This was the first full day of trying out Verizon’s Droid. I have switched the phone to my main phone through Google Voice to see what it’s like as an actual phone (instead of a fun gaming toy). Obviously the phone is fast, but could it impress me through regular use?
Keyboards:
I’ll admit straight off that I’m a bit biased about the virtual keyboard. I prefer the portrait keyboard over the landscape virtual keyboard, and I don’t really like the physical keyboard. In all fairness it takes a certain amount of time to get used to any phone’s keyboard when you switch drastically, but the switch shouldn’t be really difficult. Having the physical keyboard is nice, but it only serves a function for web browsing and texting. There’s no easy way to get into your phone’s call application through the keyboard. As far as the buttons go they appear flat but have a slight raise to them in the center. While this would be great if I had been given thin fingers, I wasn’t. I have sausages for fingers, and using my thumbs to type just isn’t accurate. I sent myself an email last night trying to type as quickly and accurately as I could and this is what happened:
Subject: Testing keybolardx with /my finger sikE
Body: Being used to tghe key sikE this is whatg I’m writgin g
Truthfully I don’t remember what I was trying to type, but the combination of the default auto-correct and the key size and position left me wanting something better. I got a bit better today after significantly slowing down my attempted typing speed. For reference: I type between 95/100 wpm on a regular keyboard and when I had a Blackberry Pearl I could spit out a full text message or twitter update with simplicity and corrections on for words that auto-corrected from you to tou (I fixed the auto-word on that one).
Speakers:
The external speaker on the Droid is absolutely excellent. Pretty good quality sound from an external phone speaker, but the speaker used when talking on the phone is very quiet and difficult to hear the other person. Also since the phone is completely flat it doesn’t sit in the ear very well which further limits the sound.
Having a 3.2mm audio jack on this phone is definitely a convenience and would make me go one step closer to using Amazon mp3 (the default store to download music from). The sound output out of the jack is good, and definitely has some oompf behind it, but having the speakers all the way up overplays quite a bit, I would suggest having the sound at one click below max for the best sound output.
Battery:
It has been 13 hours 6 minutes and 12 seconds since I unplugged this phone before going to work this morning. In that time I have talked on the phone for 30 minutes, sent and received 85 text messages, played a few full-screen games for about 20-30 minutes, and ran the new turn-by-turn directions for 45 minutes (which keeps the display on full while it is running), taken 10 pictures and 5 minutes of video. The battery is now at 40%. The myTouch has been unplugged for the same amount of time and hasn’t seen the same use, but still has seen some usage in the image and video area is at 52%.
I should note that there hasn’t been any SmartPhone on the market that really excels in battery life unless kept in standby mode for long periods of time. This includes the iPhone.
Misc:
I like the convenience of having a camera button on the side of the phone, but the problem is the location. It’s close to the bottom and I find myself clicking the button constantly when setting the phone down. However I did have the same problem with the blackberry side buttons, so maybe it’s a general annoyance for me.
One of the nice features of the myTouch is being able to press the ‘menu’ button when the phone is off and being able to see notifications from there using only one finger. The Droid makes this more difficult by requiring you to press the 0/1 button that is inset at the top of the phone. This requires the use of two fingers (one to press the button and one to support the opposite end of the phone). The other option is to open the slider which initiates a phone wake-up.
Opinion so far:
So far I still like the phone. It’s fast and I can run a lot of applications without constantly worrying about slowdown. I am suggesting to get this phone if you’re already on the Verizon network or are done with your current contract elsewhere.
Full Disclosure: I have been given a Verizon Droid to tryout until Monday, November 2, 2009. The phone was enabled with a data plan, talk, and text messaging for which I am not being charged. I am receiving no other compensation for use of this phone or the reviews I write about it. I am not a current Verizon Customer and have not been offered any free phone service beyond what I get through trying out this phone.