Verizon has officially announced the Droid 3. The key features of the new phone include:

• 5-row keyboard. (dedicated number row).
• 4-inch display
• Dual-Core 1 GHz processor
• Front-facing camera
• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

It looks like a very strong upgrade. Yet another high-powered phone without LTE. This also seems very geared towards business. It is global ready, comes with Citrix GoToMeeting, and a Motoprint app to print to networked printers over Wi-Fi.

The phone is available now online, and will be in stores July 14th. It costs the standard $199.99 with 2-year commitment. If you are a new customer, looks like you will have to sign up for a tiered data plan (starts at $30 for 2GB data). If you are upgrading a current phone with data plan you can keep your old data plan.

I think the fifth row is a big deal. The dedicated number row makes the keyboard a lot more usable. What do you think? Is no LTE an issue? I’ll trade the LTE for the better battery life, myself. See the press release after the jump.

07/07/2011

Click to download

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, and LIBERTYVILLE, IL — Verizon Wireless and Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE: MMI), today announced the new Android™-powered DROID 3 by Motorola, a global smartphone that delivers power for work and play without making compromises.

DROID 3 by Motorola is the world’s thinnest full QWERTY smartphone, and still delivers the power of a dual-core 1 GHz processor for fast multi-tasking. Customers can take stunning photos with the 8-megapixel camera or capture the moment in 1080p HD video. Equipped with Android 2.3, the DROID 3 by Motorola features a brilliant 4-inch qHD display, a roomy 5-row QWERTY keyboard and 3G Mobile Hotspot capabilities, with the ability to connect up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices. DROID 3 by Motorola delivers the power needed to conquer the day whether customers are at home, work or somewhere in between.

Additional features:

• Powered by Android™ 2.3 Gingerbread
• Mirror mode allows you to view and share photos, videos and movies on a larger TV via HDMI output (requires HDMI cable)
• Global ready, allowing customers to enjoy wireless voice and data service in more than 200 countries, including more than 125 with 3G speeds
• Enterprise ready with advanced security policies, device and SD card encryption, complex password support, remote data wipe of device and SD card; document and presentation viewing and editing with Quickoffice®
• Citrix® GoToMeeting® for Android, gives users the ability to attend online meetings while on-the-go, and Citrix Receiver® for Android, a universal software client that allows companies to deliver corporate apps, desktops and data to any corporate- or employee-owned device
• ESP smart dock technology for a tailored experience based on whether DROID 3 is docked in home, office or car settings
• Adobe® Flash® Player 10
• Front-facing camera for still shots and video chat
• Video playback in 1080p HD in mirror mode

Pricing and availability:

• DROID 3 by Motorola is now available online at http://www.verizonwireless.com/droid-3-motorola.shtml, and will be available in Verizon Wireless Communication Stores by July 14 for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement.
• Customers that purchase a DROID 3 will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan and a smartphone data package. New Verizon Wireless customers will have the option of smartphone plans starting at $30 for 2GB of data. Current Verizon Wireless smartphone customers who are upgrading their smartphone can keep their current data plan.

For more information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s fastest, most advanced 4G network and largest, most reliable 3G network. The company serves 104 million total wireless connections, including more than 88 million retail customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 85,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD). For more information, visitwww.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library atwww.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

About Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE:MMI) fuses innovative technology with human insights to create experiences that simplify, connect and enrich people’s lives. Our portfolio includes converged mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; wireless accessories; end-to-end video and data delivery; and management solutions, including set-tops and data-access devices. For more information, visitmotorola.com/mobility.

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC. Facebook is a trademark of Facebook, Inc. Adobe and Adobe Flash are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and other countries. Android is a trademark of Google, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2011 Motorola Mobility, Inc. All rights reserved.

Filed in categories: Android related

Tagged: droid, verizon

Verizon Officially Announces Droid 3 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 7, 2011 at 10:30 am.

If you’ve been waiting for the special edition Star Wars R2D2 Droid 2 smartphone from Verizon, you’ll be happy to know that will be available on September 30th. Show off your geekiness by sporting a Droid 2 with cool R2D2 graphics on the back and exclusive Star Wars inspired content such as:
Exclusive content comes pre-loaded on the special edition smartphone, including:

• R2-D2 notification sounds and ringtones
• Four live wallpapers
• R2-D2 Clock Widget
• “The Best of R2-D2” video with the original Cantina music
• Exclusive Binoculars App

I am confident that we have some Gadgeteer readers that held out for this bad boy. Send me a picture of you holding your Droid R2D2 and I’ll post them to this news item Come on, I know you’re out there … in a galaxy far far away. Sorry, I couldn’t help it Full press release after the jump.

MAY THE DROID BE WITH YOU: LIMITED EDITION DROID™ R2-D2™ BY MOTOROLA LANDS ON VERIZON WIRELESS’ NETWORK

DROID™ R2-D2™ by Motorola Brings the Galactic Empire to Customers

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – Verizon Wireless announced that the highly anticipated limited edition DROID™ R2-D2™ by Motorola will be available online at www.verizonwireless.com and in select Verizon Wireless Communication stores beginning Sept. 30.  With a graphic design to look like the iconic Astromech Droid from the Star Wars™ Saga, the DROID™ R2-D2™ by Motorola will be packaged in a custom box resembling carbonite and come with a Star Wars media dock and wired stereo headset.  Exclusive content comes pre-loaded on the special edition smartphone, including:

• R2-D2 notification sounds and ringtones
• Four live wallpapers
• R2-D2 Clock Widget
• “The Best of R2-D2” video with the original Cantina music
• Exclusive Binoculars App

Star Wars Mobile App Available for All Customers with Android 2.1 phones

To celebrate 30 years since the film hit theaters, customers with Android devices running Android 2.1 or higher will soon be able to get the Empire Strikes Back app from Android Market™.  The app, only for Verizon Wireless customers, allows Jedi Masters to browse, preview and download Star Wars content related to Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.  Verizon Wireless customers can access premium Star Wars content for a one-time charge of $2.99.

The Star Wars mobile app will have the following features and content:

• Bounty Hunt Visual ID: Find and capture images around the Star Wars universe to unlock hidden content
• Sound and Photo Gallery
• Live Wallpapers:

o    Blast the Probe Droid

o    Luke Balancing Yoda

o    Navigating the Asteroid Field

o    Watch Bespin’s Cloud City

• Trivia Challenge: Answer trivia questions about The Empire Strikes Back
• Widgets

The DROID™ R2-D2™ by Motorola will be available for $249 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.  Customers will need to subscribe to a Nationwide Talk plan or a Nationwide Talk & Text plan (beginning at $39.99 monthly access) and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan (beginning at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access).  Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.

For more information on DROID™ R2-D2™ by Motorola, go to www.droiddoes.com/r2d2.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable and largest wireless voice and 3G data network, serving more than 92 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with  79,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD).  For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com.  To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to mobile and wireline digital communication devices that provide compelling experiences, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $22 billion in 2009. For more information, please visit www.motorola.com.

STAR WARS™, DROID™ and related properties are trademarks and/or copyrights, in the United States and other countries, of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. TM & © Lucasfilm Ltd.  All rights reserved.  Used under license. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

Android, Android Market are trademarks of Google Inc.

Filed in categories: Android related, News

Tagged: droid, Spotlight Gadgets, Star Wars, verizon

The Limited Edition DROID R2D2 from Verizon will be available Thursday originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 27, 2010 at 9:46 pm.

I spent a lot of time experimenting with new ways to enter information in the Droid X. The voice recognition integrated into Android continues to improve, and the Droid X comes with Swype installed. I had not tried it before, but was encouraged by Craig to give it a shot when we were comparing the EVO to the Droid X. I am really glad I did.

Voice Recognition

I really enjoyed working with the voice recognition feature on the Droid X (an Android OS feature). It is not perfect, but is surprisingly good. I found that the few errors I had to correct did not impact how well this worked. I first started playing with it while watching TV. It did an incredible job of blocking out the noise of the TV to capture what I was saying. I also used it a lot outside with Tweetcaster one afternoon. I doubt it had anymore “typos” then my own (though that is not a hard thing to beat). Of course talking your tweets into a phone in public may not help you socially, but it was fun to play with.

To use it, you tap the microphone on the keyboard. When it prompts you to speak, talk into the phone, and then it processes what you say:

Editing

The advanced cursor control for the Droid X works very nicely. When editing text, it can be difficult to tap on just the right spot. Thankfully on the Droid X I can double-tap and hold, then slowly move my finger to put the cursor exactly where I want in the text. A magnified area appears on screen to help guide you:

Swype

Swype was a real pleasant surprise. If you have not tried it, give it a shot. At the minimum it is a really nice keyboard. You don’t have to swype each time. As you swype you see the trace of your finger. Here I am swyping “droid”:

If it is unsure what you meant, a pop-up menu appears with options. If it guessed wrong, you can tap the Swype button in the lower-left corner to bring up the same menu:

Be sure to check out the Swype tips. They have some on punctuation and how to do double-letters. I found that tid-bit after I finished the video. If I had the Droid X this would be my default Keyboard.

Browsing

This is the first phone I have used that I really enjoyed browsing on. Part of it is the size of the screen, but in addition I like how the browser in the Android has continued to improve. You can quickly double-tap to zoom, and you can use pinch and spread to resize. It is easier to show this in video, it is towards the end of the video at the end.

What’s Next

It’s about time to ship this phone back, so the next post will be the wrap up review. If you have been following along, there will be no surprises. This is a powerful phone with few compromises.

Filed in categories: Android related, Reviews

Tagged: Android, droid, droidx, Motorola, verizon

Droid X: Entering Text and Browsing originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 16, 2010 at 5:29 pm.

We ask a lot more out of our smartphones anymore. It’s not enough to make phone calls, access the web, and receive text messages. We want them to be our communications hub. Android has become very adept at this, and will get even better with Froyo (2.2), but how does the Droid X stack up on this?

Supported Accounts

Out of the box, the Droid X supports a number of accounts:

Social Networks like:

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter

E-mail like:

• Corporate Sync (Exchange)
• Email (POP3)
• Google (multiple Gmail accounts)
• Yahoo! Mail

Picture sites like:

• Photobucket
• Picasa

Additional options like:

• Backup assistant(Verizon feature)
• Skype Mobile
• Visual Voice Mail (Verizon feature)

Exchange Support

I found the Exchange support works very well for me. I have heard of some folks having issues because of security settings on their company’s exchange server, but I have not had those issues. Also, it only supports syncing mail, calendar and contacts. No notes or to-do lists, but I have not use notes or tasks lists for a long time.

This can be taken care of with an add-on application, but I have not tested them much, and not for a while. There was quite a discussion of this on my Droid post last October. You may want to look at Touchdown or Moonrug.

Google has promised more robust Exchange support in Froyo (2.2). I hate to say “wait for the next release” but it is expected this year. You can check out the information on Androids Developer site.

As it stands, the exchange support handles all my needs. I also like that the exchange calendar is shown in a unified calendar view:

The exchange events are highlighted in blue, Gmail events in green. Each calendar you add is displayed in a different color. I did not see a way to change the color assignments, though.

Video and Pictures

YouTube is not listed in the Accounts section, but you can set up the gallery to upload to YouTube directly (large files will automatically wait for a Wi-Fi connection) and share anywhere you can e-mail. You can also upload pictures to your Picasa or Photobucket accounts, but unfortunately there is no direct Flickr support. To send to Flickr you need to e-mail it to your Flickr e-mail address (look this up on your Flickr account). I found this very disappointing. You can set a quick upload to an e-mail address (which I did to my Flickr photo address) but inexplicably this can not be set to send by your Gmail account. It is sent to your default e-mail account in the Email application.

Getting Social

After you setup your Facebook, Twitter, and (I assume) MySpace accounts, they are viewable through the social widget. I am not a big fan of this. I follow WAY too many people on Twitter, so it gets a little overwhelming. If you follow fewer people, this may not be an issue. I set the widget to only show Facebook status’ and I use Tweetcaster to follow twitter.

Conclusion

I think the Droid X handles accounts very well. For me, Flickr is a huge disappointment. HTC phones with the Sense UI work with Flickr (Droid Incredible, EVO). The work-around is OK, but not as seamless as I would prefer. The exchange support should satisfy a lot of people, but will not satisfy everyone. There are 3rd-party solutions out there thanks to the vibrant Android Market, but it will disappoint some to have to add software for what they hope is a basic function.

Filed in categories: Android related, Reviews

Tagged: Android, droid, droid x, Motorola, verizon

Motorola Droid X: Accounts originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 13, 2010 at 9:00 am.

I don’t buy my phone based on the camera, but there is a lot of truth to the adage that the best camera you have is the one that is with you. The cameras keep getting better and better with each generation of phone. The camera in the Droid X is an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flashes and the ability to record 720p HD. It is certainly not going to replace my DSLR, but it is quite capable.

The Hardware

I love the fact that the phone comes with a capture button on top (when held sideways). It is the red button in this shot:

As mentioned, the camera is capable of 8 megapixels. You may be surprised that your first batch of pictures are 6mp. This is because the default is to take pictures in a 16:9 format that not only fills the display of the phone, but also a widescreen TV. You can set the phone to 6, 8, 5, 3 or 2 MP.

If you have read any of my reviews in the past, or know a little something about digital photography, you know the mp count is not that great of an indicator of quality. Unfortunately the more pixels you squeeze on a sensor of a given size, the smaller the area to react to light and the worse it performs in low-light.

This performs pretty well, however, and includes dual LEDs to help out. Here are some shots at a restaurant. Click to see the full size:

And this:

Outside in plenty of light, it really shines. Here is an example of the mounted police:

And a shot of a garden:

Camera Features

The camera has quite a few features. You can choose a Scene to optimize for your shooting circumstance including:

• Auto
• Portrait
• Landscape
• Sport
• Night Portrait
• Sunset
• Macro
• Steady Shot

You can also choose to apply effects like:

• Normal
• Black and White
• Negative
• Sepia
• Solarize
• Red Tint
• Green Tint
• Blue Tint

What is more interesting to me are the Picture Modes. You have:

• Single shot
• Panorama assist
• Self portrait
• Multi-shot

Panorama assist is a very slick feature. When selected you get to choose the direction of the pan; up, down, left, or right.

After you line up the first part of the shot you hit the camera button once and slowly pan. The camera lets you know where you are in the pan, and when it takes each shot. The panorama can include up to 6 shots (you can press the shutter again to end the capture). Here was a small pan:

Here is a larger one of 5 frames. I wish the day had been a little clearer. You can kind of see some shading at the four borders, but still pretty nice job.

Video

The phone supports HD Video. The quality is quite nice. i took a few samples (some that were in ridiculous conditions, that it did not do well in). This is definitely a good light feature. Here is the Youtube of a short video outside:

When the beach ball comes in frame, the camera did adjust the lighting change a little bit. I was very impressed by the quality of the video. I am not going to get rid of my Webbie or Canon HV20 for it, but still, this is in a phone.

Conclusion

This is not an in-depth analysis of the capabilities of the camera, but I liked it. For a camera in a phone, this is one of the best I have used.

Filed in categories: Android related, Miscellaneous, Reviews

Tagged: Camera, droid, droid x, mototola, verizon, Video

Motorola Droid X: The Camera originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 11, 2010 at 4:52 pm.

My birthday came a little early this year as I received the Droid X for review. I only get to keep it for a week, but I may be getting my own soon. This is essentially Verizon’s answer to the EVO. It has similar specs but doesn’t have the front-facing camera.

As we have done in the past, I will do a multi-part review of the phone over the next week, but I wanted to give my first impressions in this post.

Wow. This is a big phone. Just like the EVO, though, it doesn’t seem too big to me. I pulled out my old Clie TH-55 which is a little wider and thicker than this phone, but the phone is a tad taller. The size of the screen is breath-taking (assuming you are a gadget geek who likes those kind of things).

It does not have a physical keyboard like the original Droid, but does have physical buttons along the bottom for Menu, Home, Back and Search.

What’s in the Box?

The phone comes with a number of manuals, the phone, a USB cable and an AC adapter. It arrives with the back off and the battery in its own bag. It is very easy to install the battery in the phone.

Slim

The phone is very slim, with a bump at the top to accommodate the camera:

The red button is the camera shutter button. I am a big fan of a camera button, it just makes the camera application easier to launch and more convenient to use. The pair of buttons to the right are the volume controls.

HDMI

Just like the EVO, this phone comes with an HDMI out. It is a micro-HDMI connector which are pretty rare right now. I am hoping to get a cable to test it out. There is also a micro-USB port.

Power and Headphones

I’m encouraged that most manufacturers have figured out that we want a standard headphone jack on our phones now. It is located at the top with the power button:

I am not a fan of the location of the power button. I find it inconvenient. However, that may be because it is not in the location I am used to.

8 MP and Dual LED Flash

The camera is 8 MP, with a dual LED flash. I’ll await judging it until a later post. I would rather have fewer pixels to get more low-light sensitivity, but again, I will wait to test the camera.

I did a quick, basic unboxing of the phone. I will get better. Unedited, a little over 8 minutes.

Filed in categories: Android related

Tagged: Android, droid, Motorola, verizon

Motorola Droid X for Verizon First Looks originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 2, 2010 at 6:01 pm.

Want protection for your mobile device, but don’t always need to go all out?  The Seidio Innocase Rugged Holster Combo is like two cases in one.  The Innocase 360 is a 1mm thick, snap-on case made from “hard yet flexible” material with built in screen guard that is suitable for everyday use.  Add the Rugged Skin silicone outer layer and Skeleton plastic frame for additional protection in more demanding situations.  Also includes a belt holster with multi-position swivel.  Currently available for iPhone 3G/3GS, BlackBerry 9700 and Droid, $49.99 each.

Filed in categories: Blackberry related, iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News

Tagged: Blackberry, Case, droid, iPhone

Seidio Innocase Rugged convertible case originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 10, 2010 at 1:59 pm.

I was able to talk the Verizon PR representative into letting me review two of the accessories for the Droid as a ploy to keep the it a little longer, I mean, as a nice companion to the series of reviews on the Droid. In this post I will look at the Car Mount, and later I will look at the Dock.

What’s Included:

• Mounting arm with suction cup.
• Disk to attach to dashboard for non-windshield mounting.
• Cradle for phone.
• Instructions.

What’s Not:

• Car Charger. This isn’t a “Car Kit” it’s a Car Mount.

I did not use the disk. I attached the holder to the windshield. One of the nice features of this accessory (and the dock) is that there is a small magnet in both that tells the Droid that it is attached. This means as soon as you turn on your phone it displays the Car Home when when it is in the cradle.

To see more information on how navigation works with the Droid, look at the Navigating with Verizon’s Droid post. You can rotate your phone vertical, or horizontal, but I think the horizontal position works best for navigation.

I was surprised how well the suction cup holds the phone and holder. There is a lever you press down to engage the suction cup:

The clear tab underneath the lever is used to break the suction after you release the lever. Even after releasing the lever, it would be difficult to remove it without this handy tab. I did not get to take that long of a trip with it, but it seemed very secure.

The cradle works very nicely. The phone fits very securely in it. The design utilized the little step down on the bottom part of the phone (where the Verizon logo is), and the angled edges of the phone very effectively to hold the phone.

I was very impressed by the thought that seemed to go into this accessory. It is a safe and convenient way to mount your phone. My only disappointment is that it does not come with a car charger.

Filed in categories: Android related, GPS, Reviews

Tagged: Android, droid, Motorola, verizon

Car Mount Phone Holder for Droid Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 13, 2009 at 2:16 pm.

First off, Multimedia Station seems a bit off for this device. This is a dock for your Droid phone. It has some nice adds, but does not include any speakers, or even audio out, it is a dock.

What’s in the Box:

• Manual
• AC Adaptor
• USB Cable
• Cradle

The dock is very attractive, and since it comes with an additional charger, is a very good value. The phone slides into the dock and connects via the micro-USB port. I found that it slide in very smoothly.

When inserted in the dock, the Droid recognizes that it is attached to the doc and launches the dock application:

This application displays the current time and date, your location and weather and also provides quick access to your music, photos, alarms and a dimming feature.

The Music and Photo buttons take you to the music and photo applications of the Droid.

If you tap the lightbulb to dim the display you get this:

You can tap on the weather icon to get a nice forecast:

If you tap on the Alarm icon you can set up to three different alarms:

I like the dock application. You cannot launch it from a stock Droid without the dock. Of course the beauty of the Android market means a work around is only a matter of time, and it has already been worked around. There is an application called DockRunner you can use on a Droid to launch the Dock application. This works only on the Droid, since it is the phone with that application.

I still think the dock is worth the $30. If nothing else, it is an easy place to drop your android for charging when you get home. Also, it comes with an additional charger, which I always need.

Filed in categories: Android related, Reviews

Tagged: Android, droid, Motorola, verizon

Multimedia Station for Droid Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 8, 2009 at 12:04 pm.

I had no issues with my Droid battery cover for the two weeks I used it, but I have heard some complaints that the cover can fall off. I know another reviewer that had no problem with her review unit, but after purchasing she had issues with the new one. So it probably is dependent on the unit you get.

I did come across a nice little video that describes a potential DIY solution if you don’t mind slightly customizing your Droid. Actually in the world of DIY this is really minor. Of course I am not going to take responsibility for any over-zealous mods on your part. If you want to follow these instructions, take care.

Update:

Matt from Motorola (he manages the Motorola Support Forum) added a nice comment below about a non-DIY solution. It’s great to hear a company stand so solidly behind their product. He provides this link to get support if your cover is coming consistently off: https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/utils/chat

Filed in categories: Android related, Do-It-Yourself

Tagged: DIY, droid, Motorola

DIY Droid Battery Cover Fix originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 7, 2009 at 9:56 am.

Finally, the review. I have spent just over a week with this app phone, and I have really enjoyed it. I am a current G1 user, so I came to the phone already familiar with the Android OS. It was interesting to talk with a number of folks who are new to Android to get their impressions.

This is going to be a little obsessive and detailed, so settle in. If somehow it is not enough, you can always review the previous posts in this series.

The Hardware

The design of the Droid is very industrial. The lines are very, very straight, the surfaces are hard. The phone is thinner than my G1 and barely thicker than an iPhone. The slider moves smoothly open to display the keyboard.

The Keyboard

News flash: keyboards on phones are a mass of trade-offs, and the Droid is no different. I still don’t like it as well as the keyboard on my G1 after a week, but I have grown accustomed to it.

The large 5-way controller to the right of the keyboard limits how wide it can be. It feels narrower than my G1, but in reality they are about the same width. The keys have almost no travel (distance they travel when pressed) and have no separation between them. The G1, with its space between the keys, and more travel, feels bigger, and more responsive. Of course the trade-off to more travel is more width in the device. The biggest detractor of the design for me was the lack of a dedicated number row. This is a big deal for me, especially when typing in passwords with letters and numbers.

Buttons

The phone has four physical buttons, and four dedicated touchscreen buttons. The physical buttons include:

• Power button on top right. A little awkward to press at first.
• Volume rocker (2 buttons) on upper right.
• Camera Shutter on lower right, which becomes upper right in camera position.

The touchscreen buttons are reminiscent of the old Palms before the virtual graffiti areas. Essentially the touch screen extends beyond the regular screen to the four buttons at the bottom.

The buttons from left to right are:

• Back
• Menu
• Home
• Search

I did not like the back button on the left side. I thought it was just my personal preference, but I had another experienced reviewer make the same comment. She observed that is was different from most phones she has looked at (and she has looked at a lot lately). However, let’s face it, not something I would not get used to.

A bigger issue for me was the nature of the buttons. No tactile feedback to find them in the dark (although haptic feedback when you touch them and activate the button). Also, they are not always back-lit, so hard to find at night. That is probably a good reason for their unconventional layout, as back is used more than home.

Connections

The Droid comes with a standard headphone jack (here is hoping that becomes a totally non-noteworthy feature in phones) and a micro-USB port for charging and connecting to your PC. It also ships with a USB cable, and a wall plug.

I wish they had designed the wall plug with fold-able prongs, would have made it more portable, but I appreciate the trend towards USB charging. I have WAY to many AC adapters.

Specs

I could replicate a list of specs, but it wouldn’t look as nice as the specs page on Motorola’s site, so go to their Droid Spec page.

I will highlight the notables:

• 3.7″ WVGA (480 x 854 pixels) display
• 550 Mhz processor (2nd fastest Android device out there right now, fastest is 600)
• 5 MP camera with dual LED flash
• First Android 2.0 (Eclair)
• 16 GB of memory
• Memory is expandable by replacing the SD card (supports 32 GB)

That last one is a big deal to me. I love the fact that the Droid (and really all the Android phones I have seen) are easily upgraded by replacing an SD card.

Google Navigation

A lot has been made about this feature. In fact Garmin and Tom Tom took a hit in the stock market the day this was announced. You know how features can be over-hyped and not meet expectation? Well this is definitely not one of those cases. I won’t repeat all the information in the navigation post I have already provided, but I want to add some information from further testing.

In the comments I was asked how things worked when you were navigating and received a call. I finally had an opportunity to be a passenger on a reasonably long car ride to test it. After receiving a call you can put it on speaker phone and return to the navigation screen. In fact, during the call you will continue to get turn-by-turn directions visually and audibly. You can mute the audio directions. It worked fine.

Exchange Support

Out of the box, this phone will sync to an Exchange server to get you mail, calendar and contacts. Your mail appears in the e-mail application (which is separate from the Gmail application). In addition your calendar appears in a separate app called Corporate Calendar. You contacts, however, are synced with the contacts on your phone.

I really wish my exchange calendar events appeared in my regular calendar application. I really want an integrated calendar view. This is one of the pleasant surprises on the Eris which is not on Eclair, but uses the Sense UI Exchange features to show them together. I can see why some may want to maintain separate calendars, but I think they need the option.

An integrated email view would be nice, but less of an issue for me. If I want to integrate POP3/IMAP in Gmail I can do that by adding the account in Gmail rather than the phone, and I like separating the Exchange mail. Of course others may prefer something different.

Android 2.0 does not sync your Exchange notes or tasks. There was quite a discussion about this on the Day 1: Verizon’s Droid and Account Maintenance post. I was surprised that notes was such an important feature to folks. The bad news is that this is not supported out of the box. The good news is that there is a vibrant Android development market. Here are a couple options (supplied by a Verizon resource):

• Touchdown by Nitrodesk. It provides task and global address lookup. I did not get an opportunity to try it out.
• Moonrug Mobile provides notes access. I made the time to try this out on the Droid, since there were a few folks who thought this was very important, and it worked fine I will try to make the time to post a review.

These are not out-of-the-box solutions, nor are they free ($9.99 for Touchdown and $23 for Moonrug Mobile) but does show you that the market for Android is healthy.

Outlook ≠ Exchange

Another issue that popped up was syncing with outlook. Android does not sync with your PC to get to the Exchange data, it syncs wireless with the Exchange server. My post Android: Living on a Cloud goes into some of the philosophy around this, but again, the third-party market comes to the rescue. There are a couple solutions that are available now, or shortly:

• CompanionLink is a $39.95 tool that uses the Google cloud to sync from your desktop Outlook to your Android phone.
• The Missing Sync for Android is currently in pre-release beta. Mark/Space has been providing supplemental sync tools for a while, and though I have never used one, I have always heard great things, and even recommended them to others that were very happy with the results.

If anyone knows of any other recommendations, add it in the comments and I will add it to this list.

I do want to add that the Droid Eris actually comes with the software to sync your Contacts and Calendar in Outlook on your PC to the phone. This is an advantage for the Eris if you have Outlook, but are not using Exchange. I hope to have an Eris review next week. You can see my preliminary comparison in the post Droid Eris vs. Droid.

Facebook Integration

This feature came as a really pleasant surprise. You log into your Facebook account, and it provides the option to sync your contacts with the Facebook information. You actually have two great options. You can pull in ALL your Facebook contacts, or just have it sync the Facebook contact that match contacts on your phone. It also updates the thumbnails of your contacts with their Facebook avatars.

Multi-Touch

Multi-touch is a topic much talked about. If you are unfamiliar, the best example is the 2-finger spread to zoom in and pinch to zoom out. The hardware of the Droid supports this, and there are apps you can download that use it, but Android 2.0 in the US does not have it enabled. The Motorola Milestone (Europe version of droid) lists multi-touch as a feature.  Speculation is this is due to legal threats by Apple. Remember when the bad guys in the 1984 Apple commercial represented the other guys, rather than Apple? Interesting note, the Sense UI DOES support mutli-touch, so it will work with the Eris.

Conclusion

This is a very strong phone. With the dazzling display and incorporation of Android 2.0 it has to be considered the flagship Android device. It is sorely tempting me (a long-term happy T-Mobile customer) to pay the early termination fees and jump ship.

However, you will definitely want to look at the Droid Eris as well. I don’t think I could declare a clear winner, it depends on your needs and preferences.

Filed in categories: Android related

Tagged: Android, droid, Motorola

The Motorola Droid on Verizon Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 8, 2009 at 10:36 am.

Tomorrow marks the launch of Verizon’s first two Android phones. I have spent over a week with the Droid, but have only had the Eris for a couple of days. Since Verizon decided to call their first Android phone the Droid, and add that name to all successive Android phones, I will be referring to the Motorola Droid as simply Droid, and the Droid Eris as simply Eris.

I am still wrapping up the full review of the Droid, and want to spend a little more time with the Eris before finishing that review, so I will not have both reviews in time for tomorrow’s launch. Now I doubt you all are on the edge of your seat waiting for my final reviews, but if you are anything like me, you like all the data you can get. So with the caveat that I have not spent much time with the Eris, I want to give you information on which of these two excellent phones are best for you. I will not be declaring a best, because that is just silly, it depends on your specific wants and desires.

So we are going to start with the basics. You like Android, you want to get a new phone, and you are on Verizon, or don’t mind switching.

Why You Should Buy a Droid

You want the biggest, highest resolution screen. The display on the Droid is simply stunning. It is 3.7″ WVGA (480 x 854 pixels).

You want the fastest processor. The Droid comes with a 550 MHz processor versus Eris’ 528 MHz processor. Using Linpack for Android the Droid scores 4.507 Mflops/second versus Eris’ 2.315. But this only rates the floating point computing power. Part of the improvement could be a better interpreter in Eclair. I include results from Benchmark by softweg at the bottom of this post. I was surprised how poorly the Droid scored on graphics performance, though that could be because of the higher resolution screen.

You want an Android 2.0 (Eclair) device. Droid ships with Eclair, but HTC is working on updating the Sense UI for Eclair, and will should release an update. Verizon has announced that an update for the Eris to Eclair is coming in 2010.

You want the most memory. I actually used a widget called Internal Memory Widget. It displays how much memory (i.e. RAM) you are using and how much is available. The Droid shows 261 MB available, and the Eris 159 MB. But the G1 (or at least my G1 on Donut) only has 74 MB, so 159 is a big step up.

You want the most storage. The Droid comes with a 16 GB SD card, while the Eris has only an 8 GB card. But, it’s an SD card, you can upgrade it later if you need to.

You want a physical keyboard. Eris does not have a physical keyboard, but it’s not like any mobile phone’s keyboard is touch-typing ready. This Droid’s seems a step down form the G1 (though that could still be because I have used the G1 for a year).

EDIT (how did I forget this?):
You want turn by turn navigation. Droid has the very cool new turn by turn navigation from google, but whenever HTC upgrades their Sense UI it will should as well.

Why you Should Buy an Eris

Size matters to you. This is the smallest, sleekest Android phone on the market. It seems even smaller because of its tapered corners, but the Droid is not exactly huge.

It is a sexy, sexy phone. Sorry, cannot find a better explanation. I love the lines, I love the rubberized exterior, I love the Sense UI. But, if you like a more industrial design, the Droid is more in your line.

You want the Sense UI. It’s only available on HTC phones, and it is a great interface. But it is built on top of Android, so with every new release of Android you  need to wait for the Sense UI to be updated to the new OS.

You want a better low-light camera. I will definitely test it more, but the Eris phone seems to handle low light much better than the droid, even at the same MP. This really showed up in Shop Savvy. But, this is your phone. You can buy a separate camera.

You love widgets. The Sense UI has 7 screens to the Home view. This compares to 3 for the droid. In addition, there are a number of HTC widgets that are just fabulous, including ones to display contacts, mail and messages.

You want to save $100. The Eris is going to be $99 versus $199 for the Droid. But, this is a 2-year contract, that works out to a little over $4 a month so you don’t want to be penny-wise, pound-foolish.

You want your Exchange calendar events to appear on the same calendar as the rest. On Eclair, Exchange calendar events show up in the Corporate Calendar app, not the main calendar. Eris places them in a unified calendar, color-coded. But, it’s not always bad to separate your work and personal calendars.

You like a physical Call and End button. I miss the call and end button on the Droid. I am just used to tapping call to bring up my phone and contacts list, and the end button to hang up. But, that is a preference thing, you may not care.

You like your Home button on the left. For some reason the Droid chose to swap the back and home buttons. I found this very annoying, and goes against other Droid phones, and even other phones on the market. But, it’s not like you will be switching phones constantly, you will get used to it.

Conclusion

These are two really strong phones. I thought this was going to break down to choosing a power phone versus choosing a lite version. The Eris really holds its own against the Droid making it a difficult choice. Not really a bad thing.

You should also know that there are rumors that Verizon may release 1 or 2 more Android devices by the end of the year. I have no inside knowledge, no Verizon rep or PR person told me this, but you can see the rumors out there. But, how many times have folks known Apple was releasing a tablet? There is always going to be something better coming out, at some point you need to buy.

Good luck deciding between these two excellent phones. I don’t think you can really go wrong with either.

Filed in categories: Android related

Tagged: benchmarks, droid, eris, verison

Droid Eris vs. Droid originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 6, 2009 at 1:32 am.

from Motorola site

I found out last Thursday I would have another week with the phone, so my urgency dropped a little bit about posting, and I took a three-day weekend. I don’t have much more to cover with the phone before I wrap up with the review but will still have a few more posts. Today it is about the camera in the phone.

Camera

The Droid comes with a 5 Megapixel camera. This is an update from the 3 Megapixel camera that came with my G1.The Eclair version of the Camera app also provides more settings. A quick look at the two screenfuls of options:

Flash

Of course one new feature is flash, since this is the first Android phone I know of with a flash (2 LEDs near the lens). By default it is on Auto, but you can also set it On or Off.

Scene

There are a number of scene modes to select from, I did not try them all out. In the sample of pictures I took, it appears the camera is always at f/2.8, so the only settings it adjusts are shutter speed and ISO. With such a small sensor (it is in a mobile phone) ISO 200 starts to see a fair amount of artifacts. If you choose Action, it will up the ISO so that the shutter speed can be faster, but I am not convinced these settings are all that helpful. After experimenting, I left it on Auto.

White Balance

The options include Auto, Incandescent, Daylight, Fluorescent and Cloudy. Not a feature you need a lot, but when you do this can be very handy.

Color Effect

This is pretty gimmicky. You can set it up so that your pictures are Mono, Sepia, Negative, Solarize, Red Tint, Blue Tint, or Green Tint. These are all effects that would be better applied afterward, but if you want to do it in the camera for quick upload, they are here.

Store Location

This is an option to store the location you shot the picture in the picture file. It is somewhat limited by what location services are on in your phone. For example, if you do not have GPS on, the location will be the cell tower your phone is connected to when the picture is taken.

Picture Size

The phone is a 5M camera, but you can choose to shoot 3M or 2M to save storage space.

Picture Quality

This controls the quality of the JPEG. Options are Super fine, Fine and Normal. Again, the higher the quality, the larger the file.

Focus Mode

You can choose Auto, Infinity or Macro.

Sharing Pictures

You can share pictures right from the camera app via Bluetooth, e-mail, Facebook, Messaging and Picasa. It also adds options for other applications. For example, after installing Twidroid I could share to Twidroid right from the camera application.

Picture Quality

In daylight, the pictures from this camera are very impressive. I took some pictures in the garden on a sunny day. The following picture I chose because I thought it would be challenging for the camera. It is a little over-exposed, and if you click to see the details, there is some noise in the picture. Notice also that the camera chose to focus on the leaves on the ground, not the Maple leaves.

This turned out better, but still a bit of noise if you zoom in.

Where this camera really suffers is in low light. To fit in a mobile phone, the sensor has to be small, and the more MP you fit on the sensor, the worse its low light performance will be. That is why the flash is important. However, I tried an example that showed ho my G1 3M camera outperforms the Droid 5M.

First the Droid:

Compare that to the G1:

The image quality is better on the G1, but the colors are truer on the Droid. After all the #5 ranked UC Bearcat’s team colors are red, not orange.

This low-light advantage of the 3M camera really shows up with apps like Shop Savvy. This application uses the camera to scan the UPC bar code. I have no issues scanning with the G1, with the Droid it is a little more hit and miss. I need to test it in a store with the bright florescent light, but at home the G1 is much more reliable. I could see the Shop Savvy folks adding support for the LED flash, that would likely make the UPC scan work better.

One of the other local reviewers has posted some sample pictures on his site, Crankybear. Check it out, and some of his other posts on the Droid.

Video

The Droid also has a Video mode. There is a switch to switch to video right from the camera. A stock droid would take you directly to the Camcorder. Once I installed QIK, the video switch provided both options:

In this post I am going to focus on the Camcorder application that comes with Android.

Options

The Camcorder offers the same White Balance and Color Effect options as the camera, A High and Low quality option and the ability to limit the video duration to 30 seconds, 10 minutes, or 30 minutes.

Sharing Video

Android has a number of options for sharing Video:

In addition to these options, you can share via Bluetooth. The YouTube option worked great. The only issue I ran into is above a certain size, it will wait to upload until you have a Wi-Fi connection. Not a big issue for me, and I respect the need to preserver the bandwidth. You can queue up a number, here is a screen shot:

Here are a couple intensely boring videos I uploaded. Keep in mind, YouTube further compresses them, so the originals are a little better than this. The first video is in bright sunlight:

The next video is in shade:

The High quality video mode is 720 x 480. With plenty of light, the results are very impressive. Of course the video also suffers under low light.

Again, you can read another perspective on Crankybear’s Posterous site.

My Conclusions

I was disappointed with the low-light performance of the camera, but the images and video in well-lit situations is impressive. I also am concerned about the bar scanning drop off. I hope the core bar scanning app, or developers of apps like Shop Savvy learn how to use the LED to improve that ability. All in all, I would call this a mixed bag. On the other hand, you are probably not interested in this phone for its camera.

Filed in categories: Android related

Tagged: Android, Camera, droid, verizon

Day 7: The Droid Camera and Video originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 3, 2009 at 8:00 am.

I attended the Verizon Wireless Gadget Happy Hour last night. This is the event that the local Verizon reps distributed the Droid’s for. Besides returning the Droid, my other requirement for having the device to play with, was to bring it to this event. I was there to share my experience, and the phone, with interested parties in a very informal event.

I had my questions, as well. One that was answered was that the unlimited e-mail and web plan for the Droid will be $29.99. This is different from the figures you can see on their site right now, and will make the comparison at Bill Shrink look much better when updated.

It was also fun to show off the Droid to fellow attendees. I learned a lot from them as well. A big one is that there is not a lot of understanding of Android in general. Most of my posts so far have focused on what’s new, I want to take some time in this post to give you a brief overview of some core Android features and concepts.

Android’s Notification System

I forgot how different Android’s system is, since I have been using a G1 for a year. Whenever you receive an e-mail, voice mail, missed call or system message it appears in the notification bar at the top. Here is an example when I wake my phone up:

This is a pretty busy example. In fact, you can see the first icon that indicates there are 3 more notifications that do not fit. Here is a labeled version, I grayed out descriptions of the more typical mobile phone icons:

Notice that there are two separate e-mail icons. One is for my Exchange account, the other for Gmail. The only other one that I think needs explanation is the Debugging Mode. That is on because my phone is hooked up via USB in debugging mode so that I can get these screen captures.

To see the details you can “pull down” the notification screen by dragging from the bar down. This is what it looks like:

Notice that the three that did not fit included a notice that my Facebook update had finished, I missed a call, and there are updates available to an application I downloaded from the Android market. You acknowledge the notifications by tapping on them (or you can clear all).

The Home Screen and Applications

The Android Home screen is actually three screens. You can swipe left and right to see the screens on either side.

Unlike the iPhone, every app does not appear on these pages, only the ones you choose to place there. You can see the applications by tapping, or dragging the tab at the bottom up:

If you want to add a shortcut to an app, you simply press and hold the icon, and then the application window will go away so you can drag the icon where you want. When you tap and hold an icon, a trash can appears to let you delete it.

You can also add other things to your home pages. A long tap brings up this menu:

Widgets

Widgets are another great Android feature. They are essentially mini running applications on one of your three home screens:

The first widget is new with Eclair (Android OS 2.0) and works with the Facebook application. I can enter a new status, see the statuses of my friends, and even tap on the friend’s status to go to their Facebook page.

The second widget is part of Google’s Scoreboard applications. It shows my favorite teams scores (go Bearcats). I can scroll through my favorites, or tap on the score to see the details of the game.

The last widget is the new Power Control widget that comes with Eclair. I really hope they make this available to us poor donuts (OS 1.6). Thanks to Yaor for pointing out I missed that on my G1. It is a very convenient panel that allows you to toggle (left to right) Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, background syncing and brightness level.

In this case I dedicated an entire screen to my widgets, but they can also cohabit with my shortcuts. Here is the Music widget playing a very appropriate classic:

If you tap on pause, the music pauses (and the button turns into a play button). There is also a next button, and taping the song takes you into the music player.

That’s just a taste of the widgets I like and use. You can download others from the market place.

Folders

Another item you can put on a home page is a folder. A folder can contain shortcuts, or access to other lists.

By adding something like Facebook Phonebook, you’ll have single-tap access to your Facebook Phone book.

So that is a very quick, and incomplete, look at some of the distinctive Android features I like. There are certainly more comprehensive looks at it, but it should give you a feel for the OS.

They did let us know before last nights event that we still have a few more days left with this phone. Despite our joke that this was just a crafty way to get them back last night, they did let us leave with them again. So, for better or worse, this series is not over. My next post will take a look at some of the hardware. I think I will focus on the camera next.

Filed in categories: Android related

Tagged: Android, droid, verizon

Day 3: Android Basics on Verizon’s Droid originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 30, 2009 at 7:28 pm.

After spending a day with the new Droid phone I have to say I am very impressed. Turns out I was one of 4 fortunate folks in Cincinnati who get to try this new phone out in preparation for a Gadget Happy Hour tomorrow night. They have asked us to Twitter with the Hash tag #droiddoescincy, so you can see the tweets under that hashtag. Verizon is also making a larger push with the hashtag #droiddoes (though that seems to get sidelined by others periodically).

I am going to continue with some more first impressions here on this site. I promise to put together a final review more in the tradition of The Gadgeteer when I am done playing.

The Intuitiveness of it All

I’ve found the device to be very intuitive. Then again, I am an experienced Android user. One of the nice things about this experience is we have a number of folks checking out the phone simultaneously. One of the folks I know is Michelle Lentz. She is an experienced gadget user, and writes for bub.blicio.us. She has had some exposure to Android, but most recently has been an iPhone user. You can see her take on it with her post Droid First Impressions.

We have chatted throughout the day, and I found it interesting some of things she stumbled up on. Interesting, because she knows her stuff. The first thing she missed was how to copy files to the phone. On a lot of phones, you plug it into the USB and it pops up on your desktop. Not on the Android. It does not automatically mount the drive. I actually consider this a feature (and no I am not trying to be funny). I don’t always like things popping up on my desktop. With Android you need to tell it to mount from the notification window by tapping USB connected:

Michelle’s experience makes me wonder if there shouldn’t be an option to tell it to automatically mount the phone. I would not use it personally, but I could see why it might be other’s preference.

By the way, the USB debugging connected notification is there because I need to use tools in the SDK to get these screen caps. Hey gadget makers, make it easier to take screen captures, it will help folks like us pimp your products. I think that was a really nice change to the iPhone/Touch OS to simplify screen captures.

The second issue she asked me about was how to delete accounts in the e-mail application. Again, she’s sharp, so she figured it out before I got back to her, but it’s one of those insider OS features that is easy to overlook. When you look at the e-mail screen you see all your accounts, and I have opened the menu so you can see the options there:

This is my Exchange mailbox (blurred out a little). Notice I can Refresh, Compose or Add another account. No delete. As someone who has used Android for a while, I figured it would be a long-press, and this is what I got:

And there is your Remove account. Not overly intuitive, though she did figure it out. Seems like they could easily add a remove here, though perhaps they don’t want to make it too easy for folks to accidentally delete their account.

Account Management

This has been a dream. I already mentioned how easy it was to connect my gmail account and get my gmail and contacts. But you would expect that. I also mentioned the Facebook connection. Well, this afternoon I connected to my company’s Exchange server, it is very simple. You can easily manage how it syncs under Settings, Accounts & Sync:

Here you see a listing for my Exchange account, Facebook and gmail. I can further customize how the Exchange account syncs by tapping on it:

By syncing contacts, it adds the contacts in my Outlook contact list to my gmail contacts. The calendar is synced to my Corporate Calendar application. I don’t see a way to make these events appear on my main calendar, but I can set notifications in this application, and view my agenda for my work calendar by itself. It works just like the regular calendar application. Here is a look at some of the applications, you can see the Corporate Calendar icon right under the Calender icon here:

Well, I have more to share, but this is getting long, so stay tuned for more tomorrow. Next up: the Navigation Map and Car Home…

Filed in categories: Android related

Tagged: droid, verizon

Day 1: Verizon’s Droid and Account Maintenance originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 28, 2009 at 9:00 pm.

OK, I have got to say it, this is the Droid I didn’t know I was looking for. I was very excited to get the opportunity to look at Verizon’s new Droid phone. It is the first Android 2.0 device, and is made by Motorola. I hope to post more about this later, but wanted to give you my first impressions.

Sometimes the Little Things are Big Things

This is a Motorola device, and I love the fact that it charges via USB. No need for yet another AC adaptor. This has been the direction of Cell phones (my G1 is like that, and my wife’s old Motorola PEBL was like that as well). I wish more consumer devices went this route. I took three Sony devices with me on my recent trip (an Alpha 100, a PRS-700 Reader and a Webbie HD video camera) ALL three required different AC adapters.

It has a standard headphone jack. If your cell phone is doing double duty as a music player, give me a standard headphone jack.

There was also a lot of thought put into the packaging, and materials:

• Nice Getting Started guide taking you though setup and common functions.
• They labeled the temporary screen protector to identify power, USB, Volume, the camera shutter and the four soft-keys at the bottom.
• Packaging is minimalistic. Not a lot of waste in the packaging.

Setup

Words cannot express how easy it was to setup this phone. This is the first time I have moved from one Android to another (however temporary it may be). You log in with your Gmail account. It verifies, syncs, and now all your contact information is stored on your new phone. If you have ever struggled with a move, you will appreciate this.

Eclair

This is the first phone with Android 2.0 (Eclair). I look forward to experimenting with many of the new features, but the first one to catch my eye was contact synchronization across multiple sources.

My first exposure to this is with the new Facebook application that comes loaded on the Droid. When you open it and sign in it gives you the option to:

• Sync All
• Sync with existing contacts
• Don’t sync

Going in reverse, the last option keeps the contact information in Facebook away from the contact information on your mobile. The second option matches any contacts on your phone with those in Facebook and syncs that information. And the first will bring all your Facebook friends into your contact list, syncing any matches it finds.

I love the second option. I no longer have to worry when a friend on Facebook changes e-mail or phone information, it will sync my contacts. However, not sure I want ALL my friends on Facebook showing up in my contact list on my phone.

Comparisons

Like I currently have a G1, which I have used for over a year now. So how does this compare? Well first thing, it is sleeker and the screen is noticeably longer:

You no longer have the “chin” that the HTC G1 is known for, which in my estimation is a win. It certainly feels quicker than my G1 (and should be). Not sure I like the keyboard as much as the G1, and not sold on the soft buttons at the bottom, but I will explore those later.

I am also embedding my quick unboxing video for your viewing pleasure:

Filed in categories: Android related

Tagged: Android, droid, verizon

First Look: Verizon’s Droid originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 28, 2009 at 12:34 pm.