Motorola’s Droid Is Memorable, But Won’t Make You Forget the iPhone Dominik Pietsch, 28.10.09, 23:20
Motorola’s Droid Is Memorable, But Won’t Make You Forget the iPhone
The good news is that this feature-rich handset, running version 2.0 of Google’s Android OS, compares very favorably to the Goliath of the smartphone world as a utility mobile-computing device — and, oh yeah, a phone.
The bad news is that there may be too many good things going on to make using this device the quick, intuitive, out-of-the-box experience it should be. That’s a problem, given that the iPhone has set the usability bar so high.
An embarrassment of riches shouldn’t be a negative, and it really isn’t overall on the Droid, which goes on sale Nov. 6 to Verizon customers only. The tight integration of all things Google — maps overlaid on GPS, voice input all over the place, search that does not ask you to decide whether you are looking for something locally or on the net — are now more fully realized in this major upgrade to the mobile operating system that the search giant first released on a single handset, the T-1.
This is very good thing for those who have become Google citizens and are already used to entrusting their contacts, documents and discovery needs to that cloud.
On the down side, you will need a Gmail, Facebook or Microsoft exchange account to use the e-mail app. And, there is no provision for syncing to an address book (or calendar) on your desktop. Everything is in the Google cloud, which — given the recent Sidekick data-loss debacle — may not be the greatest selling point just now.
Like the iPhone and many other handsets this is a primarily a touchscreen device whose face is almost 100 percent screen — and a bright, crisp screen it is. Rather than take sides in the virtual-vs.-hardware keyboard debate, the Droid provides both. The hardware keyboard slides out in a familiar landscape mechanism, and it includes a 5-way directional pad, the better to allow you to keep your hands on the keyboard once you have them there.
The virtual keyboard appears when appropriate, landscape or portrait. And while the software keys appear to be narrower than those on the iPhone, they seem at least as easy to use. Another familiar feature is the “reality check” of a small pop-up displaying the key being pressed. And there is a type-ahead function which displays possible words, potentially saving you keystrokes.
On-board music purchase is from Amazon (at least), but when the Droid is connected to a computer, it’s read as an SD card, and dragging any tracks onto it makes…