Hands on with the Motorola Droid: Sexy
  • 94 Comments
by John Biggs on October 28, 2009

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Here you are, friends and Romans, the Motorola Droid from Verizon, the phone you’ve been salivating over for the past few months. It’s now sitting quietly on the desk next to me, wondering where you are. The Droid wants you.

After working with the Motorola Cliq and MotoBlur, Motorola’s own operating system, I had high to middling hopes for this phone. Looking at it now I’m happy to report that Verizon finally has an Android phone worth a second look.



I need a little more time with the phone to offer my full level of adulation/excoriation, but so far I’ve noticed a few things:

  • Google Nagivation is an incredible addition to the Android family and looks great. The standalone Nav app guys need to worry.
  • The hardware is quite nice. The keyboard is spacious and easy to slide open.
  • There are none of the widgets that MotoBlur featured prominently including the Twitter widget that threatened to crash the phone.
  • The phone is very polished but the base of installed applications seems very sparse. After working with the Hero and the Cliq, you sort of expect all sorts of silly clocks and social networking apps. This has none of that.
  • It has the best start-up sound in the whole world.

  • Comments rss icon

    • very nice, waiting for some video goodness

    • As a verizon customer I am gently weeping in a corner now that they finally have a phone that is decent.

      I am off to write a sonate about this.

    • wheres the video??? if possible can you show few apps and using the keybaord and the simultaneous loading of web pages.
      Thanks

    • Wait, thats the whole article?

    • i want video…i want video…i want video…

    • We demand video !

    • Please do a multi-app test and see how running multiple apps at the same time impacts performace.

      Download Pandora, the enhanced Phonebook app (by Voxmobili SA), and the Twidroid twitter app. Run each of these apps and exit. Don’t worry, they’ll stay resident. Then try bouncing around the phone see how it impacts phone usability.

      When I do this, my MyTouch becomes bogged down, and simple things like adjusting the volume becomes laborious. Its very annoying when you’re trying to mute the phone in a crowded room, but it takes 5 seconds for the phone to respond to the volume button.

      The issue seems to be that apps don’t flush themselves out. They stick around in memory until you kill them manually. Pretty annoying.

    • Saw it at T-Mobile 2 days ago. Feels kind of heavy compared to my G1 (which even has an extended battery). Nice interface though.

    • “… but the base of installed applications seems very sparse”

      This is a bad thing? I would much prefer a sparse phone that I can load up with apps, than a phone loaded with cr*p I don’t need, and that I have to figure out how to remove (if even possible).

    • Nagivation? Is that where it reminds you to do annoying chores like washing dishes and taking out the garbage? ;)

      Can’t wait for the full review…

    • I’m going to call Verizon today and find out when I’m eligible for an upgrade.

    • You greeted friends and Romans, but as a countryman, I feel slighted.

    • Please show us some Multi-Touch videos.

    • doesn’t look that sexy to me with all those buttons on the bottom. looks cluttered.

    • i like this phone:)
      i seen the comercial yesterday..very nice:)

    • If you are able to, i’d like to see how the camera performs in low light. I am looking at this as also a camera replacement (sanyo xacti hd700). would like to see photo and video samples.

      my old razr is qualifies for an upgrade on 11/6, same day this droid is avail. perfect timing.

    • There’s a droid for that!

    • It looks a bit thick and heavy for my taste. I never switch off my phone, so the startup sound is kinda irrelevant.

      More, please.

      • It’s thinner than it looks, at .5 inch to the iPhone .48. The iPhone appears thinner bacause it tapers to the edges. But Droid is 25% heavier than the iPhone. That is quite a lot.

        One of the things that sold the iPhone for me was the way it just slipped into my pocket. I could hardly feel it as I ran out of the store.

    • RT @skremer Verizon introduces Motorola Druid phone. Best coverage standing in middle of a stone circle. Can you Stonehenge me now?

    • Thanks for providing 3 pictures of the back of the device.

    • Hi,
      Very interesting phone.
      I am curious to know what the user-agent is.
      Do you happen to know that ?
      Or perhaps you could visit t.wurfl.com on your phone’s browser and let me know ?
      Thanks,
      Deepak

    • Oh, can’t wait to see more about Droid. The thing comes from my favourite manufacture (Motorola, yeah, I fell in love with V3 loooong time ago) and my favourite brand (Google, omg, I used too many services with Google brand on them). Please give us more!!!

    • Wow, 35 seconds of video to hear a distorted, robotic voice say “Droid”? It’s interesting, no doubt, but it doesn’t strike me as great, let alone awesome, let alone the best startup noise in the whole world. But that’s just me.

      Also, how many seconds did you start recording after hitting the power? As it was, that seemed like a rather long time to stare at the Motorola logo, but most phones aren’t turned off very often anyway, so I suppose it’s not a big deal in the long run.

    • Wow, 43 seconds for a sound clip in the last 3 seconds. A little video editing would be appreciated.

    • Now they just have to get rid of that ugly status bar. It’s awfully reminding of Windows Mobile. Why do we need that bar, anyway?

    • I better be able to edit that startup sound.

      Time to cue up The Touch by Stan Bush

    • What’s performance like, compared to 3G and 3GS?

    • Can somebody do an in-depth comparison of the iPhone 3gs to the Motorola Droid? I currently have the iPhone and am more than disappointed (I’ve had all 3 versions of it, and feel like it still misses some key features, like better camera, flash, multitasking, etc.).

      Yet, EVERY review out there says that the Droid is great “…for an Android device.” That leaves me wondering in what ways it does NOT stack up against the iPhone. If it’s simply that the Droid gives more user options and has less applications, that’s fine. But what else makes the iPhone shine when compared to a Droid?

      • I have an iPhone 3GS and it’s a good phone. But it’s quickly becoming apparent that the iPhone is no longer “head and shoulders” above the competition. Android is rapidly becoming really really great. And, this new Droid UI is actually more consistent throughout the experience and in my opinion a bit nicer than the iPhone. The base iPhone UI scheme is looking pretty dated now — the shiny buttons, etc. And app developers are inconsistent with it as well as Apple themselves. It’s a hodgepodge of style metaphors.

        Anyway, hats off to Google and Motorola.

    • What an suspense the atmosphere is killing me.

    • This is really interesting….. You are all saying it’s better than iPhone… You still don’t know nothing about it…. So what if it is better – it’s a new phone! New product!

      Next year there will be much better iPhone, but I bet you will all be saying – “it’s not better than Android phone”….

      here it goes again…. PC vs. Mac

      Don’t forget that Droid will never have multitouch commands of the iPhone… they are patent protected by Apple.

      And – I wonder about battery life… it’s a little thicker, bigger screen, keyboard, has multitasking – so battery can’t be that better than iPhone’s…

      • I don’t think people are concluding it’s better without using it, but from the looks of it in videos and screenshots, it seems better to me. More customizable UI for my particular needs (for example, calendar and mail preview widgets on main screen), better camera, includes a flash, a keyboard, etc.

        Yes, it does have a better battery life than the iPhone.

        Of course there will be a better phone out next year. That’s what innovation is all about. But if people didn’t purchase things because of what would come out in the future, we’d all be stuck with sticks and stones. It’s what’s available today that matters.

        Seems like the iPhone is a good, simple solution for the general masses, and the Droid is stepping into that territory, but enabling the user to dabble in customization.

        I don’t think it’s Mac vs. PC. Maybe OLD Mac vs. PC, but the newer Safari OS’s on Intel chips allow far more user customization than formerly. I think the iPhone is the Mac of years past vs. PC, and the Android is more like the current Mac (with Windows Mobile being the PC).

      • It’s not difficult to be better than the iPhone. the iPhone is so frustrating after a few months of use I don’t use it anymore. At first it was original and a good browsing device but now, it’s really boring : jailed, jailed, jailed. Jailbreaking is a painful operation that needs to be redone too often. Can’t wait for an Android 2.0 device whatever the brand.

    • To: MOTOROLA/HTC Exec — Make a phone which uses the thin form factor of the Droid (but cut the keyboard). Grab the sense UI and make sure when I am scrolling there is physics and bouncing and stretching incorporated. Us users rlly rlly liked that whole smooth bouncing thing Apple did…

    • what is the battery life ?
      Can’t you stop using the word sexy or exactly ?
      sorry :] but it pisses me of !

      Battery is the most important features.
      It’s a given that the phone is android 2.0 and will have all the google neat features

    • I went to verizon to handle this phone and possibly buy one (pending price) and they could not even talk abou the droid… he would not say anything…. i thought they came out today???????

    • I somewhat agree with you Chris, but don’t forget there is a good reason Apple doesn’t want slide-out keyboards. Not only because of the production costs, but also there’s always a problem with moving/sliding parts.
      Keep it simple. You can’t have it all. That’s why there’s a little to go wrong with the iPhone.
      If you slide out that keyboard 10 times a day (I bet you’ll do it more often), that is almost 4000 times a year.

      I like to see some competiton to iPhone, but Apple will keep making good products anyway.

      I just think Google/Android is next Microsoft.

      In 2 years they will overtake the market. More companies, more models.. The prices will come down.

      There is a danger of having open source OS on all those different phones. There is a good reason why Apple doesn’t do that. If some application crashes your iPhone, everybody would say – iPhone is crap, not the app.

      It is a GOOD thing for us – users.

      Next thing – viruses, etc….

      Like I said – same thing like Mac vs. PC.

      In 2-3 years they will decide to standardize Android, and it won’t be open source anymore; once it catches up, mobile phone companies will have no choice but to accept it. That is how Google will become new Microsoft.

      And Apple is always about quality, not quantity. They will be No. 2 and that will not necessary be bad thing for them.

      They are building their own ecosystem (tablet will come, too), OS-hardware relation will always be strong.

      Good news: Symbian and Windows Mobile are dead.

    • That’s pretty cool, but it is so guy-centric. Can’t imagine the ladies getting excited about having a cross between Knight Rider’s kit car and Boba Fett in their purse. Does it come with a light saber or phaser gun?

    • I so fricking wan’t this phone NOW as the replacement for my G1 Dream.
      Google are developing Android at such a fast rate that surely Apple is getting a little worried.

    • this is a phone built by geeks for…geeks. You know how that usually ends in the consumer space – tons of hacks and exclamations from cs-majors with little market success.

      it does sound/look cool to me, but I’m a geek.

    • I do not intend to make this into a droid vs iphone feud but it looks very plain. I’m a little disappointed with the aesthetics. I bet it’s a great upgrade from a lot of phones in the market and the fact that its VZW it’s more appealing but I’ll stick with my setup (3GS/AT&T) for the time being. I do like the flip up feature though, but pretty much that’s it. I don’t see this selling very well with the female population but I do see it as a replacement for the blackberry.
      It’ll be an interesting competition to the iphone and I like competition :) That way products get better to stay on top of the game

    • The sound of people eating? or Droid? Both – ghey.

    • It s slightly thicker than the iPhone but has the thinnest touch QWERTY slider available on the market. It seems to be the fastest Android device and it?s no surprise because it has an ARM Cortex A8 TI OMAP3430 processor. The display, according to the FCC information, is a massive high 854×480 pixels resolution, which is 2-3 times the space as the Palm Pre, Android G1 or iPhone.

    • You call that sexy?

      It’s a boxy, clunky looking slider phone, nothing more. You geeks crack me up if you think that is sexy. Too funny. :o)

    • Im curious on how well it works as a phone?

      Like the range it has, how often it drops a call, how clear the call is. can you call out on it? does it receive calls.

      nothing more annoying in my book than dropping a call because you pass by a tree branch.

      I can’t keep a caller on the phone for more than fives seconds. but check this out its pretty! woohoo!.

      sheesh.

    • SEXY? I say Fugly.

    • So, after all this analysis: just how big is the market for a geek phone?

    • Talk about tantric letdown. Couldn’t you just start your video a little later?!

    • Yep, the Motorola Droid did everything it can to promote the Droid phone. It was a pretty stiff competition especially if you’re against an iPhone. The spec comparison are almost the same between the two.. up to the price point. We have to wait for customer reviews.
      http://pinoytutorial.com/techtorial/motorola-droid-official-release-on-november-6-for-199-with-contract/

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