Moto Droid review

By now, I'm sure most of you have been flooded with commercials for the Droid, which is leading the charge in the AT&T vs Verizon war (featuring Luke Wilson). Terms like "iPhone killer" and "a true smart-phone" have been tossed around, but is the Droid really the phone to topple the iPhone once and for all? You'll have my answer shortly.

First, let's go over some stats:

3.4 inch, 854 by 480 WVGA touchscreen
16 GB Micro SD card (pre-packaged into the phone)
4 row slide out keyboard
5.0 MP camera with dual flash
Removable 1400 mAh battery.
Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor
ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz GPU
256 MB RAM (512 MB on-board memory)
Runs Android OS 2.0 (upgradable to 2.1 eventually)
Wi-Fi B/G

This phone is stacked, to say the least.

Carriers:
Verizon Wireless (in the US)

Price:
199.99 after 100 dollar mail-in rebate.
(Can be avoided if you by online or at a indirect retailer, such as Wal-Mart)

PROS:

It's Fast - Like, really fast. Apps open up smoothly on the phone and it has plenty of power to run multiple apps/web pages at once. Using the Texas Instruments OMAP (Open Multimedia Application Platform) 3430, this phone eats up web pages and most apps with ease, even though it's actually been underclocked, from 600 MHz to 550.

Crystal Clear - The 3.4 inch screen is easily the best I've ever used on a phone and is game quality. I can watch Youtube and read text on web pages with ease. The screen itself is incredibly durable and scratch resistant, making it easy to wipe and clean from any dirt or smudges.

Touch Away - The touch sensitivity rivals that of the iPhone, and is by far the best offering from Verizon as far as touch screens go. The screen is easy to manipulate and won't be jolted by any touch (for you ladies, that means no "nail texting").

I'm Going To Find You - By far the best offering from the Droid is the integrated Google Maps. With turn-by-turn directions, voice search and Street View, you'll never be lost. It also has satellite support, meaning you'll get accurate maps down to the footage.

Apps Galore - Thanks to the ever expanding Android Marketplace and the ease of use to develop for the phone, the Droid is filled to the brim with apps. And not "Drinktini", either. Apps that you'd see on the iPhone are right at your fingertips, and with the dev kits easily available to anyone, the Marketplace can only grow. Apps can't be charged to your phone bill (you must use a credit card), but they are completely refundable if you don't like them within 3 days.


CONS

Live, damn you! - The battery life on the Droid is decent at best. Turning off Satellite support and downloading apps like "Task Killer" will help, but not by much. Coming from a BlackBerry Tour, I was expecting something like 3-4 days of total use. Sure, the Droid is connected to 3G more often, but not having your phone even last one full day is not great, to say the least.

Camera isn't very good - For a 5MP camera, the Droid doesn't have the picture quality to prove it. Although the latest update changed several UI features, including improving the camera overall, it's still not as good as some other offerings on smart phones. It's companion phone, the Droid Eris, has a excellent 5MP camera, and it boggles me why the Moto Droid couldn't at least match that.

Man thumbs, beware! - While it's always good to see a QWERTY keyboard on a smart phone, the buttons on the Droid's take some getting used to. The buttons themselves are dedicated and offer many functions, but are flat and hard to press from time to time. The top row is also very close to the bottom of the screen, meaning texters with bigger thumbs are going to bumping their thumbs on the top, which gets very irritating after a while.

Limited email support - Although the Droid does support every email major client, you must have a Yahoo! Premium account in order to use your Yahoo! Email from the phone. Why this was implemented is beyond me, but if your primary email account is a Yahoo!, this could be the deal breaker (as it was for me for a short time. Ended up re-activating my BlackBerry Tour on my line).

CONCLUSION - Overall, I love my Droid. It's ease of use, combined with the amazing amounts of apps and built-in Google Maps make it a delight to use and outweigh any difficulties I had with the phone. Do I personally believe that it's a contender against the iPhone? Yes.

2 words - "QWERTY Keyboard". It really does make all the difference here to me. Although the iPhone has what is arguably the best on-screen keyboard for a mobile device today, it still can't beat the great feeling of a physical keyboard. The fact that I can punch in text while leaving my screen unobstructed is also something nice, meaning a little more comfort for my hands and for my screen.

Another great feature is the sheer amount of memory the phone comes with - a whole 16 GB SD card, the most any phone has come pre-loaded with to-date as far as removable storage goes. That'll easily hold all your media, which the Droid is pretty good at playing/displaying it all. With 512MB of on-board storage, the Droid has plenty of room for the generally kilobyte-sized apps. Sadly, you can't save the apps to the memory card, meaning that 512 is ALL you'll have. Eventually the ability to save apps to a memory card will be added via OTA, but until then, you're stuck with that 512.

Remember, if you're interested in getting a Motorola Droid, you're going to have to opt into the mandatory data plan (starting a 30/month for unlimited data on the phone itself). Tethering is not an option on the Droid just yet, but I'm sure that Verizon will find a solution for that soon enough.

Overall, I highly recommend the Droid and it definitely earns an A+ from me.