“I would much rather have gone with Master Luke than stay here with you. I don’t know what all this trouble is about, but I’m sure it must be your fault.”
The Motorola droid is probably the first 2nd generation Android phone and after playing the the HTC Hero and Motorola Cliq, I now had the chance to take a much closer look at the Motorola Droid.
Connectivity
There are two sockets on the droid, a standard headphone jack, which surprisingly works well with iPhone ear-buts (i.e. on/off switch mutes the mic.) and a mirco-usb data access and charging socket. While I have plenty of mini-USB cables, I didn’t have a single micro-usb cable; the one the Motorola has included is short and very inflexible.
Display
The 3.7″ WVGA display (480×854 pixels) is impressive but unfortunately Android’s UI is not really build for it, at least not yet. The icons (48×48 pixels) appear to be way too small now.
Keyboard
I understand that Motorola put a lot of time and energy in getting the Cliq’s keyboard right. Unfortunately, nothing of the teams must not have been talking too each other. The droid’s physical keyboard is hardly more useful than its on-screen virtual keyboard and most droid users will not be able to type as fast on the physical keyboards as iPhone users type on the display.
Buttons
The phone has four physical buttons, and four touchscreen buttons just below the display. As one would expect, the physical buttons are the power button which is way too small, tho. A volume rocker, which is on the wrong side (right), and a camera shutter button. The touchscreen buttons the made possible by extending the touchscreen beyond the display and their haptic feedback really rocks.
Camera
The 5MP digital camera is probably the weakest part of the Motorola droid, delivering 5 mega-pixel of noise even when used at best lighting conditions. Some unedited iPhone and Moto Droid shots can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfpaulus/sets/72157604509087860/
Conclusion
The Moto droid is most likely the best Android phone currently available and geeks and developers will love it. However, when compared to the iPhone, the droid lacks basic functionally and user-friendliness we are now so accustomed to. If Google really wants to push Android, it needs to continue to develop the basic applications like mail, calendar, etc. to a point where they are at least as good at what Apple includes with the iPhoneOS. Like it or not, the iPhone OS and the included apps are the baseline now and basic everyday Android applications like Mail and Calendar are plain ugly.
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My name is Wolf Paulus, a photographer, hiker, hacker, technologist based in Ramona, California.
The Motorola DROID continues to present new possibilities daily. I’ve had it for about 10 months and I have had a Blackberry attached to my body considering that September 1998. Being connected is really a essential element of my lifestyle so I am generally reachable by loved ones and co-workers. I’m a bit addicted to the Industry for DROID Applications. When the device had limitless memory I would test the capacity. I think this OS may be the way with the long term and intend to develop with all of you to understand it by means of and through. Thanks for that post.