Motorola Droid

[Heckler]

I had given up on Motorola as my employer had purchased several generations of Motorola Q's for us in the IT department. We had had tons of issues with them from battery life, slow performance, keypads failing, and the phones just falling apart. I had made up my mind to never purchase a Motorola phone again.

I really wanted to try an iPhone, but our service is through Verizon. AT&T coverage to our office is non-existent so i could not justify the iPhone. My latest Q was failing hard and I pushing my Verizon rep to get me a new better phone. My rep suggested strongly I might want to wait as the "Google Phone" will be coming out shortly. I was stoked about getting a Google Phone, until I heard it was going to be made by Motorola. I will post in the "What I Hate" forum about Verizon customer support.

It was at this time my wifes phone gave out. She has service through Tmobile. I went to the Tmoble store with the intention of buying the myTough. The sales woman suggested I look at the Motorola Cliq, which is another Android/Google phone. Without even looking at it I went into my long list of what I hate about Motorola. The sales lady graciously explained how they had been given free trials of the myTouch and the Cliq. When she had accidentally broken her Cliq, she said it was like a downgrade to have to use the myTouch again.

So, I gave it a look. I was impressed right from the start. It was fast. Very fast compared to what I am used to. The touch screen worked wonderfully. It had all the facebook stuff already setup, something my wife has recently taken a fascination with. Other than being a little bulky, it looked like a great phone. She REALLY likes this phone! So I am happy.

On to the Droid. The Droid has a smaller form factor that the Cliq, which I like. It is not a light phone. I am guessing they packed a lot of technology into this phone. The screen quality is excellent. Pictures really pop. Backgrounds have tons of detail. The touch screen works flawlessly. The operating system is very fast.

"The Market" where you go to download/purchase apps works terrific. There are tons of free apps. I have not found any of the paid apps that I cant live without. If SureFire comes out with a shot timer for the Droid I would pay for it. I had tested the one on the iPhone and that is a VERY cool app.

I was able to connect to my Gmail account and pull my email contacts down no problem. I connected to my corporate exchange server and got my email/contacts/calendar very easily. Since the phone comes with 16gigs of storage so I can hold tones of email and documents for work. I don't need the frou-frou facebook stuff running by default like on the Cliq and it wasn't.

I am VERY impressed with this phone. Now I just need to see how long it holds up. This may have been the bump Motorola needed in the cellphone market.

[Flexmoney]

I am going to move this to our Electronics section.

- Mod Squad.

[larry cazes]

I have also sworn off Motorola products after many years of junk and we are on Verizon. Please keep us posted about your experiences with the droid. I may have to give it a try.

[vluc]

One of my docs just got it, quite nice. The Android OS looks interesting, though we did have some minor issues getting his Outlook synced to his phone.

Touchpad is nice,don't care for the super tiny chicklet keyboard though. The docs put smartphones through their paces, so we will see how well it does. Their Treo's lasted forever, 2 now have Samsung Saga's that they are not enamored of, want the droid, but have no upgrade available with Verizon. Lists at $665 without an agreement. Not sure it is worth that kind of money!

[Heckler]

I have also sworn off Motorola products after many years of junk and we are on Verizon. Please keep us posted about your experiences with the droid. I may have to give it a try.

Will keep you updated.

Also check out my love of Verizon over in the "What I Hate" thread.

Verizon support

[Heckler]

One of my docs just got it, quite nice. The Android OS looks interesting, though we did have some minor issues getting his Outlook synced to his phone.

Touchpad is nice,don't care for the super tiny chicklet keyboard though. The docs put smartphones through their paces, so we will see how well it does. Their Treo's lasted forever, 2 now have Samsung Saga's that they are not enamored of, want the droid, but have no upgrade available with Verizon. Lists at $665 without an agreement. Not sure it is worth that kind of money!

Are you syncing straight from Outlook or are you pulling from Exchange? I had not attempted to sync from Outlook, but would be interested in what the issue was and how you worked it out since I will eventually sync my wifes Outlook to her phone. Shoot me a PM if you have a moment.

I did not know if I would Like the keyboard at first, but have gotten used to it.

I had a Saga demo for 2 days and it was a decent phone. They had the wrong charging cord for the demo and when I plugged it in I fried it.....oops.

Never been a Treo fan myself. Just not used to the Palm OS i guess.

Don't think I would pay the $665 either. I was able to get my upgrade time period waved after much threatening and screaming and got the Droid for $211.

[Flexmoney]

Shoot me a PM if you have a moment.

Share it here. So others can learn.

[Middle Man]

My wife really wanted to try a smartphone, hoping it would make work a little more efficient. The Cliq only made it one day on the job with her (peds/gastro fellow). The battery performance is HORRIBLE. The Cliq was only on standby (no wifi, no gps, no nothing extra...) and the battery was half drained by lunch. One phone call and one check email and the phone was absolutely dead before quitting time. All the data that gets pushed to the phone's widgets for social networking eats power. If you want the phone to have useful battery life turn off the continuously updating social networking widget(s). Maybe if you can keep the phone tethered to a USB port to keep power flowing in for part of the workday...but if your roaming hospital floors not a chance. Moto did a really poor job on the battery for a mobile device designed to be "connected" full time.

On the upside T-Mobile gave her a full refund on the phone.

[Heckler]

My wife really wanted to try a smartphone, hoping it would make work a little more efficient. The Cliq only made it one day on the job with her (peds/gastro fellow). The battery performance is HORRIBLE. The Cliq was only on standby (no wifi, no gps, no nothing extra...) and the battery was half drained by lunch. One phone call and one check email and the phone was absolutely dead before quitting time. All the data that gets pushed to the phone's widgets for social networking eats power. If you want the phone to have useful battery life turn off the continuously updating social networking widget(s). Maybe if you can keep the phone tethered to a USB port to keep power flowing in for part of the workday...but if your roaming hospital floors not a chance. Moto did a really poor job on the battery for a mobile device designed to be "connected" full time.

On the upside T-Mobile gave her a full refund on the phone.

Did she try a different phone before getting the refund? A defective unit maybe?

My wife is brutal on phones, she owns her own business and is taking calls all day long. She has not mentioned her battery draining fast. I did turn off the WiFi.

I will let you know what her results are in a week or so.

[vluc]

We used a 3rd party program (hey, there's an app for that!) I believe it was companion that we settled on, though all were tried. From PC to Google to Droid. Needed some final clean-up, but the data he wanted got to his phone.

BTW, 12-10-09 a firmware upgrade for the moto droid will be released.

http://www.talkandroid.com/android-forums/...d-sync-tip.html

http://www.waveglobal.net/Website/Website....ForAnd?OpenForm

http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/Business...oid-71292.shtml

http://www.companionlink.com/android/index.html

[Neomet]

Battery life in my droid has been great. For pretty much two days straight I was on the internet, emailing, videotaping, using it as a GPS, you name it. I like almost everything about the phone other than the keypads. For some reason they are much harder to use than my Crackberry's was. Great video quality by the way.

[Middle Man]

My wife really wanted to try a smartphone, hoping it would make work a little more efficient. The Cliq only made it one day on the job with her (peds/gastro fellow). The battery performance is HORRIBLE. The Cliq was only on standby (no wifi, no gps, no nothing extra...) and the battery was half drained by lunch. One phone call and one check email and the phone was absolutely dead before quitting time. All the data that gets pushed to the phone's widgets for social networking eats power. If you want the phone to have useful battery life turn off the continuously updating social networking widget(s). Maybe if you can keep the phone tethered to a USB port to keep power flowing in for part of the workday...but if your roaming hospital floors not a chance. Moto did a really poor job on the battery for a mobile device designed to be "connected" full time.

On the upside T-Mobile gave her a full refund on the phone.

Did she try a different phone before getting the refund? A defective unit maybe?

May have been defective battery. I checked some reviews from several tech blogs after the fact only to discover the suspect battery life from some of the pre-release testers. However, the Cliq's battery life only sealed it's fate. She was already somewhat unhappy with it due to the internet browser not working with one particular hospital patient data program (which runs on certain blackberry phones).

[larry cazes]

My wife really wanted to try a smartphone, hoping it would make work a little more efficient. The Cliq only made it one day on the job with her (peds/gastro fellow). The battery performance is HORRIBLE. The Cliq was only on standby (no wifi, no gps, no nothing extra...) and the battery was half drained by lunch. One phone call and one check email and the phone was absolutely dead before quitting time. All the data that gets pushed to the phone's widgets for social networking eats power. If you want the phone to have useful battery life turn off the continuously updating social networking widget(s). Maybe if you can keep the phone tethered to a USB port to keep power flowing in for part of the workday...but if your roaming hospital floors not a chance. Moto did a really poor job on the battery for a mobile device designed to be "connected" full time.

On the upside T-Mobile gave her a full refund on the phone.

Did she try a different phone before getting the refund? A defective unit maybe?

May have been defective battery. I checked some reviews from several tech blogs after the fact only to discover the suspect battery life from some of the pre-release testers. However, the Cliq's battery life only sealed it's fate. She was already somewhat unhappy with it due to the internet browser not working with one particular hospital patient data program (which runs on certain blackberry phones).

I doubt it. We have had nothing but dismal battery performance from all of the Motorola phones I have ever owned. They obviously do not know how to get this right.

[SLM]

Anymore updates from those of you playing with the Droid? I have a Moto V3c (phenomenal phone but it's finally getting tired) that I'm looking to replace. I've had it since the second day it hit the shelf at Alltel, something like 4 years ago. Motorola phones on Alltel's network have always been terrific for service. We used to race at a dirt track where no one, and I mean no one but those of us with Moto's + Alltel could make calls and that's what I'm after. I really don't care about all the other "stuff" it does.

The Droid finally seems to be the replacement for the V3c...

Great sound quality

Service anywhere

Wow factor, etc...

The biggest variations in reviews I'm finding are regarding battery life.

When it was new my Razr was good for 4 or 5 days of normal (for me) use, my mom's 262 (?) was in the same range. That's dropped, naturally, to two to three days. I'm reading the Droid is anywhere from a DAY or so to 4 or 5 like I was used to.

What are you getting and how do you use the phone (calls, web stuff, etc)?

[Neomet]

Battery life is completely acceptable to me so far. I have been using mine way more than I normally do and I am getting a solid 3 days. I've been using it as a nav system, video camera, my portal to BE while at work with their silly site restricted computers, plus learning how to use the darn thing. I did decide to get into the habit when I come home of just plugging it into the USB hookup I have for it on the computer. If I decide to down/upload anything it is already plugged in plus I always know where my phone is and is always fully charged.

Only problem I have at this point is getting my videos to show up on my Mac's Imovie. Apparently it doesn't like the formatting. It will play on VLC. Something I need to work out though.....

[SLM]

Thanks for the information. That's exactly what I'm looking for!

[Chris Keen]

I've got a Motorola Rizer and it's had really good battery life. I've only had it 2 years, and I replaced the battery at the end of the 1st year, but when the battery is between new & 9 months old, I get 2-3 days on a charge. But the phone itself is a good phone but getting worn from daily usage, so I'm thinking of switching to the Droid.

Verizon wants $199 and a new 2 year contract, but I saw something online that Sears stores are offering the Droid for $150 + a new contract (with free shipping). Has anybody ever done a phone upgrade with a 3rd party like that?

[Nik Habicht]

I've got a Motorola Rizer and it's had really good battery life. I've only had it 2 years, and I replaced the battery at the end of the 1st year, but when the battery is between new & 9 months old, I get 2-3 days on a charge. But the phone itself is a good phone but getting worn from daily usage, so I'm thinking of switching to the Droid.

Verizon wants $199 and a new 2 year contract, but I saw something online that Sears stores are offering the Droid for $150 + a new contract (with free shipping). Has anybody ever done a phone upgrade with a 3rd party like that?

I haven't. I have however typically gotten better deals from Verizon online or from calling them for a new phone, than I have from walking into one of their retail locations....

[Cactustactical]

I've got a Motorola Rizer and it's had really good battery life. I've only had it 2 years, and I replaced the battery at the end of the 1st year, but when the battery is between new & 9 months old, I get 2-3 days on a charge. But the phone itself is a good phone but getting worn from daily usage, so I'm thinking of switching to the Droid.

Verizon wants $199 and a new 2 year contract, but I saw something online that Sears stores are offering the Droid for $150 + a new contract (with free shipping). Has anybody ever done a phone upgrade with a 3rd party like that?

I haven't. I have however typically gotten better deals from Verizon online or from calling them for a new phone, than I have from walking into one of their retail locations....

+1 on the Verizon online deals. The Droid is going to cost me $149 if I order it online. I am a former Alltel customer just switched over coupled with my plan expiring gives me some discounts online the people in the local store could not match. Not overly thrilled with the Droid keyboard ( no separation or ridges), but it came down to that or the BB Storm 2. I did not like how the storm 2's touch screen seemed to 'give' every time I pressed it.

[Cultldr]

+1 on the Verizon online deals. The Droid is going to cost me $149 if I order it online. I am a former Alltel customer just switched over coupled with my plan expiring gives me some discounts online the people in the local store could not match. Not overly thrilled with the Droid keyboard ( no separation or ridges), but it came down to that or the BB Storm 2. I did not like how the storm 2's touch screen seemed to 'give' every time I pressed it.

I am not very thrilled with the slide out keyboard but the virtual one is a lot like my iPhone so I did ok on that but I feel if I put some time into the Droid's physical keyboard I'd adjust ok so just need to steal it from my wife (we swapped Voyager out).

The one thing that I can say is for a person who does NOT need Microsoft Exchange support it is working great. When we used the Droid here at work before I gave it to my wife it will sync the Corporate Calendar but will not sync email or contacts. We do not allow PoP3 connections to our exchange server so until they fix the sync issues we have to wait here at work before we can deploy these.

Now that being said, my wife loves her Droid and is checking out all kinds of cool apps and the Maps app they keep showing on the commercials really is that good. Especially since it's part of the service! I love my iPhone but the more I see what she's doing with that Droid, I'm considering switching but just have to wait until all the Exchange issues are ironed out.

[MoNsTeR]

Dear Motorola,

Please release a version of the Droid for T-Mobile. The Cliq sucks.

[Nick Ennis]

So after playing around with the gf's droid phone she finally got me one last week for my b day. All I can say is WOW! This thing browses the web faster then my laptop at work, has more features then I will ever know how to use and allows me to surf and post on BE (like I am doing now). I am very pleased with this phone

[hockeyfighter25]

I've had one for a month now and I really like it. A couple of negatives would be the slider key board is too small to use (for me), but the touchscreen keyboard is very easy to use. Battery drains quick if you web browse and watch videos (video in HQ are great on this phone), but has always lasted the whole day.

[Stew]

I dumped my iPhone for a Droid a month ago. The iPhone was great but AT&T service was really bad. With Verizon I can make a call at my house without standing out in the yard. I found the same apps for the droid that I had on the iPhone (weather, stocks, etc). I have it connected to exchange at work which works well but the iPhone interface was better in my opinion. Text messaging is about a break even between the two. Visual voice mail also works well on the droid.

The droid battery time is better than the iPhone. My iPhone wouldn't make it through a heavy work day but the droid can take me into the evening. The battery on the droid can be swapped out without sending it in for a replacement which I think is a big plus. Overall I'd give Apple the thumbs up for best interface design but they screwed up by picking a single carrier for the service. Having a 100k apps and not being able to make a phone call is pretty useless.

Stew

[Revopop]

I just got a DROID ERIS (not Motorola) a few days ago. I love it! It's basically the closest copy you can get. Through Verizon (I was at the end of a 2 year contract) it was 50 bucks. Only thing it doesn't have that the Moto DROID does is a slide out keyboard, but the touchscreen keyboard is no problem for me.