Motorola Droid Smartphone Review

I’ve been using the Motorola Droid for the past week on the road as my Internet/phone device, picking one up the day after the device first went on sale by Verizon.  The Droid is the first handset to be sold using the Android 2.0 software, and I’m comparing the device to my iPod Touch (essentially an iPhone minus the phone) and a Blackberry Curve I’ve been using.

Verizon is positioning the phone rather clearly as an alternative to Apple’s iPhone.  As a practical matter, it’s really most attractive to someone who, like myself, wanted to have access to Verizon’s network rather than being forced over to AT&T to use the iPhone.  And, clearly, the Verizon network is a major advantage the Droid has over the iPhone–put simply, the Droid is more likely to be running at full 3G speed than the iPhone simply due to the fact Verizon’s 3G network is larger.

As well, informal tests with some iPhone users I’ve been around with my Mifi found that the iPhone performed better in dealing with internet access when hooked to the Mifi on Verizon’s network via Mifi then when using the phone’s direct access to the AT&T network.

The network is not the Droid’s only advantage–the Android operating system allows programs to run in the background, meaning that I can listen to Pandora stream music while going off to check my mail, and also have a Twitter client running in the background checking for any activity there.  But, as you would expect, running background applications can drain the battery, especially if the application makes heavy use of net access (like a Twitter client checking constantly for updates).

The Droid also includes an extremely impressive GPS navigation program that makes use of Google maps.  In use around Phoenix this weekend I found the program to be as accurate and responsive as a dedicated Garmin GPS, with the added benefit that it accepted input via voice as well as by using either an onscreen keyboard or the slide out keyboard of the unit.  For the iPhone all that exists are rather expensive third party programs from traditional GPS vendors.

To be fair, those programs come with full maps, while the Android has to have access to the network to get Google maps.  But, nevertheless, Google has an extremely impressive application–in fact, they have stated they are going to submit it to Apple to include in the iPhone App store.  Whether or not Apple will let it in will be an interesting issue to watch.

On the down side, the Droid’s OS is not quite as smooth or polished as the iPhone’s operating system, but it is a lot more polished and functional than the OS in the Blackberry phones I’ve worked with.  The Droid also has many fewer applications than does the iPhone, but it has substantially more than other platforms.  While, in general, Droid applications aren’t as polished as similar iPhone applications, I’ve found them to be generally better than the average Blackberry application.

Email is one place that both the iPhone and Blackberry phones have a notable advantage, at least if your mail server is an IMAP based system that’s not hosted by Google.  The Android will access IMAP accounts, but so far I’ve not found any way to do relatively simple tasks like move messages into folders.  While the Blackberry doesn’t offer that functionality either, the Blackberry email system outside of Exchange servers operates as a notification system that doesn’t touch your email server–and it has better links in most cases to synchronize contacts.

The iPhone Mail.app does offer interactive control of an IMAP mailbox.  It also synchronizes contacts with an optional subscription to Mobile Me either with Outlook or with Apple’s Address Book.

The Droid’s web browser behaves much like the iPhone’s browser.  That’s not surprising since the browser is based on the same open source WebKit project as is Apple’s Safari.  Unfortunately the Droid browser doesn’t support the multitouch actions to magnify and reduce web pages.  It performs much better than the browsers I’ve worked with on Blackberry devices.

Multimedia programs on the phone are fairly “normal” for what we find on most phones, but a clear step below the interface on the iPhone/iPod Touch.  The phone comes with no software to manage music on your PC, causing users to have to resort to mounting the phone as a drive to copy files to.  Unfortunately, many users may be confused by how to do that–certainly it’s much more trouble than synching an iPod/iPhone.

As well, while it can play videos (and the display is stunning), there’s no source of commercial content such as movies or TV shows to purchase for this device.

As a phone the Droid is an excellent device, even if these days that seems to be the last thing that gets talked about on these devices.  Phone calls are clear, and it has a powerful speaker that can easily handle work as a speakerphone.

Overall, I’m happy with the Droid.  While it’s not on a par with the iPhone in terms of features, it does have the advantage of being on what appears to be a far more robust phone network.  While it’s likely not good enough to cause an AT&T iPhone user to want to switch, it’s more than good enough to make a Verizon user drop any idea of going to AT&T to get the iPhone.