Review of Verizon Droid by Motorola Android 2.0

The Verizon Droid (Android 2.0) by Motorola is now in the hands of reviewers. The much touted new mobile device seems to have created just the stir in the smartphone market that all have expected. Android 2.0 review volume is up not only in news articles, but also in blog posts.

The Slash Gear Verizon Droid Review initially has glowing comments about this new Motorola smartphone. The author, Vincent Nguyen, speaks highly of the "slender lines and hard angles" of the unit. He compares the Droid to the older Motorola CLIQ, which he refers to as being "all chunk and curves". The quality nature of the mostly metal construction is also praised by Nguyen. The 3.7 inch 854 x 480 capacitive touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard are also mentioned features. However, the author notes that the position of the D-pad to the right of the keyboard will mean that one's right thumb will have to reach considerably further across than ones left thumb will. The quality of the display made quite the impression. With preconceived notion that the Samsung Moment would still have the better display, the author conceded that the Droid will give its rival a run for the money.[i]

The CNET Motorola Droid live review by Kent German and Bonnie Cha is more detailed than the Slash Gear review. Mr. German and Ms. Cha go into more details in their comments, including some very succinct negatives in their take on the Droid. However, they begin their critique with the now familiar glowing commendation of the visual quality of the display. One of their first slightly negative observations included the fact that the slide mechanism is "a little quirky". Noted also was that a nudge could begin to close the Droid, as no locking tabs have been designed into the mechanism. German and Cha also had reservations with the design of the keyboard itself, citing that the flush nature of the keys will make "texting" by "feel" potentially awkward.

The User Interface (UI) of the Motorola Droid is described as similar to the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G, with subtle enhancements and changes that streamline the UI. The UI is said to be cleaner and offers three home panes, each fully customizable with the many widgets and shortcuts to your favorite applications, including a Facebook widget allowing updates to your status and access to your friend's status boards as well.

Alluding to Android 2.0 being more business oriented, mention is made in this review of the expanded capabilities of personal information uses, including e-mail, contact lists, and your calendar. With the offering of native Microsoft Exchange synchronization, in addition to support for Gmail and POP3 and IMAP accounts, you can have all messages from various accounts shown in one in-box. Different received e-mails are color coded to make identification of account of origin simple.[ii]

One thing is certain: Future reviews of the Verizon Droid (Android 2.0) by Motorola will further refine opinions about the good, the bad, and the ugly, (if any) in the eyes of reviewers and users everywhere.

[i]http://www.slashgear.com/verizon-droid-by-motorola-hands-on-2862093/

[ii]http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-10385261-251.html