Is the Droid worth the money?

[HardHitter]

So here is the deal, I just signed up to Verizon when the Storm came out thinking I'd need a more "corporate professional" phone (switched from an iPhone on T-mobile) Well, the Storm has done well for me, but to be honest, I'm bored with it.

The Storm has grown with me, but I feel that it's sad that I had to go through multiple leaked OS's for the phone to finally become stable and smooth. With the 5.0 release, the phone has really woken up to be a new phone, but again, I'm still bored with it.

I just got back from the Verizon store and I can say this:

First of all they only had two demos and EVERYONE and their Mom was in the store doing the same thing trying to figure out if they wanted it or not. When I was finally able to get to it, the first thing I did was went to text. It reminded me of the Omnia that I returned because the keyboard is WAY to skinny for my fingers but the auto correct really helped me out just in case my fingers did hit a separate button. Is there a way to use the keyboard that BB has where it's two letters per button? QW, ER, TY, UI, OP, etc etc?

Second thing was the amount of apps already on the device. Yahoo Fantasy Football was loaded on there, Google Stars (wtf is this app?) and I'm sure there are plenty more that are coming with the open source. This is something blackberry lacks.

The OS in general is just a lot quicker than the BB. Everything is smooth and transitions well. Right now I think the two phones are about even but that's because I've gotten used to the BB and just started playing with the Droid but in the long run I believe that the Droid will easily jump pass the BB with everyone starting to jump on the wagon and developers come (just like the iPhone).

P.S. I also played with the Storm 2 and thought the screen clicked WORSE than my Storm right now. Basically a Storm with Wifi, big whoop.

I would have to buy the phone outright and wondering who else bought it outright and if you guys think it'd be worth the effort and money. What do you guys love about the Droid?

 

[SoCal65]

I went into my local Verizon store to check it out too - same crowded condition you mentioned. I checked out the Driod and Eris along with the BBS2.... Droid - fantastic, Eris - pretty good but doesn't hold a candle to Droid, BBS2.... clicky screen got old really fast, interface is old (whats the fascination with BB?)

Android 2 fast and powerful and will continue to see growth, especially now with Droid...

Worth the money? Yes.

P.S. Google Stars: Android Market

 

[smilepak]

Is a super fast i7 Core computer worth it? It is all subjective. In my opinion, every bit of it.

 

[andjarnic]

Keep in mind, without a doubt you'll be able to modify the UI of your android based phone sooner than later. With the soon to be explosion of android 2.0 apps (give it a few months for new apps, and probably < a month for most apps to be updated to 2.0 compatible if they are'nt already), to me the Droid is by far a better deal. Let's put it this way.. a LOT of people are ditching iPhone for this phone, and not JUST the phone.. the Android platform offers WAY more than the iPhone. The flexibility, growth, much more often updates, expandability, and a lot more give it a far better potential than iPhone. My guess is apple was working on the next-gen iPhone (v 4), and has been waiting for Droid + Android 2.0 to see how good it is.. and now that it's out and compares favorably to the iPhone and surpasses it in many, apple is going to go back and redraw the next iPhone a bit more. They are going to need a 1Ghz+ processor, more memory, newer UI elements (like a back button and such), and will most likely need to open it up a bit more, such as full access to contacts, the browser, phone dialer, etc to match what Android now has. In my opinion, the iPhone app store has "tapped out" with apps and what you are going to see a lot more of is quality apps that are more expensive but server a more specific purpose. The android store is replete with crappy apps mostly, and some decent quality ones, but Android 2.0 + better "basic" hardware is going to see an explosion of android software in the next year. You'll start to see a lot more better quality games, and applications as well. Just my opinion tho.