Droid about to launch!
October 28th, 2009, 4:07pm by KelvinAny thoughts on the new Verizon/Motorola/Google Droid? Played with the HTC Hero on Sprint a few days ago and thought that Android had come a long way. Definitely could see myself using it instead of a Pre, although I’d prefer a keyboard. I love the notification bar (similar to the notifications in WebOS) and the homescreen widgets (although the HTC ones are a LOT better than the stock Android ones).
Droid sports Android 2.0, which among other things, comes with free turn-by-turn navigation. Click over to AndroidCentral for some really cool screenshots. Seems like a pretty hefty phone, though. I haven’t minded having a small screen on my Pre since it allows a more pocket-friendly device, but the real estate of the Droid would definitely come in handy at times.
So what do you guys think? I know we have no Verizon users, so this is all hypothetical, but are you feeling any envy?
October 28th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
The hardware looks real nice, but I think being 25% heavier than the iPhone/Pre is really going to limit the market. I haven’t made it over to check out the latest round of Android phones, but probably will in the near future. The iPhone is a juggernaut at this point, it really is amazing. Today I was at Chipotle and they were touting their iPhone app, yet their mobile website is not much more than a billboard. That’s an odd trend, that so many apps are nothing more than wrappers for websites. I don’t know how many people will actually use a Chipotle app, but the trend makes it real hard for other players to be dominant.
Gruber had a nice post about it, pointing out that Apple is really in the position Microsoft was in the early 90s– the apps are making it the compellin platform. But eventually quality will matter, and it remains to be seen if, outside of games, iPhone applications will be better than Android/ WebOS/ etc.
The screen real estate would be nice, but I wouldn’t trade the Pre for it. Making it so much heavier just seems like a step backward. I’d ramble on more, but their mobile-unfriendly flash-based website won’t even run properly on Firefox, so I’ll have to stop here.
October 28th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
I’ll just add that of the horizontal sliders I’ve used, I find the ones with a centered keyboard to be much more usable and easier to type on. I prefer typing on a narrow vertical keyboard.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Oh, and the turn-by-turn directions look really sweet.
October 28th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I think the Chipotle app lets you place orders for take out. Certainly not something that requires a native app, but it’s a pretty effective way for companies to advertise these days. They could promote a mobile website, but it wouldn’t have the same reach, I don’t think. Interesting, lately, i’ve noticed stores that promote their twitter accounts in store. That’s a strange sign of the times.
If anything, I think it’s clear that Android the platform is pretty much ready for prime time, even if the formfactor options are not all there yet. Won’t be long until there’s a Treo/Pixi knock off running Android, methinks. But I do agree with you– vertical keyboards are my preference as well. I actually really like typing on my Pre. Pre’s form factor is pretty good overall.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Gizmodo calls Droid the “phone Darth Vadar would use.”
October 28th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Haven’t looked all that closely at this particular phone, but I was really impressed by what I saw on the Hero, and this phone supposedly blows it away. So I guess it’s good. Still haven’t played with a Hero — the Best Buy the other day only had a nonfunctioning demo.
I think Android is definitely on it’s way to being an iPhone competitor. It has the apps, it has the handsets, and it has the carrier support. I’ve played with my dad’s G1, and it’s pretty nice, though it seems a little sluggish on the UI — but that’ll be taken care of with good hardware, I’m sure.
The turn-by-turn voice app is nice — my inside source at Google alerted me to the fact that they’ve been testing that internally for a while now. And it sounds like they’re “working with Apple” to bring it to the iPhone as well — if Apple allows it. I’m not holding my breath, but it would be great.
November 8th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
As I was saying on Twitter, I was really disappointed with the Droid when I played with it at the Verizon store today. The hardware, especially the keyboard, didn’t impress — while I’ve kinda bought into the touchscreen keyboard concept myself, this one felt like a calculator from the 80s — a horrible example of physical keyboards in a smartphone.
I had high hopes for the screen as well, but was distracted by the fact that it really felt kinda sluggish in a way that the iPhone 3GS and Pre don’t, even though they all have the same processor. Maybe that’s Android 2.0, then, but it was distracting to me.
take all this with a little grain of salt, though, since these were public display models that people have probably screwed up, but still, if I had walked in to buy one, I would have left empty-handed.
November 8th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I listened to the Engadget podcast, and their thoughts largely mirrored my own. Their analogy is that the iPhone is a refined Mercedes, and the Droid is a muscle car like the Camaro. The Droid has some serious geek cred, but I think the launch is going to be their high point. In comparison, the Pre’s launch wasn’t so much to geeks as it was to Palm loyalists– I had never seen so many Treos in one spot before. But, at its core the Pre isn’t a geek’s device. I know there are some issues that make it a little more intimidating than the iPhone (per Steph via Kelvin), but overall it’s a very friendly device.
The keyboard on the Pre is good, and while it lacks autocomplete and has a much more limited auto-correct database than the iPhone, I find myself making very few typos. Part of that is the tactile feedback, and part of it is just the greater precision of having discrete keys.
Haven’t got down to see a Droid yet. Looks fun, and I’m sure I’d like it. It will be interesting to heat reviews from regular users.
November 8th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
I’m surprised you found Droid sluggish– I thought it was super fast and responsive. Yours probably had tons of apps running in the background. Pre’s multitasking management system is probably it’s greatest boon. The Droid’s screen was amazing, I thought. But the phone is definitely on the heavier side of being acceptable. It’s impressively thin, though.
Personally, while I thought the keys were flat and probably spaced too far apart, I’m always going to prefer a physical keyboard to a virtual one.