What have you guys heard about the Droid? To update you on my current situation regarding getting a decent phone, I'm seriously considering signing up with Verizon and getting a Droid.
First an update: Since my phone is only 10 dollars a month on my family's plan I can basically just abandon it and let my family have an extra cell phone while I get a new plan... since it's either that or paying a boatload for an at&t upgrade early (unless I wait until I become eligible on May29th). Even though my family has an at&t phone plan, we have Verizon internet, tv, and landline telephone. If I get a Verizon plan and have it added to my family's Verizon bill I get 15 dollars off. In addition, I am eligible for (I believe it's) 19% off the voice and data. It's 40/month for 450 minutes/month which I think will be more than enough for me since nights/weekends are free. It's 30/month for data, so applying the two discounts makes it just a little over 40 per month plus taxes, activation, and cost of phone on the first day. Seems like a decent deal.
But getting back to the Droid, what are the pros/cons? I've done some research and I really like the fact that it has a big touchscreen and a keyboard. One complaint I've heard is that the keyboard is a bit difficult to use for whatever reason. I want to go into my local Verizon store and try playing with it although I'm not used to phone keyboards and will probably fail horribly either way. Supposedly the available software/etc is a little bit limited, but that's not surprising considering how new the Droid is. I'd love any other information/considerations you have though.
I heard about the Droid from xkcd.com, but I did some research is it looks pretty damn slick. I don't think the keyboard can be much more difficult to use than the virtual keyboard on the iPhone. The 5mP camera is a big plus for me, and there are tons of other features that are pretty cool. I'd suggest going down to a store and checking one out. Chances are you'll like it, and you can always get used to the keyboard. It's not like you'll be writing essays on the thing.
I think you can get use to any keyboard, so any keyboard complaints I hear about any phone I usually just ignore. I'm was terrible with the blackberry keyboard but after playing around with the blackberry my friend had then it became more natural. I played around with the droid keyboard and I expect the same thing to happen if I ever purchase it.
In terms of limited software, where did you hear that? The Google Android OS has tons of apps, and it's so versatile you could probably create your own easily if you're into that. There is definitely not a lack of apps on the Droid, since Android phones have been around long before this phone came out.
I picked up a droid last week and I've pretty much fell in love with it. Every useful app you could want is available...I haven't found a need to pay for any yet, there is usually a free alternative.
Build quality on the phone is fantastic. Be aware that the keys on the keyboard have very little depth to them, they are all flush with each other. If you have super-fat fingers it might be difficult to type. My hands are by no means small and I dont find it too difficult. The top row of the keyboard can be difficult sometimes because the bottom of the screen can kinda get in the way.
I was pleasantly suprised at the onscreen keyboard. I've always hated soft keyboards and thought i could never get used to them, but the droid does a great job auto-correcting and predicting words. I also like the fact that you can double tap spacebar to put a period in. The phone does not like internet slang and will auto correct some things it shouldnt e.g. when you type "lol" it will autocorrect to "LOL" which im not a big fan of.
That brings up another point though. When you are using the hardware keyboard, you dont have to worry about autocorrection. What an awesome feature. When I feel like typing stuff I dont want autocorrected, I can just switch to that.
I have windows 7 on my computer. When I plugged the phone in for the first time, windows recognized it, downloaded a driver for it and it was working flawlessly in about 5 seconds. I was a pretty happy guy. Easy drag and drop of music/movies/documents/pictures WHATEVER to the phone's SD card.
The notification area of the phone is also fantastic. Easy to see missed calls/texts/e-mails, new updates available. A lot of the apps make use of this. For example Meebo will use it to show new IMs.
I really really like the multitasking. I used it the other day in my car on the way to a concert. I bought the car dock that sticks to the windshield. You can the put the phone in to a "car home" mode, which gives you quick and easy access to voice commands/gps/music without much hassle or small icons. I was simultaneously navigating with the GPS while listening to music through my car stereo (I have an 1/8th inch jack for audio in my car)...as well as using my bluetooth headset. One nice feature about listening to music and navigating is that when the navigation voice turns on, it will pause the music, say what it has to say and then resume the music where it left off. It's little things like that that make this phone as nice as it is.
The browser is quick, the menus dont lag...I've been pretty happy.
My one gripe so far is using the screen while in a call...for some reason the screen shuts off immediately and I cant use it to navigate a menu (e.g. my voicemail) but I believe this is probably user error as I just havent had a whole lot of time to go through all the menus and stuff.
I recommend the droid...its the first worthwhile phone verizon has put out in awhile...Its been a looooooong wait.
On November 16 2009 13:00 kfour wrote: I picked up a droid last week and I've pretty much fell in love with it. Every useful app you could want is available...I haven't found a need to pay for any yet, there is usually a free alternative.
Build quality on the phone is fantastic. Be aware that the keys on the keyboard have very little depth to them, they are all flush with each other. If you have super-fat fingers it might be difficult to type. My hands are by no means small and I dont find it too difficult. The top row of the keyboard can be difficult sometimes because the bottom of the screen can kinda get in the way.
I was pleasantly suprised at the onscreen keyboard. I've always hated soft keyboards and thought i could never get used to them, but the droid does a great job auto-correcting and predicting words. I also like the fact that you can double tap spacebar to put a period in. The phone does not like internet slang and will auto correct some things it shouldnt e.g. when you type "lol" it will autocorrect to "LOL" which im not a big fan of.
That brings up another point though. When you are using the hardware keyboard, you dont have to worry about autocorrection. What an awesome feature. When I feel like typing stuff I dont want autocorrected, I can just switch to that.
I have windows 7 on my computer. When I plugged the phone in for the first time, windows recognized it, downloaded a driver for it and it was working flawlessly in about 5 seconds. I was a pretty happy guy. Easy drag and drop of music/movies/documents/pictures WHATEVER to the phone's SD card.
The notification area of the phone is also fantastic. Easy to see missed calls/texts/e-mails, new updates available. A lot of the apps make use of this. For example Meebo will use it to show new IMs.
I really really like the multitasking. I used it the other day in my car on the way to a concert. I bought the car dock that sticks to the windshield. You can the put the phone in to a "car home" mode, which gives you quick and easy access to voice commands/gps/music without much hassle or small icons. I was simultaneously navigating with the GPS while listening to music through my car stereo (I have an 1/8th inch jack for audio in my car)...as well as using my bluetooth headset. One nice feature about listening to music and navigating is that when the navigation voice turns on, it will pause the music, say what it has to say and then resume the music where it left off. It's little things like that that make this phone as nice as it is.
The browser is quick, the menus dont lag...I've been pretty happy.
My one gripe so far is using the screen while in a call...for some reason the screen shuts off immediately and I cant use it to navigate a menu (e.g. my voicemail) but I believe this is probably user error as I just havent had a whole lot of time to go through all the menus and stuff.
I recommend the droid...its the first worthwhile phone verizon has put out in awhile...Its been a looooooong wait.
Wow thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience. This is exactly what I needed!
I doubt I'll ever buy anything that's not a BB or Palm anymore. Them crackberries are just so far ahead from most mainstream cellphones availible. They're pretty affordable now too ^^
my friend has a droid and i like it alot i been playing around with it the past few days, i like it and i think the keyboard is fine but im still getting an iphone for christmas ^^
i've heard a lot of good things about the droid and would love to get one but i'm still locked in to my at&t contract and verizon has no service whatsoever in my apartment (even though i live near downtown in a fairly major city)
You probably already knew about this, but in case you didn't, this is the place where hundreds of nerds gather together and discuss everything related to the droid, including things you probably don't care about:
Note: there are two "droids", one is The droid by Motorola, and the other is a lower-cost droid by Eris. The Eris phone doesn't have a keyboard and is lower-end. However they have developed their own fine-tuned UI that runs instead of the stock android one that Motorola runs. This UI is only for android 1.6, I don't think they have moved to android 2.0 yet, which is what the Motorola droid runs. If you read those forums long enough you will learn these things, if you care enough that is.
All I can say is I hate their ads. Those ads are so goddamn annoying, the way they interrupts the music with shock sounds effects. It makes me want to change the goddamn channel if I see it on. It's not even a good ad since you learn hardly anything about the actual product. I would never buy anything from an ad that annoying.
On November 16 2009 15:04 Athos wrote: It makes me want to change the goddamn channel if I see it on. It's not even a good ad since you learn hardly anything about the actual product. I would never buy anything from an ad that annoying.
wow, I've been looking for a new Verizon phone and haven't liked any in a while, but this one looks awesome...
Only problem is, do you have to have a data plan in order to get it? That's why I ended up not getting a lot of the phones I was interested in from Verizon. Don't wanna pay tons for stuff my iPod touch does for free.
On November 16 2009 17:50 uNcontroLable wrote: wow, I've been looking for a new Verizon phone and haven't liked any in a while, but this one looks awesome...
Only problem is, do you have to have a data plan in order to get it? That's why I ended up not getting a lot of the phones I was interested in from Verizon. Don't wanna pay tons for stuff my iPod touch does for free.
Yeah that's what has me hesitant about getting this phone. However, 3g everywhere you go is nice, but if the phone has wifi I don't really want the 3g plan, especially if it's an extra $30 a month.
The screen on the Droid is leaps and bounds better than anything currently out there. See for yourself ... it's pretty amazing. I was able to try it out at a special demo event they had.
I've said this the last time: it really all depends on what you plan on doing with your phone. I tried the droid for 2 days and had a few issues:
* Sync with Outlook is clunky. I can't invite people to meetings / conf calls / add stuff to Outlook calendar the way I used to be able to. * Can't operate with 1 hand easily (Blackberry mouse thingie helps here). * Data lives on gmail "cloud" - privacy issue for many companies.
That said, this is a solid phone which tries to "do it all": it is better at email than the i-phone (but worse than bberry) and far better at web browsing that the bberry (but worse than i-phone). I would take the Palm-Pre over the Droid because of the Outlook sync-ing issues. Perhaps this is not an issue for you though!
On November 17 2009 00:29 citi.zen wrote: I've said this the last time: it really all depends on what you plan on doing with your phone. I tried the droid for 2 days and had a few issues:
* Sync with Outlook is clunky. I can't invite people to meetings / conf calls / add stuff to Outlook calendar the way I used to be able to. * Can't operate with 1 hand easily (Blackberry mouse thingie helps here). * Data lives on gmail "cloud" - privacy issue for many companies.
That said, this is a solid phone which tries to "do it all": it is better at email than the i-phone (but worse than bberry) and far better at web browsing that the bberry (but worse than i-phone). I would take the Palm-Pre over the Droid because of the Outlook sync-ing issues. Perhaps this is not an issue for you though!
If you use microsoft outlook to manage tour email and planning he's saying that syncing with that is a bit clunky. I don't use outlook that intnsively so it should be fine for me
On November 17 2009 00:29 citi.zen wrote: I've said this the last time: it really all depends on what you plan on doing with your phone. I tried the droid for 2 days and had a few issues:
* Sync with Outlook is clunky. I can't invite people to meetings / conf calls / add stuff to Outlook calendar the way I used to be able to. * Can't operate with 1 hand easily (Blackberry mouse thingie helps here). * Data lives on gmail "cloud" - privacy issue for many companies.
That said, this is a solid phone which tries to "do it all": it is better at email than the i-phone (but worse than bberry) and far better at web browsing that the bberry (but worse than i-phone). I would take the Palm-Pre over the Droid because of the Outlook sync-ing issues. Perhaps this is not an issue for you though!
Can you explain what you mean by outlook syncing?
Your phone will "sync" with other calendars/inboxes/contacts/organizers you may be using - ie you want to access your contacts from both your computer and the phone. Some features of Outlook don't translate well to Adroid phones (ie: I could not send an invite from the phone which would automatically add itself to the recipient's outlook calendar). If you are a heavy user of Outlook this may be a problem. By your question I am guessing this is not the case, so feel free to ignore!
The phone does have very nice integration with gmail and all the google apps - which can be really great btw.
On November 17 2009 00:29 citi.zen wrote: I've said this the last time: it really all depends on what you plan on doing with your phone. I tried the droid for 2 days and had a few issues:
* Sync with Outlook is clunky. I can't invite people to meetings / conf calls / add stuff to Outlook calendar the way I used to be able to. * Can't operate with 1 hand easily (Blackberry mouse thingie helps here). * Data lives on gmail "cloud" - privacy issue for many companies.
That said, this is a solid phone which tries to "do it all": it is better at email than the i-phone (but worse than bberry) and far better at web browsing that the bberry (but worse than i-phone). I would take the Palm-Pre over the Droid because of the Outlook sync-ing issues. Perhaps this is not an issue for you though!
Can you explain what you mean by outlook syncing?
Your phone will "sync" with other calendars/inboxes/contacts/organizers you may be using - ie you want to access your contacts from both your computer and the phone. Some features of Outlook don't translate well to Adroid phones (ie: I could not send an invite from the phone which would automatically add itself to the recipient's outlook calendar). If you are a heavy user of Outlook this may be a problem. By your question I am guessing this is not the case, so feel free to ignore!
The phone does have very nice integration with gmail and all the google apps - which can be really great btw.
Apparently unlike AT&T the Verizon service won't apply my 19% discount to the data portion of the plan
I worked @ Orange Lab Japan and I've tested both Iphone 3Gs and Droid. Let's cut the crap and be honest : HTC Hero is the first droid phone that actually does something good. And it is good. Very good indeed. People would argue Iphone 3Gs might be faster but : droid phone DOES multitask. And, really, it's pain in the ass when you have to actually chose skype XOR web. Get the HTC hero, it's good deal, good phone.
On November 18 2009 00:32 MK wrote: I worked @ Orange Lab Japan and I've tested both Iphone 3Gs and Droid. Let's cut the crap and be honest : HTC Hero is the first droid phone that actually does something good. And it is good. Very good indeed. People would argue Iphone 3Gs might be faster but : droid phone DOES multitask. And, really, it's pain in the ass when you have to actually chose skype XOR web. Get the HTC hero, it's good deal, good phone.
Thanks for your comment...I'm planning buy a HTC Hero
i looked on an htc hero review.. it seemed disgustingly laggy when the dude was browsing the web etc.. at least compared to the iphone i've read on wiki that that's been fixed with a recent firmware update? is it actually? how smooth is it compared to the iphone?
EPT
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