Motorola's Droid is the best Google phone on the market.

Maybe that's not saying a lot: The Droid's only rivals in the U.S. are T-Mobile's 1-year-old G1, its chubby brother the MyTouch 3G and HTC's Droid Eris, a $99 Verizon Wireless phone that went on sale Friday -- the same day as Motorola's Droid -- with an already-outdated Android operating system.

The Droid marks a notable shift for the nation's largest carrier. Verizon -- renowned for its service, not its phones -- seems to be wisely minimizing its interference with handset-makers.

What we get is an attractive and fast smart phone packed to the brim with features for $199 (with a two-year contract).

The Droid hardware is a technical feat. It has a 5-megapixel camera with a flash that performs decently for a phone. The speaker is pleasantly loud. The touch screen is gorgeous -- larger than the iPhone's with more pixels per inch.

The slide-out keyboard is a nice option, but if you're not digging it, you never have to pull it out.

Under the hood, the Droid runs a version of Android 2.0, becoming the first device that has it. That means it packs features and polish you won't see on the other guys, most notably the free Google Maps navigation software.

Android has really come a long way in a year. The software keyboard is smarter, the included apps more sophisticated and the subtleties of switching between programs more natural.

On the flip side, selecting text on the Droid drives us nuts. The option is hidden behind a menu screen; there's no clever magnifying glass to help you grab the right section; and to copy, you have to again find the option in the menus.

This design choice underlines a problem that still plagues Android. Some common actions are hidden, including the ability to delete apps.

Also, getting into the phone isn't obvious: Press the lock icon and turn to the right to open the device.

Android's Marketplace offers more than 10,000 apps, far fewer than Apple's 100,000. But Android's selection covers most of the main utilities.

As a game system, it's severely lacking. As a media player, it's worse. The iPhone can replace a standalone iPod. The Droid won't. Getting songs onto the thing is a hassle. No media sync, no smart playlists, no TV shows or movies.

We love some of the features Motorola built for this handset. For example, the Droid phone book integrates with your Facebook contacts. But these perks don't make up for the intuitiveness and maturity of the iPhone's operating system.

As a phone, the Droid is top-notch. It integrates seamlessly with Google Voice and runs on Verizon, a telecom with a reputation for reliable call coverage -- unlike AT&T, iPhone's exclusive carrier.

By Sascha Segan - PC Magazine

So you just got your Motorola Droid. The Droid is a powerful, flexible, and fun-to-use smartphone, with 12,000 apps available, but you can make it yours within a few minutes. Here are five ways to make your Droid even better, quickly.

 

 

 

1.) Kill the croak: That "DROID" notification sound is fun for a while, but it can get creepy at night. To change your notification sound, pop up the icon tray and pick Settings, Sound and Display, Notification Sound.

 

2.) Sync your media: The Droid doesn't come with any way to do this, but we have a few options. The simplest is just dragging and dropping. Plug your Droid into your PC using the included USB cable. Then drag the windowshade down from the top of the Droid's screen, tap USB Connected, and then tap Mount. The Droid will appear as a hard drive for your PC, and you can drag over music files, videos and pictures.

 

If you want to actually sync iTunes playlists and videos, try the free third party software DoubleTwist or the simpler iTunes Agent.

 

3.) Spice it up: The basic Droid home screen is pretty spare. Dress it up with your own favorite wallpapers and widgets. First of all, notice that you actually have three home screens to play with - flick your finger left or right on the screen to slide over to the other two panels.

 

To customize your wallpaper, just hit the menu button - the one at the bottom of the Droid which looks like a bunch of horizontal lines - and pick "Wallpapers." Then you can pick from the images you dumped onto your memory card earlier.

 

Now add some widgets to your three home screen panels.

 

From the home screen, click Menu, then Add, then Widgets. Choose whichever ones you like; the Facebook one. You can download more widgets from the Android Market by searching for "Widgets."

 

4.) Google Voice: Sign up for Google Voice for free visual voicemail. Verizon charges $2.99/mo for visual voicemail. Bummer. So sign up for the free Google Voice instead, and download the Google Voice App to get free visual voicemail complete with text transcriptions. You'll have to request an invite and wait on line a while to get Google Voice, but it's worth it.

 

5.) Be a task killer: Download a task killer app. When you quit apps, Android often leaves them running in the background. That can result in a slow system if you've just launched and switched between a lot of different apps. Download the free Advanced Task Killer Free from the Android Market so you can periodically clean up your room. If things feel a little slow, pop down the phone's windowshade, click over to Task Killer and kill everything that's slowing things down with one click.

Ever since Verizon Wireless used Motorola's Droid to diss the iPhone, it's been nothing short of Droid hysteria in the tech world, and it's only getting crazier with today's reveal of the HTC Droid Eris. What can I say? We love a good fight. But let's not let flame wars get in the way of solid information, which may prove valuable if you're planning to pick up either the Motorola Droid or the HTC Droid Eris on launch day, Friday. Here's what you need to know:

Look and Feel

The Droid has some hard edges -- Computerworld's Matt Hamblen says it's geared towards "guys, especially" -- and weighs 6 ounces, measuring 4.56-by-2.36-by-0.54 inches when closed. The Droid Eris has curved, rubberized backing that gives it an overall rounder feel, measuring 4.45-by-2.19-by-0.51 inches and weighs 4.23 ounces.

Hardware

The Droid gives you the most screen real estate, measuring 3.7 inches compared to the Eris' 3.2 multi-touch screen, plus it has an impressive pixel count of 480 by 854, easily dwarfing the Eris' 320-by-480 resolution display. Both the Droid and the Eris have 5-megapixel cameras with autofocus, but the Droid has LED flash as well. You get a slide-out QWERTY keyboard with the Droid, though our testers had trouble using it.

If you're looking for more nitty-gritty specs, check out the Droid's and Eris' respective pages.

Software

The Droid uses straight-up Android 2.0, which gives you three home screens, a widget for controlling power-hungry features, a notifications bar and universal search. The Eris uses HTC's "Sense" interface, whose frills include widgets for adding all kinds of data to your home pages and interchangeable "scenes" for different uses, such as work and play.

However, while Sense may be more advanced, only the Droid will launch with Android 2.0. The Eris is stuck on Android 1.5 until HTC can fully integrate its Sense interface. That means Web browsing will be a little slower, virtual keyboard typing will be a little tougher, and you'll miss out on other perks such Google Maps Navigation.

Price

The Motorola Droid costs $200 after a $100 mail-in rebate, which sticks you with a pre-paid debit card that you'll have to use like cash. HTC's Android Eris is $100 after a $100 mail-in rebate, though it's not clear if the rebate delivery method is the same.

Of course, there are aspects of both phones that won't become clear by their specs alone. You can check out our Motorola Droid review for now, by why not do a little hands on at Verizon's store tomorrow? After all, once you buy a phone, you're pretty much stuck with it for two years.

BY: Ed Hardy, Brighthand.com Editor
PUBLISHED: 10/29/2009

I traveled up to New York City today for Verizon's launch of the Motorola Droid. It was worth the trip. Previous phones running Google's Android OS have ranged from OK to fairly good, but the Droid is the first really great one I've seen.

It offers an impressive feature set: a large WVGA+ capacitive touchscreen, physical keyboard, mobile broadband, Wi-Fi, and the latest version of Google's operating system

I've only had a few hours with this device, but I want to go ahead and share my first impressions of it. I'll have a full review in the coming days.

Build & Design

Motorola says the Droid is the thinnest phone with a QWERTY keyboard ever made, and I believe them. At first glance, it looks too slim to be a slider, but it is.

Probably the next thing you'll notice is the 3.7-inch display. This is one of the largest available -- bigger than the one on the HTC Touch Pro2, and slightly higher resolution, too. In fact, it's of a much higher resolution than all the earlier Android models, which have HVGA screens.

The display is ideal for looking at web sites, images, and video.

Built into the touchscreen are four control buttons: Search, Home, Menu, and Back. The traditional Call and Disconnect buttons are conspicuously absent. You have to depend on on-screen buttons for this.

Because the keyboard has a landscape orientation, it's of a decent size. On the other hand, the keys are all set in a flat surface, with little or no space between, which isn't an ideal arrangement.

There's a large D-pad next to the keyboard -- that placement means it's only available when the slider is open. This isn't the best arrangement for one-handed use, as the D-pad isn't available in portrait mode.

As far a build quality goes, the device feels solid in most ways, but the slider on my unit is just a tiny bit loose.

This Motorola model lives up to it's name in one way: it's very angular... mechanical. It has a masculine look. I suspect it's going to be a love-it or hate-it design. I'm in the "love it" category.

Performance

There has been some concern about the fact that the Motorola Droid runs Android on a 550 MHz processor. It's a mistake to judge performance based simply on a number: if you could, every guy over 6'6" would be able to play in the NBA.

The real-world performance of this phone is good. Admittedly I've only had a short time with it, but I'm not seeing any lag or irritating delays.

Android 2.0
The Droid is the first model with Google Android 2.0, which has some new features.

Easily most important of these is support for synchronizing with Microsoft Exchange. Until now Android was a decent option of consumers, but not for business users. Now that people can send and receive their corporate e-mail messages, that has changed. The Droid can also sync your Calendar and Contacts, too.

Naturally, this OS can still sync with Google's services, so you can have your G-mail, personal calendar, and contacts on your phone.

And the Droid doesn't stop there: it can pull the contact info for your friends out of Facebook, too. But don't worry, all this information won't all be jumbled together.

Software
This smartphone comes with a suite of applications for handling many basic tasks. I already mentioned the e-mail, calendar, and contacts apps, but that's just the beginning.

Android was created by Google, so it's no surprise it has one of the best web browsers available. It's one of the few that can go toe-to-toe with Safari on the iPhone. The latest version is tweaked, but there wasn't much room for improvement.

There's also a music player, and a combined video player and image viewer. I'm happy to report that this plays a much broader array of formats than its predecessors. There's also a YouTube app.

Generally, Verizon seems to have taken the attitude that "less is more" and didn't load the Droid down with extraneous software. But if you want to fill it up, you can; there are over 10,000 apps available for easy download in the Android Market.

Navigation Software
A relatively simple mapping application was part of Android 1.0, but Google has taken this to the next level in the new version.  Voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions have been added, making this app vastly more useful.

It now works like you'd expect a stand-alone GPS receiver to, giving you audible directions of when to turn, and automatically re-routing you if you miss a turn.

You can even program it with voice commands.

Video Preview
I put together a short video demonstrating the Motorola Droid, including a quick overview of its hardware, user interface, and web browser.

 

Preliminary Conclusion

The Motorola Droid is definitely the new flagship of the Android OS -- the one that future models are going to be compared to. And they are going to have to work hard to live up to the new standard.

Verizon is positioning it as an iPhone killer, but that's a topic for another article. I'll just say that at this early stage this new smartphone looks very promising.

I'll continue testing it, and I'll bring you a more complete review as soon as I can.