use an EVDO card for my laptop when I travel, and was hoping that mine would be more that speed than the iPhone speed. I hoped that the iPhone slow page loads were due to AT&Ts network, and Verizon’s near ubiquitous 3G would mean I wouldn’t suffer through that. Turns out phone browsers are just slower. Shouldn’t have surprised by that, I guess.
You can zoom with a simple double-tap, and the lower right of the screen will have a little mag glass + and – to allow zooming back out. I get the nifty feeling of pinch-zoom, but it’s no less functional – just less flashy.
What an ugly phone….but the Android OS is really beautiful.
The HTC Touch Pro2 was a prettier phone. But I returned it because I wanted something that actually worked.