State Your Droid PRO'S & CON'S

[Boris Badenov]

I’ll be brief…



Cons:

• Navigator does not adjust screen brightness when it gets dark. WTF?
• Cant seems to set different audible notifications for separate email accounts.
• There is a good belt holster for droid, but there are no “in holster/out of holster” modes. :blackberry:s can do it, why not :motdroidvert:?

Pros:
Everything else

Never mind #2… :wacko:
Figured it out!
:icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ banana:

 

[gardobus]

I don't know if it's just me being stupid but I can't seem to get the vibrate function on. I toggle the volume down to where it shows 'vibrate' but I've never actually had it vibrate, it acts just like silent. Any tips?

That sets vibrate for the phone but to have it vibrate for emails and sms and whatnot, go into the sms settings, email settings, etc and turn on vibrate

 

[eryck22]

I don't like that I have to press the top on/off button in order to then unlock the phone. I understand the concept of this however its rather annoying.

 

[mjeagent]

Pros:

1. Great screen - very easy on the eyes, especially when you are forced to read a large amount of text (web page, email, etc.)
2. Customization
3. Sound - sound quality through the speaker and headset is tremendous
4. Notification system (both a pro and a con) - definitely like the blinking LED (something the IPhone is desperately missing) and the individual notification tones for each message type

Cons:

1. Camera - poor quality, both video and still images. I have noticed this especially in poor lighting conditions
2. Keyboard - difficult to use
3. Notifications - need a red bubble above the email or sms icon to show how many messages you have (i know there is an app for this for the text messages and I am currently using it)
4. Email signature - how is it possible that Motorola/Google forgot to include an option to add a signature to the native email program. Especially, when it is available as an option in the gmail app. Inexcusable!!!

Just my thoughts.

 

[Malvado]

I don't like that I have to press the top on/off button in order to then unlock the phone. I understand the concept of this however its rather annoying.

im with u on this one =[...and i hate how it locks everytime =[...very annoying

 

[ddr]

email

Anybody hitting erase accidently, and no way to retreive it from trash?

 

[DroidBoy]

Droid so far

I've had the Droid for about a week now and it's an impressive phone. I say this having come over from the 3G iPhone.
Pros - great screen, excellent browser, good email display and (mostly) good email service. I don't really care about not having push for IMAP/POP. I have it for Exchange. Call quality has been good for me. The notification curtain and the ability to run simultaneous apps is a nice feature even though I don't use it too much.
Cons - the notification curtain is hard to snag. Attachments sometimes take a long time to download and do not display correctly, or at all (the same attachments download fine on my iTouch). I have posted this elsewhere, but they need to fix the "empty trash" function. Now you have to effectively empty each email twice -- once to put it in the trash, then again to delete it fully. Stupid. I would have liked it if the home button (a touch actually) had awakened the phone. The little button at the top is sometimes hard to get to with a case on the phone. Finally, more apps. I know it is early, but the selection pales in comparison to you know who.
All in all though, this is a very, very good device.

 

[Malvado]

How could they have left this most basic function out??

PROS:
Fast
Fast web browsing
Google Voice search---awesome
lots of cool apps
Better in most ways then my storm1
GREAT screen resolution
Call Quality
Great nav, i can actually leave my garmin home now when i travel.

Cons:
Keyboard sucks
Fixed font size for desktop and core apps
No desktop synch software
No synch with Outlook??? not a dealbreaker but what the heck were they thinking here?
No bluetooth voice dial. This may be a dealbreaker for me. i have 23 days left to decide. It is much harder to use in my car and impossible to use on my motorcycle. Maybe its a good thing and this phone might save my life
Clearly not a business phone.
Desktop wont go landscape with slider in. This is very annoying.


Subjective observations.
I still kind of miss my BB Storm, since the upgrade it is really a great phone. I miss the click screen but i am getting better at the Droid soft keyboard.

actually there is a desktop software and and i kinda do miss the storm also lol...i misss the function to automatically turn on and off =[..very useful for battery life...and as for the screen not rotating it used to when it first came out but idk what happened =[

 

[brian.bsi]

There are only a few things I would like to see in Moto Droid.

1. More than 3 home screens buy default
2. Contact auto orientation
3. Better Media interface

 

[Dan Miller]

Keyguard

I don't like that I have to press the top on/off button in order to then unlock the phone. I understand the concept of this however its rather annoying.

SO DO I.

Apparently, it is semantics...

You unlock the phone with the power button. The swipe is called keyguard.

There is an app called Keyguard Disable. Works like a charm. Still swipe to answer, but the the power button (or volume or camera) will bring up the home page directly. Love it.

 

[Zozz]

Anybody hitting erase accidently, and no way to retreive it from trash?

In Gmail and email app you can go into your trash folder.

 

[droidism]

I like most everything but if I had to complain...I constantly hit the volume button during phone calls, when hanging up or randomly. rather annoying. I also wish that I could use voice dialing with my blu tooth.

 

[Richard Stanley]

Pros
Keyboard
camera

Cons
Very Short battery when using Bluetooth and/or Wifi
No Task List
No sync for Outlook
No REDIAL !!!
Not too many apps yet

 

[performancedesign]

I have had mine for just over 2 weeks now and there are many neat things that I love about it - I like the unlock/power feature because I don't have accidental calls, the phone is great as a phone, video and upload to youtube is great quality, but covering all the things I/we like I don't think adds as much value as the cons. It is the cons that hopefully will be improved and really make it a great phone.

The "Droid Does" campaign sets expectations pretty high. And let's start off with 1) Smartphone, 2) Native Exchange, 3) Physical Keyboard. If that doesn't say business phone I don't know what does. So all those "neat" things I like are great icing on the cake...if the cake is fully there! This is my business phone, but some of the items would be annoying if it was just a personal phone. I have posted earlier in this thread already but after much more use will reiterate/add/clarify the following:

-Notes and tasks; how can this not be native and why doesn't it sync with exchange? Yes, there are apps...but I need both to sync (through exchange) because Outlook is where I maintain tasks and notes. (more on this later) I am actually shocked there are not more people complaining about this one - a TON of business people I talk to use one or the other (or both) very intensely and rely on these functions to get work done. I had a blackberry for a month between droid and my palm and see why people say "it just works" and people who use it for work don't have time to see if they can make it work...someday, maybe.

-Calendar - can't put in reminders past a week? or set your own time/days? I use it to remind me of things that take longer than a week to prepare for (personal example - but birthday gifts - need time to shop and ship and get there in time). Can't set custom repeat dates - it will recognize those put in from Outlook, but can't enter on the phone? Am I supposed to go to the computer to enter something that repeats every Tues/Thurs or enter them as separate entries? That is a workaround, but shouldn't be.

-Contacts - I have around 1600 contacts in Outlook. I have 1493 in the phone...it combines contacts which, like Palm's Synergy, sounds great...except it combined contacts from Outlook that happen to have the same name. Many of them, and then I discovered it combined "Fleet Services" with my wife's contact because I had the 800# under her contact as well. From what I can tell I have to go to each combined contact and find the contact, edit their entry, click menu and "separate". WOW!! Anyone know how to "separate" globally?

-Email - the email works. I am annoyed that I can't move the emails to folders and suspect that may be a future update (hope), but more than that, if I want 1 week's (or whatever the length) of email, sync all folders so when I go to it I don't have to menu>refresh and wait for it to download because I haven't checked that folder in 2 weeks. Even if you don't do it for all the folders - do it for Sent, Drafts and Deleted. I sent an email today, remembered I missed a point and had to refresh and wait before I could hit reply all and add.

-Speeddial - after seeing some of the posts in this thread I have tried to figure out a speed dial on the numbers...I can't find it. I do have direct dials in my right desktop window and use "favorites" periodically, but those are nice additions to what should be built in. I have never seen a cell phone (in my 15 years of cell phone ownership - even the old clunky ones) that didn't have programmable speed dial on the number keys.


Now - before some beat me up with "there's a solution" to the sync for email/tasks. I am going to try Touchdown, but it really irks me that I have to use a 3rd part app for what I consider base functionality of a smartphone, one that has had the benefit of watching the kings (all at one time) Palm, Blackberry and iphone for many years. Can't you at least perform as well on the base stuff and then add all the killer bells and whistles. And this isn't an "oh I love my old phone" statement. Email, calendar, tasks and notes have been base smartphone functions from the beginning - do that and do it well and maybe even innovate it beyond anyone's imagination.

I also don't think Touchdown syncs notes from what I have seen, but will delve in this week.

Will add two small comments:

Ralo - I have the same problem when using speaker phone. Screen goes black, want to end call and have to hit power button then end. I think it goes back to the capacitive screen issue. I have actually had several "phone to ear" calls that when I pull it away the screen is VERY slow to turn on again so I end up hitting the power button then end in the same way. minor annoyance.

Zenmervolt - You said you sync tasks through Exchange - I assume using Touchdown? I haven't seen anything else that will do it, but would actually prefer a Task/note standalone app that doesn't also replace the built-in email, calendar and contacts.

Having said all this, I do love the phone and will keep it if I can get the base PIM functionality solutions figured out. I SO WANT to have a VZW kick arse smartphone...and want the Droid to be it...on paper it is everything I have waited for.

 

[performancedesign]

Let me add one thought - in combining contact information - it should only do this when combining contact from different accounts (personal email, facebook, exchange). Don't combine contacts that seem to be the same from the same account (exchange in my case). And only combine if there is something that can be linked to say they are the same person - because some people have the same name! If there is ambiguity on whether two contacts from separate accounts are the same - have a popup that asks me - put it in the notification bar.