I don't need cheerleaders...just a balanced opinion

[chiocci]

I love Verizon and have been with them for over 10 years. I love the iPhone, but have given up on getting one without switching to AT&T (I'll be dead first). I looked at Storm and Storm II, because I am a huge Blackberry fan, but I don't see them "getting it".

So here we are. I await the reviews of the Droid like a cat hearing a tin of smoked salmon being opened on the kitchen counter. Plenty of good reviews, but lots of, mostly software, problems. I am an Engineer so I am not an early adopter, but I like the phone. It's tough to get a balanced view because the "love it get out" folks tend to cloud things a bit. The keyboard seems cool, but is poorly rated even though it is physically wider than my BB keyboard. I have to play with the on screen keyboard. I had huge problems with cross over (right hand on left side) issues with the storm. I hope this will be easier to use. So anyway, I am not writing a review here, but looking for feedback.

Do I wait for software release 2 before buying?

Will the VERY small amount of available memory be a future problem?

Will I be able to put my tunes easily into the phone considering the small amount of available memory?

Thanks
Chach.

[cereal killer]

First off what are these "lots of mostly software problems" you are talking about? I'm curious as to what a lot of people are experiencing.

I would say get it now. My device has been running perfectly. Then again I am only one person. Somebody else may come in here and say different but in MY opinion it's a no brainer...get it.

Small amount of memory will be a problem for some and not for others. Too many variables. For me it will not. I wont download enough apps to use up 256 megs when a lot of apps are only xxx kbs.

You have 16 gigs to put your music on. Putting them on is as easy as dragging and dropping....

Get the device it's well worth it and I think there is more than enough info out there that supports this.

[New2u]

First off i want to welcome to you to forum. To answer some of your questions or maybe all of them.

You may want to wait until software release 2, it's suppose to be out december 11th, one of the major fixes it brings will be the correction of autofocus. I'm quite sure there will be other minor fixes with it also.

The amount of memory that is small on the phone is just the onboard amount. It has 512MB, 256MB reserved for apps. You may say well hell that's not much. The only thing that gets installed on the internal memory is apps (possibly ringtones, i can't remember).

The Phone also has a 16GB SD card which is easily sync'd to a computer and you can manually put your tunes on there, or it will have support for apps like rhapsody and stuff to where you can manage it that way (i think you can also manage through windows media player). The SD slot does except up to 32GB cards so, when the prices fall on them some, i'm sure alot of people here will have them.

So far there are only two flaws on the phone that i see, the physical keyboard is alittle bit above useless in my eyes, keys are way too close and when you hit one sometimes it hits another on, kinda sucks. The other thing is the back panel that you access the battery from, is kinda worthless. Unlike other phones that have similar designed doors, this one slides easily off while in my pocket (which is pretty much going to force me to get a pouch... but then again it may happen in the pouch, depending on the design)

Right now there are way too many programs that are either working but glitchy or just not working. This is to be expected since the SDK pack for the designers only came out about 8-9 days ago. If you wait until the first patch release on the 11th or so of december you will most likely get to a point where alot of the apps have been updated for 2.0.

Also you have a blackberry with physical keys, also i would advise you to go to store and try out the virtual keyboard, if it's not something you can deal with right now, then i would hold off. There hasn't been any official releases about maybe updating the virtual keyboard i'm sure they will. (There are apps that can replace your virtual keyboard to something more manageable)

[suzukimethod]

I'm also hesitant to be an early adopter, but I've been really happy with the droid so-far - and coming over from a bb curve. My droid did the random restart thing a few times on day 1, but not since - so I'm chalking that up to early kinks, but I'll swap it if the problem proves to be hardware related (i suspect that it was not).

There's lots of reviews to tell you about the phone details, but a few things I love that i didn't realize I would...
-the number of good apps (that are free). There are so many cool things to do with an open development system.
-the virtual keyboard (surprisingly) - i wanted the droid to use the physical keyboard, but find the predictive texting to be great, to the point i briefly considered swapping for the eris or passion (later). I've since found times that the phys-keyboard is really nice to have, and it works well enough.
-the flexibilitiy of open development. I dragged my ringtone folder from my blackberry onto the droid, and they immediately show up in my ringtone options. no special folder, no renaming, etc (if you've used a PSP, you know how this can work poorly)
-build quality is superb. feels like a tiny netbook, not a phone.

things I'm concerned about.
-battery life so far is a little weak. I'm diagnosing with some tools to see, but so far, with (admittedly heavy) daily use, phone is 100% at 9am, and down to 15% by 8pm.
-early software kinks as the 10000 apps have to contend with new software (2.0) and hardware (droid) at the same time. So far, it's been relatively flawless, but something to consider.
-

for tunes syncing...(i think this works, I've just installed it, about to try it)
Sync, Play & Send to BlackBerry, PSP, iPod, iPhone with doubleTwist

re: app memory.
most apps seem to be in the 256k - 1.2MB range, so i think you can really load this thing up before you start to run out of space. i could be wrong, but I anticipate that (as with my curve), i'll have a core group of apps (15 or so) that I cant live w/o, and another 20-30 that i try and keep or dont, but wont find their way into my workflow. i cant imagine a situation where I'd run out of space.

[New2u]

I'm also hesitant to be an early adopter, but I've been really happy with the droid so-far - and coming over from a bb curve. My droid did the random restart thing a few times on day 1, but not since - so I'm chalking that up to early kinks, but I'll swap it if the problem proves to be hardware related (i suspect that it was not).

There's lots of reviews to tell you about the phone details, but a few things I love that i didn't realize I would...
-the number of good apps (that are free). There are so many cool things to do with an open development system.
-the virtual keyboard (surprisingly) - i wanted the droid to use the physical keyboard, but find the predictive texting to be great, to the point i briefly considered swapping for the eris or passion (later). I've since found times that the phys-keyboard is really nice to have, and it works well enough.
-the flexibilitiy of open development. I dragged my ringtone folder from my blackberry onto the droid, and they immediately show up in my ringtone options. no special folder, no renaming, etc (if you've used a PSP, you know how this can work poorly)
-build quality is superb. feels like a tiny netbook, not a phone.

things I'm concerned about.
-battery life so far is a little weak. I'm diagnosing with some tools to see, but so far, with (admittedly heavy) daily use, phone is 100% at 9am, and down to 15% by 8pm.
-early software kinks as the 10000 apps have to contend with new software (2.0) and hardware (droid) at the same time. So far, it's been relatively flawless, but something to consider.
-

for tunes syncing...(i think this works, I've just installed it, about to try it)
Sync, Play & Send to BlackBerry, PSP, iPod, iPhone with doubleTwist

re: app memory.
most apps seem to be in the 256k - 1.2MB range, so i think you can really load this thing up before you start to run out of space. i could be wrong, but I anticipate that (as with my curve), i'll have a core group of apps (15 or so) that I cant live w/o, and another 20-30 that i try and keep or dont, but wont find their way into my workflow. i cant imagine a situation where I'd run out of space.

It's weird, there was at one point last night were the battery seemed to be draining faster than i thought it should be. Well I had to do a hard reset anyways, I wanted to see if that would fix the camera issue, as reported it does for some. After I did the reset and reinstalled all my apps, it seems to be draining alot less now. Not saying my reset had anything to do with it, just throwing that one out there. (I know it's not a good fix if it even is one, seeing as most already have everything set up the way they like it.) Though 11 hours at which you are claiming really isn't too bad. One thing people have to understand is that you have to close your apps down, as they eat up alot of battery. That is one thing i think they need to fix though, is how that is done, when you exit a program you should be allowed to fully close the app if you so choose, or not (should be an option in the settings menu, as to whether you are asked if you want to fully close it when finished).

Yeah that's one of the things I tried to stress before it came out, along with a few other here, is that most apps are only on average 1MB, so you can load about 200-256 apps without a problem, seeing as there is no way in hell i will ever have that many that's ok with me. Once they get apps2SD working for the non-rooted people, we will be fine.

[chiocci]

Excellent responses guys! Thanks for the support. December is not that far away and with the known software issues like the camera and an apparent lack of a good music player, I think I will wait until December. The keyboard really disappoints me though. I brought my company from the Treo to the BB with my purchase of the 8830. The other guys soon followed with newer models like the curve. I still have the 8830 and I am still "fat fingering" while texting and answering email. I was hoping that the wider keyboard would be a plus. I will have to fool around with the on screen keyboard and hope they fix it in time.

Thanks again
Chach.

[Mmracing]

Chach,
I use a BB 8820 for my work and I found the slideout keyboard on the Droid acceptable. After trying the virtual keyboard I found that it works very well. I did have to turn on the feature that makes the phone vibrate when a virtual key was pressed to have some feedback that I actually did touch a key. I would suggest you go to your local Verizion store and tell them you would like to try using the slide out and virtual keyboard. I think you will be suprised.

-Mm

[windstrings]

First off i want to welcome to you to forum. To answer some of your questions or maybe all of them.

You may want to wait until software release 2, it's suppose to be out december 11th, one of the major fixes it brings will be the correction of autofocus. I'm quite sure there will be other minor fixes with it also.

Are you talking about firmware that those of use who already have the phone can utilize too, or a whole different version of the OS?

I see I'm already running Firmware version 2.0? Build version ESD20

And I wonder if it will be updateable through the system updates option on the phone?
I just picked mine up yesterday and can still take it back... I'm fighting with several issues and would rather return mine if I can't upgrade when it gets here.

[New2u]

First off i want to welcome to you to forum. To answer some of your questions or maybe all of them.

You may want to wait until software release 2, it's suppose to be out december 11th, one of the major fixes it brings will be the correction of autofocus. I'm quite sure there will be other minor fixes with it also.

Are you talking about firmware that those of use who already have the phone can utilize too, or a whole different version of the OS?

I see I'm already running version 2.0?

I just picked mine up yesterday and can still take it back... I'm fighting with several issues and would rather return mine if I can't upgrade when it gets here.

This was a release of information on verizon's side. Saying that it would be a patch to the 2.0 in the droids, due to the fact that the autofocus is not working as intended. It will come out for all of us who use the droid and should be available already on those phone purchase after the date it's pushed out. Most reps gave a general it's between thanksgiving and christmas, but there have been numerous reports that it will be coming on the 11th of december, give or take a couple days.

[greenchicken]

I was a hardcore BB user, I am getting older and my close up vision is not as good and I find this Droid a bit easier for me to see... The voice search feature is awesome, the gps features are great.

I never bought an Iphone because I don't like the way they shackle you to their way or no way, I don't like how they refused Google Voice either....

I like the weather app for weather bug as it gives you the weather for where you are at now, and I use another app that gives you a live weather radar screen and marks where you are in that pic (I drive a truck and this is important to me)

Screen gets smudgy easy from natural oils in your skin, phone is heavy and I too do not even use the keyboard I bought it for, I use the touch screen, I recorded a big videofile that I could not transfer over the network so it easily connected to my wifi and uploaded it... camera is nice and video recorder is nice.. camera has a flash too

I really like mine so far and would buy again