How good is the Droid 1 right now?

[Essenar]

Here's my situation:
I need a cell phone badly but I don't want to sign a new contract until I see all the Q1 releases. I want to pick up a phone to use in the meanwhile, while I "weather the storm", see what comes out and how they stack up. Plus Verizon has those LTE network ready devices coming and I don't want to be stuck with a regular 3G device when faster speeds are out there.

After all my mediocre experiences, I'm fairly certain I want Verizon to be my primary provider. At first, I was going to pick up a Droid 2 and call it a day, but then I saw that Verizon will be getting an iPhone. I also saw reviews on Youtube of the Samsung Galaxy S GPU and how powerful it was compared to every other powerful Android device (I like playing games) but it has GPS issues.

I need service now (I have no phone), but I want to wait until mid February until I at least see what's going to officially come out in the first half of this year before I sign a contract.

So:
1) How fast is the Droid 1? Can it play games like Hero of Sparta?
2) How much customization is out there for Droid 1? Does it have Froyo?
3) How smooth is the OS compared to the speed of say, a Galaxy S phone or an iPhone 3GS?
4) Is 256MB of ram enough? With the G1, I needed to use an app called Apps2SD in order to not run out of memory.
5) Can the Droid 1 be used with data to send free text messages/make calls over 3G using Google Voice/Sipgate?

I plan on buying a cleared Droid 1 on Craigs List if it's relatively quick and using it with a month-to-month carrier like Cricket until I see what Verizon has planned for the next few months.

 

[Beka27]

I've never had an OG Droid, but frmo what I here, they were/are amazing phones. If you can get a good price, do it. It never hurts to have a back-up phone. With mods, Droid1 can do what many of the newer devices can.

 

[sherri]

Original Droid owner (& user) here. I am NOT a gamer, but have plenty of friends that are. Using Original Droid without problems.

My speeds are as fast as daughters (Droid 2) and sisters Droid Incredible.

Yes, I have Froyo (FRG83 I believe.) Droid is totally customizable. Mine is rooted (if I could do that, anyone can!)

As far as memory, you can still use Apps to SD. I backup apps I may want for later, and uninstall. 16 GB card comes installed (or it did originally....).

I love this phone, so I don't think you can go wrong if you find the right price...

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[pdc419]

If you're comfortable with rooting the d1 is as fast as you want it to be, to a certain point. The same goes for customizing it. Right now mines at 1.2 gigahertz. Although i dont know if having a 1.2 gigahertz kernel is quite the same as having a processer that was built to that spec.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[GDP]

Droid is a good phone. Should be fast enough to do almost everything you want

Sent from my SCH-I500 using DroidForums App

 

[Droidfish]

As far as customization and modding goes the Droid1 is still the champ with a HUGE and still growing development community behind.

The OS is very smooth especially since it sounds like you'll be rooting it.

Apps2SD is built into froyo and I would recommend utilizing it regardless of how many apps you use. Mine started to get filled up as I got close to 85-90 apps, which includes a lot large games. While I would say that this is the only glaring weakness as the droid1 compares to the newer devices it would still be hard to fill this up given apps2sd.

Overall I would say get it. I recently lost droid1 and am using a droid incredible and I miss my og droid bad. The incredible is a good phone but in my personal opinion the droid1 rooted and overclocked is much better a device.

 

[turdbogls]

1) How fast is the Droid 1? Can it play games like Hero of Sparta?
My D1 handled everything i threw at it, but the most advanced game i played on it was home run battle 3d...i would assume it could take hero of sparta.
2) How much customization is out there for Droid 1? Does it have Froyo?
Tons, it is the most developer friendly device out there besides the nexus S and nexus 1. also it has 2.2.1 as an ota...but even 2.3 is starting to show up on it.
3) How smooth is the OS compared to the speed of say, a Galaxy S phone or an iPhone 3GS?
Depending on your settings it is just as smooth as the newer phones.
4) Is 256MB of ram enough? With the G1, I needed to use an app called Apps2SD in order to not run out of memory.
dont confuse ROM and Ram. with my D1 i was running out of room for apps storage. it is plenty, but if you use tons of apps, it gets cramped. Rooting takes care of this tho. RAM is what is in memory, this is where the Droid lacks, you will get home screen redraws, and your opened apps will reload because they get booted out of RAM. this slows things down quite a bit in comparrison to my Droid X.
5) Can the Droid 1 be used with data to send free text messages/make calls over 3G using Google Voice/Sipgate?
Yes

overall the D1 is a more than capable smartphone in todays world, however the more advanced the software on these, the more you will notice the lack of power on the phone. it will do you just fine as a place holder for a few months.

 

[Essenar]

Wow, sounds like it's a pretty decent phone even for being over a year old.
So I'll be picking it up, rooting it, pairing it up with probably a 16GB memory card.
It'll last me a few months for sure.
Which rom is the best for someone who wants a clean looking desktop, over-clocked processor (I'll probably stick to 1GHZ or less) but lots of features?
I've heard the keyboard is mediocre, but how does it fare against the G1 keyboard or the on-screen keyboard? I love physical keyboards and I don't imagine it being that terrible.

 

[styx]

Best phone I have ever owned and I don't plan on replacing it any time soon.

 

[AngryHatter]

Verizon gave me one for free.
The slide out keyboard doesn't bother me even with a hard case in place. Although I tend to use Swype for most typing.

 

[furbearingmammal]

The D1 is an amazing phone. However, you'll want to root and ROM it to get the phone approaching its full capabilities.

This holds true of any smartphone, really, but the X and D2, etc, are more capable stock than the D1.

On the other hand, when ROMed the D1 can and does outperform stock Xs in almost all regards that the software is capable of. Especially when overclocked.

 

[Essenar]

Okay, I think I'm 90% sold on it.

Another question, I see that with the newest update, you can't one-click root anymore. Can you still old-school root?

 

[furbearingmammal]

Link two in my sig is the best way, superoneclick is second best, and both require a computer hookup.

 

[C3-PO]

Bugless Beast is one of the best ROMs out there.

 

[Ryan m]

+1 for BB. I actually started with a dx and bought my d1 after and have no desire to switch back anytime soon. The og is awesome

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