Menu Close

Motorola DROID Pros and Cons2 min read

Listen to this article

Droid Here's my review of the phone so far.  For CONS that have a workaround, I inserted a *.  I'll cover them in a future post on software for the DROID.  Potential deal-breakers in red.

PROS:

  1. Beautiful high resolution screen
  2. Smooth scrolling
  3. Good implementation of virtual keyboard
  4. Browser does zoom well (though no pinch)
  5. Good selection of free apps
  6. Good video recorder w/ easy upload to YouTube
  7. Vibrating feedback works well
  8. Free Google turn by turn Navigation
  9. Fast processor, very responsive
  10. Bigger screen, small form factor – same width as iPhone, not much longer, same thickness.

CONS:

  1. Too few screens for icons (WORKAROUND – Open Home)
  2. Keyboard too flat, not that great for typing
  3. No pinch/zoom
  4. Wireless demands WPA2 (won't work with WPA)
  5. Keyboard opens the wrong way for right-handed use
  6. No assignable physical buttons
  7. No physical call, mute or hang-up buttons for phone use
  8. NO support for initiating calls w/ Bluetooth! (For legal reasons, Motorola has to fix this – it's ILLEGAL in many states to be using your handset while driving) (for discussion, see Bluetooth voice dialing?)
  9. Music player is sub-par
    • No "Browse by Genre"
    • No way to auto-sync with desktop or iTunes playlist (WORKAROUND – Manual Copy)
    • No way to speed up podcasts
    • Can't control it with headset (I have Motorola S9-HD) (WORKAROUND – TuneWiki)
  11. Have to push top power button and then swipe to awake from sleep
  12. Some widgets take a LONG time to boot up (>5 min, but phone is usable while waiting)
  13. All apps start on reboot?
  14. Vibrate isn't very strong, can miss calls if phone in pocket.
  15. YouTube videos often give error when attempting to play on a web page or even in the YouTube player.
  16. Significant camera lag

Check out My initial thoughts on the droid for some more cogent criticisms and newbie comments about the DROID.

Tagged