I have a Droid and love it! I love being able to go online whenever I want. Only thing is my battery runs out like right after I charge it once in a while, I can't figure out why that would be. There are no apps running and I wait till my battery is almost dead before I recharge.
Motorola DROID
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Deak Starkiller
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I know I am a bit of a n00b when it comes to phones but if I wanted to upgrade how the hell do I do that over the Internets?
Kabukiman
Greatest Person Ever
There is a checkbox when you order the phone, and then a field for you to type your old number in. After that, your new carrier will try to move the number, it will probably fail the first time and then your new carrier will then contact you for more information (usually your PIN if they didn't ask for it already).
When they have that all set up, your number is ready to be moved. They'll send you your new phone, and once it's activated, your old number will move to your new phone.
go on your carrier's site
Deak Starkiller
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Sooooo....
How about a review Kabuki?
How about a review Kabuki?
Deak Starkiller
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Yeah, do it. Come on, do it.
BadMoon
Demi G0D Overseer
Last edited:
Kabukiman
Greatest Person Ever
It's coming, I just haven't had too much time with it yet. It's gonna be a busy Saturday for me so I'll to have some words on Saturday night or sometime Sunday.
First impressions are really good though. My list of praise is much longer than my list of complaints, and I'm told many of my complaints can be taken care of by a configuration change or by installing an app. We'll see, but I'm fairly convinced this is a phone I can live with for the next 2 years.
Kabuki in your review can you answer one specific question for me? I'm a neutral party in this smart phone business (meaning that I've never used the iphone or a droid product). Having no preconcieved notion or affinity towards one interface over the next would you say that performance levels between the two phones, the user friendliness, and the future prospects of each platform are equal enough to say that the better deciding factor would be Verizon's service superiority to AT&T's?
I'm trying to decide if I should stick with Verizon and get this phone or switch to AT&T.
I'm trying to decide if I should stick with Verizon and get this phone or switch to AT&T.
BadMoon
Demi G0D Overseer
I'm fairly certain you will get a very non biased response to your questions from kabuki.
Kabukiman
Greatest Person Ever
I'll try to get more detailed later on, but I can tell you right now that the iPhone beats the Droid X's version of Android by a fairly large margin in the ease of use department.
Apple has very specific requirements for interface development, not just internally, but also for 3rd party developers. iOS is made to be so intuitive, that you don't even think about what you're doing, you just do it.
Android, or at least what is out of the box on the Droid X, feels like a computer OS. There are still swipes and gestures, like on the iPhone, but there are also physical buttons, and menus and submenus, which I'm really struggling to get used to.
So for ease of use, iPhone wins, no question. Not even close. That said, Android offers much many more customizing options than iOS. If you don't like the interface, you can change it to one of many options out there. A popular one is called "Launcher Pro", which is currently free on the Android market. I haven't installed it yet, but I'll give it a shot after I give the default interface a go-through.
You asked about whether or not the iPhone was reason enough to switch to AT&T. For me, the answer was no. The whole preordering fiasco, the way Apple and AT&T point fingers at eachother, the spotty coverage, and the limited data usage is really what swayed me to Verizon and the Droid X.
I have too much on my mind as it, I don't want to start worrying about how much bandwidth my phone is using. Especially now that the iPhone runs background processes, it's easy to see how somebody could forget about an app they have running in the background and end up incurring a lot of overage charges.
So, all in all, I really chose Verizon over AT&T rather than Motorola over Apple. A lot can change in two years (4G should be the norm, Apple could be with Verizon), I plan on re-evaluating then. For now, I'm confident I've made the right decision for myself.
I'm fairly certain you will get a very non biased response to your questions from kabuki.
Thanks! I try.
And again, the Droid X will have even better performance with Android 2.2. next month along with support for Flash--that's a big enough reason to switch in itself.
I'm sure you could pull a Badmoon and threaten to switch to AT&T and they'd make a great deal for you. That's what I'm going to do.
BadMoon
Demi G0D Overseer
Yes that really does work. However you have to have paid your bill on time I guess. I always paid mine right when I was billed for years. So if you are a good customer they will take care of you.
Kabukiman
Greatest Person Ever
As promised, here are my thoughts on the Droid X. This is gonna be a long post, but will probably be worth the read if you're considering buying the phone.
My last phone was a first generation iPhone, so any time I compare to the iPhone, keep in mind that this is the basis for my comparison, unless otherwise specified.
If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them but please check below to see if your question is answered. I know this is a big scary wall of text but I'll try to keep things somewhat organized here. However, keep in mind that I'm a bit of a scatterbrain.
Lastly, it may sound like I'm beating up on the iPhone a bit here. This is for a couple of reasons:
1) My last phone was an iPhone
2) Most everybody I know has an iPhone
3) I support the iPhone in a corporate environment professionally
4) I agonized over getting the iPhone 4 on several occasions (I *really* wanted one, just as BadMoon). I think virtually everybody shopping for a smartphone today has the iPhone at or near the top of their list. Frankly, they'd be stupid not to.
So, before you all start posting how I'm hater or whatever, please understand the context.
Phone - The thing to keep in mind when buying any phone is that it is a phone first and foremost. The thing should be able to make and receive calls and hopefully be of decent enough quality. The Droid X accomplishes this better than any cell phone I've ever owned. The earpiece speaker plays high quality audio and can do so at high volumes if need be.
My first phone call was with an iPhone 3GS user. I could hear him clearly, but he told me my voice would cut in and out. I was a bit concerned but he told me it happens "almost all the time". Just to be sure it wasn't my phone causing the problem, I called my wife (from the same location) and the quality was almost land-line-ish on both ends. (we were in the same building on different floors and traded phones halfway to compare).
My second call was with someone on Virgin Mobile with some Kyocera dumbphone. We could both hear eachother clearly. I was receiving the call in the exact same location as my call with the 3GS user.
My third call was with an iPhone 4 user. He was breaking in and out and reported I was doing the same.
After that, I kinda stopped keeping track of my calls. They were all great quality. This is probably due to the multiple noise canceling mic's and (from what I understand) multiple antennas.
So, call quality good.
Carrier - I'm not going to get into it too much here because carrier preference largely depends on where you live, but I want to make a few points here.
I had good coverage and full 3G throughout southeastern Wisconsin. I drove all over the damn place running errands and whatnot and was streaming Pandora the whole time. It never once switched to EDGE, not even in the boonies.
When I was shopping for a new cell plan, I had to consider AT&T's new data cap policy (no, I was not "grandfathered in" to the unlimited plan for reasons I'm not going to get into here). So Verizon's unlimited data was *VERY* attractive to me and was definitely the deciding factor in choosing a phone.
AT&T will tell you that just about everybody will fall short of their 2GB cap. I've only really used my phone two days, and I used the ____ out of that sucker today, and my usage reads as 40 MB right now (remember, I was streaming Pandora *a lot* too). So taking this small sample size, I use 20 MB a day, which would come to 620 MB a month, which is *FAR* short of AT&T's data cap.
I was actually quite shocked by this. I still think I made the right decision by going with unlimited though because, while my usage today may average to be under 2 GB a month, who knows what the future holds? I'm locked in for two years, I'd rather not worry about it. With the plan I have, I end up paying $5 more on Verizon's unlimited plan than I would have on AT&T's 4 GB plan. I think that $5 for not having to worry about data caps is money well spent. Your opinion might be different.
Hardware - The first thing you'll notice when you see the Droid X is the screen. The screen is HUGE! You simply cannot understand how big and wonderful this screen is until you see it for yourself in person. And while the screen is huge, the phone itself is a very reasonable size that fits good in my hands and pocket. I may be an adult male, but I have small womanly hands, and it still feels great in portrait mode. I never really felt the need to switch to landscape, so I can't really comment there.
The Droid X sports more buttons and ports than I'm used to. There is your standard audio jack, micro USB, and a mini HDMI port. There is also a spot for a lanyard thingy, not sure how many people will use that, but it's there. There is a power/attention button on top, a volume buttons on the side, a camera button on the side (or up top in landscape), and four buttons on the face for your basic Android functions (which I'll get into what that's all about later).
The only complaints I have about the buttons are that the face ones feel a little wobbly for my taste in a smartphone built in 2010, and also that the camera button, which I love having btw, takes a little getting used to. What I mean by that is that it's a two-stage button like most cameras nowadays, but it didn't always make it to the second stage. I can do it now, but I had to practice it a bit before I got it. Lastly, I need to complain that there is no physical switch to silence the phone. This is done by holding down the power button and selecting silence from a menu, or by toggling a setting or widget within the software.
I do love the feel of the phone. The back feels slightly rubbery, which is great for keeping it in place, but doesn't stick in the pocket like many cases do.
GPS - The GPS found a signal faster than my TomTom. Directions and location seemed accurate to me. Google Maps with Turn by Turn navigation is included for free on every Android phone. This is a pretty big plus, imo. One thing to keep in mind is that it does require a data connection, so if your signal is spotty, you'll be SOL. There may be an app with downloadable apps, or some other solution, but I haven't looked into it.
Android - Compared to iOS, Android is a mangled mess of gibberish. At least the version on the Droid X is. From what I understand, there are many different Android "skins" to make it more pretty/usable. I stuck with the shipping version, but will try the recommended "Launcher Pro" some time in the future.
Settings aren't just in the Settings app, they're also all over the damn phone in menus, submenus, and who knows where else. Navigating is done with physical buttons on the phone as well as the touch screen. It can be confusing at times to know when to use which. This is not a problem on iOS.
While you may be playing hide and seek with the settings, you will have a lot of them once you finally find them. You can configure pretty much anything and everything.
Android has widgets work much like the widgets in Mac OSX. I love these things. They provide easy and quick access to various tasks without having to launch an app.
Gamers need not apply to Android. There are games, but nowhere near the selection available on iOS. This may change in the future, but for now, the selection is pretty weak. Don't take my word for it though, see for yourself here: https://www.android.com/market/#app=com.com2us.HG
You can compare that to Apple's selection in iTunes.
One thing Android does better than iOS in a really big way is notifications. Notifications on iOS are an obnoxious, intrusive experience that gets in your face no matter what you are doing. On Android, an icon displays up top and doesn't get in your way until you acknowledge it. If it's a text, it will display the text up top and you can still do whatever it is you were doing uninterrupted.
One last thing that I'm really not a fan of, is Android's need for a 3rd party task manager. Lots of programs like to start themselves when the phone boots up (much like Windows) and they will sit there and use your phone's resources until you quit them (using a 3rd party task manager).
Camera - I put this last because of the large pics I'm going to post. The Droid X sports a nice camera with a flash. There is a two-stage physical button that launches the camera app and takes pictures. I mentioned the quircky-ness of the button above, but I do think it works fine once you get used to it. In fact, I prefer this to the touch screen interface of the iPhone. I can't speak to the quality of the iPhone 4 personally, but there are comparisons all over the web. I'll stop my rambling and let the pics do the talking:
Outdoors:
Outdoors using zoom:
Dimly-lit indoors without flash:
Dimly-lit indoors with flash:
The video shoots 720p. There is no image stabilizer, so it's comparable to most flip cams and point-and-clicks on the market today. One nice thing about the video is that you can select which mic to record from.
Overall, I'm very happy with the Droid X. It's the best phone I've ever owned, and I have no regrets whatsoever. I hope somebody out there finds this giant wall o' text useful, 'cause it took forever to type up.
If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them.
My last phone was a first generation iPhone, so any time I compare to the iPhone, keep in mind that this is the basis for my comparison, unless otherwise specified.
If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them but please check below to see if your question is answered. I know this is a big scary wall of text but I'll try to keep things somewhat organized here. However, keep in mind that I'm a bit of a scatterbrain.
Lastly, it may sound like I'm beating up on the iPhone a bit here. This is for a couple of reasons:
1) My last phone was an iPhone
2) Most everybody I know has an iPhone
3) I support the iPhone in a corporate environment professionally
4) I agonized over getting the iPhone 4 on several occasions (I *really* wanted one, just as BadMoon). I think virtually everybody shopping for a smartphone today has the iPhone at or near the top of their list. Frankly, they'd be stupid not to.
So, before you all start posting how I'm hater or whatever, please understand the context.
Phone - The thing to keep in mind when buying any phone is that it is a phone first and foremost. The thing should be able to make and receive calls and hopefully be of decent enough quality. The Droid X accomplishes this better than any cell phone I've ever owned. The earpiece speaker plays high quality audio and can do so at high volumes if need be.
My first phone call was with an iPhone 3GS user. I could hear him clearly, but he told me my voice would cut in and out. I was a bit concerned but he told me it happens "almost all the time". Just to be sure it wasn't my phone causing the problem, I called my wife (from the same location) and the quality was almost land-line-ish on both ends. (we were in the same building on different floors and traded phones halfway to compare).
My second call was with someone on Virgin Mobile with some Kyocera dumbphone. We could both hear eachother clearly. I was receiving the call in the exact same location as my call with the 3GS user.
My third call was with an iPhone 4 user. He was breaking in and out and reported I was doing the same.
After that, I kinda stopped keeping track of my calls. They were all great quality. This is probably due to the multiple noise canceling mic's and (from what I understand) multiple antennas.
So, call quality good.
Carrier - I'm not going to get into it too much here because carrier preference largely depends on where you live, but I want to make a few points here.
I had good coverage and full 3G throughout southeastern Wisconsin. I drove all over the damn place running errands and whatnot and was streaming Pandora the whole time. It never once switched to EDGE, not even in the boonies.
When I was shopping for a new cell plan, I had to consider AT&T's new data cap policy (no, I was not "grandfathered in" to the unlimited plan for reasons I'm not going to get into here). So Verizon's unlimited data was *VERY* attractive to me and was definitely the deciding factor in choosing a phone.
AT&T will tell you that just about everybody will fall short of their 2GB cap. I've only really used my phone two days, and I used the ____ out of that sucker today, and my usage reads as 40 MB right now (remember, I was streaming Pandora *a lot* too). So taking this small sample size, I use 20 MB a day, which would come to 620 MB a month, which is *FAR* short of AT&T's data cap.
I was actually quite shocked by this. I still think I made the right decision by going with unlimited though because, while my usage today may average to be under 2 GB a month, who knows what the future holds? I'm locked in for two years, I'd rather not worry about it. With the plan I have, I end up paying $5 more on Verizon's unlimited plan than I would have on AT&T's 4 GB plan. I think that $5 for not having to worry about data caps is money well spent. Your opinion might be different.
Hardware - The first thing you'll notice when you see the Droid X is the screen. The screen is HUGE! You simply cannot understand how big and wonderful this screen is until you see it for yourself in person. And while the screen is huge, the phone itself is a very reasonable size that fits good in my hands and pocket. I may be an adult male, but I have small womanly hands, and it still feels great in portrait mode. I never really felt the need to switch to landscape, so I can't really comment there.
The Droid X sports more buttons and ports than I'm used to. There is your standard audio jack, micro USB, and a mini HDMI port. There is also a spot for a lanyard thingy, not sure how many people will use that, but it's there. There is a power/attention button on top, a volume buttons on the side, a camera button on the side (or up top in landscape), and four buttons on the face for your basic Android functions (which I'll get into what that's all about later).
The only complaints I have about the buttons are that the face ones feel a little wobbly for my taste in a smartphone built in 2010, and also that the camera button, which I love having btw, takes a little getting used to. What I mean by that is that it's a two-stage button like most cameras nowadays, but it didn't always make it to the second stage. I can do it now, but I had to practice it a bit before I got it. Lastly, I need to complain that there is no physical switch to silence the phone. This is done by holding down the power button and selecting silence from a menu, or by toggling a setting or widget within the software.
I do love the feel of the phone. The back feels slightly rubbery, which is great for keeping it in place, but doesn't stick in the pocket like many cases do.
GPS - The GPS found a signal faster than my TomTom. Directions and location seemed accurate to me. Google Maps with Turn by Turn navigation is included for free on every Android phone. This is a pretty big plus, imo. One thing to keep in mind is that it does require a data connection, so if your signal is spotty, you'll be SOL. There may be an app with downloadable apps, or some other solution, but I haven't looked into it.
Android - Compared to iOS, Android is a mangled mess of gibberish. At least the version on the Droid X is. From what I understand, there are many different Android "skins" to make it more pretty/usable. I stuck with the shipping version, but will try the recommended "Launcher Pro" some time in the future.
Settings aren't just in the Settings app, they're also all over the damn phone in menus, submenus, and who knows where else. Navigating is done with physical buttons on the phone as well as the touch screen. It can be confusing at times to know when to use which. This is not a problem on iOS.
While you may be playing hide and seek with the settings, you will have a lot of them once you finally find them. You can configure pretty much anything and everything.
Android has widgets work much like the widgets in Mac OSX. I love these things. They provide easy and quick access to various tasks without having to launch an app.
Gamers need not apply to Android. There are games, but nowhere near the selection available on iOS. This may change in the future, but for now, the selection is pretty weak. Don't take my word for it though, see for yourself here: https://www.android.com/market/#app=com.com2us.HG
You can compare that to Apple's selection in iTunes.
One thing Android does better than iOS in a really big way is notifications. Notifications on iOS are an obnoxious, intrusive experience that gets in your face no matter what you are doing. On Android, an icon displays up top and doesn't get in your way until you acknowledge it. If it's a text, it will display the text up top and you can still do whatever it is you were doing uninterrupted.
One last thing that I'm really not a fan of, is Android's need for a 3rd party task manager. Lots of programs like to start themselves when the phone boots up (much like Windows) and they will sit there and use your phone's resources until you quit them (using a 3rd party task manager).
Camera - I put this last because of the large pics I'm going to post. The Droid X sports a nice camera with a flash. There is a two-stage physical button that launches the camera app and takes pictures. I mentioned the quircky-ness of the button above, but I do think it works fine once you get used to it. In fact, I prefer this to the touch screen interface of the iPhone. I can't speak to the quality of the iPhone 4 personally, but there are comparisons all over the web. I'll stop my rambling and let the pics do the talking:
Outdoors:
Outdoors using zoom:
Dimly-lit indoors without flash:
Dimly-lit indoors with flash:
The video shoots 720p. There is no image stabilizer, so it's comparable to most flip cams and point-and-clicks on the market today. One nice thing about the video is that you can select which mic to record from.
Overall, I'm very happy with the Droid X. It's the best phone I've ever owned, and I have no regrets whatsoever. I hope somebody out there finds this giant wall o' text useful, 'cause it took forever to type up.
If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them.
Last edited:
Kabukiman
Greatest Person Ever
I edited the review to include this bit to the Android section:
mr.thrifty
Super Freak
Great review..
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