random190user44
Member
Motorola Droid 3 - 9/10
Feel
In my personal opinion, I think the Droid 3 has the perfect size for a phone. It feels good holding the phone in your hand, I always thought the droid 2 was small while the Droid X was too big. This is the absolute perfect balance.
Keyboard
The keyboard is very spacious. I may be in the minority here, but I always thought the droid 2 had an excellent keyboard, the best I've ever used at least. My only problem with the D2 was no dedicated number row. Coming from a droid 2, there is a noticeable learning curve, but it's nothing too bad.
Camera
As for the Camera, I tend to agree with most other reviewers here in that it's not as great as I expected. As far as I can tell, it does take better quality images and video than the D2 which is to be expected. Don't let the camera be the deal breaker for this phone though. It is more than good enough for my needs and probably most other people's needs, so long as you're not into photography or anything.
On another note, I'm the kind of person that would use the front facing camera A LOT to video chat. I see people play it down a lot as useless or a novelty, it's not! I think a lot of people really do use it, myself included. As for the quality, it's definitely good enough, I'm very satisfied with it. I video chat with a VGA ps2 eyetoy on my desktop anyways.
Motoblur
Motoblur......
I still don't like it. It is significantly better than motoblur on the droid 2, but overall it's still below average in my opinion. The screen transitions are nice, although a little excessive maybe. I wish they would let you keep some of them on, you can only turn them all on or all off though. I also dislike how the trashcan to delete icons has been moved to the top of the screen. Moving icons around takes a few tries to learn. The lockscreen, it's okay but I would have preferred the one from the Droid 2, I'm not sure if it's a gingerbread or motoblur thing though, regardless the lockscreen is not a problem. You can change the dock at the bottom, that's nice. One thing that i REALLY like though, is that when the screen auto rotates, it actually rotates like the iphone does instead of just flashing to the correct position. I used launcherpro on my droid 2, so chances are I'm going to switch back to that. I just wish i could take the things I like about motoblur and bring them to launcherpro.
Performance
Don't be deceived by people claiming the phone to be lag free. It's more like...80% lag free by my estimation. It lags, although very seldomly. It's for the most part very smooth. I'm sure performance will be phenomenal once root (and the possibilities that come with it) come out.
Screen
Okay, for the past few months I've been reading about the infamous "garbage pentile screen" on various websites. What is up with this propaganda?? It's not THAT bad. If you're at a normal viewing distance, you can't see the tiny pixels. If you're at an awkwardly close and difficult to use distance, you will see the pixels but only in some places, such as most notably the battery icon. The color green isn't it's best color. Between the Droid 2 and the Droid 3 (I've been comparing them side by side constantly) which screen would I prefer? At max brightness, the Droid 3 outperforms the D2 by a significant margin. The colors look more solid, vivid, and deep looking on the Droid 3. So to sum it up, while yes you can see the pixels on the Droid 3 (you can't on the Droid 2) it's only when you look really closely at it, from a regular distance (unless you have superb vision i guess) you can't really tell. I'm wearing contacts for 20/15 vision in case any of you didn't trust my visual acuity. The Droid 3's screen is fantastic I think. I would pick the Droid 3's screen over the Droid 2.
Battery Life
[Coming soon]
Final thoughts/Recommendation
I have been hit with a case of buyers remorse, only because I miss my Droid 2 because I was so incredibly used to it, I'm sure it'll pass. I believe this phone is definitely worth all 200 dollars. It feels great to hold, it's the perfect size, the screen is great i think, it has a lot less lag than the last gen of 1ghz superphones although not lag free, and the keyboard is very roomy. I just wish that there was more choice on verizon for a phone with a full qwerty keyboard, preferrably one made by HTC. I'm the kind of person that NEEDS a keyboard. If you're that type of person that wants a top of the line phone with a keyboard, I highly recommend this phone because I can't imagine you being disappointed by it.
Feel
In my personal opinion, I think the Droid 3 has the perfect size for a phone. It feels good holding the phone in your hand, I always thought the droid 2 was small while the Droid X was too big. This is the absolute perfect balance.
Keyboard
The keyboard is very spacious. I may be in the minority here, but I always thought the droid 2 had an excellent keyboard, the best I've ever used at least. My only problem with the D2 was no dedicated number row. Coming from a droid 2, there is a noticeable learning curve, but it's nothing too bad.
Camera
As for the Camera, I tend to agree with most other reviewers here in that it's not as great as I expected. As far as I can tell, it does take better quality images and video than the D2 which is to be expected. Don't let the camera be the deal breaker for this phone though. It is more than good enough for my needs and probably most other people's needs, so long as you're not into photography or anything.
On another note, I'm the kind of person that would use the front facing camera A LOT to video chat. I see people play it down a lot as useless or a novelty, it's not! I think a lot of people really do use it, myself included. As for the quality, it's definitely good enough, I'm very satisfied with it. I video chat with a VGA ps2 eyetoy on my desktop anyways.
Motoblur
Motoblur......
I still don't like it. It is significantly better than motoblur on the droid 2, but overall it's still below average in my opinion. The screen transitions are nice, although a little excessive maybe. I wish they would let you keep some of them on, you can only turn them all on or all off though. I also dislike how the trashcan to delete icons has been moved to the top of the screen. Moving icons around takes a few tries to learn. The lockscreen, it's okay but I would have preferred the one from the Droid 2, I'm not sure if it's a gingerbread or motoblur thing though, regardless the lockscreen is not a problem. You can change the dock at the bottom, that's nice. One thing that i REALLY like though, is that when the screen auto rotates, it actually rotates like the iphone does instead of just flashing to the correct position. I used launcherpro on my droid 2, so chances are I'm going to switch back to that. I just wish i could take the things I like about motoblur and bring them to launcherpro.
Performance
Don't be deceived by people claiming the phone to be lag free. It's more like...80% lag free by my estimation. It lags, although very seldomly. It's for the most part very smooth. I'm sure performance will be phenomenal once root (and the possibilities that come with it) come out.
Screen
Okay, for the past few months I've been reading about the infamous "garbage pentile screen" on various websites. What is up with this propaganda?? It's not THAT bad. If you're at a normal viewing distance, you can't see the tiny pixels. If you're at an awkwardly close and difficult to use distance, you will see the pixels but only in some places, such as most notably the battery icon. The color green isn't it's best color. Between the Droid 2 and the Droid 3 (I've been comparing them side by side constantly) which screen would I prefer? At max brightness, the Droid 3 outperforms the D2 by a significant margin. The colors look more solid, vivid, and deep looking on the Droid 3. So to sum it up, while yes you can see the pixels on the Droid 3 (you can't on the Droid 2) it's only when you look really closely at it, from a regular distance (unless you have superb vision i guess) you can't really tell. I'm wearing contacts for 20/15 vision in case any of you didn't trust my visual acuity. The Droid 3's screen is fantastic I think. I would pick the Droid 3's screen over the Droid 2.
Battery Life
[Coming soon]
Final thoughts/Recommendation
I have been hit with a case of buyers remorse, only because I miss my Droid 2 because I was so incredibly used to it, I'm sure it'll pass. I believe this phone is definitely worth all 200 dollars. It feels great to hold, it's the perfect size, the screen is great i think, it has a lot less lag than the last gen of 1ghz superphones although not lag free, and the keyboard is very roomy. I just wish that there was more choice on verizon for a phone with a full qwerty keyboard, preferrably one made by HTC. I'm the kind of person that NEEDS a keyboard. If you're that type of person that wants a top of the line phone with a keyboard, I highly recommend this phone because I can't imagine you being disappointed by it.