Thinking of getting a Droid.. have some concerns...

[LtKen]

Is there one that is the most popular? What kind of things does it add to the device? Does it improve the web browsing/mail/menu experiance?

My main problem with the droid is the interface seems to lag unlike the ipod touchs interface which feel as smooth as air.

There are a few popular ones, DroidMod, Petes, but it's all personal preference.

Off the top of my head, I can think of multitouch browsing, 2.1-based OSes, overclocking....

The Android UI is indeed different (less smooth) than the Touch or iPhone. This is for any number of reasons, but can mostly be attributed to multitasking. I really dont think there's anyone here who will tell you they find it unusable, in fact quite the opposite.

I'm willing to trade a little "smoothness" and "eye candy" for a phone that will let me do more than one thing at a time.

 

[xythil]

And you can always restore the device to factory defaults?

 

[LtKen]

And you can always restore the device to factory defaults?

Yep. Yay Open Source.

 

[dredge]

Yes, there are guides on how to do it. (factory defaaults that is - usually 1-2 min process )

 

[xythil]

Yes, there are guides on how to do it. (factory defaaults that is - usually 1-2 min process )

Well I can get a droid for 260 today. I think i Might do it.

Is there any downside? Any phone on the horizon I should perhaps wait for?

 

[Erron]

Yes, there are guides on how to do it. (factory defaaults that is - usually 1-2 min process )

Well I can get a droid for 260 today. I think i Might do it.

Is there any downside? Any phone on the horizon I should perhaps wait for?

The nexus one is supposed to be coming out soon. But IMO this is better. Keyboard.

You should do it. Youll have 30 days to play with it and see if you wanna keep it.

 

[LtKen]

As far as I know, the Droid will be VZW's flagship through Q2 -- there's always a "Is the iPhone coming tomorrow" thread hanging around here somewhere, but I dont really see that happening. The Nexus One is supposed to happen in March, but it doesnt have a physical keyboard.

For $260, I'd buy a second Droid just to have. If you're disappointed, you have 30 days to change your mind (assuming you're doing this through VZW).

 

[nerdbox08]

And you can always restore the device to factory defaults?

The big ROMs off the top of my head that are smashing right now:

Bugless Beast
Ultimate Droid
Simply Stunning

Smoked Glass and DroidMod are a little bit behind, but are pretty good in all respects.

The big difference between the groups: 2.1 vs 2.0.1.

I am running Ultimate Droid clocked to 800MHz (stock is 550MHz) and I have no problem with lagginess. It's smooth like butter.

Like I said earlier: We have the 'return to stock' image.

There are going to be other Android phones that pop up, ie: Eris, Devour, etc, etc... But they aren't in the league of the Droid right now. The only one coming to Verizon that can stand up against it is the Nexus 1.

The only difference I personally know between the two is that Droid = keyboard, Nexus =/= keyboard, lol. There are others, you would have to do a search about the differences between the two.

There is always going to be something 'better' coming along, no matter what you do or try to prevent yourself from 'losing' money on an 'old' thing, the thing here is: The Droid is still going strong compared to the 'new' things coming out. I love the shape, the feel, the functionality and I wouldn't give it up for something else. The modding community has put these phones through hell and they bounce back almost like rubber balls.

 

[NYZ93]

Hey. I current carry around an Env Touch as my phone and a ipod touch as my PDA/music/apps/internet(when I have wifi)

However a smart phone will make my life a lot easier thanks to my new job.

I love the ipod touch. I realize the iphone is a bit bulkier but still it is very sleek when compared to the boxy/bulky droid.

Aesthetics aside I notice a few things when playing around with a Verizon store Droid model.

1) Web browsing was atrocious. On my itouch moving around pages is like gliding over air. I just brush and it is perfectly accurate. By comparison the droid laged.. it was delayed enough to make me question why I would drop 200 bucks on this thing. I mean the screen looks nice but the flow of moving around a fully loaded page just felt jittery/laggy...
2) Web browsing, google maps.. ect.. is all missing multitouch zoom? What is this the stone age? Seriously why have a sleek capacitive touch screen and not include this most basic feature.. is there a work around?

3) Can the droid be used to tether my PC to the internet? Either through USB or BlueTooth?

4) Could I use blue tooth to tether my jail broken ipod touch to my droids 3g?

5) Perhaps my biggest concern is this... should I wait? Are better phones close on the horizon? I don't want to impulsively jump into this phone and see verizon get an iphone next month. I especially don't want to be left in the dust if full flash support is coming to new phones anytime soon to allow for megavideo/youtube watching on the go.. ect.. or even an overhauled faster network that I won't be able to take advantage of with a droid.

If droid can provide me with a sleek, browser experience without the jittering.. . and especially if it can tether other devices through blue tooth I would probably be interested.

My plan doesn't come up for a new phone for 6 months but they are willing to give me the 1 year price on a droid plus rebate so about 260$ for the phone. I figure this is a pretty decent deal. although if someone knows a better one I am all ears. Or maybe I should pressure verizon for a better deal?

and I guess lastly... anyone who has had experiance with both iphone/itouch and droid.. could I get a list of pros and cons from your personal experiance?
For me personally the itouch/iphone just seems like a sleeker/sexier/quicker product. It is the first phone interface I ever used that didn't have that jittery/slow lagged feeling. I want something that can capture that.

Thanks for any help/insight you can provide.

OK

1. No lag Ive ever noticed but you can make it run quicker by Rooting and Getting Bugless Beast(whats That??) Ok ill explain when im done

2.Multitouch is available on bugless beast BTW you Can tether with WIFI:icon_ banana:

3. Once again included in bugless beast

4.Bugless Beast

5.next phone probably nexus one spring / early summer iphone summer MAYBE


Experience with ipod 2 to 3 years took a while to get used to droid like a week or two or three

OK
Rooting is just unlock the phone so you can do anything to it...(Nothing special w/o ROMS)

Roms are Packages for the phone you can say; it comes with a theme and ability to overclock(make phone run faster:icon_ banana wifi tether :icon_ bananaWAY better than bluetooth) and a bunch of other stuff i cant remember right now

If you have any more Questions PM me

 

[xythil]

Hey. I current carry around an Env Touch as my phone and a ipod touch as my PDA/music/apps/internet(when I have wifi)

However a smart phone will make my life a lot easier thanks to my new job.

I love the ipod touch. I realize the iphone is a bit bulkier but still it is very sleek when compared to the boxy/bulky droid.

Aesthetics aside I notice a few things when playing around with a Verizon store Droid model.

1) Web browsing was atrocious. On my itouch moving around pages is like gliding over air. I just brush and it is perfectly accurate. By comparison the droid laged.. it was delayed enough to make me question why I would drop 200 bucks on this thing. I mean the screen looks nice but the flow of moving around a fully loaded page just felt jittery/laggy...
2) Web browsing, google maps.. ect.. is all missing multitouch zoom? What is this the stone age? Seriously why have a sleek capacitive touch screen and not include this most basic feature.. is there a work around?

3) Can the droid be used to tether my PC to the internet? Either through USB or BlueTooth?

4) Could I use blue tooth to tether my jail broken ipod touch to my droids 3g?

5) Perhaps my biggest concern is this... should I wait? Are better phones close on the horizon? I don't want to impulsively jump into this phone and see verizon get an iphone next month. I especially don't want to be left in the dust if full flash support is coming to new phones anytime soon to allow for megavideo/youtube watching on the go.. ect.. or even an overhauled faster network that I won't be able to take advantage of with a droid.

If droid can provide me with a sleek, browser experience without the jittering.. . and especially if it can tether other devices through blue tooth I would probably be interested.

My plan doesn't come up for a new phone for 6 months but they are willing to give me the 1 year price on a droid plus rebate so about 260$ for the phone. I figure this is a pretty decent deal. although if someone knows a better one I am all ears. Or maybe I should pressure verizon for a better deal?

and I guess lastly... anyone who has had experiance with both iphone/itouch and droid.. could I get a list of pros and cons from your personal experiance?
For me personally the itouch/iphone just seems like a sleeker/sexier/quicker product. It is the first phone interface I ever used that didn't have that jittery/slow lagged feeling. I want something that can capture that.

Thanks for any help/insight you can provide.

OK

1. No lag Ive ever noticed but you can make it run quicker by Rooting and Getting Bugless Beast(whats That??) Ok ill explain when im done

2.Multitouch is available on bugless beast BTW you Can tether with WIFI:icon_ banana:

3. Once again included in bugless beast

4.Bugless Beast

5.next phone probably nexus one spring / early summer iphone summer MAYBE


Experience with ipod 2 to 3 years took a while to get used to droid like a week or two or three

OK
Rooting is just unlock the phone so you can do anything to it...(Nothing special w/o ROMS)

Roms are Packages for the phone you can say; it comes with a theme and ability to overclock(make phone run faster:icon_ banana wifi tether :icon_ bananaWAY better than bluetooth) and a bunch of other stuff i cant remember right now

If you have any more Questions PM me

wait so i can make a wifi access point for my Ipod touch? And then use my ipod touch to browse the net/use apps, through my Droid? 100%?

 

[LtKen]

The Wifi Tether app presents itself as an ad-hoc network, not an access point. I dont believe the iPhone/Touch can connect to an ad-hoc network...... I could be wrong.


Just for kicks. Why would you spend money in a smart phone, and then not use it's native browsing software?

 

[xythil]

Oh and does everyone know what I am talking about in regards to the jittering in menus?

I mean the ipod touch is SO responsive with webpages.

I just flcik and it scrolls with no lag

In the store the droid I tried was jittery and laggy. Like Id move around the page and it would trail just a bit behind my motions.

Does the custom roms and overclocking fix this? 100%?

 

[NYZ93]

yep you can use it on the itouch my bro uses my wifi tether for his itouch all the time
and roms fix everything i personally think motorola should have them stock

 

[xythil]

yep you can use it on the itouch my bro uses my wifi tether for his itouch all the time
and roms fix everything i personally think motorola should have them stock

I guess I should ask this.

Does any of this require flashing the firmware?
Does any of it prevent updates? Like do I need to wait for new firmware to be cracked before I update? Or can I just use my phone and update whenever every ROOTing?
And what about contacts and stuff verizon transfers over for me. will I lose these when I root and load up a rom?

I just want to make sure I wont be dissapointed. If my phone was as laggy as that store model I would be very dissapointed with it.

I expect my web surfing to be crystal smooth

 

[gocflamedragon]

The Wifi Tether app presents itself as an ad-hoc network, not an access point. I dont believe the iPhone/Touch can connect to an ad-hoc network...... I could be wrong.


Just for kicks. Why would you spend money in a smart phone, and then not use it's native browsing software?

Ok iv had my droid for close to 4months probably and i rooted day 1 and have not had a single issue with the web like u said most likely it was do to the dummy phone especially since it doesn't have the multitouch browser. 2nd The wifi tether does present itself as a ad hoc but it doesn't matter ad-hoc and access points are pretty much the same as far as wireless communications go iv got my networking certifications so you can trust me on this one. 3rd. While their might be another phone coming out with more ram or whatever its really not going to mater for a while are phone is top of the line atm and will be keeping up with anything android throws at us for a while. 5th. This is my own littel general thing i wanna say here i used to use my ipod touch for web browsing or whatever in bed but now i use my droid alone for this i don't know if im just crazy but the colors on my droid seem a bit more bright like the normal web again this is probably just me being crazy.

EDIT: Didn't refresh before i posted this.

I guess I should ask this.

Does any of this require flashing the firmware?
Does any of it prevent updates? Like do I need to wait for new firmware to be cracked before I update? Or can I just use my phone and update whenever every ROOTing?
And what about contacts and stuff verizon transfers over for me. will I lose these when I root and load up a rom?

I just want to make sure I wont be dissapointed. If my phone was as laggy as that store model I would be very dissapointed with it.

I expect my web surfing to be crystal smooth

1. No you dont flash the firmware you simply boot into the phones bootloader by holding power and x while u turn the phone on u then run an update.zip from ur sdcard none of your data on the phone will be touched by this.

2. You can still do over the air updates but if you flash a custom rom most devs block them because of the risk of losing root access, don't worry about this 2.1 will be exploited in no time this really isnt like the slow iphone scene.

3. This is my favorite topic, the answer to the question is no you will not lose any! of your contacts, Your phone syncs contact information and settings and such with googles servers via your Google account ex. gmail account etc etc... theirs a great app on the market called smsbackup as well to do backups of your txt msgs and to restore them easily. My backup pro can also be used if your paranoid and want everything.