After being an Iphone user for roughly 2 years I finally decided to make the switch last week to the Droid, partly because of the better network coverage with Verizon (I had a lot of dropped/missed calls due to network issues where I lived with At&T.
This is my unbiased review of my first week with the droid:
The first thing I noticed about the droid is it feels well built. It's heavy but not cumbersome- and by heavy I don't mean it's a brick, I mean it feels solid... durable. I don't experience any of the problems some of the other Droid owners have like the battery cover sliding off and the slider wobble, so I guess I lucked out there. The screen is an absolute BREESE to clean. Usually with touch screen phones you get that oily residue on it from your fingers- I'm not sure if there's a special coating on the Droid but one swipe of the screen on a piece of clothing and it's spotless.
Now on to more controversial subjects. First... the keyboard(s). Off the bat I absolutely hated the slider keyboard. It was hard to distinguish buttons by feeling (they're almost flush), I kept hitting I instead of O and I thought the D-Pad was an absolute waste. See, I got kind of used to flying through words on my Iphone, so... I decided to slow it down a bit and take my time typing on the Droid. 250 text messages later and I have no problems or qualms at all with the Droids slide out query pad. And the D-Pad? LOVE IT. Makes it significantly easier to slide back a few words and fix a spelling error rather than touching all over the screen trying to hone in on a certain letter that you're never able to do.
The Camera... Because I bought my Droid a week ago I didn't really experience the focus problem that has become one of the big problems. Setting that aside I'm pretty happy with the Camera. It takes great photos, the flash is excellent... but my major gripe is the refresh time between photos. The phone seems to lag and stall for 3-5 seconds after taking a photo and that gets a bit annoying.
Lastly- the Software. I'll admit, coming from the Iphone (which I think sets the benchmark visually) the Android platform is a pretty decent looking and functioning set up. The ability to have widgets, run multiple programs, google voice search (which is unbelievably accurate, not one wrong search yet!), the navigation system... all of it is absolutely incredible. I do have some gripes though. For instance, sometimes the Droid just feels laggy. It will often hesitate for a second between screen sideswipes, or stall for a few seconds when I select a program that is a bit large (3-5 mbs)-- but I believe these are problems that will most likely be fixed with the update. Like the original Iphone, there will be initial problems that can/will be fixed in time.
In summarization...
The good:
- Verizon Network
- The screen is gorgeous and practically cleans itself
- Great camera quality (plus the dual led flash is nice)
- Google Navigation
- Easy to learn/use os
- Surprisingly large Android Marketplace
- Choice of 3 different ways to type (normal, landscape, slider)
- Excellent build quality and materials
- Widgets on the home screen is a big plus
The Bad:
- Slight hesitation/stalling with the os
- Camera refresh time between photos
- Keyboard takes a little while to get used to
- The visual quality of the games (marketplace) is atrocious in comparison to the Apple App store
- Battery can get hot, but to be expected with smart phones
This is my unbiased review of my first week with the droid:
The first thing I noticed about the droid is it feels well built. It's heavy but not cumbersome- and by heavy I don't mean it's a brick, I mean it feels solid... durable. I don't experience any of the problems some of the other Droid owners have like the battery cover sliding off and the slider wobble, so I guess I lucked out there. The screen is an absolute BREESE to clean. Usually with touch screen phones you get that oily residue on it from your fingers- I'm not sure if there's a special coating on the Droid but one swipe of the screen on a piece of clothing and it's spotless.
Now on to more controversial subjects. First... the keyboard(s). Off the bat I absolutely hated the slider keyboard. It was hard to distinguish buttons by feeling (they're almost flush), I kept hitting I instead of O and I thought the D-Pad was an absolute waste. See, I got kind of used to flying through words on my Iphone, so... I decided to slow it down a bit and take my time typing on the Droid. 250 text messages later and I have no problems or qualms at all with the Droids slide out query pad. And the D-Pad? LOVE IT. Makes it significantly easier to slide back a few words and fix a spelling error rather than touching all over the screen trying to hone in on a certain letter that you're never able to do.
The Camera... Because I bought my Droid a week ago I didn't really experience the focus problem that has become one of the big problems. Setting that aside I'm pretty happy with the Camera. It takes great photos, the flash is excellent... but my major gripe is the refresh time between photos. The phone seems to lag and stall for 3-5 seconds after taking a photo and that gets a bit annoying.
Lastly- the Software. I'll admit, coming from the Iphone (which I think sets the benchmark visually) the Android platform is a pretty decent looking and functioning set up. The ability to have widgets, run multiple programs, google voice search (which is unbelievably accurate, not one wrong search yet!), the navigation system... all of it is absolutely incredible. I do have some gripes though. For instance, sometimes the Droid just feels laggy. It will often hesitate for a second between screen sideswipes, or stall for a few seconds when I select a program that is a bit large (3-5 mbs)-- but I believe these are problems that will most likely be fixed with the update. Like the original Iphone, there will be initial problems that can/will be fixed in time.
In summarization...
The good:
- Verizon Network
- The screen is gorgeous and practically cleans itself
- Great camera quality (plus the dual led flash is nice)
- Google Navigation
- Easy to learn/use os
- Surprisingly large Android Marketplace
- Choice of 3 different ways to type (normal, landscape, slider)
- Excellent build quality and materials
- Widgets on the home screen is a big plus
The Bad:
- Slight hesitation/stalling with the os
- Camera refresh time between photos
- Keyboard takes a little while to get used to
- The visual quality of the games (marketplace) is atrocious in comparison to the Apple App store
- Battery can get hot, but to be expected with smart phones
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