What a difference two months make. It's was late July when we first saw a
render and
spy shot of Motorola's "other" Android devices, the Verizon-bound
Droid, a.k.a. the Artist Formerly Known as Sholes.
Boy Genius Report has been
teasing the
handset for the better part of the week, and now it's giving us the full monty of the hardware, including its 5 megapixel autofocus camera on the back, and various
Eclair-powered screens. Boy Genius himself notes that it's the fastest Android device he's used -- thank goodness for an authentic OMAP3 -- is "slightly" thicker than an iPhone 3GS, runs that
Android 2.0 we've been hearing so much about, and includes a desktop cradle that turns the Droid into a glanceable display with weather and the like (sounds like a miniature
Hub in a way, doesn't it?). Anyhow, you want all to see the whole show? You know just where to click.
posted Oct 19th 2009 12:44AM
Fuck storm 2 i think this or the new htc dragon is my next phone!
@O.P of this comment, the best phone for this quarter indeed, should we buy it? It depends.. but for me, I'll definitely want to get my hand on that one- -You can order it on bestbuy as a pre-sale :D
judgment day on Nov. 6 Will the droid be welcomed by us, humans? detailed preview: http://tinyurl.com/droid-finally-release-good-bad
and so it came to pass that the waiting has finally been ended
Everything looks nice until you get to that big chin at the bottom... Why?
It's not a chin, it's straight, and it's there because that's where all the antenna's and radios are kept.
Eh, not really a chin as a chin angle's towards the user's face. I know what you mean, though.
The phone looks like it's going to be a fantastic phone but I'm afraid the marketing behind it is REALLY off the mark.
I'm surprised Apple fanboys haven't counter the Verizon "Open Development" argument with either Google's C&D order to modder Cyanogen.
Honestly, if Apple made interchangeable batteries, had a parallel version of the phone with a Hardware Keyboard and added a LED flash Verizon would have nothing going for them in their ads.
Multitasking is a double edge blade. On the one hand you can get an almost flawless experience by limiting third party apps from running in parallel (aka iPhone), then on the flip side you get multitasking, which brings the smartphone experience MUCH closer to that of a real computer but with the lag issues.
Now honestly if everyone would just finally come out with devices with the top end AVAILABLE hardware, the iPhone would have multitasking and other smartphone would get lag less multitasking, once that happens this multitasking vs. lag argument would be completly moot.
But hey until that happens these kind of active discussions are fun!
Also another funny thing I read, an Apple blog (obviously bias) brought up a very good point about the ads, they really aren't targeted at the right market.
By trying to be witty with the iDon't, the non-geek audience which makes up the majority of iPhone users believe that Verizon is referring to themselves. So really they are targeting the wrong audience as I really don't see many current knowledgable iPhone users (as you can see from the posts in this very thread) from making the switch.
i can run a decent amount of programs on my old Treo 700wx at the same with almost no lag. i think battery life is a bigger issue than lag when talking about multitasking.
Look there is not friggin reason a phone should not give you multitasking as an option. I have the Samsung i910. If I want to multitask I can... if I dont to save battery life... I can. Its up to me. Where as the iPhone you er... iDont have a choice.
Gotta say I think the marketing is genius... watching the football game with my fam tonight.. they knew what the ad was targeting... and they are definitely not geeks. This commercial is a TEASER... to get people asking themselves.. what is droid... they pop the link up and people go checking it out. There will be follow up commercials that reveal more and more until boom its all out in the open. Similar to many movie releases actually. Anyway Droid was the #1 googled item yesterday... so you tell me it didnt work.
The multitasking I am looking forward to the most is listening to music while sending a txt message. From what I can tell the iPhone does not do that. I think it would be good if Apple would add a couple multitasking options like that. If it had that and a physical keyboard I would be much more interested in the iPhone.
Don't get me wrong, i'm not an iFan. I'm getting rid of my iphone as soon as the Samsung Moment comes out. But that said I hate stupid advertising. Half the things they say are outright wrong. The iphone most certainly does have widgets. I use them all the time. The yahoo widgets are standard and you can download plenty more. It does allow open development. Absolutely anyone can make all the apps they want, (to be frank they could do with a bit of restriction, you wouldn't believe the crap people think they should get paid for). As for the rest it's just stupid. I'd much rather use the iphone keyboard than those tiny buttons on the Verizon droid phone. And why would i ever want to take pictures in the dark with a phone. It's just inflammatory crap. This ad campaign has just permanently and irrevocably made me decide to never do business with Verizon in any capacity.
Notice that is my opinion of the add. The device itself seems pretty good, despite the god awful keyboard. It still needs a bit of work before it could challenge other android phones let alone the iphone. This phone will never make anyone want to get rid of their iphone, but it may make people who don't already have one consider an android.
"By trying to be witty with the iDon't, the non-geek audience which makes up the majority of iPhone users believe that Verizon is referring to themselves. "
You can't seriously believe that. People think the phone is being advertised by trashing it? C'mon, thats a real stretch.
WTF happened to the keyboard?
Is this a VZ exclusive or will Sprint have it?
seems exclusive at least for now. or at least i haven't heard about it on any other carrier yet, but that doesn't mean it's not in the pipeline.
I don't doubt it'll be an amazing phone performance-wise, and I'm sure it's a solidly built device, but I just don't like the way it looks. It doesn't look sleek, it looks industrial and sharp.
Industrial? it looks like it will break if i look at it too hard. I wish it looked industrial.
Looks & sounds awesome however I'm one of those guys who wants a onscreen keyboard instead. I hope they make one that doesn't include a physical keyboard.
I've played with it. If you slide the physical keyboard back in, a nice on-screen keyboard pops up.
I hope there are some multi-tasking options (b/c the battery life was sub-par when I played with it). Granted, I was trying anything and everything to test out the phone.
The phone is black, with gold accents, kicks ass, and has a funny ridge on it
Sounds like Mr. T
Phone really looks tight...currently rocking the Hero and the on-board keyboard works good, but I wouldnt hesitate to get a phone with a physical keyboard and the hardware looks amazing. for Multi-tasking though, the Pre was really great compared to the Hero and prior WM devices. Switching through the cards on a Pre was very natural and practical. Anyone able to explain to me the "muli-tasking" on the Android Hero? And when we are talking about Androind 2.0, is that 'Eclair' or the same thing I have on the Hero currently?
Don't get me wrong, the specs on this are great. But is it just me or is this phone butt-ugly? The design looks dated to me, like something out of the 90s. It could have been a lot cleaner, less ridges and beveling. I'm no apple fanboy, but man, the iphone or just about anyother phone out there looks sexier than this. And as far as I can tell, sexy sells phones.
You're completely right, but I guarantee you that was Verizons decision not to have anything to look "trendy" or how ever else you want to put it. Have you seen their line of phones? Name one good looking phone they have. The Tour is nice, but looks like most Blackberries, the Samsung Rouge probably looks the most "fruity", but for some reason Verizon likes to downplay color schemes on their phones.
The capabilities sound awesome, but the phone and the ui look so bland.
That was not the Droid I was looking for.
god its ugly i was debating weather i should wait for this go for the strom 2
am i the only 1 who dosnt like that design of cell phone/?
i mean i hate this design they should of had it like the palm pre with the keybord under or
like the voyager i hate how it look in general
Was only a matter of time... next year there are going to be some #awesome handsets and Android will eclipse the iPhone by end of 2010. Don't get me wrong, the iPhone is an amazing device, but Android is truly mass market. Cant' wait to run our v2 app on this handset! oh and if you Android lovers want the beta, sign up here! http://bit.ly/rumbeta :-)
I quote one of the readers from Boy Genius's site(not me):
That thing is fugly. It looks like Texas Instruments designed it!
@Andres: I agree 100%. However, the Palm Pre really isn't a big seller and I think it's damn sexy.
I too was going to say that it looks like an old TI calculator!
Agreed, the Pre is sexy, of course, there are other factors that affect sales. It's just part of the equation.
Cheers!
i agree, did u know it actually has a 550MHz Texas Instruments OMAP3430 processor?
lol, the 550mhz part sounds good, but the texas instruments part not so much.
Any idea when this phone is coming out?
http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/
Put in any email address and spam people directly from Verizon. Cool.
This is what all the hype is about? Damn Motorala it's 2009 almost 2010 lose the keyboard and make something that will actually make people want to have it. Verizon, you're screwed with this one, I had hope for you but this???????? wtf.
But it has an on screen keyboard too right? So, what is so negative about this device?
I have a Storm, but as ugly as this is I want it anyway. Should be better than Storm 2, right? RIGHT?
I wish the keyboard piece was like the Calgary.
The Calgary looks like a phone that VZW will market to peoople in the 12 to 16 year old age bracket just to make the most of their ARPUs. That phone looks like a toy compared to the Droid.
The Calgary looks like a POS, thats all i can say. Rim stocks will continue to decline and they cant sell their phones for much cheaper than buy one get one. Taking a look back its amazing how much rim has lost their market share.
The BGR reports says the phone has a thickness comparable to the iphone. We know the motorola had huge issues with their motorola krzr phones with the hindges always breaking. Seems we could easily run into a quality issue with multiple open and closes.
One thing i notice but it seems like verizon is rushing this out the door for christmas season and not crossing all their x's and o's. They are running major campaigns online all over the web.
http://www.droidmotorola.com
This phone has gone through the grinder and has been thoroughly worked through. I will take any spec or tech questions,
OK VZ tester, what is the video recorder resolution and frame rate.?
I guess I must be the only one, but I love the design of this phone minus the gold accents which should just be silver.