“The hardware (which is Motorola’s) mostly works. The keyboard is horrible and I’ve never used it, which means that it is a real design flaw given how much weight and mechanical operation it adds to the device. (The software keyboard works well enough that I’ve found it adequate but the other problems with the software make it barely useable.) The camera button on my Droid doesn’t work and never has, so I call up the camera from the home screen. The on-off button is poorly placed for one-handed operation and requires real force to actuate,” Alsop writes.
“The software (Google’s Android plus apps both from Google and from other developers) doesn’t work and is unacceptable on a mobile device. First, the operating system doesn’t work well enough to be considered a mobile OS. A mobile phone needs to have an OS that is really tied down and ready to perform at all times, like for receiving phone calls. This one isn’t,” Alsop writes. “The process management in the OS stinks. Press on an app icon; maybe it will come up and maybe the phone will just not respond. Who’s to know why?”
Alsop writes, “I’m not actually joking. The software is so bad that, for instance, when you open the phone app and click on search, there are multiple opportunities for the software to not respond or to respond incorrectly, which means that the phone is not useable unless you are starting intently at it and very, very patient about waiting for something to happen. If you want to search your contacts, you type the first letter and the phone will stop responding for 20-30 seconds. Don’t know why.”
Alsop writes, “After a month of using the phone (or trying really hard to use it) as my primary device, I have concluded that it’s a bad product and I have to get rid of it. It is plenty clear that Motorola was so desperate to get it on the market that it didn’t take time to test it properly and pushed or pulled Google into releasing crappy software on it.”
Full article – highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s always nice to see the truth in print, however rare it may be.
@FB
Your points/rebuttals are fair but I do want to comment on them.
Nav App: Yes, it MIGHT appear on the iPhone IF they clear it, but it came on the DROID now and works pretty well AND it’s FREE. I know it’s kind of splitting hairs, but all the Turn-by-turn on iPhone are pay and pretty expensive at that.
Screen: Sure, higher pixel density isn’t “necessary” but it sure is nice. It’s kind of like HD vs Standard Def. You can watch the same movie on both but there is a distinct difference between the 2 and it really makes a difference, especially to someone with glasses, that it’s much clearer and easier to read, in my experience, than the iPhone/iPod Touch.
Apps on the Card: Like I said in another part of my list (2nd post – my Dislikes), The Apps don’t install on the card (but I know they could if it were written into the firmware) but the App developers have found a way around it. All they need to do is put the primary launching app on the internal and all the support files on the card. This keeps the footprint on the internal to a few K even if the download is much larger. I’ve close to 150 apps on it right now and have used less than 100 of the internal memory. I’m hoping they will change the “no install on card” but even if they don’t, since you can get around it pretty effectively, it’s not nearly as big a deal as I thought it would be.
Oh, another feature I just remembered that I like about it almost any sound you find can be a ringtone simply by saving the file down and clicking on it and holding and selecting “make ringtone” and it adds it to the list. Those that don’t work that way can be added with “ringdroid” free app. No $2 fee.
@g4Duelle
Read that old Alsop post carefully instead of just quoting a few lines and he actually got it exactly RIGHT. He said that what Apple needed wasn’t Next, but Steve Jobs. Because it needed leadership.
While he read SJ’s mind wrong, he diagnosed Apple exactly right.
Next vs. Be didn’t matter. Steve Jobs mattered.
Seriously, if I’m Alsop I’m proud of that call. Misreading SJ’s mind is relatively minor. But in the end Apple got exactly what he said they needed and the rest is amazing history.
I have three iPhones and and three mac books I’m sorry but motorola droid is off the hook screen resoultion is niiiiiiiiice HD status!!!!
jvh:
ha ha the only bad review i’ve read and it’s on a macdailynews site. surprise, surprise. i’ve used the iphone and now have a droid. i find it superior in almost every way.
clearly you missed Robert Scoble’s Droid review. He wasn’t suite as scathing but he clearly did not feel the Droid was up to the iPhone’s standards or even the Palm Pre. He mentioned the battery door falling off repeatedly and within hours of getting the device and described the hardware as bulky heavy and clunky, and the software as sluggish and unpolished and the camera as terrible.
If you really do have a Droid and enjoy it you clearly have very low expectations and standards.
To say the Droid is in any way superior is clearly trolling BS. If you meant ATT vs Verizon in your area that’s not what you said. You are a tool.
The proof will come in cust surveys and returns of Droids in the bext few months. I have a strong feeling the Droid is going to faceplant and Motorolla is going to go out of business soon. The whole phone industry is going to see dome major shake ups in the next couple years.
Sounds like FUD from MDN. Fearing competition?
Droid owner for three weeks; NONE of the problems listed in the article. It’s called a defective phone. Bring it in, and get a new Droid, you idiot.
“…call 611 from your phone, and report your dropped calls”
OK Mr AT&T;man, make me an app for that, please….
These silly arguments raised by people like “Ben” are too funny. The war has been fought over the last 10 years, and guess what, iPhone won it in two years. IT is THE computer-phone-camera that 90+% of normal people want, full stop.
“The keyboard is horrible and I’ve never used it…”
How can a serious reviewer even make a statement like that? Did they just hear that the keyboard was horrible and decided that it wasn’t even worth trying? Or did he actually use it and decide it was horrible then, which makes the second part of that statement false?
Things like this drive me nuts, and make the whole review suspect because it just sounds like he’s being emotional about it.
HazMatt
@Will
I also sold my iPhone 3G after buying the 3Gs and I got $300 for it. The guy was buying it to jailbreak it and use on tmobile. If you noticed when you put it up for sale.. online many are advertising a jailbroken phone mostly more than a non jailbroken one.
Wow. The trolls and astroturfers are out in force today…
People love Apple products, and others who hate Apple think that by spewing their opinion on a public forum that suddenly others’ preferences will change. How utterly pathetic and boring.
It cracks me up at how the mere mention of liking Apple’s goodies gets douchenozzles all pissed off. Keep the laughs coming!!
Another piss poor review.
I have a G1 on T-Mobile and have experienced zero of the issues he is talking about. The G1 has been a great alternative to the iPhone. (AT&T;is not an option). I think the review should be Crap Motorola + Crap Verizon = utter crapiness. There that’s better.
The story is told that at an early product meeting at Apple, Steve Jobs effectively called the early prototype of the iPhone “crap” and demanded the engineers come back with something a lot better.
Anecdotal, perhaps, but the determination to ship something “insanely great”, and not just any junk, is what makes Apple what it is. What’s missing at Nokia, and HTC, and the rest is someone to look at their latest proposed “iPhone killer” and call it what it is – crap – and push them to deliver something worthwhile.
I have an android device, and even though it’s a huge improvement over my old phone, I can tell it’s slow and unresponsive. I blame that on the apps though, Google should be more careful about what they put in their app market.
I havent tried Droid but from what I have read and the videos I watched about it, looks like garbage to me.
If I’d buy a new device, I’d wait until HTC release their next generation of HTC Sense or I’d look for other offers (I have heard the N900 is pretty good).
Were do people with missed calls live? I’ve lived in the NYC area, Miami area and now in the Seattle area. I have never had missed call or any other problem with ATT. What am I missing?
Hey Ben! Why hide the truth? Im using Motorola Droid too. And guess what i hate it! It lags too much n hangs sometimes! And i juz bought it 1 month ago! Yes some of Motorola’s Droid features is cool but it LAGS!
If iphone has drop calls blame ATT not apple. Im buying my iphone 3GS nxt mth! No ATT for me; im Canadian 😀
@ Ben
Oi fink oi wuv oo. Pleez marrie mee.
Yu r soo kewl wiv your mad rents.
r yew a rent buoy?
Hahah, sure, Dave. The Droid is selling like hotcakes.
I seem to recall another smartphone that was selling like hotcakes shortly after its launch. What was it called again? Oh. That’s right. It was called the Palm Pre.
But wait, the Pre was a total commercial failure. It couldn’t possibly have sold that well. But the numbers say it did. What’s going on?
Here’s how it works. A lot of companies like to play a game. The game is that they count units shipped to retail as units sold, which they technically are since they’re sold to retail. But the number of units sold to retail doesn’t indicate how well a product is selling to real customers. Companies like to do this because they can wildly misrepresent how well their product is faring. They can ship 300,000 units to retail on launch day and they can claim them as 300,000 units sold. That’s what Palm did, which is why the Pre was able to fail despite having such apparently strong sales.
Motorola’s playing the same game with the Droid, and just like with the Pre, the desperate trolls jumping to its defense are indicative that it is, in reality, bombing. Hard.
Do you guys realize your iPhone is locked down? Developers are sick and tired of the way Apple has treated them. Do you realize Apple bars apps from being created that compete with their own software? (Browsers)
Do you realize you cannot customize your iPhone.
Why does this article talk about the OS of an Android phone for? You have an iPhone. There is no operating system for the actual user. You given what they give you.
Let the sheep graze…
Lol, you can’t take a non-mac item review seriously if it’s coming from someone working with/for mac.
They are obviously going to be biased, and try to make their product seem better.
Truth is, the Droid is a good competitor to the iPhone but its flaw is how long its been out in the market.
When the Droid is out and has more apps and bugs fixed, it will be a lot better than it already is.
iPhone users, get your stubborn mind out the apple you’ve bit and taste some of the droid
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I am a recent Droid owner coming from an iphone. iphone is a great phone the problem is at&t;because of them I am back with Verizon and won’t look back. My droid has performed perfectly, it’s missing a few apps i would mind having back but i don’t miss not having service at my house. For me Droid is a much better choice thanks to verizons much stronger network and a very well put together phone.
I had an Iphone, until I moved to a new area and had zero service. I loved my Iphone and would have kept it forever, except it just plain didn’t work here. Zero bars.
Switched to Verizon and had the Storm, which I hated. Missed my Iphone dearly. Stared longingly at it up on the bookshelf.
Got a Droid, and I have forgotten about my Iphone. I’ve never had any of the issues to which this author claims. It works perfectly. I prefer everything from the pattern to unlock to the simplicity of the camera. The ability to customize and make the phone my own WITHOUT jailbreaking is awesome.
The Iphone will stay on the shelf, or perhaps find it’s way to Ebay.
it cracks me up how hypocritical apple fanbois are
they call products that they have never used or seen utter crap, but when someone calls the iPhone utter crap they defend that you have to use it first before you can call it utter crap.
when it comes to OSX vs Windows regarding apps its Quality over quantity, but when it comes to your beloved iPhone App Store its Quantity over Quality, make up your fucking mind!
you guys tell people to research their facts about the iPhone before they talk crap, but you guys LOVE to talk crap about other phones before doing your own research unless you call reading other fanboi rants research
i think that apple fanbois give a bad representation of the rest of the mac community i personally own a macbook pro and 2 ipods, ive own a total of 7 ipods in my life, but IMHO i like the DROID better so STFU STUPID ASS FANBOIS!!!!!!!
@Iphone killer1.
Bwahahaa, Droid bombing? Sorry but you’re wrong. Several reliable sources have already estimated 700,000-800,000 units sold in under a month. It should hit a million by the holidays easy.
And this poorly written trash piece that’s posing as journalism is making the rounds on the forums – it’s comedic value is too much to ignore I guess.
You Apple fanboys are soooo damn funny!!!!
These Apple fanboys are really killing the culture of their beloved culture and turning it into something synonymous with douchebaggery. You are turning off interested people from using a nice product by continuing this path.
I have had my DROID for almost a month now and I have NOT encountered any of the issues listed above. Could it be that the negative and probably inaccurate comments in this story are made by an iphone bigot and are intended to discredit the current success of the DROID thereby discouraging others from buying this great device? I currently have dozens of apps loaded on my phone and several are likely to be open at any point in time. The internet access is incredibly speedy and the screen is gorgeous! I have an android version of ereader which allows me to download and read books from fictionwise and ereader.com. Very crisp and clear text. Some neat games are available as well. I have only one complaint and that is the lack of voice command via bluetooth which I used quite heavily on my old Motorola Q.