| Motorola's Droid delivers lots of features and looks good doing it |
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| Written by Administrator |
| Saturday, 07 November 2009 20:43 |
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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. |
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