“But this week, Verizon is rolling out a device that finally gives it a more credible alternative. This new $200 phone is the Motorola Droid and it’s the first Verizon model to run Google’s Android smart-phone operating system. I’ve been testing the Droid, and while it has some significant drawbacks, I regard it as a success overall,” Mossberg reports. “It’s the best super-smart phone Verizon offers, the best Motorola phone I’ve tested and the best hardware so far to run Android. I can recommend the Droid to Verizon loyalists who have lusted for a better smart phone, but don’t want to switch networks.”
“Currently, Android offers over 12,000 apps. That is just a fraction of the 100,000 apps available for the iPhone, but it’s well above what the newer BlackBerry or Palm phones offer,” Mossberg reports. “The Droid is also the first phone that runs the 2.0 version of Android, which sands off some of the rough edges of Google’s platform and adds some features—notably, a free voice-prompted turn-by-turn navigation program. Android still isn’t as slick or fluid as the iPhone’s OS, in my view, but it has some functionality Apple omits, including the ability to run multiple third-party apps simultaneously.”
Here are some snippets from Mossberg’s review:
• Droid only a tad longer and thicker than the Apple product, but it’s 25% heavier, which makes it less comfortable to carry around in a pocket
• 3.7-inch screen looks great, but lacks multitouch features, such as two-finger zooming, and it seemed less responsive than some other touch screens I’ve tested
• $200 price comes only after a $100 mail-in rebate, requires a minimum $70 monthly service plan for two years, and text messaging costs extra
• Unfortunately for lovers of physical keyboards, I found the one on the Droid to be pretty awful [with] flat, cramped keys that induce too many typing errors, yet lacks auto-correction
• Another downside: The Droid’s screen has only three panels for displaying apps, versus 11 on the iPhone
• Droid comes with 16 gigabytes of memory, in the form of a removable card, and can handle up to a 32-gigabyte card
MacDailyNews Note: The Droid ships with only 256 MB available for app storage. Google Android does not support installation of apps to SD cards, so developers face a very real and rather stifling limit. Many of the most popular iPhone apps (games) easily exceed 100 MB, so not very many quality apps would fit on Droid. That’s probably why Droid can only use three panels for displaying apps. It’s a very real issue which, unfortunately, the usually comprehensive, but lately quite sloppy, Mossberg neglects to mention in his review. To ask him why he glaringly omitted this rather important information in his “review,” contact:
The full review is here.
MacDailyNews Take: Talk about “Broken Promises.” Verizon gives Microsoft a serious run for their money in the “trust me, this time it’s going to be different” department: LG Voyager, HTC Touch, BlackBerry Bold, Samsung Omnia, BlackBerry Storm, Motorola Droid…
With Verizon’s newly doubled early termination fees (From US$175 to $350) for Droid and other smartphones, buyers will need to choose whether they should double their risk on Verizon’s latest iPhone-lookalike-not-workalike or if they should just make the smart choice and go get an Apple iPhone.
my 32GB iPod touch says I am using 1.2GB for apps. good luck, droid users.
I had read a pretty thorough review of Droid on Gizmodo, and it seemed pretty open-minded on the pluses and minuses. While it still in no position to make me want to switch from my iPhone, it did seem to have some advantages. Case in point… from what I recall, the reviewer would be working in one app, and on receiving a text message he could just swipe a “widget” down to review the message, then reply or dismiss it without leaving the app he was in. I can see this being a HUGE plus, and something that Apple really needs to address to stay ahead of the game. This memory limitations of the Droid is a serious dealbreaker, but hopefully the advantages that Droid does have will keep Apple on their toes.
@DLMeyer
MicroSD capability @in addition@ to a healthy quantity of onboard memory (16GB+)? Sure. But 256MB of onboard memory on an iPhone competitor seeking to emulate the iPhone app success? Very poor choice.
Don’t forget to add the Verizon charge of $15 PER MONTH for access to Exchange (if you need it) on top of your normal data charge.
While I think the 256MB of on-board storage is a stupid decision, if I was on Verizon, and refused to switch to ATT, I would probably buy one. If you can’t have an iPhone – you may as well get the 2nd best thing.
Case in point:
Here’s an email I sent to my sister early this morning.
– – – – – – – – – – –
Hey ****,
Thought I’d tell you about the new Verizon phone since I tend to probably keep up on technology a bit more than some.
Anyway – it is being released today and a link to a review is below. It’s supposed to be the closest thing yet to an iPhone. There’s also a video on that page. If I was on Verizon I’d probably get it so I thought I’d pass it along.
(Are you still reading or did you already delete this email
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20091104/motorolas-droid-is-smart-success-for-verizon-users/
– – – – – – – – – – – –
This is the same sister who teased me relentessly about iPhone not being able to send/recieve MMS.
“best Verizon has to offer”
LOLZ
Verizon sells shit, has an okay network, but not that special..
Their handsets are a joke, really terrible. I was with them for almost 10 years, and they always had the worst handsets of all the carriers, most crippled, worst choices, least usable, least features.
Anyone who gets a smartphone from a Verizon has a hole in their head.
That extra charge has been shown to be wrong…
I had the Droid for a few days, and I liked it — but then after going back to my iPhone it was clear to me that the iPhone is still the best in class…
I am excited to see where both of these platforms are in a year when my AT&T;contract is fulfilled.
The Droid even doing this well is good for us iPhone users.
16GB iPhone
32 Apps, 2729 Songs, 3 Videos and 808 Photos.
1.1GB Free.
Suck it, Droid!
Verizon is just out of the question for me. Its phones are CDMA (no SIM card) and as such are often useless for me. I tend to spend at least four weeks every year overseas (EU). The ability to pop a local SIM card into my phone is essential and lack of it a deal-breaker for me.
Both AT&T and T-Mobile (in US) will provide unlocking instructions if you ask them. I had successfully unlocked some 15 different multi-band GSM phones on these two, over the past 10 years or so (back when they were OmniPoint, VoiceStream, Cingular…), iPhone being the well-known exception, so far.
This may be irrelevant to most Americans, but for me, it is just one more deal-breaker (in addition to others mentioned above).
On these forums, we have heard many AT&T bashers/haters and big Verizon fans. Since they aren’t getting an iPhone anytime soon, this Droid think just might calm them down for a while.
You have to wonder why they upped the early termination fee. Is it because the Droid is seriously lacking as a smartphone? Will people want to break their contracts just to be able to stop using the Droid and Verizon has to recoup some of that money?
Tech nerds just love to carry around extra stuff. Extra batteries, extra SD cards, those USB drives they wear around their necks. They even want two keyboards on smartphones. A physical one and a virtual one. That’s the rule of the tech nerd. More is always better. Any tech nerd believes the iPhone is lacking in memory because it’s limited to 32 GBs, period. All their other smartphones have add in cards and can boost memory up to 48 GBs which seems very impressive. Good for data storage, but not great for running apps. Tech nerds will insist that you only need but a few apps on a smartphone and any more is just a waste. Just as they claim 100,000 apps is a waste since 99.9% of them are useless which is the only case in the tech nerds reasoning that having more is actually worse.
I’m sure the Droid will do well, not great, but for Motorola it’s like getting a new life. There’s always room for improvement and if Google works hard, maybe they’ll fix the media shortcomings in Android. There isn’t even any media synching software, I think, which is not a good thing in this day and age of software driving hardware demand.
According to David Pogue, the Droid has 560MB of storage for Apps, not 256. Granted, it’s still not 16 GB or 32 GB but it is more than 256. Where is the 256 coming from? On the Motorola tech specs, it doesn’t say one way or the other. This limitation and the fewer number of apps available are probably the 2 biggest reasons I’m not sure if I’ll buy this phone. I’m on Verizon and won’t change because AT&T;coverage in my area is pretty sparse (3G is non-existant) and my family are all on Verizon so changing isn’t really a viable option. The SOONEST we MIGHT see an iPhone on Verizon is the end of next year when LTE goes live but that’s a VERY slim possibility since it will only be live in major areas and not be nation wide until mid 2011 at the soonest. This is, by far, the best option someone on Verizon has for a “smartphone”. You can’t GIVE me a Crackberry or WinMo, but at least Android is a little more like iPhone than the above.
Question: Why does the Droid come with only 256MB of on-board memory and force you to purchase an SD card for additional shortage?
Answer: To keep the price artificially low. (Or their profit margins artificially high.)
I mean, come on. They know that anyone who wants to get serious use out of this thing will need to buy a 16GB or 32GB SD card. But instead of doing the honest thing like Apple, building in the storage and including it in the price, they force the user to purchase the memory separately. Then they can crow about how “competitive” the Droid is on price (while pocketing the difference).
——RM
@ PowerPlayGraphix
“The Droid ships with a 512 MB ROM which contains only 256 MB available for app storage”.
http://androidandme.com/2009/10/news/google-fails-to-address-app-storage-issue-with-droid-and-android-2-0/
@ LordRobin
I believe Droid ships with 16GB card.
So essentially the Droid is saying…. “we’re not going to include much standard memory to hold the price down, heck Verizon makes you pay $300 hoping you forget to mail in the rebate form, so if you want the additional memory, you have to go buy the SD card to get it.”
And how much more are people willing to spend for that 32GB SD card?
Verizon is saying, “we’re need to make more money by charging you for text messaging since we know who the heck would want a smartphone without text messaging, fool!”
LOL.
What one has to realize is that it too Apple the better part of ten years to setup it’s digital hub strategy. When first announced it was dismissed. Later, the came out the the iTunes, that also did not have a store and it was only Macintosh compatible. The first iPod was also dismissed as yet one more player in a mature market. Well guess what. All this digital hum strategy finally came together, and the iPhone/iPod/AppleTV/Mac/iTunes is just getting started, and everyone else gets to play catch-up.
“We’re the only company that owns the whole widget — the hardware, the software, and the operating system. We can take full responsibility for the user experience. We can do things that the other guy can’t do.”
–Steve Jobs 2002
“Smartphones will never need more than 640K of RAM.” –Bill Gates
“The best verizon has to offer”
yeah.. and the pre is the best sprint has to offer…. thats not sayin much
@DLMeyer
“That 256MB ought to be enough for your core apps, unless you are excessively greedy, while the SDs give you nearly unlimited storage for non-core items. Those tunes you want to sort through, or the latest game.”
You seem to be under the misapprehension that you can store applications, or “games”, on the SD card. You can’t. You can only store applications on the internal Flash memory. You can”t store the “latest game” on you SD card at all. After Android 2.0 and its standard applications are installed, there is about 200 MB left for applications on the current Motorola Droid.
The developer can store media files for the game on the SD card but that causes installers and uninstallers to be much more complicated than if the app was just installed as a single bundle as it is on the iPhone.
It isn’t surprising that you don’t know this though since most Droid reviews don’t mention it. Pogue does mention it but still gets it wrong by saying the Droid has a nonsensical 560 MB of Flash memory. Not sure where he came up with that number.
That’s really stupid… Didn’t Google build Android from the ground up? I can understand RIM’s Blackberry OS having such application storage limitations, because RIM’s OS is just a glorified PDA OS that they’ve shimmed and propped up to support modern features. But why is Google creating Android NOW and crippling it with such a limitation. I find that really hard to understand.
I find it hilarious all you guys are bashing Droid…
Just remember.. Why is the Droid user getting 5X the 3G coverage over the iPhone user on the incompetent AT&T;’s non-existent 3G network…
There’s a map for that! LMFAO!
From the AT&T;complaint against Verizon where AT&T;claimed it was ‘incalculable’ – Can’t count how many 3G subscribers you’re losing to Verizon? There’s an app for that!