Motorola DROID Review

Introduction:

The deed is complete and the joining of two unfamiliar players has come to fruition – finally. Verizon Wireless has held out long enough from embracing the Android camp because of the fear losing complete control in the way apps and media are carefully handled on their devices.  It's been too long that customers were given only a single outlet for most of their needs with Verizon tacking on software like V-Cast music, VZ Navigator, and VZAppStore – all locking down the user experience. Now that the marriage between these two unlikely names is set in stone, it's a refreshing site to witness on sore eyes that Verizon has come to grasp Android and its community of open development.

It was over a year ago that Android came out of the depths of the Google corporation to take its first flight in the form of the T-Mobile G1. That device, thanks to being a first, was able to conjure up a small following that proved to be successful. We've seen a number of Android handsets since then hit the market, with most of them coming out from the HTC camp, but we're in the hopeful process of witnessing Motorola's transformation back to a big name player. For the longest of times, the former great American manufacturer partnered with Microsoft for their smartphone handsets – only recently moving towards Android for future development. They've seen what kind of impact Android will have down the road – especially now more than ever.

All of this brings us to one of the most talked about phones from Motorola's camp – the Motorola DROID A855.By now we’ve all heard how this reinvents both Motorola's vision of where they want to go and how the Android platform will be received by a new class of customers. It's the first phone on the market to get the Android 2.0 treatment – although its lacking the MOTOBLUR integration that's found on the Motorola CLIQ. Now that the DROID will sit side-by-side in stores and compete with other smartphones on Verizon's lineup, we'll see in due time if its solid design and user experience entices customers to make the change and take the plunge with something unfamiliar.

The package contains:

• Motorola DROID
• User Manual
• Charger with detachable microUSB cable
• 16GB microSD card preinstalled
  

Design:

This is one of the thinnest landscape-sliding QWERTY devices available on the market,something that we haven't seen too much of from Motorola in the past. Its overall footprint is similar to the iPhone 3GS, expect for the fact that DROID is slightly thicker at 0.54", where as the iPhone 3GS is 0.48", but this is due to the inclusion of the physical QWERTY. When comparing it to something like the HTC Touch Pro2, it doesn't look as massive – making it seem a lot sleeker and more streamlined. Frankly, the Motorola DROID is built like a tank,as its outer shell radiates a feeling of solid construction that should withstand most of the wear and tear it'll be put through. In addition, its metallic construction adds some weight to the DROID, but of course it’s something expected with such high-quality materials. We definitely enjoy the feeling of the soft matte coating on the rear, how it hugs onto the metallic materials, and that it compliments it well when placed in the hand. Even though its slim looks may fool your eyes in guessing its weight (5.96 oz), it won't be as noticeable when you close it up and throw it in your pocket. Motorola meticulously went through every portion of this handset to make sure they came out with something that would separate its design from the existing crop.



You can compare the Motorola DROID with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Hands down, the Motorola DROID has by far the best screen available on any Android handset. Following suit with the solid exterior design, the screen is treated to the same makeover which feels less plasticy and more durable like glass. This is the first Android phone to sport a 3.7” TFT touch screen at 480 x 854 with support for up to 16 million colors. It would’ve been nice if Motorola extended the front portion of the phone all the way to the bottom edge to allow more room for even a larger screen. However, powering it on for the first time, you can really see what kind of quality it outputs – text is easily legible while colors pop out with excellent tones. Although the screen will attract fingerprints easily, we did not have a hard time viewing it in various lighting conditions. The light sensor at the top will automatically adjust the brightness to the appropriate level, so you won't have to worry about manually doing it, but it does allow for manual adjustment.

Below the screen are four capacitive touch-sensitive buttons that perform various Android functions: back, menu, home, and search. They're close to the bottom portion of the screen and sometimes are accidentally pressed when using the on-screen portrait QWERTY. Honestly, we would've preferred going with real buttons here, just due to the fact that they will sometimes be accidentally pressed when touching the bottom of the screen – causing some frustrations. On the left side of the phone you will find the microUSB port for connecting to a computer or for charging. The camera button to launch the photo taking application and the adequate sized volume rocker are both located on the right edge. Out of all the parts on the phone, the volume rocker felt to us as the most vulnerable because it did not have that solid feel like the rest of the device. Music lovers will be pleased to see a standard 3.5mm headset jack located on the top side with the power/lock button close next to it.


Sliding the screen will uncover the four row QWERTY keyboard. Buttons are flush with the surface continuing the streamlined look. We’re not sure why Motorola didn't decide to go with a spring-loaded sliding mechanism here, as you really have to push the screen all the way until it locks into place, It may seem monotonous, but luckily it feels secured in both the closed and opened positions. Again we are realizing that another row could've been squeezed in if the screen were able to move open a little more – possibly adding a row for just numbers. Pressing the QWERTY keys felt stiff at first, then over time it felt a bit more responsive and tactile. We’re also not sure why Motorola left two blank spaces on the keypad next to the “Alt” keys. The separate d-pad on the right side was nice and easy to use for navigation if you don’t want to use the touch-screen. Fortunately the white backlight was adequate enough to see in almost any lighting condition.



Flippingit over to its back, you'll see the 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash towards the upper portion while the external speaker grid is lined up towards the bottom. When removing the metal back cover, the battery and microSD card slot will be exposed. We would've preferred that the microSD slot be located elsewhere because you physically have to remove the battery before being able to get access to the slot.The DROID may not win the award for the best looking phone, but it certainly will impress people with its combination of a physical QWERTY and slim looks.

Interface:

Being the first to come with Android 2.0 (aka Éclair), the Motorola DROID introduces us to many new things that we haven't seen on previous devices using the operating system. You won't find a nifty looking interface like MOTOBLUR that's found running on the Motorola CLIQ, or SenseUI that is used by HTC. Instead, we are left with stock Android, which can be personalized in a number of ways. You can add a variety of items like widgets, shortcuts, folders, and wallpapers to one of the three home screens –  all of these can easily be executed and moved around for a unique look. Even though it's ARM Cortex-A8h processor is faster than what’s found on current Android phones, we noticed a slight lag when switching between different home screens. Other than that one minor issue, we had no problems navigating through the interface, but occasionally you will see some slowdown depending on the amount of apps you are running.


One thing we found useful quite often was the Google Search function to accomplish a mix of operations. You can execute the search by holding down the dedicated touch sensitive button – which will then prompt you to speak. Rather than typing up web site address in the browser, you can simply say something like “phonearena” and it'll display all the sites pertaining to it. We were impressed by how well it recognizes speech and translates it into text with little problems.  It even manages to be integrated with the new Google Maps Navigation for a quick and painless way to find points of interests or navigate to a specific address.

Mostly everything else remains intact with the Android we've seen in the past. You can pull down the notification screen if something pops up that requires your attention. Notifications are generally accompanied with the phone saying the word “Droid” in an alarming androidish voice, but this can be changed to other sounds. If you don't have a specific shortcut icon on your home screen, you can always access all of the apps through the main menu, and also place any of them on the 3 home screens.



Phonebook:

Another neat thing about Android 2.0 is its ability to fetch contact information from a variety of sources like GMail or Facebook – it populates everything on the phone for you and organizes it to the best of its ability. With social networking becoming a centralized hub for contact information, the Motorola DROID does a good job in keeping things together without becoming overly complicated. It's similar to what Palm is doing with Synergy on the WebOS platform,and of course it's nearly flawless when it comes to synchronizing with your Google account – your contacts will magically upload to the phone. Seeing that this is an Android device, there's a a lot of details that can be saved with each contact. including typical  information like names, email addresses, phone numbers, web sites, and birthdays. You can quickly get access to information on a specific person in your phonebook by adding them as a favorite or placing a shortcut onto the home screen. Even better, you can use the Google search function to find a specific contact – you can accomplish this by either typing a name or use the voice search. It'll list everything that's associated to what you input – making it a simplified action.



Organizer:

Needless to say that keeping yourself organized on a day by day basis is an essential function in being one step ahead of the curve. The calendar on the phone will pull up all your appointments from Google Calendar and display it the same way you see it online. Multiple calendars will be displayed via a color coding system to allow easy distinction between everything – you can view it in either a daily, weekly, or monthly view.

Other than the main analog clock you can choose to set as a widget on the home screen, the other one you'll see is the one used for the alarm.  You can set as many alarms as your heart desires and choose from five different clocks.



With the stock Android UI intact, you'll find a basic calculator to perform some basic calculations. Although this is the latest and most up-to-date incarnation of Android, we're still wondering why there hasn't been a focus around the organizer functions of the phones. Still missing in-box are items that have become common to any smartphone – world clock, notes, voice recorder, or tasks, but most of these (and more) can be downloaded from the Android Market.

Messaging:

Sure the Motorola DROID has a physical QWERTY keyboard you can use to dish out a quick text message, but the on-screen ones seemed just as capable of accomplishing the same feats.  We're quite astounded with how responsive it has become with little or no mistakes made during the typing process and the predictive text will aid in figuring out what you're trying to type. There are several suggestions that the phone will generate to best guess what you're saying – even better it will automatically enter the correct word after you press the space bar. In the past, we've sometimes seen the on-screen QWERTY lag and cause you to slow down – you won't even miss a beat with this one luckily. One minor problem that we noticed when speed typing is the tendency to accidentally activate one of the four touch-sensitive buttons. We've experienced hitting the home screen button a few times, which resulted in some minor frustrations. Overall, we're thoroughly impressed with the usability of both the portrait and landscape keyboards and the phone's ability to predict text. If neither of the on-screen keyboards float your boat, you can always rely on using the hardware QWERTY which provides a more accurate input method.



The messaging application is broken down to each contact and is displayed in a threaded view. You can even attach a variety of media files to make it an MMS. The interface is simple to use with just about anyone picking up on it without too much complications.

GMail is obviously the default email provider on the Motorola DROID, but fortunately you can add POP, IMAP and Microsoft Exchange accounts.  Eclair now places all your messages to one single inbox and color codes them so you know exactly which one is from which account. When viewing the inbox, the color is displayed on the outer left side of the message – we would've preferred having the entire message highlighted in the particular color to make it a bit easier to differentiate. If you can't stand having to see all your messages displayed in a single inbox, you can simply select a specific mail account by pressing the menu key.

Setting up most email accounts  a simple process requiring your email address and password. From there, it will look up the specific settings for each provider and automatically start retrieving your messages. If it can’t automatically configure, it will ask you for the detailed settings, such as POP3/SMTP/IMAP servers and Port numbers.  One odd thing that did frustrate us was the phone's inability to setup Yahoo! – it just kept on giving us a message that the email address and password were incorrect. You'll have to manually set up the account which is the process users will have to deal with when setting proprietary accounts.

The only instant messaging client to be found installed is Google Talk. With the Android Market in full swing, we were able to download a variety of clients that were free, such as AIM,so we weren't too upset with only Google Talk being offered initially.



Connectivity:

It's almost hard to believe that Android has branched out from T-Mobile and is now in the hands of the largest wireless provider in the US. The Motorola DROID is a dual-band CDMA (800/1900 MHz) handset with high speed data connectivity through 3G EVDO Rev A or Wi-Fi. It would have been nice if it were a world phone, working on GSM networks alongside CDMA, but maybe we can hope for this next time.

With the HTC Hero already sporting multi-touch and Flash integration in its web browser, we knew that those were not to be expected on the DROID and just hoped to have a decent web experience. If it weren't for the Hero's release, we would say that the DROID's browsing experience to be tops in the Android market. The Motorola site states that the current browser supports the HTML5 standard, and that Flash 10 is expected the first half of 2010. As far as improvements go with the DROID, pages loaded fairly quick, with a zoomed out view at first, but most text is obviously too tiny to view, but the high resolution screen still enables them to be distinguishable. Pages render correctly with both text and images loading properly as they would on a desktop counterpart. Zooming in can be done by double tapping a specific area and conversely zoom out by doing the same, or by using the on-screen zoom icons – there's a transition effect to give it a nice look. For the most part, the browser is much snappier than the one on the Hero – you can really see it when you scroll throughout the web page. To our enjoyment, the phone was almost instantaneous when switching from portrait to landscape view. We suspect the slightly faster processor and Android 2.0 to be behind the great experience we had with the web browser.



You're going to place your trust in the hands of Google when you use the Motorola DROID. Almost all your information will be entrusted to them because you'll have support through either Microsoft Exchange Server and Google.

Camera:

We've had a string of some barely passable quality in the photo department on previous Android handsets. We've already seen what the camera on the HTC Hero produced, and we can confidently say that its much better on the Motorola DROID. Pressing down all the way on the dedicated camera button will launch the application – it took roughly 3 seconds to fully load. From there, we were greeted to a new interface that kicks in a few new enhancements to make the experience more suitable to the photo enthusiast. Taking a photo can be done by pressing down slightly on the shutter key to allow the camera to auto-focus at first, and then all the way down to take the shot. Additionally, the same can be accomplished by pressing the on-screen shutter button. It took roughly 2 seconds for the phone to fully capture the shot and display it briefly on screen. Thanks to Android 2.0, we're given some additional features to make this camera stand out from the rest. Now you'll have a digital zoom, different shooting modes, color effects, and the option to select a focus mode (auto, infinite, and macro) all of which is accessed by moving over the left bar found on the interface.



Photo quality came out much better than expected – various tones of colors were captured nearly perfect while detail in the images was also very good. When using the automatic setting, outdoor images were meticulously well represented in lighting, color, and detail. The DROID packs along a dual-LED flash so images taken in low light are accurately captured. To our surprise, the flash did a decent job as long as the image being taken wasn't further than a few feet away from you. Anything further than 6 feet caused the flash to have little effect. In darker conditions, we noticed some noise in the shots – making it look somewhat fuzzy in appearance. You'd better have a steady hand because the slightest movements caused images to produce a hazy look over them in the dark. Much to our delight, the 5-megapixel camera managed to meet our expectations and proves to be decent in preserving memories while on the go, but at the same time still won’t replace a traditional digital camera




Not only does the camera take some decent looking photos, but it did an exceptional job in recording videos as well. There are only two options for selecting video quality on the DROID – low quality for MMS use and high quality for everything else. In choosing the latter setting, we were thoroughly impressed with “DVD quality” 720x480 video capture at 24 frames per second. There wasn’t any indication of choppiness throughout the recording – they were highly detailed and stood up well when moving through different lighting conditions. Audio was also captured flawlessly along with the video and sounded fine when played back on the phone or on a computer. After recording a video, you'll have the option to share it directly via MMS, e-mail, or YouTube. When transferred to a computer, the video is in 3GP format with H.264 encoding.

Motorola DROID sample video at 720x480 pixels resolution

Multimedia:

There's very little to mention about the DROID's multimedia aspect because it remains relatively unchanged. The music player is the same we've seen running on bare bones Android and would've like to see a face lift to the interface. It's not as polished as other music players found on devices like the Imagio, iPhone, or Pre, but will suffice for now. It'll display the album cover, artist, track name, and album name while the fairly sized playback buttons looked discernible. The Motorola DROID definitely has a powerful external speaker – too powerful for its own good. Setting it to the 75 percent level proved to be loud enough to make it heard while anything more produced some serious crackling. If you prefer to be more private, the 3.5mm headset port and stereo Bluetooth will be available for you – so just connect your headphones and you're set.


Apart from the sluggish navigation between the three home screens, the Motorola DROID is a beast in running applications with little slowdown – the case is true with its video playback. It's the same old interface we've seen, but thanks to the brilliant display, videos are truly breath taking to view on the DROID. After loading up two movie trailers, coded in MPEG-4 at 320x240 and H.264 at 720x306, our eyes were fixed to the screen as it began to play smoothly. There's no question that its clarity is superior to other before it – making it a nice device to watch videos. The sound also was more than enough to hear every little thing even when set to the middle volume setting.


One thing for sure that we liked seeing packed with the Motorola DROID was the inclusion of a 16GB microSDHC card. For right now, we're confident that it will be more than sufficient for most of your media needs, but will support future cards up to 32GB in capacity.

Software:

Google Maps has long been a great alternative for finding directions and points of interests around your location. With each update, it seems more refined and incorporates a plethora of new features to make the experience easy. With Android 2.0, the DROID brings one new application that shakes up the GPS world. Previously, Google Maps allowed you to pin point your location either by using cellular triangulation or through GPS. The Motorola DROID is the fist Android phone to come with Google Maps Navigation for an experience that takes location based services to the next level. After witnessing the depth of this new application, we are blown away at how it will change the industry. First of all, it's free, unlike VZ Navigator, and uses Google Maps to overlay the interface when using it for turn-by-turn directions. The experience is almost reminiscent of what you find on Google Earth – the perspective changes to emulate a 3D map that gives you a bird’s eye view of things. Within the application, you can add additional layers to overlay your map – there are preset ones like traffic view, gas stations, restaurants, and more. We enjoyed using the satellite layer to really give you an accurate representation of your surroundings as you begin traveling. We were also amazed by the Google Street View integration, as it will update and show you images of the street you are traveling on. You can also move around with 360 degree rotation. The GPS is accurate in tracking your location –  it zooms out when you're on a highway and zooms back in when you're about to make a turn. It may be part of the DROID's persona, but the voice used in the application sounded robotic – you can say androidish in a way. With this on board the DROID, you really have a versatile GPS in your pockets without the need for monthly subscriptions or costly application downloads. Is it a revolution? We think so.

We should also point out that there will be a Car Docking Station that will suction to your windshield and have a place to inset the DROID. It uses internal magnets to change the phone to car mode, showing icons on the screen for Navigation. This accessory plus the DROID is almost like having an aftermarket GPS unit installed.



The fact that there are very few Verizon-based apps on the phone is striking. Generally most smartphones will undergo some cosmetic and software changes to fit Verizon's specifications. Missing are things like V-Cast Music and VZ Navigator – which of course is a shock in itself. From the looks of it, the only Verizon app found on the DROID is Visual Voicemail. It does what the name implies – visually see all your voicemails in a list and have the ability to pick and choose which ones you want to listen to. When running the Android Market app, there's a tab specifically titled Verizon that will most likely offer some of their branded applications; hopefully more to come in the near future. There was also a plethora of Android apps available, as some are free and others you have to pay for. So far there weren't any that caters to the DROID's situation with its high resolution screen.

Performance:

Despite it being a fully feature Android device, it is important to see if it works well for making phone calls of course. Chatting with friends is a pleasant experience on the Motorola DROID because of the powerful speakers emitting strong tones. Being able to hear a caller won't be an issue with the DROID – thanks to its loud earpiece speaker. Voices sounded loud and clear – except for a slight static noise that can be faintly heard at times. On our callers end, they mentioned that our voice was clear and distinct with no issues on their side. Switching to the speaker phone will result in the same manner we had with the media players – it's just too loud and produces crackling sounds on the highest volume, so you have to turn it down some. Fortunately it still manages to work well during our conversations. Overall, you really can't mistake what your callers are saying. We paired a Plantronics Discovery 925 headset and found it a bit unsettling when the DROID was unable to get voice dialing to work.

During our testing in the both the greater Philadelphia and Ft Lauderdale area, the Motorola DROID was more than adept to retaining a solid connection to Verizon's network at all times.

Now comes one of the most important aspects of any smart phone – its battery life. Despite holding a mammoth sized 1400 mAh battery in its compartment, it still managed to get us barely a full working day before the level became too critical. We put the DROID through its paces and used it heavily for just about every aspect – still it clearly shows how much multi-tasking can affect the battery life. Just expect to constantly require charging this phone whenever you get a chance. Fortunately, it may as well be considered ample in the Android class – but well below the levels we found on the iPhone. Motorola has the phone rated for 6.4 hours of talk and 270 hours of standby.

*Update (November 6, 2009):

Now that we've been using the Motorola DROID for several days, we have completed more battery tests. We have been able to get an impressive 6 hours and 45 minutes of continuous talk time on a full charge with no other background services running. When using the DROID under normal mixed conditions (calls, email, web, apps) we got between 24-26 hours of use on a full charge, which is standard for most high-end smartphones.  Now that we have more data to go on, we have increased the device's battery rating.

*Update (April 26, 2010):

Since the Motorola DROID has received the Android 2.1 software update, the battery times have been increased. We are now able to get up to 7 hours and 30 minutes of continuous talk time on a full charge, or up to 26 hours with mixed usage.

Conclusion:

It's almost unfathomable to see Verizon tie the knot with Android – especially seeing how the carrier passed up the iPhone and usually packs on its  applications on smartphones. The obvious comparisons will be made between the DROID and other premier handsets available on the market, including ones that are already part of the Android lineup. Verizon has definitely got itself a jewel in the form of the Motorola DROID and will most likely provide some much needed attention to the open platform. In doing so, it shows Verizon's commitment in lessening their control on how a phone should be retrofitted with software out of the box.  As for Motorola, the hype and talk around this phone lives up to the expectations. Being the creators of such a quality product, it clearly places Motorola in the correct direction to becoming the dominant figure it once was. We've slowly seen in the last year how they've changed their focus on the design of their handsets, for example the Motorola Krave ZN4 and Karma QA1 – all culminating to the eventual creation of the Motorola DROID.

With a lot of attention in both ads featured online and television, the DROID is fast becoming a household name. We found very few faults with the device – specifically the minor choppy movements when you navigate through the three home screen pages. Its improvements in the hardware department make it a worthy addition to the Android lineup that's becoming more robust. It's too early to tell whether the DROID will have a profound impact on how the Android platform is received by consumers, but we're sure that its presence on Verizon will attract a whole new audience, not to mention that the HTC DROID Eris will also make its Verizon debut. For Google, this is a win-win position for them thanks partly to Android 2.0 - we're going to expect to see a shift  in the mind share of Google's playing field in various software industries. Pack all of these things in a sleek body that's constructed and put together with the finest of materials, you'll have yourself a winner that's sure to stand top among the best of the best. It may not be completely perfect, but it does place the emphasis of DROID in Android.

Software version of the reviewed unit: ESE81

Motorola DROID Video Review: