Motorola Droid – Should I buy this phone?

Published on November 7th, 2009

http://phandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/motorola-droid-site3.jpg

I’m thinking about taking another shot at replacing my old Palm 700p cellphone and am looking for something that is at least as good as what I bought 5 years ago. As many of you know, I tried the HTC Touch Pro2 and ended up returning it because it was so dysfunctional. I went to a Verizon store and was somewhat impressed. The thing actually seems to work. I didn’t see any kind of stylus with it which may be a good thing. Perhaps you don’t need one.

So – should I buy this phone or is there yet a better one about to come out? Should I wait for the Droid 2?

I have a few questions.

1) Since it’s a Linux box – is there a Bash command line?

2) Need an SSH client.

3) Would like to be able to turn it into a hotspot like I could do with the Windows phone I took back. Can that be done?

4) Youtube video was pretty grainy. I’m wondering why?

5) Where are good sites to get apps for this platform.

What else should I know or consider before buying this phone? Is it mature? There are no honest reviews out there for any phone and unlike most reviewers I am interested in how well it makes phone calls. One thing I almost never see in a review is the phone app. I’m also interested in the email app. If an email has an attached WAV file, can I play it?

Thoughts?

39 users responded in " Motorola Droid – Should I buy this phone? "

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# 1 ECA said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:14 pm

Is this an APP phone running nothing more then WHATS ON IT..
or a real computer telephone WHICH you can run anything thats OPEN to Linux??
not just a WEB based computer.

Im sorry. But I want a phone that I can ADAPT to what I need/want. If I want CHEAP 3mp pics, or 10mp pics, I can select it, or ADDON.

90% of cellphone cameras, have NO FOCUS or even a Lens to clear up the picture, just a protective cover. It gets scratched and FOGGY and you get NOTHING..

I would also like a CELLPHONE and Computer to have SEPARATE batteries. If one dies, I can STILL use the other features.

In all reality..IF you want pictures and VIDEO get a CAMERA..

# 2 brm said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:18 pm

Kid I work with got one. He loves it already.

# 3 eaze said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

maybe check out the nokia n900 which looks kind of similar

# 4 sargasso said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:24 pm

no shell access in android, so no bash. connectbot is an ssh client for android. wifi sharing is technically feasible but you better ask someone who has actually tried it – there is an android app wifi router. motorola will undoubtedly have a droid app shop, there are a few others, google might have a list. for what it’s worth, i hate sliders – the slide mechanisms are fragile, prone to jamming with sand and grit, become difficult in extreme cold, and the teeny keyboard is useless in gloves.

# 5 Marc Perkel said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:28 pm

I live in Gilroy California so we don’t get extreme cold.

# 6 dusanmal said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:32 pm

“Is it mature?” – Released few days ago on platform about year old…

# 7 qb said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:41 pm

Yes

# 8 Grayven said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:43 pm

Motorola makes crummy products. Over the last ten years, both I and everyone I’ve known have been unhappy with every Motorola product they’ve bought. (This is a shame, they used to make great stuff.) Wait for something from Nokia, Samsung, Sony Erikson, or any brand that has some happy customers. Don’t waste your time and money on a company with a proven record of failure. Good android phones are coming.

# 9 endigo said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:46 pm

The Droid is the best Smart Phone that Verizon has until they get the iPhone next year. So go ahead and get the Droid.

# 10 TooManyPuppies said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

I love the Android 2.0 OS, but the Moto hardware, to me, felt and looks like something out of the 90’s except for the screen.

If only they could take the internals from the Moto Droid and stuff it into the Eris shell…

I currently have both an iPhone 3GS and an HTC Hero (same as the Eris) on Sprint and HTC plans to update it with Android 2.0. Once they do, I’m going to shitcan the iPhone and AT&T.

# 11 hhopper said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:56 pm

Yes, buy it. Then you can tell us all about it.

# 12 Improbus said, on November 7th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

I want one but I am going to hold off until next year. First adopters always get screwed. Maybe I will get one when they release the next Android update.

# 13 conrack said, on November 7th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

# 4 sargasso
It doesn’t matter that the keys are as big as 6 inch tiles and the keyboard is 8 feet long, what I want is a phone that can do text at 60 below with my mittens on while I mush my team thru the Iditarod.

You forgot underwater while scuba diving. The Rolex Oyster Droid…

Moron

# 14 Sister Mary Hand Grenade of Quiet Reflection said, on November 7th, 2009 at 3:09 pm

It’s kinda fugly.

# 15 Kdogg said, on November 7th, 2009 at 3:10 pm

I don’t have an iPhone, I’m not an Apple fan, but I was impressed the first time I played with an iPhone at an Apple store, the day after they came out. Everything worked, including the new features, without a single “How the hell do I do this?” moment.

Opposite experience today with the Droid, which I really wanted to like. Had to go to two Verizon stores before I found one that worked. Very little was intuitive. I’m sure I could learn the interface, but hats off to Apple for making a powerful interface that I didn’t have to sweat.

My website has a long URL, making it a great test for the keyboard. I’ve never made a typo typing it out on the iPhone. Took me more than a minute on both the real and the virtual keyboard on the Droid. Yecch.

First impression: did somebody PAY for all that good ink? I really, really wanted to like the Droid, and I left totally underwhelmed.

# 16 Friendly_ear4u said, on November 7th, 2009 at 3:19 pm

Been a Palm Pre “early adopter” now for a while… Love the thing. Cheap to own too. Sprint coverage is great here and when i do roam it roams on Verizon. Sprint costs less, has fast networks, and the gives the main line an upgrade every year! Keep up with new products!

I could see the iPhone once they add some carrier who is not AT&T.

Droid may be the best Android phone so far – yet I believe the pre to be the best choice so far. Droid has my attention – but watch out for Verizon’s contract– rumor is getting out is really $$$.

Oh, and the droid keyboard… wtf?

# 17 Father said, on November 7th, 2009 at 3:32 pm

No data services are available during an in-progress phone call.

See the wired.com review.

I would love to dump my iphone, but the droid doesn’t to it for me yet. The screen is not wide enough, eventhough it is tall enough. I have both verizion (casio boulder-great phone/poor GUI) and AT&T (iphone 3G).

I probably won’t buy a new phone until the new 4G iphone comes out. By that time my iphone’s battery will be shot, and it will be time to upgrade.

I would wait until 2q2010 to make a choice. The market will have more choices then.

# 18 Father said, on November 7th, 2009 at 3:42 pm

I’d also wait for a phone that can fully support Adobe Flash. Browsing the web without any Flash capability is a bummer.

# 19 Joe said, on November 7th, 2009 at 3:58 pm

Gilroy? Yuck. No offense but you should save your money and move to nicer locale, preferably a place that doesn’t reek of a vegetable.

The WalMart in Gilroy is the scariest place on the planet.

# 20 Chriswsm said, on November 7th, 2009 at 4:14 pm

I would go for the Nokia N900 over the Droid

# 21 Personality said, on November 7th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

I’m a pc specialist and I got it on launch. LOVE IT! First time with Android. Easy to use. Good apps in the store. Even the free ones.

# 22 Jägermeister said, on November 7th, 2009 at 4:31 pm

#11 – hhopper – Yes, buy it. Then you can tell us all about it.

LOL

# 23 Godfish said, on November 7th, 2009 at 6:00 pm

Hello and I bought one on friday and I’ve had Iphone, HTC Touch pro, and palm phones. this so far is the best of the bunch for me! I love how your run lots of programs at the same time. last night I looked at how much stuff I was running and I had 10 apps open and running, The phone didn’t slow down. The screen is AWESOME and way better then the iphone. There are some clunky things with the menus the touch responce is not as snappy as the iphone but 2.0 is just out the gate and will get corrected, They are working on a 2.1 right now to correct stuff like that.

All and All I see lots of the same apps as on the iphone and for me the this is the phone that I wanted when I bought an iphone, The Droid is not as easy to use as the iphone and I think it’s that way because they don’t want to look like they are copying any other phone.

Get one and I bet you don’t take it back, but you have 14 days to do so.

# 24 Animby said, on November 7th, 2009 at 6:06 pm

My sister works for IBM and wanted a Droid in the worst way. Found out it would be almost impossible to synch with Lotus Notes (which she is forced to use by her employer) and that it had cable synch abilities. Everything has to be done wirelessly. That might be seen as an advantage to some but there’s so much that can go wrong with wireless connections. A wired backup would have been nice.

I’ve got a Samsung Omnia with WinMob 6.1 and using it is an everyday trip to hell. I was ready to buy the HTC Hero but, I’m going to wait for another six months before I change. I just feel there is so much coming down the road.

You know what scares me, though? I’m afraid in six months I might get to LIKE the Omnia.

If I were forced to buy a new phone today, it would be either the HTC Hero or the Nokia N900.

# 25 Marc Perkel said, on November 7th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

Godfish,

That was very informative. Which Palm did you have. I really like my Palm but it lacks modern features. But the Palm 700p is what I consider to be a good phone and I have been happy with it. However the time has come for new toys and I don’t want to get a phone that I like less than the Palm.

# 26 Li said, on November 7th, 2009 at 6:33 pm

The droid impressed me when I saw it at my local VZ store. All of the four they had on display were functional, even though it seemed like everyone had tried to install every app they could find on the display models. The screen was gorgeous; the text looks printed on. It would be a joy to read on. The screen finish isn’t as silky as the iphone, and it picked up fingerprints. However, it felt -very- solid, much more solid than any side slider I’ve had before. The keyboard was similar to the LG ENV which I’ve been stuck with for a while, so that might be why I liked it; not sure if screen typers will ever like a physical keyboard though. I kind of groked the interface in the time I had with it, but it wasn’t as elegant as the iphone. The widgets, however, are real cool, and might be fun to use. And you can pull out the battery, which is a must for me, I’ve had too many battery mishaps to seal the damn thing into the phone entirely. I may get it if a friend of mine who picked one up likes it a week from now.

# 27 Eric said, on November 7th, 2009 at 6:33 pm

I pre-ordered the N900 based on past experience with the N810. You don’t want a Verizon branded phone. They are kings of locking out features (simple things like, for example, the Slingbox app for Blackberries). I’ve also read that the camera has some serious focusing problems.

The downside is that it uses T-Mobile’s 3G network here in the US, although they just introduced better pricing (and no contract) if you buy the phone instead of subsidizing. Since the N900 isn’t being picked up by them (yet), you’ll save a little on the monthly bill. And keep an eye on their “coverage” map. They’ve been adding 3G cell sites in my area all year.

The nice thing about the N900 is that it is extremely easy to get root and that the only thing that happens when you try to install an “unapproved” program is a warning that Nokia doesn’t offer any warranty on this software, use at your own risk, etc.

It’s like being treated like an adult. Tough concept for some, but I’ve come to prefer it over the alternative.

The best place for information about the N900 is http://talk.maemo.org. This is the main site for the Maemo developer community (and a lot of users). Right now it’s like waiting for Santa Clause (so much for adult behavior) until Nokia releases the darn thing, but once we get through this it should get interesting again.

# 28 Li said, on November 7th, 2009 at 6:51 pm

Google put their foot down; it seemed like the phone was completely unhampered by the old VZ crapware. Totally stock eclair.

# 29 brm said, on November 7th, 2009 at 8:01 pm

Avoid the N900 or any other Maemo device. It’s garbage. (at least, it was on the N810, which I owned.)

# 30 sargasso said, on November 7th, 2009 at 9:00 pm

Just on Digg, rumor of a $99 iPhone before Christmas.
http://tinyurl.com/yca7pbz

# 31 Marc Perkel said, on November 8th, 2009 at 6:31 am

There’s a number of reasons I’m not going with the iPhone. One is the most important feature is making phone calls. That’s why I’m on Verizon. I also don’t like Apple’s lack of understanding that is MY PHONE and not theirs. The very idea that they would deliberately brick a product that I buy counts them out. And a number of other issues like single tasking OS, enclosed battery, I like a slider keyboard.

# 32 jtsmall said, on November 8th, 2009 at 9:03 am

Soln for me was the Pre (which you didn’t previously like) plus Sprint’s MiFi coupled with a 32gb 3G iPod touch. Best of both worlds. Sprint a different and friendlier company under new CEO. I’m not antone’s fanboy and I like the 3G touch with landscape keyboard. MiFi works well with laptop too and so far better mobile soln than aircard.

The one downside for me is the PDF reader is weak without a landscape view. And apps load a tad slow coupled with occasional delayed responsiveness. Probably dual core hardware would cure this.

All in all, satisfied. Of course YMMV.

# 33 Postman said, on November 8th, 2009 at 11:17 am

I have an iPhone and I agree with perkel. The reason to not get an iPhone is AT&T. Not only is apple and AT&T guilty of fraud with regards to their supposed 3g network, but their basic phone service network is horrible.

Additionally the iPhone battery goes dead really fast if you are in an area with poor AT&T reception. Let me simplify that. The iPhone battery goes dead really fast. I have to charge it twice a day.

If what you want is a phone, get a phone. If you want an iPhone get an iPhone. But the iPhone is not a phone.

After a year and then some with the iPhone best I can say about it is… Seemed like a good idea at the time… I would rather have a phone that worked as well as my verizon free with service agreement phone I used to have and a nice windows 7 netbook.

# 34 Chang said, on November 8th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

1) Since it’s a Linux box – is there a Bash command line?
(If you root your phone or flash a developer firmware, yes.)

2) Need an SSH client.
(There are a couple, best results if you root your phone)

3) Would like to be able to turn it into a hotspot like I could do with the Windows phone I took back. Can that be done?
(Yes, verison charges an extra $30/month for this “feature” cap at 5gb/month)

4) Youtube video was pretty grainy. I’m wondering why?
(quality is based on available bandwidth, try it on wifi should look like youtube HD)

5) Where are good sites to get apps for this platform.
(Built in android market place is a solid start, you can download apk files from other sources and there are third party market place replacements.)

# 35 godfish said, on November 8th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

Hello I had a Treo 650, it was a great phone, but after 3 years with it, it gave up and stopped working.

# 36 JT said, on November 8th, 2009 at 7:59 pm

Buy it and do this… Easy hack. Use a good magnet. http://tinyurl.com/yfvcnfj

# 37 Nitroneo said, on November 9th, 2009 at 4:23 am

Save your money, if your gut feeling is leaving you with an uneasy decision, save your money. Many will claim to love it for the first three months of glee at owning something different, something new, but does it really do what you need or did you just buy it for the gizmo factor?

Besides, being vzw & moto, it already has two notches in the negative column.

# 38 r4i said, on November 10th, 2009 at 11:31 pm

Motorola droiad look so nice and awesome The design of phone look so attractive and color combination also
look very nice and cool.This gadget has very different functionality and very advance technology also used in it.It is the reason behind love to this phones

# 39 Sleepaholic88 said, on November 14th, 2009 at 8:49 pm

Hello, I recently got the Droid and have been playing with it since then.

As someone mentioned, you can use the ConnectBot app which is easy to use. The keyboard can be a bit of a pain if you type fast, but it might just take some getting used to (of course the on screen keyboard is unusable for fast typing until they release some sort of multitouch support for it).
You can also find free FTP and VNC clients in the app store.
The android marketplace is easy to use. It’s searchable and the downloads are fairly fast.
Are you talking about tethering? Like someone mentioned, Verizon charges another $30/month to do that… there might be a way around it through an app; I haven’t checked.
I have not had a problem with grainy youtube videos. There is an option to watch high quality videos (even through 3G) and they look great (fullscreen and good quality). Maybe you were watching in low quality.
I think this phone is mature and professional. Easy to personalize if you want, and runs simultaneous programs very well. I tried listened to Pandora radio, and watching TED talk videos at the same time, and there was no lag in either.
The phone app is simple – there are tabs at the top that can switch between lists of contacts, recent calls, favorites, and the dial pad. The contacts list is searchable and easy to use, and the dial pad (and screen in general) is very responsive. There’s also the proximity sensor that dims the screen when you put it to your ear. The reception is clear and isn’t a problem.
Email: It automatically syncs your gmail chats, emails and contacts, and you everything is searchable. It also syncs facebook contacts which can be annoying, but you can turn it off if you want. It also can combine contacts with the same name, and you can join contacts manually.
There is an email app that lets you sync POP3 and IMAP accounts to your phone and they can notify you when you get a new email.
I believe you can download WAV files, and I assume the Droid can play them, though I haven’t tested this.

In general, it’s a great phone. Depending on how much you use it and what you use it for, though, you might be disappointed with the battery life. Also, Verizon is supposed to be coming out with new Android 2.0 phones. If you are hesitant about getting the Droid, you might want to wait to see what they deliver.

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