I got one! I got the Motorola Droid!

Published on November 9th, 2009

http://www.devicemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Motorola-Droid_Image.jpg

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.

43 users responded in " I got one! I got the Motorola Droid! "

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# 1 jimmy james said, on November 9th, 2009 at 1:47 pm

Regarding #4, if you want a good file browser (not a goof one), try Astro.

# 2 Pierre Serné said, on November 9th, 2009 at 1:50 pm

Have fun with it…. I envy you for having Android 2.0 already, i still have 1.6 on my G1..
Layar (augmented reality) and Google Listen (for Podcasts) are my favorites for now.

# 3 A Nony Mouse said, on November 9th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

It was my understanding that with Verizon’s 3G implementation you can’t run both voice and data at the same time, i.e. you couldn’t be in a call, checking your email and running SSH all at once.

Have you really done this, or was that just a made up example?

If so, can someone point out a reference showing it is really possible?

# 4 pedro said, on November 9th, 2009 at 1:59 pm

So in the end, it boiled down to the phone you felt comfortable with. Good for you.

But the things you find amazing can be found in both winmobile and the oyphone.

Examples:

“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” Winmobile devices & the oy!phone have the same kind of apps. There are even ones that let you scan 2d barcodes from your computer screen and the phone reads the web link coded in the bars.

“I found a cool compass app.” Again, both winmobile & the oy!phone have an app for that.

Also, those things you say you can do with the android that cannot be done on the oy!phone, have been standard for winmobile devices.

And from your list of 6 things that you want the android to do (or learn how to if it does) have been available for winmobile devices for ages, some of them even acknowledged by you before.

But I’m glad you found something you feel comfortable with.

# 5 RLF said, on November 9th, 2009 at 2:01 pm

Still UGGGGGGGLLLLLLYYY!!!!

# 6 MikeN said, on November 9th, 2009 at 2:09 pm

Does the fingerprint scanner work?

# 7 CTRaider said, on November 9th, 2009 at 2:12 pm

You need to get AppKiller. Does what it sounds like. I was surprised to find a few apps don’t close when you navigate away from them.

Google Sky Map shows you what stars you are looking at based on the direction you are standing. It’s pretty impressive. Well at least for me here in CT. I can actually see the stars (no smog).

Shazam can find the name of a song you are listening to. Probably better for your kids ’cause the app can’t go back in time to find the name of that concerto your listening to I’m sure.

# 8 SparkyOne said, on November 9th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

That is all well and good Marc, but will it stop the Novel N1H1 flu?

# 9 LBalsam said, on November 9th, 2009 at 2:29 pm

How is the keyboard?

I tried it in the store and the keys seemed to run together.

Do you get used to it?

Otherwise, I liked the look and feel.

(thinking of buying one)

# 10 Troublemaker said, on November 9th, 2009 at 2:53 pm

It’s ugly as hell…

# 11 Jeroen said, on November 9th, 2009 at 4:06 pm

Windows Mobile killer FTW
but it’s a shame it’s soooo FUGLY

# 12 Improbus said, on November 9th, 2009 at 4:17 pm

At least it doesn’t have that hideous chin like the G1.

# 13 Godfish said, on November 9th, 2009 at 4:18 pm

I Love the look and the feel of Droid, to me very high tech and cool, it will kill the WMphone, it has already done so with me. I didn’t have an upgrade on my account so I had to plop down the 600 bucks and I not sorry I did. A phone I can use the way I want. I’ve been very happy.

Have fun.

# 14 Sai Kai Lee said, on November 9th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

Dvorak you old Kazurkinski-esque curmudgeon! I told you that you would love an Android phone.

So, is Google Voice everything it’s cracked up to be? You like those free phone calls do ya?

SKL

[This was posted by Marc Perkel... not John C. Dvorak. - ed.]

# 15 OIMLATE said, on November 9th, 2009 at 4:36 pm

Crazy Marc Perkel got a droid! I wonder if it turns him on more than that pet squirrel of his? o_O

# 16 chang said, on November 9th, 2009 at 4:52 pm

What will really blow your mind is a in a couple weeks when you’ve got everything figured out and you realize the power of having everything interconnected and automatically synced and backed up. Ad a friend on facebook or new contact to your gmail and back its pushed to the phone. The power of google in your pocket.

Not having to deal with all the clunky weirdness cell phones have made us accustomed to. I had to RMA my first G1 a while back, I took it to t-mobile got a new one, logged in and it was like nothing happened.

# 17 Dirk Thundernuts said, on November 9th, 2009 at 5:09 pm

I strained the other day and got a ‘droid.

# 18 Marc Perkel said, on November 9th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

I can tell you that you CAN do voice and data at the same time. I did run IMAP while talking on the phone.

# 19 Zybch said, on November 9th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

Pity about the god awful design, and that insanely stupid looking D-pad thingy.

# 20 Marc Perkel said, on November 9th, 2009 at 6:06 pm

I like the dpad. The keyboard is ugly but it works. And to me works is an important feature.

# 21 Animby said, on November 9th, 2009 at 6:23 pm

# 8 SparkyOne said, “…the Novel N1H1 flu?”

Who wrote that?
Is it available on Kindle?
Or Audible?

Perkel: I am so jealous. I hate my Omnia WinMob phone. I want a Druid, err, Droid so badly. But, I’m living in a GSM country. Please keep us updated.

# 22 RLF said, on November 9th, 2009 at 6:52 pm

Getting this ugly thing confirms to the Ladies that you really DO NOT want to get laid.

# 23 hhopper said, on November 9th, 2009 at 7:07 pm

Let us know how the battery life is Marc… John said it sucks.

# 24 Grandpa said, on November 9th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

I read somewhere that this phone is the Blackberry killer. Notice you don’t hear anything about the Storm 2 now?

Windows Mobile will kill itself…

# 25 LtSiver said, on November 9th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

Marc: You’ll never have root access to the phone. The telco will not allow that.
Glad you got a phone you enjoy!

# 26 Ben said, on November 10th, 2009 at 1:54 am

This aint the droid we are looking for

# 27 Mr Diesel said, on November 10th, 2009 at 3:11 am

What about the squirrel?

# 28 Improbus said, on November 10th, 2009 at 4:41 am

The squirrel needs a little collar cam with a Eye-Fi Pro card and a Flickr account so we can track him via Google maps on a Droid in real time. Make it so.

# 29 MikeD said, on November 10th, 2009 at 4:45 am

I think it’s interesting that all of the reviewers that got the phone early claimed excellent battery life and now that the phone has been released to the general public there are many, many complaints of poor battery life. Were all of those early review units somehow different? Or were those “journalists” somehow swayed in favor of writing glowing reviews of the phone? My contract with AT&T is up in January and I’m hoping that all the bugs are worked out of the Droid by then.

# 30 pedro said, on November 10th, 2009 at 5:25 am

I’m thinking journalism died to leave room for fanaticism.

# 31 Sea Lawyer said, on November 10th, 2009 at 5:30 am

Tried it while waiting around at the verizon store, I was really impressed with how sluggish scrolling was and that there is no pinch-zoom support. GG.

# 32 Personality said, on November 10th, 2009 at 5:44 am

Great! Now if you are poor like me, you can hack it. Sort of. Well, Okay. it is not a hack. http://tinyurl.com/yfg28gq

# 33 Marc Perkel said, on November 10th, 2009 at 5:50 am

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.

# 34 LucasJV said, on November 10th, 2009 at 6:40 am

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.

# 35 Marc Perkel said, on November 10th, 2009 at 7:57 am

My initial impression is that battery life is good. Charging however seems a little slow.

# 36 Marc Perkel said, on November 10th, 2009 at 8:14 am

I’m surprised there is no backup application that comes with it. The Palm had the Palm Desktop that backed up everything.

# 37 The Monster's Lawyer said, on November 10th, 2009 at 9:14 am

“I got one! I got the Motorola Droid!”

There’s a shot for that.

# 38 Sagrilarus said, on November 10th, 2009 at 9:23 am

Ugly? You guys buying this thing a corsage for the cotillion?

IT’S A TOOL. Use it.

# 39 Common_Sense said, on November 10th, 2009 at 10:41 am

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).

# 40 Common_Sense said, on November 10th, 2009 at 10:53 am

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.

# 41 zorkor said, on November 10th, 2009 at 2:13 pm

What an ugly phone….but the Android OS is really beautiful.

# 42 Marc Perkel said, on November 10th, 2009 at 4:15 pm

The HTC Touch Pro2 was a prettier phone. But I returned it because I wanted something that actually worked.

# 43 pedro said, on November 11th, 2009 at 2:21 am

#41 What the deuce? What would you know about good looking phones. Stop complaining here and use you jPhone (jihad phone).

Whiny extremist muslims piss me off.

#42 The touch pro2 works. Only not for you.

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