Motorola Droid - the 90 day Review

It’s now been a few months since I bought my Motorola Droid. I will recommend it to everyone that can program their DVR or knows the difference between HD television formats. If you are even the slightest bit techno-challenged, get a Blackberry or one of the Palm smart phones. I would say get an I-Phone, but that would be insulting to many people that were not part of the Mac cult. But if you are so inclined, an I-Phone is fine.

 The Droid has something to do with Google.  I know they did not make it, but they are involved in some level. Since I feel most people have no interest in the how or why of the Google connection I will just step over that pile.

 I think if you are reading this article and you have gotten this far, you are seriously considering buying a Droid phone. Good for you. I think it’s a good hobby. No, really, I like the little computer that also is a phone. Basically that’s what I think of the Droid, it’s a pocket computer with full featured telephone capability. It’s a lot faster than the old dial-up. It feels almost as fast as the 1997 era DSL from the telephone company. Not like my cable connection, but it’s fast enough that I use it to look up stuff on the internet while I’m on the couch watching TV.

 It’s awesome for watching movie trailers, Youtube and a lot of video on the internet. Loads in a few seconds and the picture is great. That means a lot coming from me, I’m a motion picture Director and a trained broadcast engineer. It does not play Flash videos or Flash websites, which sucks from time to time. But most websites with Flash have the “download” option in .wmv or .mpg formats for videos.

I use the Droid standard software/hardware for the following tasks:

• Telephone
• Text & Picture Messaging
• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Google Searches
• Google Maps
• 5 Megapixel Camera
• Video Camera
• Photo Gallery
• Full keyboard to type
• Virtual Keyboard to type
• Touch Screen with zoom
• Speakerphone
• Alarm Clock
• Google Browser
• Settings
• Calculator
• Ringtones
• Contacts
• Phone book
• Phone Log
• Wallpaper
• Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi
• I have opened .PDF, .XLS, .DOC and .RTF documents
• The GPS Navigation for finding places my 2009 Cadillac DTS Nav. System cannot find
• Sending and Receiving Email from 6 accounts with attachments
• Marketplace to download programs (looks like tens of thousands - many free!)
• 16 GB micro-SD card to store music/pictures/documents

As far as I am concerned, all of the above programs and features are fairly well designed and work fine. I use them all frequently.

 Here is a list of programs that I downloaded from the “Marketplace” for free that I use often: (all free versions)

• Advanced Task killer (you have to have this to save battery time)
• Auto Ring
• Skydeck Caller ID
• Barcode Scanner (works part oof the time)
• Google Goggles (more for fun than useful)
• Bubble Level
• Ebay mobile
• Paypal Mobile
• DGaway (text message answering machine - cool!)
• Face Trasher (photo tool to squish faces)
• Facebook mobile
• Myspace mobile
• Ghost Commander file manager
• MotoTorch LED (uses your flash as flashlight)
• News Pro
• Weather Channel mobile
• Radar Now (real time weather Radar)
• SMS Pack
• Stopwatch
• Tricorder (yes, the Star Trek tricorder that really works for audio engineering uses)
• Voice Recorder
• Youtube  mobile
• Mabilo ringtones (ton of free ringtones)
• Helix Launcher (gives a better desktop and an I-phone type Photo Gallery)
• Matrix Live Wallpaper (has “live” moving wallpapers to impress snoops looking at your phone)

I did install a few games for the time I spend in waiting rooms or at the airport:

• Missle Intercept
• Wave Blazer Lite
• Trap!
• Titres (Tetris)
• Real Blackjack
• Ballistic Defense

There are thousands of FREE apps and games in the Marketplace. Usually the paid versions are only slightly better. In many cases there are similar free apps or games to use. I really love the Marketplace. I had the Motorola Q9h smartphone before and apps were severely lacking due to the non-open source nature of that phone’s software.

 If I had to pick one reason I love the Droid it would be for the many free apps. Then the other reasons I like it are as follows (in order of importance)

1. Good handling of email and contact database
2. Browser reads almost all non-flash webpages
3. Telephone
4. Screen size and resolution
5. Full Keyboard
6. Connectivity - WiFi, 3G, Analog, Bluetooth, USB, Mini-SD
7. Battery life (once I learned to turn off apps with Task Killer)
8. Camera with 5MP Resolution
9. Video Camera (I’m a filmmaker and I GOTTA have a way to shoot video)
10. GPS with turn by turn voice (I have a portable GPS and a built-in Nav system in my car, so it’s not urgent)

So, the Droid gets my high marks for flexibility and quality in almost all areas. It does have a crappy speaker due to size limitations (especially compared to my old Q9h which had a great speaker sound).  But I got really close to  joining the I-phone cult… it was the full keyboard that  made the final decision to go Droid.

 I see Droids on Craigslist brand new for around $200 locally. I don’t know the pitfalls of buying from private party, but that’s half what I paid with a 2-year commitment. It’s worth thinking about, especially if you are currently a Verizon customer and have a penchant for changing your mind.

 So, that’s my two cents. I hope it helps. Until next time, you can always email with questions.

This entry was posted on April 9, 2010 at 12:04 and is filed under Computer Tech Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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