Rate the Motorola Droid

[djm3801]

Clumsy as a phone - too many actions needed to make a call. Battery stinks. Voice call still needs you to look at the phone = what the hell? Poorly thought out. Bluetooth interoperability also poor. Poor phone call log and contact interface. My free LG9400 was a better phone. Not nuts about it. Almost returned it. No easy interface with Outlook, an industry standard. I am hoping that software upgrades improves what is a poorly thought out phone interface. I got it for the extras but never thought that its base function as a phone would be so badly engineered. the only good thing it does as a phone is it is clear once you get connected.

 

[sir]

i love when people say "too many actions needed to make a call".

iPhone:
1) touch home button or lock button
2) swipe to unlock
3) open Phone app or Contacts app
4) select contact
5) choose phone number
6) talk to them

droid:
1) press lock button to wake
2) swipe to unlock
3) open Phone app or Contacts app
4) select contact
5) choose phone number
6) talk to them

Not sure about the new Storm or whatever, but blackberry was pretty much the same way. There's basic steps to making a call:

1) unlock your phone (or not if you don't lock it)
2) get to the app that contains your contact information
3) select the contact you want
4) choose the number for that contact you wish to dial
5) talk to them

I don't see how *any* phone can make this any easier outside of reading your mind.

 

[biggrizzly]

I've kept quiet on this to give the device a good trial. I was the first in line at my local Verizon Store on the morning of November 6th and have had lots of time to get acquainted by now. Although rating the DROID a 5 would denote perfection and this device is not perfect by any means, it still remains a fantastic choice relative to the options available.

Having owned a VZ6700 PocketPC running WinMobil5 when it first came out a few years ago, I will tell you that this device rocks for a SmartPhone. I hesitate to call these devices phones, because phones they are not. The phone functionality is just one of the functions and as we know, not the strongest at that. However it still is leaps and bounds better than the predecessors.

Battery life is approximately the same as my old Pocket PC which required nightly charging and sat in its docking station on my desk at work during the day. At times those old phones would only last a few hours. My Droid is running all day and still has about 20% when I go to bed. I think that is satisfactory for this device. Sure it would be nice if it ran as long as my BBCurve, but that's not going to happen with this kind of display.

If you rely 100% on a phone and not the bells and whistles of a SmartPhone, perhaps this device is not for you and a Razor is the ticket!! Only kidding. But really, there are devices dedicated to being a telephone first and they are better at doing that.

Anyhow, I love the DROID and give it a 4.9 out of five if I could.

My current configuration is using the GDE home screens with 6 screens. Utilities, Games, Communications, Geo, Tools, and Misc Apps. I listen to a lot of audio books during my commutes and I have had to resort to converting Audible .aa files into Mp3 and then listening with the Ambling book Player. Additionaly, the GDE Home allows you to have a Phone buton on the home screen at all times as well as another button that you can appropriate as desired. I recomend GDE to help organize your apps and widgets.

Happy DROIDING

 

[djm3801]

Gollly! I thought this was for opinions. I guess it is not politically correct to express a non stellar opinion. Not like I said you had ugly kids. Or Parents if you have no kids.

Sir:I have had cell phones for a long time. I have had pocket PC's and organizers for a long time. I wanted on device and not two. I am merely saying that they need to USE SOME OF THE FEEDBACK like mine to refine this device as it is NOT as good as it can be for its primary function - to make a phone call. I said as good as it can be. If you do not see how ANY phone can make it easier to make a call, I do not know what you owned before and will certainly not speculate. I do not compare this to an Iphone and I know how to make a phone call with this thing. I would not own an Iphone because a phone is to make phone calls, not for cool factor. Iphone is AT&T. I worked there. The minute they spun off their cell business years ago I went out and got Verizon. I hate their service so I would opt to say that Iphone owners are not looking for a phone. I am comparing it to a telephone. It is a telephone, and not a pop culture toy. Your step by step instructions may be helpful to some here, and it was very nice of you to provide them.

Grizz - thanks for the feedback. It is insightful and balanced.

I use this device very infrequently and have lost 3/4 of the charge on a given day. I feel it is excessive. Have owned CLIE and Axim handhelds and they were not quite as bad. Hell I had a Palm 1. As a former hardware and software architect, I depended on FEEDBACK to make something better. If you take a look at CNET feedback you will see much of the same.

I will continue to look for improvements to this device. It has the horsepower and the Google and Verizon brands. I do have good things to say about it, like the browser and GPS are very nice. Just do not like it as a phone as yet.

 

[ccc]

Its fantastic when it work.
I have so many forced closes on camera video, test messaging, voice dialer; search 'no signals', email 'disconnected', zoom feature doesn't work half of the time and freezes.
Hoping the upcoming update will fix the problems before I decide what to do with my phone.

 

[Johnly]

I gave it a 5. There are some great phones on the horizon, but I think this phone is going to be epic. Their are some good phones on the horizon, but I don't think they will be as epic. Example..the passion is supposed to have a larger screen than the droid and yet...no extra pixels to support the size, so in fact, it won't be as crisp as what has already arrived!

 

[Johnly]

I gave it a 5. There are some great phones on the horizon, but I think this phone is going to be epic. Their are some good phones on the horizon, but I don't think they will be as epic. Example..the passion is supposed to have a larger screen than the droid and yet...no extra pixels to support the size, so in fact, it won't be as crisp as what has already arrived!

Had to leave then came back and finished the comment..lol...sorry for the redundancy

 

[redcolnago]

contacts

Is it possible that you cannot enter physical addresses for contacts ?
snap on the iphone
should be able to enter the address and link it to maps

 

[Shel]

I am liking my Droid. I had the TREO for so long and all that I read said Verizon was not getting the Pre, so Droid it is. I would like to see a birthday feature with the contacts (sounds dumb but that is the only way I knew birthdays)

Johnnie
Download EboBirthday from the Market.

Great program! It'll place a birthday cake in your notification bar, to remind you of upcoming birthdays/anniversaries. You can choose for it to remind you on the day, a day before, 3 days before, whatever.

Also, I believe it's free.

 

[Shel]

i love when people say "too many actions needed to make a call".

iPhone:
1) touch home button or lock button
2) swipe to unlock
3) open Phone app or Contacts app
4) select contact
5) choose phone number
6) talk to them

droid:
1) press lock button to wake
2) swipe to unlock
3) open Phone app or Contacts app
4) select contact
5) choose phone number
6) talk to them

Not sure about the new Storm or whatever, but blackberry was pretty much the same way. There's basic steps to making a call:

1) unlock your phone (or not if you don't lock it)
2) get to the app that contains your contact information
3) select the contact you want
4) choose the number for that contact you wish to dial
5) talk to them

I don't see how *any* phone can make this any easier outside of reading your mind.

Or...
Droid:
1) press lock button to wake
2) swipe to unlock
3) Press and hold for 1 second on search (magnifying glass) icon
4) Say "Call Bob Smith" or "Call Bob Smith Home" or whomever you wish to call in your contacts.

Not that hard!

 

[hazydave]

i love when people say "too many actions needed to make a call".

iPhone:
1) touch home button or lock button
2) swipe to unlock
3) open Phone app or Contacts app
4) select contact
5) choose phone number
6) talk to them

droid:
1) press lock button to wake
2) swipe to unlock
3) open Phone app or Contacts app
4) select contact
5) choose phone number
6) talk to them

Alternative on DROID:

1) press lock button to wake
2) swipe to unlock
3) Press microphone icon
4) say "call <contact name> <mobile>"
5) talk to them

Seriously, voice recognition on this puppy is an order of magnitude better than anything I've used. You can also say things like "navigate to <address>", and it'll fire up the navigator just like that... really handy in the car, in the dark. Unqualified voice just goes to Google Search, which is generally the right choice if you don't need to talk, map, navigate, or other common actions.

 

[fezdlc]

Dang this is probably one of the best phones out there in the market very very good phone!!! Works great! Be and will always be a droid owner!!

 

[Adrianne4]

I give my Droid a rating of 4.8 out of 5 assuming the camera issue is resolved with the software update.

I switched from a Blackberry Pearl to a Droid. I am snoopy-dance happy with the Droid's physical keyboard. And the screen size and resolution.

My small complaint with the Droid is that it doesn't store my voicemail password. With a BB you can opt to have the phone automatically enter the password when voicemail asks for it. Minor annoyance.

My other "issue" turned out to be not-a-problem. Droid's don't come with a user's manual. My *toaster* came with a user's manual :biggrin::biggrin:
But the Droid has an extremely intuitive design and I was able to get everything set up the way I wanted without a manual. I guess Droid Does... Green.

 

[hazydave]

My small complaint with the Droid is that it doesn't store my voicemail password. With a BB you can opt to have the phone automatically enter the password when voicemail asks for it. Minor annoyance.

That out to be fixable, but I suspect that's one last vestige of the old Verizon... they want to sell you "Visual Voicemail" for $2.50 a month. That's what iPhones do automatically.. there's no server-side voicemail. When the network takes a message, it pushes it to your phone as a recording (MP3 or whatever). So when you go for voicemail, it's much more like reading texts or emails... no need to dial in.

Nice... I might have forked over another $0.50 a month, but no frickin' way do I go for $2.50. I'm expecting an app that does this to surface soon... when the DROID gets a voice-mail notification, this app would automatically call in, record the call, and store it until you delete, all free. You would have to offer your password to this app, but otherwise, it would be transparent. I might just write my own, if no one else does.

My other "issue" turned out to be not-a-problem. Droid's don't come with a user's manual. My *toaster* came with a user's manual :biggrin::biggrin:
But the Droid has an extremely intuitive design and I was able to get everything set up the way I wanted without a manual. I guess Droid Does... Green.

Yeah, I have only looked at the manual once. I probably should more, not because it's hard to use (it's not), but because it's new enough, there are lots of things in here I didn't immediately get. For example, Contacts.. I was used to selecting a contect and getting a menu of options. I had to learn that, if I extend-press the contact, I get a pop-up list right there.. much nicer. I also had to learn to say "navigate to" or "call" using the little mic icon on the main Google search widget.. very nice, but a small detail one had to learn about.

So yeah, manual is online: Motorola Droid - User Manual

You can also download it directly from Motorola's DROID support page.

 

[Adrianne4]

I'm expecting an app that does this to surface soon... when the DROID gets a voice-mail notification, this app would automatically call in, record the call, and store it until you delete, all free. You would have to offer your password to this app, but otherwise, it would be transparent. I might just write my own, if no one else does.

When you write this app please include the option of deleting the original voicemail message from the server after the recording has been sent to the Droid. I'd never have to listen to the droning Verizon voicemail prompts again. Cool.

So yeah, manual is online: Motorola Droid - User Manual

You can also download it directly from Motorola's DROID support page.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the heads up. I should have said that a user's manual is not included in the original purchase box. I just looked at the on-line manual and it's pretty well done. If I had it on day one I would have used it. But the Droid is amazing tolerant of the 'poke-it-and-see-what-happens' learning style.