Motorola Droid

Erizon has come up with Verizon Droid Smartphone
that is potentially the best out there. It is a direct
rival to the Apple’s iPhone 3g. The best part is that
the OS that chips with the phone is Google’s Android
2.0. The body is metallic making the phone very sturdy.
This is quite thoughtful considering how mobiles
are prone to be dropped.


The phone is blindingly fast! The computing po
wer comes from a 600 MHz TI OMAP 3430 CPU
. The processor is a multimedia application processor and delivers up to three times better
performance than ARM 11 based processor, according to TI. Although I can’t verify the claim, can certainly say thatthe speed with which the apps load and run is just plain amazing.
The form factor of Droid is slider. It has a slider QWERTY keyboard.


The keyboard is a soft touch one with a
rubberized finish. Typing messages and emails is very
comfortable due to the soft touch keyboard. It is a bit of
question whether the keyboard is durable, but the comfort
of typing is enough to overlook this detail.

The accessories that come shipped with the Droid include a desktop cradle, which also acts as a charger and turns into a multimedia station. It supports micro SDHC cards for storage. It has a 5 MP camera with autofocus. The quality of the photos captured with the phone was not bad at all. And with a maximum resolution of 5 MP to boot, you can get the photos printed without any blurring.
The most important feature of any phone is the screen. The screen is what makes or breaks a Smartphone. Many technically good phones have been rejected by the public because of less than average screen quality. So how does the Droid fare? It has a 3.7 inch display, which is just huge and offers a more than decent resolution of 854 by 480. The movies, games and pictures all were crystal clear and really sharp. This might be thanks to the 16 million color support. The screen has an eye-pleasing feel.

The phone has been designed with attention to detail. The only thing that may keep it from being the most popular Smartphone is the presence of Apple’s iPhone 3g. Although the Droid scores over the iPhone in many departments, the iPhone has become a bit of a fashion symbol. And also, there are gazillion apps available over the internet for the iPhone.

Whether or not it surpasses iPhone in number of units sold, technically at least it is much superior the iPhone and also all the other smart phones for that matter. It is a phone that is easy to live with thanks to the fast processor, a comfortable physical keyboard and a huge screen. It is scores highly in every department, it is a good looking phone, is sturdy and is technically sound. Droid is a sure shot winner from Verizon.

Description

The Motorola Droid is the new flagship Android OS device, running the latest version of Google's mobile operating system.

This smartphone is a slider, with a landscape-oriented QWERTY keyboardand large, high-resoluition capacitive touchscreen with haptic feedback.

It comes with a suite of applications that can wirelessly synchronize with this company's services, including Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, and Maps, as well as Microsoft Exchange.

It comes with a 16 GB memory card, GPS receiver, andf 5 MPx camera.

Verizon Wireless is the exclusive U.S. provider of the Motorola Droid

Quick Specs

Operating System: Android
Processor: 550 MHz
Memory: 16 GB of Removable Storage
Screen Resolution: 854-by-480-pixel (WVGA+)
Screen Size: 3.7 Inches
Keyboard Type: On-screen, QWERTY
Communications: Bluetooth, CDMA, EVDO, Wi-Fi
Meda Type: microSD, microSDHC
Camera Resolution: 5.0 megapixels
GPS: Yes
Dimensions: 4.6 inches wide, 2.4 inches wide, and 0.5 inches thick
Release Date: 11/6/2009

traveled up to New York City today for Verizon's launch of the . It was worth the trip. Previous phones running Google's Android OS have ranged from OK to fairly good, but the Droid is the first really great one I've seen.

It offers an impressive feature set: a large WVGA+ capacitive touchscreen, physical keyboard, mobile broadband, Wi-Fi, and the latest version of Google's operating system

I've only had a few hours with this device, but I want to go ahead and share my first impressions of it. I'll have a full review in the coming days.

Build & Design

Motorola says the Droid is the thinnest phone with a QWERTY keyboard ever made, and I believe them. At first glance, it looks too slim to be a slider, but it is.

Probably the next thing you'll notice is the 3.7-inch display. This is one of the largest available -- bigger than the one on the HTC Touch Pro2, and slightly higher resolution, too. In fact, it's of a much higher resolution than all the earlier Android models, which have HVGA screens.

The display is ideal for looking at web sites, images, and video.

Built into the touchscreen are four control buttons: Search, Home, Menu, and Back. The traditional Call and Disconnect buttons are conspicuously absent. You have to depend on on-screen buttons for this.

Because the keyboard has a landscape orientation, it's of a decent size. On the other hand, the keys are all set in a flat surface, with little or no space between, which isn't an ideal arrangement.

There's a large D-pad next to the keyboard -- that placement means it's only available when the slider is open. This isn't the best arrangement for one-handed use, as the D-pad isn't available in portrait mode.

As far a build quality goes, the device feels solid in most ways, but the slider on my unit is just a tiny bit loose.

This Motorola model lives up to it's name in one way: it's very angular... mechanical. It has a masculine look. I suspect it's going to be a love-it or hate-it design. I'm in the "love it" category.

Performance

There has been some concern about the fact that the runs Android on a 550 MHz processor. It's a mistake to judge performance based simply on a number: if you could, every guy over 6'6" would be able to play in the NBA.

The real-world performance of this phone is good. Admittedly I've only had a short time with it, but I'm not seeing any lag or irritating delays.

Android 2.0
The Droid is the first model with which has some new features.

Easily most important of these is support for synchronizing with Microsoft Exchange. Until now Android was a decent option of consumers, but not for business users. Now that people can send and receive their corporate e-mail messages, that has changed. The Droid can also sync your Calendar and Contacts, too.

Naturally, this OS can still sync with Google's services, so you can have your G-mail, personal calendar, and contacts on your phone.

And the Droid doesn't stop there: it can pull the contact info for your friends out of Facebook, too. But don't worry, all this information won't all be jumbled together.

Software
This smartphone comes with a suite of applications for handling many basic tasks. I already mentioned the e-mail, calendar, and contacts apps, but that's just the beginning.

Android was created by Google, so it's no surprise it has one of the best web browsers available. It's one of the few that can go toe-to-toe with Safari on the iPhone. The latest version is tweaked, but there wasn't much room for improvement.

There's also a music player, and a combined video player and image viewer. I'm happy to report that this plays a much broader array of formats than its predecessors. There's also a YouTube app.

Generally, Verizon seems to have taken the attitude that "less is more" and didn't load the Droid down with extraneous software. But if you want to fill it up, you can; there are over 10,000 apps available for easy download in the Android Market.

Navigation Software
A relatively simple mapping application was part of Android 1.0, but Google has taken this to the next level in the new version. Voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions have been added, making this app vastly more useful.

It now works like you'd expect a stand-alone GPS receiver to, giving you audible directions of when to turn, and automatically re-routing you if you miss a turn.

You can even program it with voice commands.

Video Preview
I put together a short video demonstrating the Motorola Droid, including a quick overview of its hardware, user interface, and web browser.