The Droid, from an iPhone User's Perspective
UPDATE! Scroll to the bottom for more info.
I have had an iPhone on the AT&T network since the second day the first generation iPhone was available. I've had a Motorola Droid on the Verizon network for two days now. Each one has its pros and cons, and is suited for a different user. I want to give you a perspective from a cell phone junkie that loves his iPhone, but is always looking for something new.
Let me start by saying that my major issue with the iPhone is AT&T. If I lived in New York City (I visited this summer), you couldn't pay me to use an iPhone. AT&T is so overloaded there that calls are difficult to connect and I could run to the data center faster than the iPhone could pull down data. I find myself wondering what would happen to AT&T's subscriber base if Verizon landed an iPhone of their own.
Enough of that, you've heard it 1000 times if you're reading this review. Down to my thoughts.
There is a fairly strong polarization between smartphone users. Two particular features come to mind when thinking about this phone. The first is the keyboard. The interesting thing is people have been clamoring for an iPhone with a physical keyboard since the day it was released. I saw several interesting posts just before and right after the Droid was released. The gist was, can we get one without a keyboard? So, where you fall on the keyboard will play a part in what you are comfortable with.
I prefer the iPhone keyboard to either of the Droid's keyboards (physical and on-screen). The physical keyboard is too flat for me, and he layout is not particularly easy for me to use either. The keys just seem to run together with very little differentiation between keys. The little groove between keys is hard to feel for a guitar player with callouses on his fingertips. I'll try to snap a few pictures tomorrow of the difference between the on-screen keyboards. The iPhone is spaced out well, and it seems to me to be easier to type on, with better autocorrect. I have gotten to the point that I can type fairly well on the Droid's on-screen keyboard, but I'd rather avoid the physical one altogether. That is fine with me—I never really cared about the lack of a physical keyboard anyway.
The second point is background apps. The iPhone does not allow any apps to run in the background. The Droid runs nearly everything in the background. The great thing about the iPhone is that the push notifications generally do a fine job of covering the lack of background processes. This keeps the phone from becoming bogged down with several dozen processes eating up memory. The downside is that not every app has such notifications. On the Droid, everything can run in the background. There are widgets that you can install on the homescreens that will tell you all sorts of information like weather, sports scores, facebook and twitter updates. This is handy information to have at your fingertips, but it comes at a price. I felt like I was back in my Windows Mobile phone days. I had to have a task killer handy to end processes after a short time. Things began to build up and the phone slowed down. Once the random processes were terminated, all was well again. I'm not sure what the impact on battery life is—I have not charged the phone all night to give it a good run at the next day.
With all of the different apps running in the background on the Droid, I felt like I was getting a notification for something about every 30 seconds. It was either Twitter, Facebook, Sportstap or Gmail wanting my attention every minute or two. I'm not one that can just ignore notifications, so that did get a little annoying for me.
The iPhone has an advantage with the iTunes App store. The number of apps is staggering compared to the number on the Android platform. But that should change as more carriers are pushing more and more Android devices to market. The downside to the iTunes App Store is the approval process and the lack of open development. On the Android Market, anyone can submit an app and have it for download. You can also install from unofficial sources. On the flipside, the Android Market has a bunch of apps that either do not work, or that haven't been updated for 2.0 on the Droid yet. Apple's apps generally function well, even the boatload of fart apps that no one needs (if only they'd approve that Google Voice app).
The lack of multitouch is pretty disappointing. Apple has a good thing going with the pinch to zoom deal. It works well and allows more precise viewing. The double-tap to zoom is much more accurate as well. It seems like the Droid just zooms in a predetermined level where the iPhone generally will zoom into whatever you double-tap, whether it is a picture or a block of text.
The Droid's camera should be much better with a 5 megapixel camera, but I did not find that to be the case. It is slow and unresponsive. If you have to take a quick picture, just leave it in your pocket. The flash is not helpful. It generally leaves a washed out spot right in the center of the picture. The iPhone 3GS's touch to focus/white balance is also superior to the Droid's random focus camera.
The Droid's media playback leaves something to be desired as well. The music player is fairly standard. Nothing special here. I found myself missing the iPhone's iPod popup control feature with a double press of the home button. The video support leaves a lot to be desired. I could not find anything in my library in a proper format to play on the Droid. It is very limited in codecs that are supported (mainly, h.263 and h.264).
There are things the Droid does well. If you want to stay in constant touch, this is the phone for you. Just make sure you get an extra battery if you are a social media junkie. Sometimes, I wish I could swap out the battery in my iPhone when it dies, but it is sealed inside.
The car and home modes are a great addition, even if you do have to buy each dock separately for $30. I like that Motorola thought ahead enough to put the alarm clock/large-button navigation modes into the phone. That is very helpful.
My most missed feature from returning the Droid will be Google Navigation. This is a VERY nice product that I will miss already. To get similar function on the iPhone, you have to buy a separate program that likely will not come with yearly updates. That will probably be a charge to update the apps. CoPilot runs $35, Navigon for $90 and TomTom for $100. The TomTom car kit will run you another $120 on top of the software (hello TomTom...check out your stock prices over the last two weeks...). Here's hoping that Google (and Apple) brings GNav to the iPhone.
The Droid screen is amazing. It is nearly double the resolution of the iPhone and looks spectacular. They need to figure out what coating Apple used on the 3GS screen though and put that to use on the Droid. The screen smudges very easy.
The speaker on the Droid is fantastic. It is loud and clear. The iPhone tends to distort at higher volumes, especially playing music. The speakerphone could also be louder. The Droid allows for near infinite choices on ringtones and alerts. The iPhone allows a whatever ringtones you want, but the messaging alerts are limited to just a handful, none of which are particularly appealing.
Finally, Android 2.0 just feels like it needs a little more polish. This is a Google experience phone, so there are no fancy widgets like you will find on the Motorola Cliq (running MotoBlur) or the HTC Hero/Eris (running HTC Sense).
The Droid certainly has a lot of potential. One thing that would possibly make the Droid a keeper for me is if there was a way to select which processes did/did not run in the background. It would be nice, for instance, to select to have twitter running in the background, but not have the camera or the calendar running in the background.
The bottom line is, do you want ultimate ease of use and the polish of the iPhone, or would you rather have ultimate customization of your phone? Are you ready to keep your task killer handy or are you ready to be limited on the notifications that you can receive? Would you rather have a really good on-screen keyboard, or would you rather have two mediocre keyboards to choose from?
I am returning the Droid. It just does not work for me right now. Android has unlimited potential. If Google keeps up the platform, which they should given the number of devices that are hitting the market (Cliq, Droid, Eris, Hero, X10, etc.), they have a good chance of eating away at the iPhone's market share. If you just can't get AT&T, the Droid is a solid option (unlike the BlackBerry Storm 2). The network is solid (even though I got much better speeds from the AT&T network in Raleigh) and the plans are on par with the iPhone plans.
Do you have questions about the Droid or iPhone? Drop me a note in the comments below and I'll answer them. Remember that my time is limited with the Droid, so ask soon. I have already returned one of the two Droids that I bought this weekend. The other may go back as soon as tomorrow (Monday, Nov. 9).
UPDATE:
You can see the comparison shots of the results from the speedtest.net app on each platform. Surprisingly, AT&T was almost always faster. The result pictured above was typical of each test I ran. This was the last one of the bunch.
You can also see the difference in the keyboards. The spacing is much better on the iPhone keyboard, making it easier to type on than the Droid keyboard. I found myself getting better and better on the Droid the more I used it.
Finally, I forgot to point out the Android notification panel. This is a very handy little pull down menu that keeps all of your notifications in a nice, neat area. Definitely would be a plus for the iPhone to work out a better notification system. I miss random alerts all of the time because they are not persistent.
