Fed Ex arrived yesterday 15 minutes before I had to be out the door on my way to work. I was already cursing them mentally just prior to them arriving because I was preparing myself for a tormented weekend of waiting for Monday to have a 2nd delivery attempt. So I tore off to work, open box in hand.
Since getting home from work and having some actual time with it.. I can get some reflection out on it. I'm coming off OG Droid (honestly, why can't we just say DROID? It deserves to be recognized by that alone) with Cyangenmod 7. Prior to that it was Chevy.
I needed a global phone since I'm headed to Europe in two weeks. Just a few weeks ago I was looking at grabbing up a D2G. Then Droid 3 was announced, so decided to make the leap. Yeah, I wanted LTE, but a hardware keyboard is a requirement.... I just don't see anything else on the horizon. The Bionic is practically a non-event for me. I admit I'm intrigued by the possibility of Web Top integration, but do I really want to lug that around just to have a hardware keyboard? Let me know when Web Top and a Slider get married.
I was a Sidekick II and III user. Those keyboards let you rip and tear with your thumbs while walking eyes straight ahead. Then the iPhone decided we needed to stare at our screens and give up screen real estate as well to perform this task. I tried it after returning a G1 following a month trial deciding that Android needed a bit more work. I went with Apple because at that point in time, the 3G was probably the best available option. The experience was initially great for the internet browsing and maps alone, but I missed the user control and notitfication system of Android. Then came Droid. I paid the ETF to AT&T to escape from Apple.
Mind you, I've got every bit of what came in that box in a corner ready to send back if needed. At this point, I'm leaning more towards being able to dispose of all of that.
The keyboard is just....F-YEAH! This is righting everything within the Droid design for the keyboard. There is a precise balance to everything about it that communicates Motorola is paying attention. I am currently adjusting to the shift of the keys to the right, which D2G users have already done. I know from experience when it comes to keyboards like this that it usually takes about a month to gain full throttle with few mistakes.
The Droid 3 keyboard recalls the Sidekick keyboards for space, travel and feel, but with the Droid design layer. Your thumbs don't work as hard as with Droid. The only thing lacking is any sides to comfortably grip on. This is just the reality of todays slim smartphone design. Bars of soap in the pocket aren't acceptable. Within the Droid design, they have truly hit keyboard perfection. It's a damn good compromise over LTE.
The Droid 3 is obviously marketed at business professionals on-the-go. They keyboard is meant for lengthy and fluid typing. The pre-installed software is business oriented; i.e. Citrix, GoToMeeting, & CityID as well as the global phone build. It's saying the Droid line is a proven, strong build and deserves to be taken seriously.
The qhd screen.. that "Pentile" screen. Honestly, until the news items surrounding the specs for Droid 3 over the last few weeks, I admit I didn't know the term. I just learned from various tech sites that the term is synonymous with cat s**t. I did pick up a Droid X2 recently at the store and noticed the screen had a different look to it, but couldn't quite place it. I just figured I'd see the screen for myself before accepting what seemed to be the widsom of the forum masses.
I do see a difference. I think in some ways, I prefer the Droid screen. The smallest print on a zoomed out page on a Droid was fairly readable from that vantage point. On Droid 3, it is more jagged. This can be easily over dramatized. You aren't going to read that webpage from that height. You can still read it enough to know what you are looking at. The screen puts the quality where it counts. My immediate impression was that less battery was being wasted while offering up a quality image.
So the speed..... Of course everyone is most interested in that. I've outgrown the Droid. I've grown impatient with it..waiting for the homescreen to load the icons and widgets..watching them slowly populate the screen, starting up tasks, freezing mid-word while typing. Is there lag on Droid 3? Forget that. I'm on CNN.com right this very moment, desktop site, watching a video about '"The Right Stuff" author talks Atlantis' with no freezing, no lag, crystal clear, and no "not optimized for mobile video" banner appearing across it.. in landscape mode zoomed in. Does that answer the question? (Yes, on wifi at home, but that still didn't make a difference on Droid.) I went to YouTube.com desktop site and tried it a Beyonce' video (it was just handy to click on.) I did get the "not optimized" banner, but playback was smooth both windowed and full screen. Now I don't know if DX2 or even D2G were capable of this, obviously I never tried. But this is the first time I'm seeing flash actually work flawlessly for video within a browser on a Droid.
The camera was the other reason I got this phone. I just don't want to carry a separate Camera around. I know the physical limitations of a camera on a smartphone, so it's unrealistic to expect too much. I just hope to be blown away despite the odds. Well no, I'm not going to say the Droid 3 camera is causing messes in my shorts. I'm a bit disappointed in this area. It IS an improvement over Droid. However, during a sweep of my darkened living room using video.. the camera focus went a bit nutty such as when passing over my TV screen with a logo screen saver changing positions on it. I like to take shots from concerts I go to.. I'd like to think that the focus isn't going to be going in and out on shots due to lighting.
I plugged the Droid 3 into my Samsung 55" Smart TV using the USB to check out the photos and video I had taken through the day. The 720p videos I had taken were decent when there was enough lighting, but pixellated in the living room. The 1080p videos couldn't be read by the TV software. The 720p videos were fine. My Seagate FreeAgent HD Theater box had the same issue with reading them (and it reads almost everything.) My stance on the camera is the 1080p is overblown. I'll have to get some shots during the day outside and see if that tips the scale a bit.
The Motorola User Interface..... I'm not so sure about the blue. I like my black Gingerbread. I miss my speech balloon smiley face text icons. The Motorola text message icon looks like an email icon. Meanwhile, I kinda like how the interface is when you are moving icons and widgets around on the homescreen for placement. I like the red 'delete' dots on the right side of each notification line so you can just dismiss it (rather than touching the edge inadvertently as with stock gingerbread.) I LOVE the "In-Pocket detection" option under Settings/Display. I had issues with my Droid screen going on while in my pocket due to the slider being pushed open slightly. This would waste the battery as well as all kinds of pocket texting, picture taking, icon moving, wallpaper-changing kinda stuff. Obviously I wasn't the only one and someone decided to put a stop to it.
I don't have a MotoBlur experience. So I can't speak of it or compare, but unless I'm giving credit to the wrong source... there are design aspects here within the Motorola experience that I'd want to keep if I were to root and start installing Roms on it. Of course, I'd like my theme to be black and full control over my icons/program installations. The locked bookmarks in the Browser are just ridiculous and certainly a negative to a point, but ignorable at least. The bloatware.... yes I want to rip out the V Cast gang and the VZN Navigator, but that's about it. Zumocast is actually pretty cool from what little I have experienced so far. No, Droid 3 can't play my DVDs that I have ripped to my digital library, but it played MPG just fine over wifi. I'll have to give it a shot while out and about over 3G and see how music playback goes.
The physical buttons are a bit of a negative at this point. They are just too damn small. The power button being centered at the top is a great idea, but it's hard to push it. Ditto for the volume rocker. Obviously, both were designed to prevent inadvertent pushes while in the pocket, so it may just be an adjustment phase to go through.
The LED light is unchanged from the Droid in terms of capability, location, and operation, but it is significantly brighter here, which is only an improvement. On the other hand, the speaker is a more minimized affair compare to the classic wide gold screened blaster on the Droid.
I've had little voice time over the phone. My initial impression was that it was quite crisp.
Like everyone else, I'm looking forward to seeing how the Development Community responds to D3. I do get the sense that despite the lack of LTE, this device is going to command the respect it deserves. As Android was on the G1 and MyTouch, LTE is on the Charge and Bionic. By the time it hits Droid, the proper balance should be achieved. The hardware on this phone isn't anything to scoff at and should demand quite a few favorable reviews.
