Initial Thoughts
My first thoughts when receiving the Droid X was that the screen was HUGE. Not quite as big as the HTC Evo, but still a big screen. The body is relatively thin for it’s size but the side with the camera is a bit awkward due to it adding another 25% of thickness in that one specific area.
Form Factor
The phone has a mini-HDMI port for displaying videos and images on a compatible display which is a pretty decent feature for a phone that touts itself as a media device. There is also a red camera button on the same side as the volume buttons. During camera mode the volume buttons act as zoom buttons, but the zoom feature isn’t available during video recording. The video recoding itself is capable of recording up to 720p video. However because Gmail limits the size of attachments those without another email address on the phone will be unable to send those images via email.
Without the included 16GB SD card the phone has 8GB of internal storage. This is more than enough for anyone with itchy app download fingers.
The size of the phone itself fits decently for use with two hands, however it’s almost too tall and wide to be able to handle well with one hand. I got the opinion of 4 women as well and they all said the phone was just a bit too big to consider using on a regular basis (even for a purse phone). Also what was mentioned was that for one handed usage it’s impossible to touch the opposite side of the screen with your thumb.
Here are some images of the body of the phone (Click for the larger size): Flickr Set Link
Motorola Custom Software
I have so far not been impressed with any of the custom home screen overlays beyond the native android interface. I do like the fact that you can have up to 7 custom home screens. The tech specs on Motorola’s site say nine, but I can’t find any options to add more screens. During my initial use of the phone I had some issues with the video and regular camera custom applications. The video wouldn’t exit or respond to screen touches (it’s supposed to display the interface when you tap on the screen when you aren’t recording). Also, the camera got stuck in a weird orientation which I was only able to fix by removing the battery (A regular power off/on didn’t fix it).
The custom social networking application is relatively useful since you can add your Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, other email, other Gmail accounts to the phone and have a global address book. However without the right settings you’re soon stuck with a contact list that can easily reach over 1,000 contacts since there isn’t a smart-merge feature. My normal contact list has about 200 names/phone/addresses in it, but the people I follow on twitter is over 500. Add my 200 some Facebook friends and I’ve got a 900 person contact list. During setup I was asked if I wanted to merge all the contacts onto my main Gmail list. I’m glad I declined that option.
For the size of the phone and the amount of apps that it can run concurrently without slowing down the battery is pretty limited. I’m sitting at 50% power right now and it was fully charged when I turned it on this morning. This isn’t very normal since the screen has been set to auto-brightness (about 25% typically). The battery use monitor doesn’t take non-system applications into consideration like the battery use monitor on the myTouch 3G (Android 1.6). Granted I’ve been showing the phone off, taking a little video and have Wi-Fi on, but this phone wouldn’t make it out of the office and to a night out like the myTouch does for me (mine turns orange around 1am on a night out after a day of normal usage).
Video and Images
The media capabilities of this phone are very good. Pictures are snapped and stored quickly and it has a relatively fast shutter speed with good low light images that taking in a lower lit bar or room will not give you completely black images. The ability to keep the LED flash on during video recording is also nice, but you shouldn’t shine those lights in anyone’s face for too long since they are extremely intense. Also, battery power will likely suffer if used too much.
The 8MP images taken (see below) are nice when not viewed in larger size, but upon closer inspection show a lot of pixelation
Here are some images from the camera (Click for the larger size): Flickr Set Link
Final Thoughts
While I’m impressed with the overall ability of the phone to display images, video, and gaming; the phone almost seems too big. It rivals some digital cameras in height and width, but not overall image quality. However this is almost to be expected since the images used from the camera would almost certainly be viewed on a smaller screen, displayed as a smaller image on the web. They almost certainly wouldn’t be printed out onto anything bigger than an 8×10 (but that’d be pushing the quality).
It’s definitely a fast phone, but with the Motorola custom overlay the updates based off the Android version will be delayed from non-customized phones (Android 2.2 is out already but this is still running 2.1 and looks to be until late Summer).
Full Disclosure: I have been given a Verizon Droid X to tryout. 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.
