BuzzBuilderz Holiday Gift Guide: Motorola Droid

I figured for the holiday week I would review one tech/social media themed gift idea. Santa Claussman (or Hanukkah Harry – I’m Jewish, OK?) came to the Lublin household early this year and brought with him the Motorola Droid.

I should admit up front that I suffer from big time iPhone envy. I love the idea of a sleek, app-ready phone that is as good at retrieving email and surfing the web as it is at handling calls. Unfortunately, I’ve been on the Verizon network for as long as I can remember, so I’m used the excellent coverage almost anywhere I go, so moving to an amazing phone that has spotty reception at times wasn’t a viable option. In the end, I need my phone to be a phone too. Boo for me. I figured I would be stuck with the Blackberry Curve I’d been rocking since summer ‘08 (I had gone through 3 of them, by the way – for whatever reason, they kept pooping out on me) until Verizon started selling the Palm Pre, which I liked, but which was nowhere near the level of the iPhone in my eyes – the apps didn’t seem to measure up to the iPhone, not just in numbers, but in quality. In the battle of the phones, the apps shall inherit the earth.

Then, along came the Droid. Sure, it looks like a boxy, heavy, industrial device and the ads don’t do much to dissuade you of that, but it was running the new version of Google’s Android operating system and it has APPS and gps and a compass and push email and it runs multiple apps and it has a 5 mega-pixel camera and I WANT ONE!!!

Yes, a social media convert lured by the siren song of advertising. The more I read about the Droid, the more I liked it. 16GB of space right off the bat, with the ability to expand to 32. A processor that rivaled both iPhone and Pre. Video (sorry Pre, but WHY wouldn’t you have your phone shoot video right out of the box? Even the old Treo phones did that…). A slide out keyboard for people who don’t want to type on a touchscreen.

The app store was really appealing to me – they had a lot of the apps I would want for my iPhone, especially my beloved Foursquare. Sweet, sweet Foursquare…

When I finally got my hands on the phone, it was everything I had hoped for and more – fast, smooth scrolling,GPS worked like a charm, the Twidroid twitter app giving me all that I could want and more – I haven’t paid for pro yet, but I might just to have a lists function on my phone. Also, the phone itself was clear, robust and actually keeps its signal better than my Curve did, or maybe its just my imagination. Since I use gmail and google voice, having them run native on the phone is a big plus.

The apps have been great so far, and as the store grows they’ll get even better. I know the store is well north of 10000 apps right now, a mere 1/10th of Apple’s offerings, but at least they’re growing. Installing them is super-easy, and uninstalling them equally simple.

The touchscreen is really responsive and supports multi-touch, although the native browser doesn’t support pinch zooming (I recommend Dolphin Browser if you really want that experience). The keyboard is better in landscape than it is in portrait, especially if you have fat fingers like me. The slide out keyboard is the one feature I could have done without. The keys are crowded, don’t offer a good tactile landscape and the cursor button is smashed over on the side. If you can avoid using it, do so.

The camera was a slow to load but the quality is really nice – upgraded the software to android 2.0.1 fixed the lag issue so I have no complaints there. Compare the Dracu-Pig photos from the last month to those before and see if you notice a difference in quality.

I wish there were a dedicated music buying interface outside of amazon, as a sync with iTunes would be the best. As it is, I just drag content onto my Droid after connecting it to my Mac. Same with pics and movies. You do need an app to close the other apps so you can preserve battery life, which is another minor qualm. The recent OS update helped with battery life, but a full charge can last me through the day, and I use my phone heavily. I would love a case for the phone similar to the InCase iPhone protector with its own battery.

Facebook integration with contacts is seamless, and the navigation may be the hidden hero of this device. It’s so good that I bought the car dock and gave my Magellan to my wife Jennifer. Droid’s turn by turn navigation by google maps is a dream come true – it’s responsive, I can integrate a satellite view, check out traffic and find local businesses and wikipedia entries.

The phone can be expensive, but since it’s holiday time you might find some killer deals. I can’t recommend this phone highly enough for people who want an iPhone but also want a working phone and like Verizon’s network coverage.

Happy Shopping!

Tags: App Store, droid, foursquare, Gifts, Google, Holidays, iphone, Palm Pre, Smartphone, Verizon