A Review of the Motorola Droid

I have recently passed my fiftieth year so I am officially and "Old Fart" particularly as it comes to technology. However, I have spend almost half that time representing digital technology solutions for some Fortune 100 providers of such gizmos and gadgets.

To be honest, I am so jaded by technology that long gone are the days when I am impressed or even interested in the nuts and bolts of my solutions. That's why they pay my sales engineers the big bucks. Likewise, my day to day usage of technology is typically limited to applications that will help me be more effective in my job.

That being said, I have never had much interest in using a "Smart Phone" to support my communications needs. I found them to be clunky, difficult to access features, and most of the applications seemed superfluous to me.

All that changed about ten days ago when my brand new Motorola Droid arrived at my front door.

This is a Review not a Comparison

One pattern I noticed when reading reviews of the Droid while doing research to help with my decision. That is like most emerging technologies there are various advocates of certain technologies that can be very zealous.

This seems to be true of the Droid versus iPhone debate. Virtually all of the reviews compared the two devices and the consensus was split equally between the iPhone lovers and iPhone haters. I found this extremely frustrating because I wasn't interested in how the Droid compared to the iPhone but more so how the Droid performed as a personal data tool.

I have never touched an iPhone and because of my requirements the AT&T coverage area was never an option for consideration. I feel it will be more helpful to discuss the strengths and weaknesses I've found in about ten days of heavy use of the Droid.

I would consider myself an average user of a device of this type. Being in sales I find many of the features and applications most useful in generating and maintaining my business. After hours, I also found many useful features to support my personal life.

Easy to Deploy

The phone arrived fully charged and had all the primary functionality set up on the main screen. Activation was supported with a wizard and within 10 minutes I was fully functional on the phone.

The screen operation and menu presentation is very "Windows like" and anyone familiar with Windows will feel right at home with the Droid.

Positive Control with the Touch Screen

My son has a touch screen phone and I hated it when I test drove it, but many of the reviews I read mentioned that the Droid had figured out most of the problems associated with "feather touch" response. The reviews proved accurate.

The Droid touch screen requires a positive touch before it records the input. I have very little trouble with inadvertent inputs. One feature I like is the tactile response to touch screen input. As an optional setting you may select a vibration when input is accepted. An audible tone is also an option.

I have bananas for fingers so I can't say I never make any typing errors with the QWERTY screen but because you are able to place the application icons anywhere on the desktop I give myself enough space to accommodate my mitts.

Like many of the features of this device the word look up is very intuitive and is trainable. I am thrilled that I am able to effectively text in complete lucid sentences without draining my battery for taking so long with my thumbs.

The Droid has a hard slide out QWERTY keyboard that is completely useless to me but is a feature that's in demand. If you possess delicate, dexterous digits I suppose you will find the keyboard a dream to use. As for me, Motorola could have saved the space and weight.

Avoiding making calls inadvertently while the phone is in your pocket requires you to develop the simple habit of hitting the hard switch and shutting down the screen when you are finished with a call or other application and before putting the phone in your pocket or case. This takes a fraction of a second and within an hour I had gotten into the habit. Restoring the screen is instantaneous so if you find this task inconvenient you are looking for excuses.

Answering a call requires you to slide the lock icon across the screen. This averts answering a call you don't want to accept. If you slide the lock icon in the other direction the call will go straight to voce mail. The first few times I found this feature annoying but it quickly became second nature. Having had the experience of re-dialing my boss and having an eight minute rant about what kind of a butt hole he was recorded in his voice mail I really appreciate this extra precaution.

You can also secure the system using an authorization "pattern" when you turn the screen on. This feature is optional but I know a certain golfer that would have really found this useful!

Icons are all drag and drop so you can arrange your home screen to your liking. Removing an icon is accomplished by dragging it to the recycle bin that appears at the bottom of the screen when you hold and capture an icon.

Telephone Functionality

All I can say is that the phone works great as a phone. I've tried hands free with the speaker and Bluetooth. Either mode works well.

This is just my opinion but I found that the device requires way too much dexterity to use effectively in the car without the car cradle. I went without this accessory for two days and after a number of episodes of sheer terror from close calls I opted for the cradle and car charger.

If you plan on using your phone for a primary GPS you really need the cradle and charger anyway but I'm telling you that if you try to use the phone free hand while driving you are asking for a bad day.

On the other hand, once the phone is snapped into the mount it becomes a dream to use. Whether you opt for the touch screen or voice commands life is much better. The basic hands free feature works well although when selecting a mounting position it should be as close to your face as possible as your voice clarity with the built in microphone falls off rapidly with distance.

The Droid also has a "Car" homepage that sports large icons for the four most frequently used functions in the car. Everything else is available and at the touch of an icon the screen displays the standard home page.

GPS Navigation

I rely on GPS extensively to accomplish my job so one of the first features I tried out was maps and navigation. I was not disappointed. The Droid performed at least as well as my Garmin and has other advantages. Google search results for facilities can be layered onto a map. For example, I Googled a men's clothing store in Yellow Book and the locations were immediately overlaid on the map. I touched the flag for the nearest location, selected "Navigate" and I was off.

The voice prompts and graphics are every bit as good as my Garmin. If you are looking for more features there are a number of applications available for purchase to enhance the GPS functionality.

The Droid allows the use of true GPS navigation or it will triangulate from wireless towers. The one downside is that it requires Verizon connectivity to download the required maps. If you are in an area with no network coverage or the network is down you are out of luck.

Applications and Widgets

Currently there are about 20,000 applications available for the Droid. There may be someone out there who is not satisfied with the selections but as for me I'm covered.

Weather, traffic, and blackjack are the only applications I needed to make my life complete. I also put on widgets to toggle wi-fi and satellite as the stock icons are a bit tiny for my fingers. Oh, and a car finder because I can't remember where I park anymore.

Downloading and installing apps is a two click operation and is done automatically from the "Market" icon.

Connecting to your PC

Transferring files between devices is easy. By connecting the Droid with the supplied USB cable it appears on your PC as removable storage. It looks and feels just like a thumb drive.

This feature makes it simple to organize folders on the Droid and drag and drop media and applications between devices. Setting up the MP3 player was as simple as dragging all my ripped MP3 folders to the Droid.

Setting up an MP3 for a ringtone is simple. Just press and hold a song selection and a dialog box appears. Touch "Use as Ringtone" and you're done. Using an MP3 as an alert or alarm is a different problem and after I pulled my hair out for an hour I discovered the other great thing about the Droid. There are a hundred geeks out there who downloaded the user's guide and love to show off their vast knowledge.

It was a simple matter to Google "setting MP3 for alert tone on Droid" and in 20 seconds I had it done. You must set up a specific folder tree in the root directory and then it appears on the default selection menu. This was one of the only counter-intuitive actions I found on the device and I wonder why this wasn't defaulted into the OS from the factory.

There is no task I haven't found the solution to on the Droid message boards. Thank heavens for geeks!

Speed

As I mentioned, I have no smart phone experience to compare my Droid with but the speed of applications employment is incredible. Most of the applications are virtually instantaneous when the icon is selected.

Downloads are blindingly fast when connected to wi-fi. As expected, when using the cellular network for downloads the speed is relative to the available bandwidth but still seemed fairly brisk in most instances.

MP3 Player

I have no experience with MP3 players but my daughter tells me the Droid sounds "Pretty Good". For my daughter whose life is centered around music I took that as a ringing endorsement. At age fifty and being a former military pilot most of my high frequency response is shot anyway. I can say that using the player and managing the files is very simple and straightforward.

There is 14.6 GB of free space on board which is more than I'll ever use.

Camera

The Droid include a 5 MP camera that is also very simple to use. The media is also easy to handle when transferred to a PC.

Once again, being of the "older" crowd I have no experience to use as a basis of comparison. Is the camera as functional or effective as my Canon digital that I paid $1,200 for? Nope, but I wouldn't expect it to be so.

Some Annoying Traits

There are a few things I would change if I could.

The screen goes black after a pre-selected time period in every application except navigation. The screen goes dark in the middle of a call but does not come back on when the call is ended. The only way to revive the screen is with the hard switch which can be difficult to get to in the car.

Another car related complaint is the security pattern. As I mentioned, you have the option of locking the device with a security pattern which involves connecting a series of electronic dots on the screen. This is a great feature to keep people from browsing through your device. In the car it can be a challenge to draw the pattern when you are moving. You could disable the feature before you start your trip and enable it when finished but that too is annoying.

The Droid knows when it is mounted in the car cradle so maybe in the next upgrade the engineers will set the application to remain on and unlocked when mounted and plugged into the charger.

These actions are trivial when you are not trying to operate your car but become a real challenge when on the move.

The Bottom Line

I must admit I have few complaints at all with the Droid. It does everything it was designed to do and does it well. The capabilities are far beyond my needs and as I said, I believe I represent the vast majority of typical business and personal users.

In addition, while I admit I have more technology experience than the average middle aged user I would recommend this device to anyone who may have a need for mobile data processing and functionality. Most average users will find the functionality easy to access and useful. If you can select the picture of an application you would like to use and touch it you are golden.

The ease and convenience of light, fast and reliable access to web features in a mobile device is empowering. The Droid allows a practical use of applications to get your job done or just check the latest movie times when you are sitting at dinner and thinking of something to do.

If you've been waiting for the perfect phone supported by the perfect network go for the Droid with Verizon.

The only caution I can give is to spend the money to get the Motorola car cradle and power charger if you are planning to use the Droid in the car. There is no doubt in my mind that if you try to use the phone free hand it will end in disaster.