Droid Doesn’t: It’s Not Ready For Prime Time
The Motorola Droid is truly terrible, in part because it has such promise (and has been amazingly well reviewed — I worry I’m missing something). Ironically, most of the blame for the cruddiness of the phone really should be laid at Google’s feet, not Motorola’s.
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. But this is just version 1.0 issues that Motorola will likely fix next time out.
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. 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? Try pressing on the phone icon at 70 mph and have it not respond. Then try pressing again. And then get a message something like: “Activity Home (in process android.process.acore) is not responding.” Force Quit or Wait. Oops! I just drove into the guy in front of me when he slowed down and now I’m dead!
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. If you keep typing ahead, you get no feedback about what you’re typing until the phone responds, and then you will likely have typed the wrong things so you have to start over again. It’s very, very unpleasant experience, particularly when you think that the search function must have been made by Google engineers, who have made billions of dollars with very fast, efficient, satisfying search on the web.
I have missed calls, lost calls, misdialed calls, pocket dialed people, and had many other experiences in the last month that have lead me to conclude that the Droid is not suited to its intended purpose as a smart phone.
I have been using my iPhone in parallel (but with a different phone number, of course) and I replaced my Blackberry Tour with the Droid. I can say definitively that the iPhone and Blackberry devices have never gotten in the way of making or receiving phone calls, but the Droid actually makes it harder to make phone calls than the other devices. The phone app crashes or suspends. The bluetooth fails to connect in my car. The camera often overtaxes the device and cannot process the images fast enough to actually capture what you have snapped in about a third of the photos. If you get the picture you want and then went to send it by email, the process of creating the email, finding the address of the person you want to send to, and actually sending the photo can take as much as 5 minutes, including the wait times the phone forces on you. In fact, the first photo I sent of my new grandson from the delivery room was only partially rendered. You can imagine how I feel about my Droid when it caused my very human desire to brag about my new grandson to fail.
I can go on and on, but 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.
I am open to suggestions for what device should replace my Motorola Droid, which has turned out to be a real piece of crud. I want a device on Verizon and already have an iPhone on AT&T. I’m not willing to wait for Motorola to fix the Droid or for Verizon to do a deal with Apple for a new iPhone. I have been thinking that maybe I should port my main phone number to my iPhone and just stop carrying two devices. What do you think I should do?
November 29th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
why don’t you retire from covering technology because you’re a fossil ;)
November 29th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
What was wrong with your Tour? Why not go back to that? At least the Google Mail app works, plus the other basic ones if you’re on BlackBerry Internet Service (Google Sync, Pandora, TweetGenius, Facebook etc). And it works great as a phone.
November 29th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Dude… I have a Droid and don’t have any of the problems you’re talking about. I’ve had my phone for a couple of weeks and it’s the best phone I have ever owned and frankly on the market. A friend of mine had the iPhone and now the Droid and he even says the Droid is the Best phone on the market… If you’re having the problems you wrote on your blog (which I personally doubt) I would take it back to the store immediately.
November 29th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Stewart, why don’t you return your Droid to Verizon and revert to your Tour? If you port your main number to your iPhone you’ll be frustrated by all the AT&T dead zones.
November 29th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Aha, going back in your blog I see you didn’t like the Tour, either.
November 29th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I’d go get Google Voice, shift over to that number for everything, and stop carrying multiple phones.
November 29th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by salsop: Tell me which phone to replace my stinky #Droid with, please! http://bit.ly/4o0bUt…
November 29th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Blackberry’s Storm 2 has fixed all of the issues with Storm 1, and returned to Blackberry’s usual high standards of quality and reliability. RIM needs to get more apps, to catch up with iPhone eco-system, but some of the apps RIM has, like Facebook, are more tightly integrated to the smartphone features than with the iPhone.
November 29th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
you had the best “phone” currently on vzw, the tour
you may have a defective droid, i believe it to be the best device on vzw
though more clunky than the iphone and less efficient than the tour, I find myself using the droid exclusively
i love the google integration, have found many useful apps, and having a robust device connected to a 3g network is awesome (we only have edge on gsm in central WY) browsing and searching on the go has never been better, i am liking it more than the iphone which was my main device always connected with a mifi pre-droid, the higher resolution, open file system, and google apps (gmail, finance, listen) have made me put the iphone in the drawer
November 29th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Wow, I must be using a *completely* different Droid device than you have. I’ve had none of the software issues you cite.
November 29th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Take a look at the HTC eris
November 29th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
I’m going through the same process. I’ve had iphone envy for a year, but can’t handle the AT&T network, and really wanted to carry only one device. So I think I’ve been more patient with Droid’s shortcomings. That said, there’s a good chance I’m going to return mine as well.
I think there’s some reasonable chance that the “Baby Droid” (HTC Eris) might be a resonable choice. It runs Android 1.5 instead of 2.0, which *may* have been out long enough to get some of the bugs chased away. It also has some additional software from HTC that seems to fill some of the voids on the Moto Droid. That’s probably the device I’ll try if I return the Moto Droid. If that doesn’t work, my Blackberry 8830 will be recalled to active duty…
November 29th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Stick it out for the Palm Pre. It’s coming in January, and it is hands down the best phone I have ever used.
November 29th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I bought my Droid 3 days after it came out. I was skeptical whether I would like it or not, having long wished the iPhone would come to Verizon. Aside from your comment about the physical keyboard (it is pretty bad, I use it mostly when I use the web browser, but that’s it) I can’t say I’ve seen anything you’re talking about. My phone app works just as it should, my interface is snappy and responsive, and the only apps I’ve had freeze on me are 3rd party apps that had yet to be fully adapted for Android 2.0 and the Droid screen resolution. Most of those have been updated since and now work great.
It sounds like you either got a bad device or maybe don’t know how to kill background tasks because you’re so used to your iPhone doing it fore you.
November 29th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Is driving and using a mobile phone legal in the USA?
November 29th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Sounds faulty to me; why not try a replacement device first? You wouldn’t say all Ferraris were rubbish if the one you took for a test drive had an oil leak :)
November 30th, 2009 at 12:11 am
It’s either you have a defective phone or this is a user problem (You installed something that causes the phone to misbehave).
I have a G1 and while I have problems sometimes, I won’t make the conclusion that Android “… doesn’t work well enough to be considered a mobile OS.”
November 30th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Wow … like waving a red flag in front of the Google/open source fan boys … you’ve got more courage than most folks …
November 30th, 2009 at 12:37 am
I have a droid. I have had Verizon service for a decade but had been considering ditching them for a decent phone selection. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the phone.
That said, I have experienced many of the same issues/problems though perhaps to a lesser degree. The on/off switch on top is annoying. The keyboard feels heavy and clunky and not much more accurate the the soft keys. The camera takes forever to focus and even longer to capture an image, when it does so at all.
I frequently have key presses fail to register, or sometimes register but so slowly that I have already attempted to back out of whatever I am doing and end up closing the app or browser window by the time the phone becomes responsive again.
Unlike Stewart, the one place I have had no issue is with phone calls & text messaging. I got an HTC adroid phone at a Google conference (on T-Mobile) and I have had none of the above issues with it. Which suggests the problem is either with Android 2.0 or Motorola.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:43 am
Where was this review before I bought the Droid? I am right on with your contentions minus the sending a photo, that takes 3 minutes.
The most aggravating experience is with my contacts. Just as the author suggested, searching contacts in ‘the cloud’ often results in disaster.
The keyboard is unusable. Even when I got the hang of hitting the right key I find out it doesn’t autocorrect! It’s incredibly difficult to correct one mistype 12 characters back.
Bye Droid.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:45 am
“What do you think I should do?”
Stop asking for other people’s opinions and make up your own mind. You’re using the phones, not everyone else. If you think the Droid is a piece of garbage, then don’t use it.
Why do you need two smartphones anyway?
November 30th, 2009 at 1:00 am
Jake: Is it also the first phone you’ve ever used?
November 30th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Instead of a Droid I recommend a MacBook Air to go with your iPhone. If you cannot tether to iPhone, get a Verizon Mi-Fi for the Air.
I carry an iPhone 3GS and a MacBook Air everywhere and it is so easy and productive that I got rid of my desktop computer so nothing is left behind when I travel. Together they are less than 1.5 kilos and both extremely rugged. The case for the MacBook Air looks like a writing portfolio with a pad of paper, very small, and fits into all my carry bags very nicely. A nice feature is the Mini DisplayPort on the Air is hot-pluggable, so it’s easy to attach any DVI, dual-DVI, or VGA display as you come across them just by plugging them on like USB.
You can choose from over 100,000 iPhone apps, over 100,000 Mac apps, and of course innumerable Web apps will run on both. Not to mention Unix and Java apps on the Mac, and you can run other operating systems in virtualization. I love having a multitrack recorder in both devices (Logic Pro on the Mac and FourTrack on iPhone my phone, as well as having both the iPhone camera and Photoshop on the Mac.
On the MacBook Air you have a built-in Webcam and Skype and iChat. Even if you are mostly communications-oriented it is a great mobile device.
No matter what I ask the iPhone to do, it responds immediately.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:14 am
As an avid iPhone user, I have no vested interest in Droid beyond belief that competition is good for consumers. That said, it sounds to me like you probably have a physically defective device. I’ve never used a Droid, but I can’t imagine Google would release something as bad as you describe. Get it exchanged and see.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:09 am
Jeff McFadden: so if iPhone goes Verizon, you’ll get an iPhone?
I’m not entirely happy with at&t but I don’t really have huge gripes with it, either. Certainly nowhere near enough to give up the functionality I’d be giving up by switching to a Verizon iPhone. Not in a million years.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:24 am
I’ve spent a lot of time with Android and it sounds to me like you don’t really understand what you’re doing or how the phone works.
As for using it hands-on while driving, that’s just stupid. Where I live, that’s illegal. People were getting killed every day thanks to their phones.
Android multi-tasks. If you’re running too many apps, then yeah….things can slow down just like on PC. So kill some apps. Then it runs like a crazy thing. Tidy up! :-)
November 30th, 2009 at 2:42 am
That post did not sound much fair. I very happy with Droid and did use iPhone.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Maybe you’ve just got some background application eating all the CPU or memory?
November 30th, 2009 at 2:44 am
You sir, are an ass for even thinking about using your phone while driving. That guy you just rear-ended happened to have two children in his car, and you took them both with you. Nice one.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:46 am
I got the Droid about a week ago and i hate it!!! Getting an iPhone when i will be able to afford it…
November 30th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Your laughable argument that response time issues could cause a road accident put the validity of the rest your article in doubt.
Don’t blame a phone for your own inadequacies.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Hey!
From what planet you sent this article? Android doesn’t work???? I had my G1 for 1year and it worked like a charm and the DROID is one of the best phones out there! The Iphone (my wife has one) is the only one a little better (for users like my wife, not me - I need a proper keyboard and good email handling so for me its Android or Blackberry)
“I am open to suggestions for what device should replace my Motorola Droid”
You should not be using a phone with just the numbers and the green and red buttons! It seems that its the only one you will manage to use!
November 30th, 2009 at 3:33 am
You are missing something.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:05 am
in fact, what I love with my iphone is that everything goes fast and easy. perhaps not the machine with a thousand configs possible, but what I care for is ease of use and integration.
with the google droid thing, it is the same as ms dos / windows vs apple mac os. the integration of hard and software by the same company has the advantage of solid and efficient machine. not everything open source, open standard etc is the best choice when it concerns a device like phone which needs some stable base for the telephone part.
and this is why google will get out its proper phone soon. but apple is ahead as before and of course the tech freaks dont like this and the glamour of the iphone neither… as before.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:18 am
How the hell did this post make it to TechMeme? It is utter BS.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:31 am
“But this is just version 1.0 issues that Motorola will likely fix next time out.”
No, it’s just poor industrial design and unforgivable. The hardware (inc. screen) is the users primary (only?) way of interacting with the phone. It should work flawlessly, no excuses.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Wow, you are reporting problems that I have not experienced with my Droid. Except for the lousy keyboard, I haven’t had any of the camera, phone call, or software issues that you are reporting here.
Barring any issue with the mechanics of the phone, it almost sounds as as if you perhaps added a third-party application that is sucking the life out of your phone. For instance, I found the Seesmic application for Twitter (currently in it’s initial version) to be extremely buggy and a performance hog. My phone’s applications would “pause” anytime Seesmic would try to refresh the tweets or I moved from one tab to another. Once I removed Seesmic, my phone was fine. I like Seesmic but I’ll wait for a less buggy version to come out.
If you’re having these many issues with your Droid I would reset the firmware back to its “out of the box” default state and see if you still have issues. This way, you’ll find whether it is the phone or something you added/configured on your phone that is causing the problem. If you still have problems, ask Verizon for a new Droid. I’ve heard rumors that Android 2.1 is coming out in the month of December which may fix some of the bugs you’re reporting, however your Droid experience sounds so unique that I personally wouldn’t have waited a month to complain to Verizon about it.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:42 am
“Oops! I just drove into the guy in front of me when he slowed down and now I’m dead!”
No, you’re dead because you’re a moron who uses their phone while driving. Why should I trust someone’s subjective opinions when their judgement is so clearly flawed?
I can’t speak for the Droid, but I have a Motorola DEXT and I experience none of the problems you have. In fact, after programming with the phone for a month now, I can attest to the stunning quality of the underlying OS. It’s a beautiful piece of work that successfully supports multi-tasking, unlike the iPhone.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:43 am
Another vote in favor of the Droid here. Haven’t had any of the problems you report, and I’m typing this quite quickly on the hardware keyboard.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Hey there,
the performance problems you describe are unrealistic to be caused by the OS.
If it is that bad, it is quite likely something’s wrong with the hardware - that would
also explain why some button does not work. And that alone should give you
a right to expect your vendor to replace it - did you try that?
November 30th, 2009 at 4:53 am
I picked up a Droid the same week it came out so I have been using it for a couple of weeks now. I have not had any of the problems that you mentioned though I will agree with you on the camera comments! The only problem I have experienced is if I leave my phone on a message screen, it the app sometimes hangs when I unlock the phone. So I just always make sure to leave my phone at the home screen. I have had zero problems with the phone app as well. I have downloaded several apps and absolutely love the capabilities, options, and overall interface of the phone.
Hands down this is the best phone I have had. I held off updating from my LG EnV2 for this phone and it was well worth the wait. I absolutely love it.
/submitted from phone using the keyboard!
November 30th, 2009 at 4:56 am
>> Try pressing on the phone icon at 70 mph and have it not respond.
Sorry, but if you use a mobile phone while driving, you’re just being an irresponsible *sshole endangering everybody around you. No matter how well the phone works.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:57 am
“you type the first letter and the phone will stop responding for 20-30 seconds”
You are seriously thinking it’s not a defective phone, that all Droid phones are like this, and nobody would have noticed ?
November 30th, 2009 at 4:59 am
The US has a tendency to pretty much ignore Symbian - pretty much a solved problem as a mobile OS, just waiting for a user interface upgrade. It’s unfortunate it wasn’t open-source before Android came along.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:04 am
DOA device and chump of a user.
www.gsmarena.com for possible alternatives, just verify band coverage with service.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:08 am
This has to be one of the worst “reviews” of any product I’ve ever read. I’ve never heard of this company or this author and I guess I now know why.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:10 am
Go back to the iPhone.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:16 am
I had to read the title on this article a couple of time because I have not had any of the problems described about. No crashes, no slow performance, everything starts up pretty much instantly.
My biggest gripes would be battery life (but this a fact of life with current smartphones) and the camera is a little slow.
The physical keyboard is not perfect as the D-pad offsets the keyboard to the left which feels a little strange but once you are used to it, it’s pretty easier to use but for me the software keyboard does make the hardware keyboard a little redundant.
But regarding this article I would have to say it is obviously written by a Apple fanboy.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:16 am
Like Jake. I am extremely pleased with my Palm Pre except for Sprint. As soon as Palm is available on Verizon, I am switching to Verizon.
So give Palm Pre a shot when its available on Verizon. Its the only phone that can compete with the iPhone.
Augustus
November 30th, 2009 at 5:25 am
Sorry for your trouble. I’ve been using it a month and don’t have those issues. You must have a bad phone.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:26 am
How many contacts are in your address book? Could that be the issue?
November 30th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Is this a joke?
You either have a faulty phone or a faulty brain. If it’s not the former, stick with a landline - these devices weren’t meant for you.
(Typed on my Droid keyboard)
November 30th, 2009 at 5:40 am
I have some of the problems that you have mentioned, including the force close or wait dialogues and sometimes slow response when using the universal search on the phone, but I would not say that the DROID is “truly terrible”.
All mobile platforms as of now kind of stink, in my opinion. There isn’t any one that truly stands out and makes me think that, “I can’t live without that phone’s experience.” The iPhone has it’s quirks, the Palm Pre is not that great, Blackberry is old, and Android is new and somewhat buggy. I guess that truly the best experience is iPhone’s, but I don’t want to be locked down and have Apple dictate what is good and what is not (Google Voice).
So, if you are experiencing these types of difficulties, go get another phone. If your camera button doesn’t work, have Verizon fix it. I personally love the Droid’s keyboard, and if you don’t, use something else.
I think that the DROID hits the mark most of the time. Thanks.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:40 am
I’ve had the droid for a couple of weeks, and have not seen many of the issue you describe. The phone and contacts process does need improvement, yes. (I love gmail, but cannot understand why Contacts is so weak.)
For the rest, I love the OS, and its open format. It resides within the ethos of incremental improvement that Google uses, and I trust that over time the glitches will be gone, and an abundance of improvements will silently take place. I came from a Berry, and have no desire to go back.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:44 am
I’ve had my Motorola Droid for a little over two weeks, and I can verify several of Stewart’s complaints, notably the inconsistency of the response to taps on the screen. Some taps respond quickly (in fact, sometimes the screen is too sensitive). Some taps require fingers with the strength of a McCoy Tyner. And sometimes the screen flashes to show that it has recognized your tap, but the software does nothing. I suspect the software is written in loops that just aren’t set up to listen for input often enough.
But I like the keyboard. I’m a keyboard kind of guy (a writer), so I adapted to it quickly and find it valuable.
On the whole, I’ve come to accept my Droid and find it useful for what it is good at. Maps and navigation are obviously it’s strong point. It often rescues me when I’m in the car.
I may write my own blog about various idiocies the app designers engaged in. For instance, the Android is replete with great ways to make data persistent, yet you can’t save results of a navigation so that you can retrieve it later when your car is in a dead zone.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Keep the Droid, throw the iPhone away.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:57 am
In your 70mph phone lock-up scenario, I know who’s responsible for the accident, and it’s not Droid.
Please don’t encourage phone use while driving – at all.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:03 am
I’ve also not experienced any of these problems. I’m quite fond of the keyboard. I had the HTC Mogul before (and I’ve used the iPhone for 30 days). I can say this is a better “input” experience than the iPhone (you can actually see the screen when you type). You can also use Voice Search and avoid the keyboard altogether for many uses.
I can’t imagine how you’d pocket dial. The device locks when you put it in your pocket.
You do have to hold the camera button the first time (this is on purpose, so you don’t end up taking pictures of your face while on the phone).
The power button is hard to press for a reason too (you use the tip of your finger - this is by design)
The performance is the snappiest I’ve ever seen on a phone. You must have installed some application to screw it up. Call tech support and revert it back to factory and try your review again.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:05 am
I’ve had the Droid for 3 weeks and don’t have the “responsiveness” problems described in the article.
Droid _does_ have +’s and -’s compared to the iPhone
Pros:
Screen is much nicer
Integration with Google services is wonderful
Running multiple apps has advantages (but not a huuuge win)
Phone is better
Network is better
Autosuggest when typing is quite good
Maps navigation system is really nice
Cons:
Droid lacks a lot of the little things that make the iPhone user experience nice (e.g. calculator and calendar are crap and seem like afterthoughts).
Droid UI is not nearly as polished as the iPhone
Can’t trim video like you can on 3GS
Droid screen is not oleophobic and likes the “cheek grease”
No “pinch and zoom” on the browser is an abomination
November 30th, 2009 at 6:10 am
I have the Droid - it’s a great phone. Yes sometimes you need to force close applications like the video camera, but that can be easily overlooked with everything else the phone does well. BTW: If you haven’t figured it out, you need to hold the camera button for a few seconds to open… The phone itself is awesome, you just need to know how to use it (which isn’t very hard). I upload videos shot from my droid all the time from my phone directly to youtube with two clicks. With all of the applications the phone kepps getting better and better.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:18 am
iPod Deja Vu with the iPhone - iPod killer after iPod killer were introduced and failed.
That’s because Apple makes tremendous products that deliver.
You Apple haters can keep on hating but that doesn’t change what Apple delivers.
Stewart.
Save yourself more grief and port your main phone number to your iPhone then just carry the one device.
Many more are about to follow.
Droid iPhone killer - not
November 30th, 2009 at 6:18 am
Broken hardware button, constant freezes and crashes? Your unit is defective. It happens. After spending a month fighting with it, you owe it to yourself to at least try replacing it.
Bring it to a Verizon store, explain what’s going wrong, and they’ll replace it for you free of charge in about fifteen minutes.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:18 am
Buy out your AT&T iPhone contract, jailbreak the phone, and use it on Verizon (or Sprint) with MiFi. Works great, and as a bonus you can put more than one device on the same account (what I did). For even more flexibility, get a Cradlepoint portable router and a USB modem from the carrier of your choice (what I wish I’d done, but I’m happy enough with the MiFi).
Personally, I think the whole smartphone idea is misguided, and that we’ve all been suckers for buying into it. I hate my iPhone as a phone (it’s too big to hold comfortably, and the layout compromises the sound quality), but it’s a pretty good portable computer (needs a larger screen, which would REALLY make it suck as a phone). I’ve gone back to a simple feature phone, but still use the iPhone for data. If and when a better portable computer comes along (Apple tablet, perhaps), I’ll be able to keep the same carrier account and just upgrade the device.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:23 am
The only problems I’ve had are the occasional “force close” with the apps, the dedicated g-mail icon doesn’t always sync (the one I added to the e-mail icon does), and the camera issues. The camera though appears to be software only, the auto-focus is working but the white balance is horrible. I can live with the battery life.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:24 am
I think you should stop carrying two devices, and just stick with the clear winner here, which is the iPhone. Unless you are going at 70mph, in which case you should use no phones, or stop using a car altogether.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Seriously, I have a Droid and I’m not experience all these issues you’re talking about. I feel bad that you’re experiencing all these issues with your Droid. Have you tried replacing it with a new Droid to see if the issues are related to the hardware? Sometimes a batch with flawed devices reach the public, and you could have been one of the lucky customers.
The camera button works every time without issues as does the on-off button. As for the picture quality, the Droid does have a flaw in the camera software that makes it harder to focus and you can miss a picture, but it’s a recurring flaw that happens in interval of every 24.5 days, if I’m not mistaken. In other words, it works for 24.5 days, and it doesn’t for another 24.5 days. I think the fix is coming in the next software update in December before the next period of bad focus begins as we’re now on the good focus period. However, the camera on Droid does take a long time to process the shot and get ready for another picture. It should be faster. I hope the next update also gets this fixed.
I think the physical keyboard is a lot better than the on-screen one and it has never failed me. And sometimes I do use the on-screen keyboard and this one also has worked like a champ.
Now, as for the “Force Quit or Wait” message, sometimes I do get these messages but NEVER from the main apps that came with the phone. When the messages appear, they usually come from custom apps installed from the Android Market, which makes the developer guilty, not Google. If an app fails more than usual, I just remove the app from the phone and give the developer a bad review, plain and simple.
If you’re not satisfied with one of the main apps, try replacing it with another one from the Market. The phone part of the device is nothing more than another app, and it can be replaced by any other of your choice. These devices shouldn’t be considered smartphones anymore, they should be called smart devices plain and simple as the phone part of it is just another app on the top of the OS.
Good luck with your search for a new phone.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:35 am
I had a similar set of frustrations that I posted about on my “site”. I hope I’m not violating netiequtte by posting the link here, but whatever. I’ll let you decide if you want to delete it or not. http://stevesremoteclicker.com/journal/2009/11/27/my-droid-experiment.html
November 30th, 2009 at 6:38 am
Wow, talk about a fanboy attack! I’ve had the Droid for over a week now, and couldn’t be happier. I have not received any of the issues you have had. Interestingly enough, my girlfriend has had to reboot her iPhone twice since I’ve had my Droid.
Why did you review a phone with a hardware keyboard and NOT USE IT?! Having the hardware keyboard IS THE POINT!
Pocket dialing is not possible due to the lock screen. When you hold the phone in your left hand, your index finger is almost right on the wake/sleep button. Use it.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:53 am
I agree with the folks who think you got a bad unit. In my experience with the Droid, Android 2.0 isn’t as good as the current iPhone OS, but it’s better than the first gen. iPhone. The Droid’s hardware has worked flawlessly.
Android 2.0 needs improvement, but that’s the beauty of software … it improves every day.
At the same time we were using the Droid, we were using an Eris. My personal favorite is the Eris because it is so much smaller and lighter. Maybe not as strong and smart, but strong and smart enough for me.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:56 am
I have been using a G1 since March and can confirm this problem with the Android system. For those skeptics who have commented, take a look at these bug reports:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3075
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4294
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4952
The solution (at least for the G1)? Ditch the standard Android install and use Cyanogenmod.
Sad.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Android doesn’t work? Maybe you should find a 3rd grader to help you out. How this is taken seriously is a mystery to me. I’ve been using an Android device for a year and it works great.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:04 am
I owned a Droid and had the exact same experience. The software often delayed or would not respond entirely. I think many people are willing to put up with it because they want to believe with every fiber of their being that the Droid is everything they hoped it would be. They’ll forget that they already pushed that button on the home screen and had to tap it a 2nd or 3rd time before the software responded. They’ll forget that the camera takes pictures as long as the subject stays perfectly still for a good 2 or 3 seconds after you’ve pressed the button. They’ll forget that when they’re typing in portrait mode and their thumb travels a little to low for the space button they’ll hit the soft-button “Home” key taking them right out of the typing experience in an instant.
Wanting it to be good and it being good are two different things. The iPhone pisses people off, I know. But it was a usable phone from the get-go in June of 2007. They didn’t need iteration 2 or 3 to “get it right.” Those following iterations just helped make it better, but it always worked. I still don’t understand why people would put up with inferior software hoping that someday it may get to where they’re hoping it will be.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Maybe you need to install one of the many task killer apps to free up system resources. Unfortunately some Android apps stay running in the background without informing you, eating up memory and processor time. Task management is inconvenient but it’s necessary to do on devices that run multiple, apps and a task killer makes it so much easier to do. Who knows, it might actually make your Droid usable.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:13 am
This line proves you’re a fool:
“The keyboard is horrible and I’ve never used it”.
The keyboard is horrible… and I’ve never used it. Reminds me of my 3 year old who won’t try vanilla pudding and says they hate it but they never tried it.
you = tool.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:19 am
How about making your iPhone your main device and buy something simple on vzw for times when AT&T ain’t doing it. Use Google Voice to ring both phones at the same time (You can toggle the vzw from silent/vibrate to loud depending on AT&T conditions.).
Benefits:
- All your key info is backed up several times a day.
- You can use apple or goggle to sync info across devices.
- You can carry all office docs with you.
- The iPhone is just funner than the others.
And you get to upgrade to the next gen iPhone 3GSuper come this June.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:22 am
I’ve been carrying both a Droid and an iPhone since 11/6 and have been doing everything I can to rid myself of the iPhone since I rely on Google Voice and GPS navigation services - two things at which Droid excels. In addition, I get no AT&T service at work and have found that the iPhone display looks really fuzzy after you’re used to the display on Droid.
Despite all of this, it’s over 3 weeks later and I still haven’t been able to cancel my iPhone contract since some basic functions on the Droid are either unreliable or inefficient due to poor user interface design.
Doing simple tasks like making a phone call on Droid sometimes takes as little time as on the iPhone, but on rare occasion takes much longer when the Droid seems to freeze at the worst possible moment (like when I’m driving) or when the contact lists wildly scrolls from C to Z when I try to tap on contact. Although on-screen scrolling is fast (if you define fast as going from point A to point B), there is always a split second delay between the action of moving your finger and seeing the corresponding response on screen. In addition, the low framerate that scrolling is displayed and the inability to stop scrolling lists on a dime make navigation more difficult than necessary.
I can’t imagine that a phone (and OS) capable of rendering such a fluid interface in Google Navigation is unable to handle scroll lists and the web browser with equal aplomb. I can’t wait for the rumored early December update, as this product still feels like a beta in many ways.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:33 am
I’ve got to ask - are you sure you’ve not got a faulty example here?
I’m not here to defend the droid - I’m a very happy iphone user from the UK where its not even an option right now - but it seems unbelievable that a phone would be released that works as badly as you say and your experiences don’t tally with what I’ve read elsewhere - either the reviewers were getting cherry-picked “golden” units or you’ve got a faulty one or the people selling it ought to be convicted of fraud because the phone you describe is clearly not fit to be sold.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:34 am
You should get another phone. My Motorola Droid has none of thse issues and its way better than the iPhone that has dropped thousands of my calls during the past two years. Total troll post
November 30th, 2009 at 7:35 am
After reading this I’m wondering if you are stuck with some kind of beta or something. I haven’t had any such issue. Also, if you are playing with your phone while driving you deserve to kill yourself doing it.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:45 am
I went through your blog and tried everything on my Droid that you mentioned you were having issues with and did not have a single problem… In fact I even downloaded the multi-touch browser from dolphin… you said you had to wait 20 to 30 seconds for you contacts to show up… How many contacts do you have… I have 196 and counting and I intentionally searched for a users at the bottom of the list… it popped up in half a second. Either you just got a bad phone or you’re not capable of using a real smartphone. I would suggest one of the following… either put the training wheels back on and go back to AOL… oh I mean the iPhone or go back to the Verizon Store so they can show you how to use the one you have. If neither of those works for you I would suggest you find the box the phone came in, re-wrap it in the original packaging and type a letter. Next you should go to your local FEDEX. Once there put the FEDEX slip on the box with delivery to Verizon. Then place the letter you wrote with the phone, which should say I’m too stupid to use this phone, please refund!!!
November 30th, 2009 at 7:50 am
As a previous owner of all the iPhones, and someone who has answered the questions repeatedly from friends. No, it’s not nearly as good as the iPhone. It pains me to say that, b/c I’m not really an Apple fan.
I suppose if I’d never used a “smart” phone, I might be satisfied. But when comparing the Droid to the iPhone, frankly…it sucks.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Nice, balanced review of the poor quality of the Droid. Yeah, it’s not even close to an iPhone so it’s clear the Droid is going to be another failure. The whole problem with all Android devices is its trying to use the “Linux” model for development, and we all know that was a massive failure in the PC market.
The iPhone is a great “phone” on a fast GSM network, where anything that runs on Verizon is hobbled from the start since their network is so out of date. Verizon is working hard to catch up with AT&T, but it could be 2012 before they are allowed to have the iPhone.
Oh well, the AT&T network is excellent, so it doesn’t matter that much.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:01 am
While I’m no Google fanboy, fiddling with your phone at 70mph is counterproductive.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:18 am
I have heard very similar reports from many people who have the Droid, with exception of the “acolytes” (a lot of whom are posting here it seems).
Most of the criticisms of this article above seem lame to me. They almost all take the form of “I don’t experience any of the slowness/pauses/glitches” followed by some variation of “I spend a lot of time managing the processes and removing backgrounded apps.” That misses the authors point entirely, dumb-asses.
The point is you shouldn’t need to find and quit cryptically named background processes on a phone. Phones are consumer products, not computers for techies.
I find the review to be informative and spot on in terms of an average consumer’s possible reaction to using the Drois as a basic phone.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:27 am
I’ve said this on the other (rare) reviews where people have had an extensive list of problems with the Droid….if you are the only one, or one of few people, having your issues, it’s you, not the phone. I haven’t had any of the issues you describe and don’t know anyone who has. I understand as a reviewer you have to report your personal experiences, but with all the positive raves out there, you don’t even allow for the fact that maybe you just don’t know what you’re doing or you have a defective product. And it’s strange that despite the masses saying otherwise, you conclude without reserve that it’s a bad product. Shouldn’t so many people disagreeing with your conclusions make you question them? What does that say about the buying public willing to torture themselves with a buggy, poorly designed product?
After spending five minutes on this post, I conclude you don’t have a clue.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Sounds like you’ve got a defective unit. Trade it in for one that doesn’t dream about electric sheep so much.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Why on Earth are you operating a cell phone while driving? It’s illegal in increasing numbers of places. I don’t know if it is in yours because you don’t publish contact information.
Please drive safely — to avert tragedy to yourself and others.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Stewart, as you are a venture capitalist, I assume there should be enough change rattling around in the petty cash tin to hire yourself a driver. This would then leave you free to have even more phones, the only limiting factor being the small number of arms and ears available to factory issue humans at this stage of evolution. Even this latter hurdle may be overcome by a sufficiently motivated individual. If this interests you, maybe you should talk to my colleague, Dr Octavius.
Good luck in your search for a great smart phone. I think that any platform that attempts to cater for a wide variety of fast evolving hardware, may have a problem creating elegant usable and stable software that itself evolves. That is the iPhone advantage.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Don’t use your handset while you drive and you’ll see it’s not the handset’s problem but you own.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Stewart, I’ve had my Droid for a month and I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about w/r/t the majority of your claims. Are you sure you’re even reviewing the right phone?
BTW: Great job predicting that Steve Jobs wouldn’t be Apple’s savior in 1997. What a home-run that was! Methinks you’re not really cut out for tech writing, sadly.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Is this a work of satire? I was referred here by Daring Fireball, which usually links to rather good reads, but this article is complete rubbish.
As others have noted, either you’ve got a defective unit or you’ve installed a bad app. You can’t possibly think that this is how Android is supposed to be. Have we gotten so entitled that our first response to a problem with a device is to rant about it on our blog, instead of remedying the situation by, oh, I don’t know, taking it back to the store for an exchange?
For what it’s worth, one of the first releases of Google Voice turned my HTC Dream into an bloody nightmare (constant force-closes in core apps, frequent lock-ups, etc), but an uninstall and a later update fixed that. Other than that issue, my experience with Android has been quite positive.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:58 am
I cannot tell if this article is serious or not. It just tries to drag a great product from Motorola, and a SOLID piece of software only on its second iteration from Google without anything to back it up. This “author” had problems and no solutions? I seriously hope this is sarcasm because there is not a shred of any examples or evidence to back up these outrageous claims. Please file this under humor next time if it not intended to be taken seriously. Furthermore, the majority of people and reviews would not not agree with you and have some proof to back it up.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:59 am
I haven’t owned a DROID but I spent some quality time with one at the Verizon store and I agree with you: the hardware keyboard SUCKS!!! A pointless, useless pander to the geeks who insist on hardware keyboards. I found the virtual keyboard much faster.
Methinks DROID isn’t selling to expectations as I saw it offered for FREE (with contract of course) on Dell this week.
I do agree with the other commenters that dicking with any smartphone while driving 70 mph is pure assishness. Do us all a favor and restrain yourself.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Hmm. Maybe (sacrilege) you’ve installed an app from some free, open-source virus-ridden app that wouldn’t have gotten through the revolting, tyrannical App Store?
November 30th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Hi Stewart,
I got my first mobile phone when my company loaned me its Verizon. It was OK. Then I bought an iPhone to replace it. It works well.
Hi Droidum,
We don’t need ad homs; They are not helpful.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:30 am
You should definitely retire. My Droid is definitely better than the iPhone it replaced. The iPhone is more refined in some areas, but overall Droid is a much more satisfying device.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I’ve had my Droid since launch day. I can’t say that I’ve had 1/10th the issues that you’ve experienced. I get occasional screen lags, usually due to 3rd party software that’s running that I’m trying out. I think once, it took a moment for the phone to react to my sliding the green answer button onscreen to actually work. Nothing I haven’t seen an iPhone do a hundred times. I think one thing the phone lacks is a good, integrated process killer. There are a couple of good ones in the app store, but I think this is something that should have shipped in the OS. One inherent benefit of the Droid over the iPhone is also its inherent disadvantage in terms of ease-of-resource-management… the multi-tasking capabilities. The iPhone will only run one app a time, so you never have to worry about killing processes. With the Droid, you have to be conscious of this, and install an appropriate tool for managing them.
The main issue I’ve had with the phone has been contact management. In order to get a handle on this, every user must understand firstly and most importantly that the Droid works off your Google Contacts. It will also merge these contacts with your Facebook friends if you choose to let it. This will create a merged contact list on the phone, apparently based on FirstName LastName matching. Also merged into this will be whatever contacts the VZ sales rep imported from your old phone. The way this merging takes place can be confusing, and not always work well. For example, most of the phone numbers that merged in from my old contacts went into the Notes field of each contact. This proved useless for actually having the phone use the information at first. The best way I found to remedy this was to download my Google Contacts CSV file after my phone had synced with my Google account. Then I used Excel to fix all of the information, deleted my Google Contacts from my account, and re-imported the CSV to my Google Account. Your phone will then re-sync with your corrected contacts list. This process gives you the granular control you need to properly remove duplicate entries and get info into its proper field. Google would do well to publish some sort of power-user FAQ on contact management.
Another area I think needs work is with the Maps/Navigation app. It has issues at times adapting to new locations when I travel. It hasn’t happened enough for me to determine a pattern. I just know that when I was in Maui last week, it was humorous to find the maps search try to take me to a Vietnamese restaurant back in SF’s Financial District.
I’m loving the few folks that come on here and call anyone that defends the Droid a fan boy. I’ve seen most of the responses to your article to be pretty reasonable, substantive posts. I think the iPhonees are just getting a little testy because there’s finally another ticket to the good smartphone party. Talk about fan boys.
My Droid has been an excellent, if not 100% perfect smartphone. All-in-all, a great device that’s served me well.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:31 am
just want to offer a sympathetic comment.
when you posted this:
“Activity Home (in process android.process.acore) is not responding.”
i had flashbacks. i’ve owned the G1 and MyTouch and concluded that neither device was up to the task. I have thousands of contacts in Gmail (five years will do that) and definitely ask for a lot from my technology but android just seemed too “weak” to handle some basics. taking photos took maybe 20-30 seconds from intent to success. phone hung a LOT
that said, the hardware issues you describe sound unique, and i’d suggest you give another unit a try
good luck
November 30th, 2009 at 10:53 am
I understand what your trying to say about the phone/car situation (phone doesn’t work for high pressure/time sensitive situations) but don’t blame your phone for getting into a car accident. That just makes you look like a careless asshole. You shouldn’t be staring at your phone while driving period. Much less while driving at 70 miles an hour.
Anyway, I have never used the droid so I can’t speak on that, but I do have a g1 and have found it to be very acceptable for a phone. Granted it has its quirks but it has been a great phone, and with far inferior hardware to the droid.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:55 am
This article sounds EXACTLY like what I experience with Windows Mobile on my pos Verizon Omnia - slow, unresponsive, locks up, lame camera, on and on and on.
The VZW store hyped the omnia to be very similar to the iphone, but it actually behaves just like the supposed driod in Stewart’s article. Amazing. After getting burned with the Omnia, I’m afraid to listen to any hype about any other new phones.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I concur with this analysis. Apples fanatical approach to user experience cannot be toppled by a rushed over engineered “droid”.
Call it a fanboy remark but its the simple truth.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:24 am
And you were soooooo spot on about Apple, when it first acquired NeXT:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1997/02/03/221517/index.htm
Quite possibly the largest epic fail in the history of tech punditry.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:32 am
One more thought/caution –
I hate the lousy mechanical keyboard on this phone as well. The only way I can strike one key at a time is to type with my fingernails. But I don’t find the on-screen keyboard usable because of one small but serious fault: there is no easy way to move the cursor back to the location of a mis-typed character. The iphone allows you to do this with your finger with that elegant magnifying glass that appears automatically. Since the Droid doesn’t have this, you can’t see the cursor while you’re trying to move it because your “pointer” (i.e. your finger) is blocking your view. I am continually sliding out the mechanical keyboard to get access to the up/down/right/left arrows to move the cursor. I then start typing with the mechanical keyboard since it’s open. But I quickly get frustrated be a high error rate on that keyboard (for reasons mentioned above). So I slide the keyboard back in and start typing on the screen again. But if you go back and forth between keyboards a couple times, the Droid gets confused and won’t display the onscreen keyboard.
This thing could be SO cool! But today it’s so frustrating that I’m going to have to give up on it for now…
Does anyone know if Google’s listening?
November 30th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Sorry that some of you think Droid isnt good enough for you.
I love my Droid. I have in effect replaced it to my Laptop.
It does everything that I want to do on a daily basis.
Thank God dor Droid.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Those of you who appear to be calling Stewart a liar must not know him…
For the record, I’m seeing many of the same problems he is having. I’m going to hold out for a full 30-day trial, as I heard that there’s a software update coming in a week or so. To add to Stewart’s list of issues:
1) Unit sometimes won’t charge when plugged into a wall charger over night.
2) There is no way to initiate a hands-free voice dial by clicking the button on a blue-tooth headset. This feature has been available and working well on many mobile phones for over 5 years.
3) No on-screen magnifying glass for relocating the cursor while using the on-screen keyboard.
4) The battery cover falls off every other day. I’ve lost two of them so far. There is lots of chatter about this on the Verizon Droid forums. And — guess what? Verizon is “sold out” of replacement battery covers. If you’re using a Droid, do NOT use the belt clip. You have to put the Droid inside something so you don’t lose the battery cover while walking around.
I am a highly-motivated, gadget-loving geek who wants to love the Moto Droid since I can’t use an iphone (AT&T works very poorly where I live/work). But there is a huge collection of bugs and oversights that, all together, comprise a show-stopper for me.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:53 am
For all those a$$holes that want to preach about how much of a dick you are for using your phone while driving… I recommend you tell them all to ‘piss off’ (actually, I recommend you use stronger language, but then I am an asshole myself).
How about instead of condemning the guy for making a hypothetical point (the main point being that the Droid is a piece of shit phone) - you all focus on the fact that the HW and SW don’t seem to meet the expectations set by VZ and Google - let alone work.
For Christ sake you all sound like a bunch of whiners who dig the oppressive nature of California’s legal and regulatory environment. I pity you all!
November 30th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I don’t even have a droid but they annoy me. Spousal unit has one. His droid is so stupid it has to say its name over and over again lest it forget it. Or else, it thinks you are so stupid it has to repeat its name over and over lest you forget it. The jury is still out on which case it may be.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Oh and I forgot (sorry for the double posting) but his droid is decidedly needy and a bit neurotic. When it has been ignored (read: not being fondled as the center of attention) it has arbitrarily taken it upon itself to call random numbers from the address book. Yes, just sitting by its lonesome on the bed stand, it will call and talk to anyone who will pick up. That’s one way to drive up those cell phone minutes!
November 30th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Please don’t mess with your phone on the highway.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
I’ve owned the Droid for three weeks now and haven’t experienced most of what you’re complaining about. None of my apps crash, I haven’t missed any phone calls, and I haven’t experienced any 20-30 second delays. Sounds to me like you’ve got a background app eating up all the resources, or a buggy phone. I have seen issues with no response from button pushes and delays in the automatic screen rotation, but those are minor. There’s also known issues with the camera focus that should get fixed in a later release. Beyond that, it’s a pretty awesome device. Maybe you’re just too noob to own such a high-tech piece of machinery.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I currently use the T-Mobile G1 (another Android OS phone) with the Cyanogen ROM. While the Droid may or may not have issues (looks like varying reports in the comments), I can say that I have had nothing but a great experience with the G1. It too has a physical keyboard, one that works better than the Droid’s in my opinion.
Perhaps you should look at a G1 with a custom rom? Of course that does take a little effort.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
My Droid works great. Not sure why you are having so much trouble. Maybe you should go back to the store for a tutorial.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I recommend you try the Jitterbug.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I too have had none of the problems you are seeing… haven’t missed any phone calls, no 20-30 second delays.
I have seen screen lags occasionally. Camera is underwhelming. But overall, sounds like you have a faulty device….
The Droid definitely leaves room for improvement but it is a highly usable device.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I have had my Droid for a week and have not had any of these issues. Mine has worked great going from app to app without a hitch. I took some videos of my kids messing around earlier int eh week and had everyone in stitches at Thanksgiving watching them. They were amazed at the quality. The GPS works great just tell it where you wnat to go and you have the directions. Search using voice commands is very accurate, picked up words I thought for sure it would nto recognize. My only complaint is how fast I can drain a battery.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I moved off of ATT and went with the Droid… And simply put, the Droid is horrible.
I left ATT because of network issues not because of iPhone… But the Droid is truly a disappointment to me. I like a lot of the gmail integration features, but It freezes up, everyone complains about the sound when I’m speaking to them even though, I’ve tried 4 different headsets, and speaker phone…. Cool features, if it all worked… The phone all together is just not ready for prime time. I’m sure it will be one day but sadly i’m returning mine this week and will be back to iphone.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Are you running alot of widgets on your home screen? Sometimes that brings down the performance. You might have a bad application installed that is drying up the system resources.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Dude,
I think you are simply a basher of the phone. I did not see any positive comment about this phone, that tells something about your credibility. Any reason behind this that is unsharable? Do you have issue with Motorola? I had been using this phone for a few weeks, and I think this is the best I’ve ever have in since I have a cell phone. There are many great features. Google GPS app is better than the Garmin I spent more than $300 two years ago. Microsoft Exchange Email setup is a breeze. Multi-touch with Dolphin browse works excellent, Video/Media player is super sharp, be it from internet or download. App market is great and loss of nice apps, and it is only becoming better and better.
I agree that there could be times there is hickup, but all are minor defect. Even Microsoft OS sometimes freeze on me. Can you say that iPhone have no defect at all? I don’t think so.
All in all, I don’t have any complaint. The more I use it, the more love it!
November 30th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
When the “zealots” outnumber the other cathegories, maybe you need to reconsider your criteria :)
For the record I don’t own a Droid but a HTC Hero and it’s behaving nicely since I bought it. I don’t think I saw any of the dangerous, non-App Store supervized apps going force close on me more frequent than once each few days, which is more than decent. So man, there must be a hardware problem of some sort because as far as I can tell Android is doing fine for me.
I was already fined twice for being on the phone while driving, so I don’t practice that sport any more.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I have a Droid and do not have any of these issues at all. Mine works great. Maybe you need to take that one back and get another one?
November 30th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
My Droid works fine 95% of the time - not sure why you’re having so many technical issues. Agree with you that the intensity needed to operate the OS is a big design flaw - I nearly had a car accident because it takes such intense focus just to respond to a phone call.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
This “review” is clearly based on a defective or otherwise broken phone. It tells us something about quality control, but not much at all about design and usability of the phone.
And for god’s sake, turn your phone off while driving.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Here in Europe people are pretty excited about Nokia N900. The tech specs are almost identical with Droid, but the device runs on Maemo, Nokia’s own new Linux based OS (see http://maemo.nokia.com). I’m not sure if any operator in the US is offering it with a contract. (Many places in Europe and here in Finland especially it’s more common to buy the phone and get the contract separately. This means the phone costs more up front, but the phone bills are a lot smaller so over all it is usually cheaper in the long run. Don’t know if that’s even an option in US, though.)
November 30th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I’ve had my Droid for about a week and it’s awesome. It takes a bit of thought to understand what software features are possible but it works great and my one-touch camera seems to work each time thus far. It has tons of customizable desktop backgrounds. Maybe yours is defective or perhaps you need an iPhone type software, something simple that kids or old people can use. The Android software is the future, not perfect but a void being filled!
November 30th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
My two favorite responses are:
1. You need to learn how to use your phone
2. You need to learn how to close apps
1. It’s a phone! It shouldn’t have a steep learning curve.
2. I guess there’s a point to Apple not allowing multiple apps to run at the same time.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Wow, how do people like this get jobs reviewing products. The reviewer has some serious issues, not the DROID. I got my Droid a week ago and it is rock solid, not a SINGLE issue!!
I suggest the reviewer learn how to actually use a product as advanced as the Droid before even trying to evaluate it.
BTW Stewart, the camera button requires a 1 second press to activate the camera app, this keeps people from accidently hitting the button and bringing up ther camera app. It is called smart design.. GEEZ!!
November 30th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
It’s funny to see the kids replying to Stewart who has forgotten more than most of them will ever know. Is your Droid really that tied up with your ego?
Only 256Mb of ram for apps. Seriously.
No multi-touch
Slow
Unusable physcial keyboard
Lousy camera
Multiple other annoyances but those above are showstoppers.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Hah, it’s funny to see when someone points out problems, issues, shortcomings pertaining to a FOSS/Loonix product/package, all the freetard zealots come out of the woodwork and threaten, insult, and in general attack the review.
Droid is a total fail and it’s because it’s based on Loonix the bastard child of Unix.
:)
November 30th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Regardless of it’s technical issues, I have one word for people who think the Droid or other smart phone is going to be their “Verizon iPhone”… That word is iTunes.
Just like the iPod vs. the Zune, without seamless desktop integration, the iPhone will continue to rule.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Whatever Anderson… you can have have your iTunes. Non-integration with iTunes is far more an advantage than disadvantage in my book. If you need a pretty (and pretty restrictive) GUI for managing all your music that’s great. I’ll just keep all my easily transportable MP3s managed in folders myself, and drag-drop them onto my phone like I manage any other set of files, thanks.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I love my Nokia N95 and my iPod touch. I am hoping the N900 will be a combination of the two.
The call quality on the N95 is first class and the phone is responsive, web browsing sucks compared to my touch.
I purchased Joikusoft’s JoikuSpot Premium which turns my N95 into a Wi-FI hotspot and my touch can use it to do all the other things I want to do, laptop too if I carry it. I try to leave it behind these days.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Hey Starrigavin –
Part of the aberrant behavior I’m seeing on my Droid is consistent with the idea that there are too many apps running. When I bought the phone at the Verizon store, the store manager who sold me the phone suggested that AppKiller should be the first app that I downloaded — in fact, he watched while I installed it. A couple days later, I tried using it, and got a message that scared me (don’t recall specifics, but I had the impression that it was warning me that bad things could happen if I killed the wrong app/service, which makes sense as it’s certainly true on a Windows machine). I then did some research on the web and saw some claims that AppKiller itself is a resource hog whose resource consumption grows over time. Memory leak?? It also seemed like I was on the wrong track because I just couldn’t fathom that functionality as important as exiting apps would be left to a third party to provide.
At any rate — could you PLEASE tell the rest of us idiots how to tell which apps are running? And how to exit some of them without voiding the phone’s warranty or causing a fire? I still want to love this phone, and I’d hate to think that I’m just not geek enough to operate it…
November 30th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
| In fact, the first photo I sent of my new grandson
| from the delivery room was only partially rendered.
Bummer about the Droid, but I couldn’t help notice this sentence. So are you sure you were actually in the “delivery room” with your daughter or daughter-in-law?
I’m guessing you misspoke, either that or you’re from West Virginia. :-)
November 30th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Per a previous post, I keep hearing about AT&T dead zones, but have yet to experience one, even in the backwoods of Texas where my friends’ Verizon, T-Mobile and Print phone don’t get a signal.
Have the people talking about the AT&T dead zones every used AT&T?
I appreciate the candor of your posting. I have not been impressed with the Droid, even though I wanted very much to like it, and was wondering if I was the only one.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
jesus, you got a bum phone.
do you honestly think that all the good reviews are coming from people with those issues? That you and you alone are just so much more clever than all others?
November 30th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I feel the droid is the best smart phone on Veizon.
I like the keyboard and I think that boils down to if you like physical or virtual keyboards.
You need to hold the camera key to bring up the camera app.
Overall the still camera isn’t that great on the droid. Hopefully there is a fix coming as reported.
The slow search suggest to me that you were in a poor coverage area. I have no such issue at home, but did notice slow search suggestions at my parents in rural MI. I also am not sure why you would blame missed calls on the phone and not your coverage.
It also sounds like you insalled a bad app or have a bad unit. Most people that have tried my droid have commented on how fast the ui is.
I would agree there are a lot of bad apps on the market place, but that is the price of an open platform. I think andoid will suffer from complaints like this just like windows gets hit by bad programs causing crashes. It is one off the advantages of Apple’s model.
Since you don’t like the physical keyboard I would say the htc droid would be for you, but you also seem to have issues with android. I personaly thinkthe two droids are there the only good smart phone choices on Verizon.
FYI, I wrote this response on my Droid ;-)
November 30th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Gotta agree with the article.
A workmate came in to my office with his Droid the other day. I’m a total gadget hound so I asked to play with it. I was really surprised after all the positive reviews I read. I wouldn’t call it a piece of crap, but it’s not even close to the elegance of the iPhone. Everything about it was herky-jerky (hardware and software). Another workmate was looking over my shoulder when I was playing with it, and after the Droid owner walked out, we both looked at each other and were like, “wow, that kinda sucked.” It was like going back to Windows 98 in a beige box.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I have to add my voice to the “not while driving” chorus. That example, while possibly merely hypothetical, significantly reduces your judgment in the minds of your readers, and its inclusion severely weakens your argument overall. Would you extend me any credibility if I said, “I cannot reliably use the device while showering?”
November 30th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Wow, and they have the guts to call Mac and iPhone owners ‘fanboys’. It looks as if a nerve has been hit.
Anyway, either just use the iPhone [Jailbreak and get Google Voice perhaps] or the Storm 2 if sticking with Verizon.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Like many of the other posts, I haven’t experienced any of the problems the reviewer mentioned. I’ve had the phone for about three weeks now and it works really well. Perhaps you had a defective model. Did you try showing these problems to a verizon store?
Also I would recommend not using any phone while driving, much less driving 70 mph — that’s just insane.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
This guy must be part of the iphone colt, cause I’ve had the DROID sence the day it dropped and I haven’t had 1 problem wit this joint! As a matter a fact I’m typein this on my droid and this thing is zoomin! This blogger guy who did this review is a fraud! I had the iphone 3g and the blackberry storm and they’ve all crashed but not the DROID!
November 30th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I daresay you should change your epithet from “the gadfly” to “the grandpa.” ;)
Sounds like you’re barking up the wrong tree with a smartphone and you should just stick to a featurephone so you can make calls and snap pictures.
Might I suggest a Jitterbug?
November 30th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
People….
First, this is not a review, but a BLOG, therefore it is an OPINION
and for those calling “Stewart” an Apple fan boy, or an uninformed whatever, get a freakin’ clue. OBVIOUSLY you are the clueless ones. The blog site is “alsop-louie”, and the writer is Stewart. Does not take rocket science to know this is Stewart Alsop, who while he was somewhat clueless in 1997 about how useful Steve Jobs would be to Apple (well, and NeXT for that matter, or even more so), he is CERTAINLY not stupid, and smarter than most of you….
The point he made is it is not ready for consumers. Most of you have just buttressed his argument - “quit background apps”, “Check what errant apps you have installed”, “fixed in next rev”
hahah. Talk about fan boys - it is all of you who are wet for the Droid….
November 30th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Droid Glitches:
I am an iPhone user from version One and am very, very happy having come from Blackberry, Treo and older “smartphones”. I have no complaints with AT&T call quality or connections as I find a signal almost everywhere I go from California to DC to New Jersey and in between and on my drives to NJ and Florida I can listen to Pandora pretty much non-stop which is not trivial and certainly dropped calls, when they happen and they are rare compared to my old carrier, are a feature of busy cell towers at busy times (lunch downtown, events etc), so I have to assume that either those people claiming terrible AT&T service are trolls or they are just in one of those areas I haven’t been to like NYC. There does seem to be plenty of evidence that NYC iPhone users have a bone to pick with AT&T.
My old carrier was Verizon. I live just outside of downtown Atlanta and my service with Verizon was HORRIBLE! My wife is in sales with a large company and travels all over the city and especially up in Duluth she had a terrible time with Verizon even after they changed out her phone several times. Since she’s been with AT&T her service is much improved, so go figger, the guys with “the network” didn’t work out for us.
None of the carriers are as good as they claim to be and it’s clear that the iPhone has hammered the AT&T network since the vast majority of mobile traffic is from the iPhones so Verizon’s claim to a better connection is specious since they have not device like the iPhone which gives users a good enough experience to make them consume data like the iPhone does. That alone makes nonsense of the Verizon Trolls claims that the iPhone is less than it is because if it didn’t really work, people would be using it to consume bandwidth as voraciously as they do.
Don’t listen to the troll to anyone’s BS hype about their network. The iPhone is a home run any way you look at it.
When I did a Google search for “Droid glitches” the search results painted a picture of a phone with a LOT of problems. I have no doubt that call quality is good and the screen is great. I’m sure that when it’s working as it should that it’s an interesting device, but what set the iPhone apart from the beginning was how locked-down the device was from the POV of dependability and that because Apple controlled the experience from beginning to end. Not so the Droid, software from one company and hardware from another and a wild-west approach to apps. No wonder you’re seeing forum posts like:
“Droid crashes, freezes, restarts repeatedly - 15 times in half day!”
“It started rebooting on its own, it would freeze in the middle of a text or app and then go black and reboot. It also reboots when the phone is idle and I try to slide open the keyboard.”
“So, I am on my 3rd droid and it froze and rebooted in less then an hour. The first droid had an iffy battery and eventually the sleep button stopped working. It would shut off the phone but would not put it too sleep. The second phone started randomly rebooting”
. . . the reply to that post was this:
“I went through an extremely similar problem. I literally, no joke, went through four G1′S before I decided to go to get the MyTouch, and let me tell you it was completely agonizing.
Here’s what I suggest you do: Get a new Droid, don’t use your old SD card, and use your existing Gmail account. Use the new charger, use everything that the package comes with — new.
These things are common, and it’s incredible that you’ve been so patient with the first layered production of Droids”
This from a guy with nearly 400 posts on the VZW community forum, so clearly not a troll. You can find a ton of these posts and note about freezes and glitches all over the place.
And when you read a review of the device it’s always with a dollop of “it’s share of minor issues” and “the best phone on the Verizon network” etc.
But when compared to the iPhone I’ve yet to see a reviewer give the nod to the Droid, so I’d recommend taking a CLOSE look at both before dropping the dime on the Droid because, in case you haven’t heard, since the Droid came out, Verizon increased it’s cancellation penalty to over $300!! I think it’s $375, but you’d have to look that up!
Also remember when reading a smartphone user claim it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread (iPhone OR Droid) that people tend to love the device they paid for and are stuck with. It’s rare when someone tells you what they really think because people tend to have a lot invested in the choice. Caveat Emptor.
For me, the iPhone is not perfect, but when Jobs said he designed a phone that people could use more than 10% of without reading a manual, he wasn’t kidding. I get tons of practical use out of this device everyday and I don’t have to be a geek to do that or to make it work, something you can’t say about most smartphones, apparently (from reading the forums at VSW) including the Droid.
JoeL
Atlanta
November 30th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
As many others have said, maybe you need to get a replacement phone. As for the keyboard, that’s personal preference - I love it myself. I will agree that the camera lags, but installing a 3rd party camera app (Pro Paint Camera) solved that. Email works great, as do twitter, facebook, etc., and I’ve found lots of great apps including some cool music programs. I’ve had no problems finding contacts or making calls, and the OS seems stable to me. Id see if you got a bad device or are running something in the background that’s clogging things up. Good luck!
November 30th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Ray, do you have to have a cell signal in order to search or view your contacts? Seems like a big disadvantage.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
You clearly have a faulty unit, bringing it back to get one didnt kinda ring a bell in ur head? Not even a little? Thinking hmmmmm at this point 700,000 to 800,000 devices have been sold to this point and i havent heard of any mass returns to the store..
Wake up rtard and try a new one.. also try a task killer to.. put some of those APPS to use before you go running down an awesome phone like the droid..
DROID > IPHONE …….. all day…..
P.S. God damnit ur just a moron.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
You must be paid by Apple to write this nonsense.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Every good little boy and girl in America will be going to sleep Christmas Eve hoping and praying that Santa brings them a Droid. And everyone will be getting DroidTunes gift cards in their stockings. And — oh wait, I made a mistake! No kid anywhere wants a Droid, they all want an iPhone because iPhones are “cool”. Droids are really intended to appeal to that same small percentage of drivers who still change their own oil; it’s nice to know enough to do that, but most people really just want to drive a reliable car that doesn’t break down all the time. It’s a shame that Motorola rushed the Droid out before it was actually ready for public consumption, it sounds like they failed their shareholders again. I only hope that Santa isn’t left with sacks of Droids that nobody wants, maybe he could don suspenders and unload them to the trailer types at NASCAR races.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
So, it would appear people are blaming 3rd party apps for crashing the OS. I thought you googlelytes wanted unhindered apps. Wait till your market gets filled with untested 3rd party apps that endlessly crash your phone. And here’s a new twist for you, it appears android is not the real Android phone OS. Will you be happy or full of understanding when you find out you won’t be able to upgrade your phone’s OS?
I already see a problem for you folks. Android 1.0, 1.5, 2.0… Why do some of the Android phones have 1.5 and others 2.0. I’m guessing that based on the type of phone you have, upgrade may not be an option. Maybe that’s why VZ upped the terminate fee to $450. Very smart that VZ is.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I haven’t read through all the comments, but add me to the list of those not experiencing the issues referenced by the author - at least nowhere near to the same degree. I’ve had a few times (since launch date when I bought it) where the icons aren’t responding to my touches, but nothing that isn’t par for the course with tech (IMO). Love the phone, love the network, and have no regrets.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I have a droid for 2 weeks and no problems, Guy it’s operator error
November 30th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Hi, Stewart -
I have the HTC Droid Eris on VZN, it’s been spotless, does none of what you’ve outlined, and has enabled me to drop-kick my crackberry across the room for good. The ActiveSync support is really solid. I’d think twice about mixing up Moto with Google. It’s their implementation of Android, not Android. I can’t in good conscience support yet another closed-system mistake like the iPhone after my years at Apple. I’d have an Android even if it didn’t work, but in my experience it does, and I know several happy Moto Droid users.
Maybe you should consider the MIT “Sixth Sense” device shown at TED this year. No phone needed!
Duane
Portland
November 30th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Maybe if you blash a popular product your blog will get some hits!?
Look: You either have a bad phone, installed the wrong app or you should switch out of a smartphone and into something simple like a razr.
I’ve been using the droid since it came out (less than a month ago I might add) and haven’t had any of your problems with the exception of the camera lagging a bit.
I’m not a light user either, I’m syncing over 6 thousand contacts, 3 email accounts full of labels and numerous apps including an app I use for remote desktop, games, remember the milk, google voice, and others.
One thing I heard in the comments is about the battery life (which had you actually used the phone you might have mentioned) which I agree: its less than stellar if you leave everything on.
So here’s a suggestion I that might help: look in your widgets for the power control widget. This gives you a 1×4 bar with wifi, bluetooth, gps, sync and screen brightness settings all in one.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
This guy has to be some clown paid by Apple. I have had the DROID for over 3 weeks and havn`t had any of these problems. The camera works great (had a software bug affecting auto-focus) but now blows the iPhone camera out of the water.
The Google Maps Voice Nav (free) has been fantastic. With the voice prompts and strong GPS lock on , I just set it in my cup holder and listen to the prompts.
The software keyboard of the DROID makes the iPhone keyboard look like stonehenge. On the DROID , it auto-spaces , auto-capitalizes , and most words only require two or three letters…and the DROID finishes the word. Much more efficient than iPhone. Jobs was asleep at the wheel on that one.
Also the notification bar that streams in all your messages , etc. in real time makes the iPhone system look primitive at best. The way the contacts list shows who is online and lets you directly contact them from all the available sources with just a button press. iPhone has no such system…I know , I HAD ONE.
Maybe like the above poster mentioned , you are tech challenged , and need a Jitterbug ! You are a misguided fool. The more I use the DROID , the more I find it to be much more powerful than the iPhone.
Did I mention 3.7x more screen pixels and a bigger screen ??? I could go on for a long time , but I will say it again…you are a clown paid by Apple to spread FUD. Did you know the return rate on the DROID is very low ? Android is taking over. It`s a FACT. Get used to it.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:00 am
Stewart,
I would suggest replacing the Droid with a wired handset from the old ATT with a very long coiled cord. It will work well even driving 70 miles per hour. You will find that the elastic cord will provide a bungee cord effect that will provide some additional safety if you lose control of your car while trying to find the 9 key at 70 mph.
Steve
December 1st, 2009 at 3:30 am
your device is clearly defective, besides my qualms with the camera, the device is great, on a scale of 1 to 10 i give it a 12 for its capabilities as a phone, and a 9 out of 10 on the device scale, I myself would have done the keyboard a little differently and added a dedicated call/end key but these are minor complaints im not to worried about. its amazing you somehow came to this conclusion despite the glowing reviews which you yourself have mentioned without the thought ever crossing your mind that you may have had a defective device. since the phones release it has become the darling of the tech world just amazing how none of the software issues you mentioned were ever acknowledged in reputable tech blogs, slashgear, crunchgear, BGR etc… man you apple fanboys will stop at no lengths to secure you feelings of supremacy lol
December 1st, 2009 at 5:45 am
WOW! I’m blown away by this review. Total misinformation, or just plain fan boy bashing. But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you had a bad unit.
First off, I’ve owned an original iPhone, an iPhone 3G, Xperia X1, HTC Touch HD (imported), Sprint HTC Hero, T-Mobile MyTouch, Palm Pre, and now a Motorola Droid.
The only reason I’ve been through so many phones is because it was truly hard to find a phone that was comparable to the iPhone. One thing I knew for sure was I was tired of AT&T and Apple’s restrictive app policies and general BS.
Example. Isn’t Steve Jobs the one who originally said we won’t allow apps other than our apps on the phone originall? Then later said OK, we’ll allow apps but web apps are the way to go as to not bog down the phone. Mmmhm. Yep he said something like that. Then people complained and he said, OK, we’ll allow 3rd party apps. They restricted Slingplayer over 3G, yet Windows Mobile phones on the same damn network can stream Slingplayer over 3G. They rejected Google Voice (an app I use)!! They said, nope we won’t offer insurance on the iPhone. Sure you can have our AppleCare but just don’t drop your phone or get it stolen because AppleCare doesn’t cover that. Yet every other phone on the AT&T network has monthly insurance if you wish to pay for it. Instead Apple says, go ahead, break your phone we’ll charge you $500 for a new one. Multitasking non-existent STILL! Come on, Windows Mobile phones have been doing it for years (albeit terribly).
Look, the iPhone is GRRRRREAT! Don’t get me wrong. I recommend it to people who couldn’t use a coffee maker if their life depended on it because it’s that simple and easy to use. That’s why I’ve been through a million phones since the iPhone. I knew I had to get something besides the iPhone that offered me flexibility without having to hack my phone (i.e. jailbreak). Something that would let me multitask and included a browser as fast as an iPhone.
Before the Droid running Android 2.0. None of the Android phones were up to par. In fact your review makes it sound like you used the MyTouch 3G which was down right HORRIBLE, SLOW, LAGGY. So with the exception of the Palm Pre and Droid, yes the other aforementioned phones sucked!
The only complaint I had and still have with the Pre (which does do multitouch) was the lack of apps. I also don’t see them attracting enough developers to be anything more than a niche phone and possibly a great BlackBerry Alternative.
I digress. The Droid has been the ONLY phone that allowed me to finally say “I’ve got it”. I’ve found the phone that finally makes me feel like I didn’t have to give anything up when I left the iPhone. And even after trailing phones and service providers, not only does the Droid rock, but Verizon has been AWESOME. I’m not hear to cock ride Verizon or the Droid. For one, Verizon nickel and dimes the hell out of their customers. They charge for EVERY FREAKIN’ thing! And Android 2.0 does have a few bugs, nothing major. But so does every phone.
The Droid has a Cortex A8 processor same as iPhone, can multitask with ease, the interface has been as fast as my iPhone. The browser is up to par with the iPhone in terms of speed. Unlike previous Android builds (which was a major reason I couldn’t switch to Android back then). So I’m not sure what all this lagging you refer to is about. A task killer is mandatory and I think that should have been included in the software (Android). I think the Android menus could use some revamping. Sometimes you have to drill too deep to get to certain options which make it not as easy as an iPhone.
The Motorola Droid and Android are for people who want TOTAL control over their phone. You want to control what color your notification LED flashes for email versus text? You can do that. You want separate notifications tones for EVERYTHING? You can do that. You want to multitask? You can do that. You want to install apps FROM ANYWHERE (not just the Android Marketplace) you can do that (without jailbreaking your phone). You want 100,000 apps!??? OK well you have to go to Apple for that, but I can tell you Android has 10,000+ apps and I’ve never had a situation where I couldn’t find an app to do what I wanted/needed. So quality not quantity.
As always the consumer has to decide what phone is best for him/her. Both Verizon and AT&T offer 30 day trials. Try these things out for an extended period of time. See which provider and which phone works for you the best. I personally didn’t have bad coverage with AT&T or slow speeds. But having switched to Verizon I don’t think I’ve ever had less than 2 bars and 3G speeds they are blazin’. But that doesn’t mean the same will apply to you and your location.
December 1st, 2009 at 6:23 am
Yeah your right… who needs email, gps social networking and all that fluff anyway. That stuff doesn’t really matter. Heck, who needs digital phones, the analog ones were better, weren’t they? While we are at it, those mechanical rotary dialers were good… let’s go back to those.
Yeesh! Perhaps you should be reviewing Buicks or something.
December 1st, 2009 at 6:45 am
I have to echo that having used this phone rigorously for a month I have not experienced 95% percent of the concerns you mentioned. Some of your concerns make me question your motives in this article. (Ex: that it takes ANY amount of force to push the phone’s power button. A ridiculous statement.) I would also hope that you could tell the difference between a poorly designed phone and a phone that is uniquely defective and should be exchanged.
Is the droid hardware or software perfect, no. The OS has a ways yet to go as far as usability design, but the OS itself is solid. The keyboard could have been better -no doubt -but otherwise the hardware is solid.
I will say that while I think this phone rocks it is not for everyone. It is a phone for techies or anyone willing to take time to learn to use it. There are many barely computer literate individuals who could hop on an iphone and enjoy it with little help. Those same people would no doubt get frustrated by initial use of the droid. The droid assumes you are a user who wants to get THE most functionality out of a phone. Which thereby assumes you will put effort into the phone.
When someone like yourself reviews the phone in this manner, I question whether you really spent time with the phone or did you just assume it would be an iphone clone. If you have preconceptions about the droid based on an iphone standards then yes you will hate the droid. You are clearly not someone who is willing to put true effort into learning what the droid has to offer. That’s fine, but don’t base a review on your personal bias.
If you really faced all the problems that you did then I’m sorry but you should have known something was wrong and made an exchange. Your experience is not typical and I am sure a working droid would have produced a different review. Perhaps not a rave review but certainly not this sad portrait of a quality and competitive device.
December 1st, 2009 at 7:08 am
First of all, you shouldn’t be driving at 70 mph and trying to operate the device.
Secondly, you should take the device back to VZW and get a new one if it’s really so bad. My Droid is great.
Thirdly, you should disclose if you are short Motorola and long Apple.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:30 am
Stewart Alsop’s review of the Motorola Droid is completely out to lunch. I’m not sure if he dropped his phone, jacked it up and doesn’t want to admit to it or if he was dropped too many times as a kid and doesn’t want to admit to it. I am the PROUD owner of a Moto Droid, and love it. I’ve had the iPhone, and the storm, and the Droid is right up there with the iPhone and entirely leaves the storm in its dust. Of ALL the issues that Stewart Alsop mentioned I have had nary a one. Stupid things that he mentioned like app management are so shortsighted its not even funny. One of the things that makes the iPhone so good is its (?), you guessed it, the APPS. Same goes with the Droid, and there are at least 3 app management programs that you can download to the Droid (FOR FREE) that makes app management a breeze. If his camera never worked, he got a defective phone. He mentioned that he couldn’t even call up the camera…? Never had that problem, and I’m sure there have been a few defective iPhones with the same problem. Instead of getting off his lazy, biased butt and investigating the problem on more than 1 platform he chooses to just shred the phone!?!? That’s like judging the population of our country off of one person’s views and beliefs! Absolute idiocy.
“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.
I have yet to have a problem with the software or the OS. Never have I missed a call or even dropped a call. Never have I not been able to make a call when I wanted to. It really seems as if he is an iPhone fanboy, or iPhone paid him to shred the Droid. Over 1 million Droid units have already been sold with nary a complaint and has received stellar reviews across the board. That should tell Mr. Alsop something. It would seem that he has the intuitiveness of a rock. And yes, as he said, he obviously misse something.
I don’t believe that I have ever read a review with any less credibility than Mr. Alsop’s, and I would love to communicate with him directly as to his issues with the phone.
I am also disheartened that your company would publish such a biased and inaccurate view of a GREAT product. Verizon and Motorola are paying close attention to ANY software issues and already planning on releasing an OTA update the 2nd week of December. How could we ask for more…? Took Blackberry months to release a good OTA update for the storm.
The Google search functions are excellent and have not failed me yet in ANY capacity.
The physical keyboard was put in the Droid as a secondary option to the touch boards. The landscape touch board is seriously probably the best on the market. But if for some reason I need a physical keyboard, guess what, Moto was nice enough to supply me with options, which is more than I can say for the iPhone. Is it better than a BB curve board, no, certainly not. But it was not designed to be, nor was it designed to be the primary board. It is functional and gets the job done when touch is for whatever reason not an option.
Thank you Verizon, thank you Moto, thank you Google… And Mr. Alsop, I highly suggest that you find another profession where you can publish mistruths, or become a direct employee for the iPhone.
Please take a look at what you publish before you publish it. And please find employees with a better than average intelligence.
Than you, and if you have any questions for me please feel free to contact me.
Michael Walters
December 1st, 2009 at 8:33 am
This entire review is a troll …
December 1st, 2009 at 9:06 am
Had the phone since day 1. Love it. I have no idea what you’re doing to encounter these errors, but to write the phone off is absolutely ridiculous, and I’m scratching my head as tho how you’re able to post blogs on the internet.
FYI - I love the physical keyboard. I have no problems using it, and it’s far from ‘clunky’; the feel of glass and metal in your hand when you close the keyboard and it makes that ‘click’ noise is sweet. This is a sophisticated, yet strong individualist type of phone. Class.
Also - To those people people arguing FOR the fact that the iPhone is so easy to use a 4 year-old (or 54 yo) can use it, I wouldn’t be bragging about that so much.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:14 am
“The keyboard is horrible and I’ve never used it”.
Yeah, and you’re ugly, and I’ve never seen you. See the problem there?
It takes a bit of real use to get accustomed to any mobile keyboard.. any keyboard, for that matter. All mobile keyboards are compromises. Some people do lack the dexterity to use them effectively. But after a few weeks, I live the DROID keyboard more than I did the Treo 700p’s… I initially doubted its value. But I also understand that first impressions on this sort of thing are completely useless.
Most people who pick up a guitar for the first time don’t make music on it. That doesn’t make the guitar bad instrument, it merely reflects that the mind and body take awhile to come together on any new human machine interface.
As for your other complaints… yeah, I agree with many of the posters here — you must be using a different DROID. I have found the Android 2.0 environment to be fully functional, far more to my liking than either the iPhone or the Palm… despite being a Palm user since the early 90s. Like any new OS, there is a bit of learning, too. You seem to not like learning new things. Bad attitude for a person choosing to write about new things. If you didn’t spend a full week or two using the DROID as your only smart phone, you didn’t even begin to do a proper, professional review here. Now, I might have concluded that from the poor writing, but that’s a minor detail in comparison.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:37 am
I’ve had the DROID since launch day. My wife has the tour (this guy came from a tour!). In no way other than typing an email is the Tour anywhere close to being in the league of the DROID. You cannot browse with it –it’s PAINFULLY slow and using the screen (even with zoom) is flat out awful. In no other way than email is the Tour capable of doing 1/3 of what this phone can do.
At 70MPH and driving, your phone should be in some type of universal or Verizon dock. You shouldn’t be fumbling with it. You could cause an accident man!
I echo all of the other comments about you replacing your device. I’ve had no issues you speak of regarding missing or losing calls. No delays in screens etc…
December 1st, 2009 at 9:41 am
As for app killers, you rarely need one. Really… Android doesn’t automatically kill apps when you switch, but it will shut down older apps when their resources are needed.
The one case is when you have a poorly written app sucks power even when its lost focus. These are rare… I found one, deleted it. Same issue you’d have with a poorly written app (on any platform) that crashes regularly — run it at your own peril. Android is new enough, developers are still getting some footing, but overall, the quality has been excellent.
Normally, an app waiting for input consumes no CPU time.. it’s sitting on the “wait” queue, waiting for a signal from the OS that there’s something for it. So yeah, you may have dozens of things running on the DROID at any given time, but that’s not a problem.
If you suspect a power drain, check the power monitor… go to Settings/About phone/Battery use. Mine tells me its been 11hr 40min since I was plugged in, 40% of the power was used for Phone idle (eg, sleeping), 31% for cell standby, 13% for display, and they go down from there (the battery is at 60% right now). This is with 49 things running, mostly daemons/services. Anything sucking power will be obvious in the Battery use monitor. Best advice — dump the app, don’t worry so much about manual application management, it should not be needed.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:47 am
This is the same person who said Apple was finished within 3 years, soon after they bought NeXT. When they say not to believe everything you read on the InterWebs, they’re talking about THIS GUY.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:12 am
@hazydave
There is a good article about the Droid and Zealots (Zealotry Sucks and So Does the Droid) talking directly about people like Hazydave. Really interesting. Nailed him.
My 15 year old has an iPhone. She has had both Treo and Blackberry. She is almost 3 times faster on the iPhone virtual keyboard. She just wants to text. Try and replace her iPhone with another phone. She has no zealotry and no brand loyalty at all. She just wants to text. @mike W. says it the best. He is “a proud owner” of his new DROID. My daughter is not proud, she wants a tool.
Droid sucks as a phone. The manufacturing quality is average (like the Pre) and the device while functional is not elegant. In fact, this technical excellence is what seems to be totally missing from the Droid. The phone must go past the first adopters (you guys) and into the mainstream. It will never if this-:
“people people arguing FOR the fact that the iPhone is so easy to use a 4 year-old (or 54 yo) can use it, I wouldn’t be bragging about that so much.” -is the attitude. If the phone is not operable by the masses, it will never be a mass usage phone.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:31 am
Wow. Didn’t even know about the 1997 Apple call. This clearly has a reactionary writing style…not necessarily thoughtful or probing, but based on pure emotion and gut instinct. That probably serves him well in the VC world. As for Apple, hey, we all can make mistakes. It takes a big man to admit them, which I’m assuming he has done since. Let’s see how long before he does an about-face on the Droid.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:44 am
I have had the Droid since the release of the unit and have not shared ANY of these experiences. I can’t even believe most of the comments you made over this phone. If you seriously knew anything about technology you would have traded that lemon into your local Verizon store and just called it a day. The phone you had obviously had multiple things wrong with it out of the box. It just cracks me up that you based your entire opinion off of something like that. Go have fun with your iPhone, I will still be enjoying my Droid.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:21 am
This has to be a publicity stunt, or a competing phone vender gave him a call and cashed in a favor. I have owned a number of flip phones, a Palm trio with the palm OS as well as Windows OS, I have owned a high-end Windows Mobil phone, and I have even owned a two Iphones, I say two because every 6 months something would go wrong and I would have to bring it back to the manufactory and I would get “ hmm that is strange, we will just replace it.” Now I have a droid, and have had it since it came out. I have not experienced the numerous problems you have had, factually I have only had two apps crash, but that is expected when you have three versions of the OS that does the heavy lifting. Yes the phone is made by Motorola and that company can be difficult to work with on a non consumer side, but the hardware seems to be solid, battery life is on the short end, but this is also expected due to its processer size, but my iphone was no better.
If someone where to ask me about the keyboard on the droid three weeks ago, I would have said it needs improvement, however today I can say I would not change it, but that really has nothing to do with Google’s OS it has to do with the hardware manufacture. Now that I have adjusted to it, I love it. I just can’t wait until someone comes out with a speech to text app. So I can respond to IM while driving.
Giving a phone a ranking compared to the phones I have had is not easy, simply because technology advances every day, and what was once not feasible is now the every day requirement of a hand held device, (your cell Phone) bottom line is calling this device a phone is really insulting if you think about it, it seamlessly merges with you life, if your on facebook it downloads all your friends into your address book and puts their current photo next to there contact info. Connects to you or a clients desktop computer so you can perform tasks. Keeps track of where your friends as well as lets them know where you are. (great when you single and out in the city on a Friday night.)
For the people that have read Stewart’s review, keep this in mind, these tech reporters get new products to review typically for only a few weeks, and have to give them back. They never use them in the way that IT people do, us IT people not only evaluate the products but we have to implement and deploy them. The only time consuming challenge with this device was getting MS Exchange to work with it.
Stewart if you are truly haveing these problems, take you device back, becouse its a lemon.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:24 am
I don’t experience any of the problems (except camera) mentioned on this article!
December 1st, 2009 at 12:03 pm
The aforementioned Stewart here. We’ve never gotten this many comments on a blog post before. I thought I’d clarify a few things:
Apple fanboy? I do like Apple products. I do not own Apple stock (although I have in the past and have consistently lost money as a public investor, including when I buy Apple stock). I am not paid by Apple. You might notice that a recent post on this blog is titled “Brain Dead Apple Software?”, which might indicate a willingness to criticize Apple.
Droid hater? I don’t hate the Droid. I just don’t think it’s a product that should have been released yet. I would like to re-assure the commenters on this blog that I am neither a reviewer (the web site is a venture capital firm, of which I’m a partner) nor paid to review products (the last time I was paid to write was in 2003 and that was for Fortune magazine, which didn’t review products). I do not receive new products to review. My firm paid for the Motorola Droid because I was unhappy with my Blackberry Tour (keyboard was too small and the app store is poorly designed and doesn’t have much of interest). We paid full retail and assumed a new 2-year contract with Verizon, just like everyone else. I expected more than was promised by Motorola’s “Droid Does” commercials, which explicitly promise more than what an iPhone delivers, which is why I wrote the post about what I found disappointing about the device.
Defective device? It could well be that I have a defective device. I probably should try to return it, but I have to admit that I’m tired of returning to that Verizon store. I had to return the original BB Tour I had because it had a defective trackball. But the only way that I found out that it had a defective trackball was to walk into the store. Verizon chose not to voluntarily disclose that defect, even though it was known and they knew I had a defective device. I’ve got ~30 years of experience in tthe computer industry and can generally diagnose problems with devices pretty well. I don’t think this device is defective in its hardware; as I said in the post, I think it’s software. I’ve never met a Verizon rep who could diagnose the software architecture. I think the phone doesn’t have enough memory, doesn’t manage the apps and processes well, and leaves too much to the user to work out, which isn’t a good idea in a consumer device that is being broadly advertised. But, that is just my opinion, such as it is.
Driving at 70mph? I didn’t actually say I was doing that. I was trying to make a point — it is not illegal to use your phone to make phone calls in a moving vehicle. The Droid does have Bluetooth, which I use in my car. But in order to dial the phone, you need to tap the Phone app icon, you need to get the phone number and you need to push dial. That can takes 20-80 seconds of effort and the phone requires that you look at the screen to do that. You might think that Motorola would consider it a design requirement to dial the phone without looking at the screen so that people don’t kill themselves while making phone calls.
Being rude: The very first commenter, @km4, must have set the tone when they said: “why don’t you retire from covering technology because you’re a fossil ;)” I did retire from “covering technology” (at least for pay) when I stopped writing for Fortune magazine in 2003. And I may well be a fossil, since I’m 57 years old and have been in the tech business since 1981. But I do try to be polite and to add value when I can, so I am most disappointed by the commenters who just chose to be rude. There were two posts that I deleted because they used foul language. But I allowed through all the others that chose just to make rude personal remarks about me, because I am fascinated that people think that’s useful or entertaining. I would only wish that decorum could be observed when encountering opinions that you don’t happen to agree with.
I’ll close by quoting Dave Winer’s comment about these comments: “These people must think phones are baseball teams. You can love the Yankees or Phillies or Dodgers or Mets, and it really doesn’t matter. Whatever makes you feel good. But phones are not baseball teams. You don’t have to feel threatened or attack someone just because they see the world differently than you do. It’s super rude and if you work for Motorola, Verizon or Google, you’re a loser if you don’t listen.” The whole post is at: http://droidie.com/2009/11/30/zealotry-sucks-and-so-does-the-droid/
December 1st, 2009 at 12:09 pm
I too have Droid and contrary to your review it is faster than iPhone 3GS. I think you are totally biased against google. I think Android is the only response to Apple on mobile and Moto has done a decent job with device. I wonder did Google refused you for interview or Apple invited you for big Thanksgiving dinner….hmmm
December 1st, 2009 at 2:41 pm
This review was very biased. He should have explored replacing the seemingly faulty hardware, prior to writing a review which was completley off-base. I changed out my Blackberry Storm for the Droid and I couldn’t be happier. My wife wanted the IPhone, but after using the Droid, there is no reason to consider even it. The Droid keyboard is also nice edition, and I find that I often interchange using the hard and soft keyboards. I used the built-in Navigation while traveling over Thanksgiving and it worked flawlessly. Lastly, we didn’t have to read an owners manual to use this smartphone. A few of the menus are quirky to navigate through, but overall, it was easy to use with a short learning curve. I can say that the Droid ROCKS!!!!
December 1st, 2009 at 4:02 pm
If your phone ever prioritizes a background process over what you’re trying to do at that moment, that’s absolute failure. Also, applications can’t crash an OS, and believing that they can is magical thinking at best, apologetics at worst. Only a bug in the OS or a hardware fault can crash an OS. Managing memory, remaining stable and responsive is an OS’s job. On a phone, there’s no excuse whatsoever. It’s an appliance.
December 1st, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Wow…. I have had my droid for 2 weeks and I have not had any issues at all. Mine responds like a champ. Had the BB Storm and if you want to talk about poor SW design that was truly horrible. I also used an iphone and the Droid is very comparable. I really think you have a defective unit……
December 1st, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Have owned and used both Droid and iPhone. It’s no contest. The Droid is okay but it feels rough, clunky, patched together. The iPhone is smooth and fast and everything works and gets out of my way so I can do what I need to do.
December 1st, 2009 at 6:51 pm
I switched from the iPhone to the Droid and although the learning curve was something I would’ve liked to avoid, I haven’t had any of your problems and I have had the benefit of ‘0′ zero dropped calls. None! The phone has gone dark once and needed the battery to be removed and then put back in to fix, and it lost my corporate email account once, but that is the extent of the problems. The one other weakness is that it doesn’t have the apps that the iPhone did and the market is far more cumbersome than the iphone. Otherwise, no complaints and relieved to not have to deal with AT&T dead zones, like my living room in the middle of San Francisco, Apple ground.
December 1st, 2009 at 7:43 pm
The Droid ain’t perfect, but nothing made by man is perfect.
1.) You should have exchanged your phone, after having only a few of your problems.
2.) You should have done some homework moving to a different mobile platform.
3.) You should have expected some initial glitches and bugs in the 1st Android 2.0 phone to market.
The funny thing is that you missed most of Droid’s real problems.
1.) No Bluetooth voice dialing.
2.) Home screen doesn’t auto rotate. (Motorola claims that it’s a feature not a bug!)
3.) Camera auto-focus only works on a 24.5 day rotation (Fix should be coming soon)
4.) Backlighting for keyboard and the 4 touch buttons times out too quickly and is inconsistent.
5.) Battery cover can come off easily. (Motorola is replacing those once for free for those with this problem.)
Two of your statements show that you went into your Droid testing with a blatant bias.
1.) The keyboard is horrible and I’ve never used it
2.) Try pressing on the phone icon at 70 mph and have it not respond
And that you didn’t find one thing good to write about the Droid is totally absurd. Not even the hi-res screen!
I do agree with one statement you made:
“I am neither a reviewer…”
No, you are a blogviator!
December 1st, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I work at Google in our chelsea office and came across your blog, somebody forwarded me the link.
You’re a loser… seriously. Nobody gives a sh*# about your crappy opinion given the way you wrote this review. Your writing style is quite poor and does not speak highly of your VC firm. In fact, I’ve never heard of you guys — the art and science of entrepreneurship, that’s funny….
The numbers speak for themselves - close to a million Droids sold in under a month. http://bit.ly/8eYn7v Especially considering that if people really had all these issues that youre having (clearly youre a moron, I’ve never heard of most of these bugs as everyone is point out), they could return it in 30days back to VZ.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:01 pm
“What do you think I should do? ”
What do *I* think you should do?
Get another occupation, because reviewing new technology is NOT your forte!
My MOTHER could give a better review then that!
Yea, apparently , according to reports, Motorola/Verizon are on their way to selling one million Droids in November, and NOBODY ELSE is having all of the problems YOU’VE reported!
If it were half as bad as you claim, there would be quite a few reports of all of the Droids being returned, people screaming, but none of that…. (yea, it’s not for everyone, but most people who have purchased a Droid love ‘em, myself included)
Your Apple bias is showing…
By the way, while the iPhone is better at media, the Droid is better then the iPhone at almost everything else, including call quality.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:31 am
Have had the Droid since it came out and I love it, I think the you got a defective unit or your are defective as a reviewer. The Droid does have some minor kinks that need to be ironed out but they get lost in the shuffle by the awsome experience of everything else on the device.
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:37 am
You shouldn’t be using your phone while driving at 70 mph.
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:50 am
Dude, you must have gotten the droid you weren’t looking for. My droid, however, K2D2 rules my world! I absolutely love it and am infatuated by it.
It does everything for me, save washing the dishes, but that could be coming soon seeing as though I can control my computer with it…
I sincerely hope that people aren’t influenced by your article/post because it is WAY OFF.
If you are on Verizon, and you should be, go get the droid, install Fring and use Google Voice. Your life will change!
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:53 am
I bought the Droid the day (midnight actually) it came out. I agree that the keyboard is a joke, but outside of that, I’ve had none of the issues you have described. The camera button doesn’t work?? Here’s a thought…Before you bash the phone, why don’t you use common sense and have the phone replaced. Obviously, if there is a button on the phone that has NEVER worked, then isn’t is possible that the device is a lemon? I dunno about anyone else, but all the buttons on my Droid work fine.
I owned the Storm, I now have a Storm2, I also have a 32gb iPhone 3G S, as well as the Droid. What I can say is this. The Storm2 is a billion times better the first generation (which sucked really really bad). My iPhone is great, but AT&T is absolutely horrible. I find that my Droid is the best of both worlds. No, it will never be an iPhone. And no, it will never have the great push email that BlackBerry’s have. But, the resolution on the Droid is incredible, and outside of the physical keyboard design and the issue of emails coming back even though I’ve already read and deleted them, I have no issue with my Droid.
FYI - anyone with a Droid who has the same email issue, just download k-9 from Android Market. It is free and it will eliminate your email issue.
In conclusion, before writing a scathing post-release review of any phone, use some common sense. If the buttons don’t work, then most likely you have a defective phone. But don’t come out with a review stating that the phone is crap when you did not even take the time to consider if the phone you have is a lemon.
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:46 am
I had the same problems you did, took the Droid back, got a new one and the new Droid is great. Instead of whining and crying you should do the same. It’s a brand new device, there will be clunkers, what you’re supposed to do is get one that works, not write some childish article trashing the device.
The Droid is a great phone, everyone who I’ve showed it to has been impressed and several have bought their own.
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I believe this guy is the very same Stewart Alsop who basically admitted he didn’t understand how to use a Windows machine several years after he’d been the editor-in-chief InfoWorld. Don’t take his ineptitude personally. He’s just another boring, lazy Mac fanboy.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I think you are completely bashing the Droid for some unknown reason. I have owned the iphone and to be honest with you I think its a great phone and would have been better if I could use it half the time to maked phone calls. The droid is great from all aspects. Maybe your background in technology since the 80’s means you’re still stuck in the 80’s. I quit reading your blog when you said “The keyboard is horrible and I’ve never used it”. Doesnt that make the rest of your idiotic onslaught a moot point?
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:39 pm
I have had the droid since nov 8th, I have had none of these problems except that I don’t like the “real” keyboard (not that i dont like real keyboards, this one is a big miss). My camera button has not launched the camera a few times i noticed, but never had a problem with the phone app.. that has been the fastest phone dialer app I have ever seen on any smartphone. I have 400 contacts and it zips through searching or browsing them. I don’t get force close messages on the droid like I have seen on the G1.
You definitely have a bad droid phone and should replace it for a new one, I guarantee all but your camera button problems will go away.
No Offense… but this is not an AT&T sponsored review.. is it?… I just have such a hard time believing the problems you mentioned are real as mine is so fast and stable… that’s all..
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:47 am
Anyone with a bit of brains would have returned it because it’s very obvious that you are stuck with a defective droid. Don’t go bashing android, first get another droid from verizon, and re-review it. If you don’t: you’re just pathetic.
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:31 am
I love my Droid! How much did ATT pay you to write this article?
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:05 am
First DON’T DRIVE 70 and operate your phone, you will be dead no matter what phone you use.
Second You must have a defective handset. My droid has none of the issues that you report. I too changed from a TOUR to the Droid. The learning curve for Android is steep so even if you are very intelligent it takes some time. Third if can’t adapt then maybe you are a relic and should stop writing about new tech, perhaps a nice article on Pentium II computers or the best tech of 1989.
Any way YOU ARE DEAD WRONG, the Droid is a huge step forward especially for the tight butts at verizon.
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Wow, it’s amazing how many people get angry because you favor one device or another. What is this, a popularity contest?
Anyhow, you sound like me. You want Verizon’s awesome coverage, but you want a generally good smartphone experience.
My solution? I carry around an iPhone strictly for data, and a Motorola E815 flip phone on Verizon strictly for voice.
This way, people can reach me, talk with me, and understand the words coming out of my mouth. And I can use all the fancy apps on the iPhone while talking too. Since getting your data connection dropped sucks less than getting your voice call dropped, it all works out.
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:22 pm
I wonder if you were paid by AT&T for this idiotic and biased review. Either you are lying or the particular handset you had was defective. You should have exchanged it for a new one; however, based upon your review, I don’t expect you have the mental faculties to come to the conclusion that you should have exchanged your phone. The Droid is a very good phone. Oh by the way, the Droid’s resolution is twice that of an iPhone.
You, sir, are a moron.
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Ok, now I have to start agreeing with Mr Alsop. My Droid seems only to like one email account, gmail. It has now dropped the other two twice and with that damn keyboard and it takes forever to add yahoo and exchange back. Now on the second drop, it isn’t allowing the other two. Droid isn’t ready.
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
After reading your blog located at http://www.stewartalsop.com/ I am not surprised that you have a negative view of a perfectly good product. I was particularly disgusted by your letter to the Virgin exec.
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I know that a lot of people seem to love the Droid, and maybe its something in the water, but I’ve experienced everything that Alsop has and more. I’m working on my third droid. A couple of friends of mine decided to go get it the day it was released. Almost a month later, I’m the only one of the six of us still sporting the Droid. All six of us had to have the first one replaced.
When I went to exchange the first POS they sold me, I figured I’d give it a second shot. I didn’t make it to my car without the new hardware crashing TWICE trying to make phone calls.
The messaging app and phone apps crash consistently. I’ve actually had the display completely crash when I’m trying to leave voice mails, so that I have no way to exit the phone call. When it crashes, you can’t use the power button, so you have to remove the battery. Awesome.
The email application is abysmal with exchange. Any time I try to open an attachment or save it… the entire phone dies. When it decides to boot back up, the email application is toast. You have to clear the app cache or reset the phone to factory defaults in order to get it back up and running.
The battery life appears to be about 2-3 hours if you are actually using the phone. The first and third phones I’ve had can’t last longer than half a day if I actually use the phone for anything.
I’m definitely returning this. The hard part is that Verizon really doesn’t offer a very good smartphone other than the latest debacles from RIM. The Storm is a joke, and I’m reluctant to get a Blackberry Tour when I already have a Blackberry Bold for work.
This is hands down the worst phone I have ever owned. I’d rather get a jitterbug… at least I can use the fucking keys.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:24 am
One of the most blatantly stupid blogs I’ve ever read.
“I have missed calls, lost calls, misdialed calls, pocket dialed people, and had many other experiences in the last month that have lead me to conclude that the Droid is not suited to its intended purpose as a smart phone.”
You’ve pocket dialed people? That’s your own fault. There’s a button on the top of the Droid that locks the phone. There is ZERO reason that you are pocket dialing things.
Just terrible. The phone has a few issues, but it’s overall great. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
December 4th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Wow, you are having all these problems. My Droid works great, although I do have the battery cover issue. But I’d much rather have a phone that may poop a plastic piece off than one that I CAN’T take the back off of, can’t upgrade the battery, memory, anything, can’t pick my fav apps, etc…
There’s no such thing as a perfect cellphone so suck it up.
December 4th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I had Yahoo mail on my Droid. The Droid dropped it yesterday. Verizon is saying Yahoo has disallowed mail to be installed on Android devices as of yesterday. Can anyone verify this? Why in the world would they do that? They should be looking for ways to monetize mail on every platform that will run it. Makes no sense. Help!
December 4th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
haven’t you ever seen the movie Seven Pounds? maybe don’t use your phone while driving?
oh, and it’s also illegal in some states: http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html
I guess you could argue you could be using the GPS, but just get a cradle.
December 5th, 2009 at 10:59 am
I’ve had NONE of the problems with my Droid which the author of the article mentioned. In fact, I would say that the Droid is the most stable, most responsive and fastest smartphone I’ve owned (I’ve previously owned 3 Windows mobile devices and an iPhone). I’ve only needed to reboot it once in 3 weeks of continuous usage — some of my old WinMo phones would crash several times a day. There are some minor flaws with the Droid (some of these can be remedied by firmware updates and some with maturation of the OS and the development of more mature applications for it) — but they are not the ones mentioned. Sounds like the author of the article had a defective unit.
December 5th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
I got the Droid the day it came out. This is my second phone already as I experienced several problems in mid Nov. After having a few problems with the new phone, things were working fine for a week and a half (except one problem downloading the full version of documents to go which I purchased this past Tue but didn’t complete the download until Thurs evening). The documents to go app was the only new app I installed during this time. Then on Thurs trouble started again before noon. First the camera wouldn’t turn on. Took out the battery and then I was able to take some pictures. The Power Control widget wouldn’t work. And I couldn’t dial out or retrieve voicemail because the Activity Dialer was not working. After someone called me late Thursday afternoon was when I was able to dial out again. Yesterday evening I get my voicemail. Then a little while later it happened again. I can’t dial out because I got the Activity Dialer error message. Well I go to a pay phone and dial my number. I did it twice and no such luck. And all day today I still could not dial out. About a half hour ago I checked again and now I can dial out again. This problem happened several times last month. I refused to do a factory reset this time around because I did that a couple of times last month and I’m not going to do a factory reset once or twice a month for the next 2 years and then having to reinstall apps again. Since Thurs I have been debating whether or not to return the Droid and go back to my old phone for now or find another phone since my deadline to return it is coming up. I like the Droid with the keyboard (even though I have some problems at times) and the 5MB camera but if I can’t do the basic function of making a phone call then I’m going to have to return it tomorrow and get a third phone. I’m just hoping Verizon will let me return the third phone should I encounter this problem again in the next couple of weeks and go back to my old phone until I can find a new phone.
December 6th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Gotta agree with the original post. In addition I gotta add how horrible the email app is and I have tried K-9 as well. How come when you delete a message you are take back to the message you just read instead of the next message. At least with k-9 there is a arrow button to take you to the next button but upon delete you are taken back to the same message. Also miss the ability to choose ‘delete from handheld only” like with Blackberry.
December 7th, 2009 at 6:11 am
Send me your Droid if you don’t like it. I’ve been dying to get one but can’t afford it cause my contract isn’t renewable yet. So i’m stuck with the EnV2 till I can afford it. Hopefully soon!!!
December 7th, 2009 at 7:22 am
I just bailed on Verizon and went with a Pre on Sprint. The phone is great and Sprint’s coverage is awesome in my area. My bill is way less than Verizon. I think it’s very important that a smartphone is foremost a phone. I’ve not used droid but my friend returned his after a week. So some people do have issues with it.
Android which i was very excited about feels very “beta” which is fine for the web apps but not on my phone. If daycare calls - i need to get that call.
Phones are a personal thing-plenty of people hate the pre and iphone, plenty like them. Really depends on what you want in a phone (or carrier.) I’d say get a blackberry on verizon if you like the coverage. You’ve used the os before and are comfortable with it as well as RIM’s phone designs. Or you could check out a pre/pixi.
December 7th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I agree with a couple points at the beginning of your article. I went from a Treo (which was getting very old) to a Blackberry Tour. Hated the Tour & traded it in for the Droid. Yes, the keyboard is a failure. I hate it. I have had to use the screen keyboard which I never thought I’d get used to, but have.
The other issue — with apps. Yes, since this phone is open to anyone, you’re going to have apps that work well, and others that don’t. It’s something you live with, or don’t. Me, I like the cutting edge. I can live with a few crashes & reboots and pauses. If it becomes a nuisance, I’ll drop the Droid. But so far, the Droid has been the best phone I have ever owned, just because it can do so much, and so easily. But I see your point here.
But then you start lying.
Pocket dialing? Impossible. The phone locks. No can do. Droid doesn’t (pocket dial).
December 7th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Stewart: it really sounds like your phone is broken/a lemon/doesn’t like you/whatever. Have you visited the verizon store for an exchange ? If my droid were doing any of the things that yours does, that would be my first stop.
December 7th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Dude,
I have a Droid and have not experienced ANY of the problems that you have had…you must have a lemon if you are having all those problems. I have 3 friends who all had iPhones and hated ATT and they now have Droids and absolutely love the phone.
I have had Blackberrys for 5 years and was hoping that the Storm2 would have been my next phone, but after reading all the reviews and trying out the Storm2 and iPhone in the stores, I ordered my Droid the day it came out and can’t believe how much more advanced the Droid is compared to any other Blackberry, or even the iPhone. You should return your Droid and get a new one, I think you definitely have a lemon.
December 8th, 2009 at 5:40 am
simple question: have you tried another Droid? Reading through the comments I can see that your experience is hot shared buy other Droid users, I’ve had one since day 1 and my camera button works every single time. I’ have a few misbehaving apps but most work fine. It’s an open platform, the app thing will take a little time to sort out. Honestly, I don’t understand the anger and hatred of this wonderful device. I have to ask if maybe there is some iPhone\Apple loyalty at work here?
December 8th, 2009 at 6:09 am
This article is stupid and I won’t read it.
December 8th, 2009 at 6:41 am
I’ve had the Droid since day 1, and the only problem I’ve had is some apps need to ‘force close’; but I assume this is because of programming errors. Granted, after the Chocolate, this is a brick, but I like the weight, I kept on dropping the Chocolate because it was so small. I have big hands, and I rareyl misytpe -lol - on the Droid keyboard - I find it easier to thumb split the kybd at JK instead of HJ, and the virtual keyboard is even better. I’ve DLd over 50 free apps so far and the only thing I have to say is WOW, thanks FOSS. I even found a HP 48 calculator emulator. I expect to see a lot of issues being resolved w/the Droid 2.0. Imagine if some company made the perfect phone, first time out; because that’s what it is all about, improve phone a little, extend contract…
December 8th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Why do you need more than one phone? Just to be a wasteful dork? Just pick a freakin phone and use it. They are PHONES, not gods. You are dorky.
December 8th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Task killer applications are very useful. I haven’t had any of the issues described with my Droid but it might be because I use Advanced Task Killer regularly. Your might also be a defective Droid.
December 8th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Had my Droid for a week and took it back. Email is essential on a smartphone. The Droid mail software cannot manage email like a Palm or Blackberry. You cannot easily migrate memos over from Palm OS. You can’t sync the device with your PC in case it crashes. The calendar is a pain in the backside. What it does may marvel the instant masses with its browsing speed, its cool apps, etc. But when playtime is over, it’s time to get back to business, and that involves dealing and organizing email. Fuhgettaboutit.
When it comes to offering basic smartphone applications, Droid Doesn’t.
December 8th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
I got my droid on the November 5th launch. Honestly, I couldn’t wait to have a phone that doesn’t require jailbreaking to customize. After two weeks, I was forced to return the droid and go back to my iphone.
Issues:
Freezing and delays, but to a lesser degree than the author
Sounds quality for the person on the other end stinks. Everything would sound fine to me and they would experience clipping, echo, static, etc… This issue is well documented and Motorola may finally have released a fix for it today.
Outlook has a separate calendar…who wants 2 calendars on their phone? Why did they have one contacts list, but two calendars?
Can’t accept Exchange meeting requests from the email interface. You need to note the date//time, go to the Outlook calendar, go to the day/time, edit and then accept. iPhone and WinMo, you just click accept in your email.
You can’t forward attachments from Exchange mail.
When you forward an email in Exchange mail, droid sends it as an .eml attachment instead of just forwarding the message.
(You can purchase an app that will address many of these issues, but why should that be a solution. iPhone and Windows Mobile come with the functionality. If you are trying to compete, then compete.)
When you reply to an Exchange email, droid drops the header information and only shows your from address.
Battery life was exceedingly bad. No multimedia use and just push email and I was lucky to make it through the day.
Keyboard stinks
Touchscreen typing isn’t half as responsive as the iPhone
Voice activation for search or gps often resulted in error about not being ready and try again.
Basically, they have a great idea and just released it a year early. I’m sure in 8-12 months they will have worked out the kinks, but with paying $300 and being locked into a 2 year contract…I had no interest in being a guinea pig.
December 9th, 2009 at 8:19 am
This review and reviewer obviously had the narrative written before (IF) He ever got his hands on the phone.
I have the Droid. It hasn’t been 30 days yet so I am not locked into ANYTHING.
My Brothers have iPhones.
This review is as inaccurate as possible. Unless, this is some kind of joke.
Based on the reviewers sunny disposition, I suppose it’s possible he was given a phone that was actually programmed to melt on the side of his head.
Too bad the phone doesn’t execute every command.
Is the Droid perfect? Is ANYTHING perfect? Computer at work? The one at Home?
Hello? Bueller, Bueller. Nothing works perfectly that requires hardware/software and wireless connections.
This is more computer than phone from a complexity perspective.
I Wish my 8-10 various computers I use daily worked as well.
All I’ll say is…. this iPhone - Droid battle is B.S. Anybody that feels the need to trash “a Phone” to make their decision on a phone seem better - needs to Get a Life.
December 9th, 2009 at 8:33 am
You know what. I think I just figured it out.
Your mane is Stewart.
Stewie, you’re a pi$$ed off DORK with a phone that likes you the way you should be.
December 9th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I am a new Droid owner (purchased the first one in our town on day one) and am a new Verizon customer. I am EXTREMELY satisfied with the Droid and the Verizon Network. What you have described sounds like a totally different phone to me. Take it back and ask for a replacement and then do a follow up review.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:06 am
I’m small biz owner without IT folks. Spent 3 days trying to sync, figuring out the basics of phone, contacts, calendar, why phone off, phone on…. I now have a personal relationship with support folks at Motorola, Verizon, and CompanionLink.
Droid was returned to Verizon.
I just want a new solid smartphone on Verizon since Treo 700p is dying.
I am sort of stunned that Palm on Sprint, iphone on ATT, and Droid on Verizon drove me back into the arms of MSFT. Is that amazing?
HTC Touch Pro II rocks.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:34 am
I know Stewart and anybody who’s been around technology more than a couple of years knows that Stewart is one of the most knowledgeable people in the business when it comes to personal technology. He calls ‘em as he sees ‘em. He’s reviewed hundreds of products in his career. This is a guy who can call up just about anybody you’ve ever heard of in computer/communications technology — yes that includes Woz, Bill, Steve and many others who invented the stuff — and talk to them on a first-name basis.
For those who have become religious zealots about a mere technological device, along with the dogma, hate, and spite that such displaced fervor creates in a vacuous soul, I feel for you. You need to find something more fulfilling in your lives. And learn that intelligent discourse does not include personal attacks and belittling.
Unlike Stewart, I like the Droid overall. Having been a purchaser of one of the original Macintoshes, I understand new technology is going to be cludgy. But I look for potential and I think the Droid and Android operating system has it. The performance is excellent and with multitasking working for you in the background, it is going to get even better. Verizon has the best service out there and I’ve tried them all. The smartest phone is dumb if you can’t get service.
I have a Droid and noticed some of the issues he talks about, especially the tendency for the phone to ignore the first touch on a button. I have to touch twice on many buttons to get them to respond. The lack of an easy way to sync to Outlook is a huge oversight, as is Bluetooth voice dialing. There are other annoying things about it as well. It isn’t perfect but I’m going to hang in for a while and give Google and Motorola a chance to impress me.
December 11th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Dude, I’d never even heard of the Droid when I went into Version to check out the Storm 2. I got it after a couple of days research. The first device was defective. But, it didn’t take me a month to figure that out. Took it back and exchanged it with no problems. This one flies. Got another one for my 12yr old nephew. I updated both to the 2.0.1 OS and we’ve had no issues with either one. He took it to school after getting it. Came home with it loaded with apps it’s configured correctly and working fine. If a bunch of 12yr olds can figure it out. What’s that saying about your review. Coming from a Blackberry and a WinMoble device I find it’s a little different. But, in no way like you’d have us to believe. I’m more satisfied with this than any other phone I’ve had.
December 11th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
I rarely ever leave comments on blogs but this called for a special exception. The crap that you spewed along with all of the other mac fanboys on this post is astounding. I got two droids the day after it came out and I have had NONE of the problems you stated. I have over 60 apps on my phone and I notice no slowdowns. Yes, certain third part apps do lock up but never had I had a problem with the main phone. I frequently use my droid going 70+ including browsing the web and oh look, no crashes. Yes, before everyone jumps on me its legal to use the phone while driving as long as you’re not talking on it (yes, stupid law)
The hardware keyboard isn’t the best ever but its certainly a great alternative to a software keyboard. I personally can’t stand not being able to run my fingers over the keys. Once you give the droid’s keyboard a chance you’ll learn to type VERY fast on it. I’m quite glad it was included.
Yes, the iPhone is slightly more polished right now but keep in mind it’s had years to refine itself under the same locked down hardware\software combination. That being said the droid is by far the best phone verizon has to offer. Anyone who wants decent reliable service is stuck with verizon so why not embrace the best phone they have right now? There’s quite a good chance that android will overtake the iPhone in time because of its wide flexibility and ability to run on many platforms and carriers.
Also, has anyone who’s been having problems tested their phone since the update? They fixed many sound quality and lockup problems.
December 12th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Wow. Really emotional review from you. #1, 70mph on any phone, esp a smartphone is HIGHLY irresponsible and you are tool for pretending that this is a requirement for a quality device. #2, sounds like you have a defective Droid, take it back. You had a bad experience with a lemon phone. I have a functional Droid, and have ZERO of the issues you had. As a reviewer, it is HIGHLY irresponsible for you to review a product based on a defective unit. Tell me who has 100% perfect output on their harware line - no one. It’s more likely that your unit is defective than it is that the thousands of Droid users are wrong about their phone working. Go with iphone all the way, it’s what you want to hear anyway.
December 12th, 2009 at 11:58 am
This puts into some perspective the original achievement of Apple with the iPhone (and before that with the iPod). That they could pull off a discontinuous positive leap over all existing devices, without an extensive period of trial and error in the marketplace, is rather astonishing. By comparison, it took Microsoft perhaps ten years of trial and error to finally get Excel right. One wonders what is in the water at Apple that lets them do what it seems other companies can’t quite do…get a product to feel right to the consumer at the get go. That Google and Motorola couldn’t achieve even copycat equivalence out of the box shows how hard it is, as both had a lot a stake to get it right.
December 12th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Call the wa-wa-wambulance. You are an idiot. Just trade-in the phone for a new one. Any pallet of eggs is going to have a few broken ones.
As for keyboards being too small - show us a slide-out keyboard on this size gizmo that doesn’t have some limitations. This sort of complaint is ridiculous, because everyone knows small device input is limited until we can have some sort of breakthrough (which hasn’t happened yet.) Maybe you are just too old to deal with new technology.
Arrogant whiner.
December 12th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
A few words… I have been using the Droid since it came out, and I must have the best one they made because my phone works flawlessly, very fast, never crashed, screen is great, internet is very fast, new update pushed and installed flawlessly, I haven’t had a SINGLE issue with my phone.. So, either high tech gadgets are not for you, or you got a bad device. I have used all the best smartphones, BB, iphone, WinMo, and in my opinion they all have their goods and bads, but this Droid phone is the coolest phone I’ve used yet… It really is a fun device.
December 13th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Why not try the Droid Eris? You will have verizon excellent service and still have a smartphone
December 13th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
What happened to your BB tour?
December 14th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I am using the droid for a couple of days now and the only gripe I have with it is that you cannot dial a number (or contact) with a bluetooth device. As for the “Camera” button you claim doesn’t work, well, the problem sir is you, the “Camera” button is for taking pictures, not for turning the camera on. And I agree with many of the posters here, why are you fidgeting with your phone whilst driving, didn’t you see 7 Pounds??? For taking out that guy in front of you, your body should be flogged, keel hauled and hanged…
December 14th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Are you sure its A Droid phone and they didn’t sell you an Etch- A -Sketch ?
The Android OS the best embedded OS I have seen in the 15 years I have been involved in Mobile embedded systems. The Architecture is Genius . I have experienced none of the issues you describe.. Get a new droid phone to replace your defective unit and install Taskkiller.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I think you aren’t that intelligent. I had the BB storm and liked it quite a bit. It didn’t seem to have sufficient memory. I have been in the wireless industry working since I was 14 years old and am now almost 23 which means I am more than experienced enough in it to see the droid is a phenomenally powerful phone. Its much fast than any phone ive used. Get a life and a pulse old man.
December 18th, 2009 at 2:13 am
This is such BS. I don’t have any of the problems you mentioned with the Droid. The software works great. The physical keyboard works well for me too…better than the onscreen. I love it…by far the best phone I have used (for me)
This message was composed on the Droid.
December 19th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Wow… I have the Droid and I love it. None of the problems that you seem to be having.
December 19th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
This person either has a bad droid which in that case just return it, however most likely this person was hired by Apple to insult Android phones. My friend works with ATT and they pay him 600 a week to write negative blogs about Windows mobile and android operating system.
December 21st, 2009 at 5:10 pm
I think the person who wrote this review probably can’t figure out how to use a computer either. Calling Android 2.0 a “bad mobile OS” is just ridiculous, it’s by far the best thing on the market.
December 24th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Tsk tsk…Google employees are getting mighty defensive…
This thread of comments is pretty much everything wrong with comments on the web, and for that matter, the male species.
December 25th, 2009 at 5:30 am
I almost stopped reading after “Try pressing on the phone icon at 70 mph…” Mine occasionally chokes on the crappy internet content out there when I’m browsing, thats all. I don’t do that at 70mph… I saw something on YouTube of a head to head with Droid Iphone and it basically said Iphone was a better multimedia device but Droid was a better phone…excuse me but aren’t we paying for PHONE SERVICE?
What do we think you should do? If you are evaluating this phone with any 3rd party apps installed, take them all off and start over. You aren’t evaluating 3rd party apps knuckle head.
December 25th, 2009 at 11:40 am
What a tard… I’ve never had a single problem you claim to have. Go back to your iPhone and give your DROID to someone who deserves it.
December 28th, 2009 at 5:43 am
I’ve had my Droid since the beginning of December, and while I like it, I too have had multiple problems and annoyances.
1) The WIFi isn’t working properly. It will connect to some AP’s, but not others. This is a well documented “bitch” on both Verizon and Motorola forums.
2) The supplied POP email app sucks, and doesn’t work properly. It’s pulls messages, and if you delete them, they come right back again - over and over. What finally did me in is when I got up one morning and had 150 blank Emails from 12/31/69 with no subject and no text body. When I deleted them, they came right back again. Yes, I tried K9, a free email app. Didn’t like it. I finally went with the Gmail application which works flawlessly - however, I shouldn’t have to route my email through Gmail for it to work properly.
3) The slide out keyboard should have been left off. It would have made the device lighter, and smaller. I have no problems with the onscreen keyboard(s), and actually prefer them because the slide out one is too small/hard to use.
4) The onscreen keyboard needs way to position the cursor, as others have mentioned.
5) I have had some issues with applications requiring forced closings, but this is not the norm.
There are other, more minor, issues, but I’ve seen nothing like Alsop describes. I do believe however that this device was rushed to market before it was ready because of Christmas. Once again the love of money trumps common sense.
Hopefully many of these issues will be worked out in the coming months.
December 29th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
This reviewer either has a bad device or is emotionally unstable. Although there are some minor issues, I’m *extremely* happy with my Droid. Actually, in the past 2 months almost everyone at my office has switched to an Android device due to envy…and there’s no longer a single iPhone left. Maybe we’re just weird.
Most of my complaints with the Droid have to do with the button choices, not with the software. I think the G1 has better physical buttons, specially with a dedicated talk button. In general, I think the software itself is absolute bliss. Always responsive, never freezes or crashes, and very beautiful high resolution.
I think the iPhone is great and it is probably perfect for a lot of people. The iPhone has a responsive and consistent UI, but for a multi-tasker like me it is too simplistic. In addition, I need/want things like removable SD cards, USB connection, and desktop widgets.
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:55 am
Like most of the other ‘comment-leavers’ I will also say that I haven’t had ANY of the problems that you’re talking about…NONE - I’m quite convinced that you’re lying out your arse…maybe you’re an iphone user, or you’re just making things up because for some reason you’re predisposed to disliking the droid, no matter how good it was it still wouldn’t have been good enough for you huh? You need a new job you fossil
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:42 pm
I have many of the same issues with my droid. Slow-to-respond taps, lock-ups when trying to make phone calls (which didn’t start happening until after the patch on Dec 11). And at the moment, I have to perform a hard reset on my phone, which means I will lose all data.
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:04 pm
WOW. My girfriend and I just got the new Moto Droid a few weeks ago. She had an iphone and I had a Blackberry Tour. Neither one of us would ever go back down those paths again. We are more than happy with our Drids. Not sure what this guys deal is, but we think he is affraid of change.
January 4th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I am two weeks into the Moto Droid. At first I was in awe with the bells and whistles but the honeymoon is over. I am trying to get used to the bulky size especially with the hard case that I purchased. I maybe forced to return it an go with an Eris since I also find the slide out keyboard a waste. I do try the keyboard but when I can’t seem to hit the corrent letters, I quickly slide it back in and use the screen keyboard. My next gripe is when I place a call, many times soon after the phone starts ringing the screen goes blank and I either have to slide the keyboard or hit the top button to get a touch screen back. The Verizon guy said it was a sensor but their appears to be no adjustment. The thing is quirky as hell but I am trying to get used to it. Oh yeah, what is it with the 1969 emails…
January 4th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
I’d recommend that you make the iPhone your primary phone number. No phone will ever be perfect but the iPhone is the closest thing to perfection that you can own. And the apps are just amazing.
January 4th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
I have had the Motorola Droid since the end of November. Overall I have been extremely satisfied. I was a bit shocked with the original review and subsequent responses that had similar issues. I have had very few issues with my phone since I got it. I did have one issue once and if it happens again, I will be likely to go to verizon and report it, it was with dialing the phone, it would not respond and force closed. I turned off the phone and turned it back on and it worked fine, and has not had a problem since. I also had an issue withe the app “advanced task killer” I was setting my alarm clock but when I would kill my apps in the background, my alarm would not work the next morning. So I unselected alarm clock and leave it running all the time. I have never had a smart phone and i prefer the slide out keyboard to the virtual one, i miss key all the time on the virtual keyboard and it takes much longer then if i use the slide keyboard. I have not had any of the camera issues stated above, both the onscreen button and the side button work and I was able to take, and e-mail a picture within a few moments (no more then 2 min, depending on the message I write), believe me, with my old phone, that would take much longer. Since I have never had a smart phone before, i have really no comparison, however when I played with the ERIS in the store I was not impressed, And I think I picked the right phone out of the two now that I have the Motorola Droid.
January 5th, 2010 at 2:05 am
I have the HTC droid which only has version 1.5 and have not had any of the issues you describe. The “delay” or “locking up” sounds like you have too many apps running in the background. Web browsing and such is faster on this phone than my home broadband service, IE no search delay whatsoever. Secondly, if you are going 70 mph and trying to use your phone, you have bigger issues than not being able to place a call, and if this is a habbit of yours, you deserve to crash, and probably will very soon, no matter what phone or os you have. I believe your statement “I have missed calls, lost calls, misdialed calls, pocket dialed people, and had many other experiences in the last month that have lead me to conclude that the Droid is not suited to its intended purpose as a smart phone” is correct. They should have stated ” it is a SMART PERSON PHONE!”
January 5th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Bberry Tour on VZW + iPhone.
2, yes, but two great devices and networks.
Oh, and you can actually complete a phone call on Verizon, and the bberry is by far the best voice phone on the mkt.
January 9th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
I think either the phone is defected or you didn’t read the manual. I have a droid and have had no problems with it other than the keyboard and I’ve gotten used to that. The camera button isn’t a hot key and that’s. Why it doesn’t open the camera app, why not try making a shortcut on your screen for it so you don’t have to thumb through the menu for it? The reason yourr search is being laggy is probably due to the fact that you have the phone set to search your contacts, google, youtube, apps and music…try playing with some settings. It doesn’t take that long to take a picture and compose an email to send it unless your technilogically challenged or have you droid set up in a language you don’t speak. And on screen touch responce “while going 70 mph” maybe you should do all of us other drivers a favor and put your phone down while driving.to “darwin” listing a shortfall of the phone as being without multi-touch, apple asked google not to put it in and google agreed as to not ruin the relationship the two companies have and also as for the keyboard being “unusable” well I’ve typed all this out on that keyboard….works fine, could have a better layout, but it works. Different strokes for difference folks, I personally am very satisfied with my droid.
January 10th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
This is a terrible review your obviously just not capable of using the droid
January 10th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
You nailed it. This is the first smartphone I have used (had to quit the abysmal AT&T service, but loved the iPhone device) that really screws up phone calls. This device is so buggy–so utterly unpolished–I have to think its going to backfire on Google the way AT&T is struggling with their PR debacle. The keyboard is pointless (unusable) and ugly, I finally taped the battery compartment closed (pathetic, really), email only seldom works, the phone “app” (app? what’s the point of the device guys?!) crashes 2-3 times a week, and Verizon gets me my voice mails days late! If our automobiles worked as poorly as cell phones work, the lawsuits would be never-ending and the politicians would be making stump speeches! Imagine changing a flat tire every 10 miles! What we need is legislation that docks telco CEO pay one penny for every dropped call. That problem would be solved within a week’s time.
January 14th, 2010 at 12:04 am
How could he have possibly managed to pocket dial on a capacative touchscreen? …. is he one of those liars i’ve heard about? …
…. “pushed or pulled Google into releasing crappy software on it”
HAH, when has Google ever released crappy software?!
….”the phone will stop responding for 20-30 seconds”
^
/ \
mili?
January 14th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
This article is really remarkable to me. Anyone who believes the Droid is as bad as this claims, really doesn’t pay attention. Could a phone this completely bad be Time’s best gadget of 2009 (yes beating out the iPhone 3GS) and get glowing reviews from the likes of PC World, PC Magazine and the like? Let’s just be realistic, if he had the problems he had, he had a defective phone. The obvious solution to that is to return it to the store for one that works. Any technology you buy has the possibility of being a “lemon.” Return it, get new one, end of story. Most Droid users don’t have these problems, but a grumpy guy with a blog wants to say it is crap because he can’t figure out where he placed his receipt to return it. I have owned just about every phone out there and this is near the top. If you are an enterprise user, need Microsoft Exchange access get a Blackberry - no doubt. But if you are like most of us, use Gmail, Google Voice and more consumer related products, no phone integrates them as seamlessly into a phone as Droid Does.
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:59 pm
What is wrong with retards who are to lazy to learn how to use their phone and just hope that not putting any time into it works out. I mean come on, you cant gripe about a phone when you get a non-working dud, ALL PHONES COULD HAVE THAT PROBLEM!!!
January 25th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Dude you are freaking drunk. I have had my droid for a couple of months now and it is awesome. I have had none of the issues that you are referring to. I owned 3 blackberries prior to the droid and gave my girlfriend my 6 month old curve when I picked this little beauty up. The phone is responsive. The call quality is good. The keyboard does take some getting used to, but once you do it works well. The OS is excellent and I have had no problems with it. It is able to multi-task beautifully without a hiccup. Neither the blackberry nor iPhone multi-task worth a damn. Go back to a rotary phone, or better yet a telegraph!
January 31st, 2010 at 7:57 am
The reviewer does get a number of things right. I’ve had a Droid for two months now and overall it’s been a good experience. However he is write about some of the software issues. Getting the phone to dial out can be difficult. Bring up the phone app, scroll through the contact, try to make a call. . .phone freezes and you have to force close the phone app.
This has happened to me on multiple occasions and it is always inconvenient. Sometimes turning the phone on and off fixes it, other times you just need to wait a few hours until your phone decides to work again.
As for the keyboard - I think it works fine. It’s always talked about in reviews as being a huge negative - however I find that it works great.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:16 am
The only thing about this review that is true for me is the keyboard complaint: it’s definitely thin and not the best keyboard out there. It’s not awful, but it isn’t great either. I have not experienced any of the author’s other complaints, and judging by the lack of similar complaints in any of the 4 forums I frequent, I would suspect a bad device or PEBCAK. Wow, just wow. Totally bad review.
February 3rd, 2010 at 6:50 am
this review is all bogus. the physical keyboard is a bit annoying, but everything else works beautifully. I’ve had iphones for 2 years and while I kind of miss all the silly little apps it had, it was a horrible HORRIBLE phone. if you have no signal half the places you spend your time, then it’s worthless except to play silly games. I’m 100x happier with the droid. It actually works everywhere I go in Cincinnati, and now I spend time web surfing instead of playing lame iphone games that only capture your attention for 5 minutes. NO MORE ITUNES!! YAY!!!! everything just works, and alot of the best features like high quality gps, and ringtone maker app, etc. are all FREE.
February 5th, 2010 at 6:10 am
Wow, did you even try the Droid? This may be the worst review I have ever read. First of all, it kills the crackberry. And far superior to the iPhone. Please get a clue.
February 14th, 2010 at 7:24 am
This review sucks maybe try holding down the camera button and my 3 year old can turn my phone on and off no pressure. Also why the hell are you on the phone while driving any way? Its not safe. The force closes you get are only because of 3rd party apps not optimized for android 2.0
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:55 am
After a week with the Droid I am ready to go back to my Blackberry Storm. I use Outlook for my contacts, calendar and tasks and have found only a $50 per year app to solve the problem, which is NUTS! This should be easy and trying to sync my calendar and contact is not easy!
I find the button and start button inconvient and the tutorial is too fast and incompete. As I sit here with both phones, I am feeling like the web apps like the weather and google maps and web access are not enough to justify the time I am spending trying to get my life back in order (with the sync barriers).
I think the phone is going back to the store today while I am within the return period.
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:27 am
It’s crazy that you would write a review based on what could only be a defective handset. Clearly the things you are experiencing are not typical of a normal functioning device which leaves the reader to assume that you are a complete moron.
March 4th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
I got a Droid for Christmas and promptly returned it for a Bberry Tour. It was great for apps of all kinds and i enjoyed that but for email, not the best. Its a goof “For fun Phone” but not a great business Phone. The Bberry has a lock on that market, I had to learn the hard way.
Love the phone cord bungee effect thing though, way to go retro on’em.
March 11th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
If you hate it that much, I’d be more than happy to take it off your hands when you replace it.
March 18th, 2010 at 9:32 am
I have had a Motorola Droid since the day of release, and I have had no problems with it whatsoever. I have experienced none of the issues mentioned in this article. If you want to see an “operating system doesn’t work well enough to be considered a mobile OS” try Windows Mobile. My previous phones ran Windows mobile versions 4 - 6, and I have never used a more bug ridden, hard to use mess in my life. Android 2.0 does lack some polish, but is functional and stable.
March 18th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Yeah, I think I have to agree that the Droid is lacking. After having a pager sized BB for 2 years, and a full BB for another 7, and a personal cell phone, I was looking forward to merging work and personal onto one device. It is a pain to carry two devices. the weight is annoying and finding the ringing device in a working mom’s handbag is a nightmare on it’s own.
The Droid is
1) hard to use, the key board keys are not individual enough so typos like crazy,
2) the virtual keyboard is even worse, and suggests the need for a Palm like “stylus”. I don’t even have big hands and the typos on virtual are worse than the physical keyboard
3a) the phone does not respond (ie you’re in voicemail but the keyboard has gone dark so you can’t delete a message, replay, or anything - very likely to cause car accidents)
3b) or worse you try to go from handheld to speaker and can’t because the screen has gone dark - also likely to cause accidents
4) the call log is incomplete - I get voicemails but they are not consistently recorded in the call log, sometimes they are, sometimes not - it’s been very erratic, if someone has called it’s easy enough to dial them back directly from the call log, but this doesn’t work when the call is not recorded in the log file
5) when trying to find someone who you know is in your contacts to call them, it doesn’t search on first, last or last, first it just searches on partial strings (ie you start typing An for Annie and you can get Pizza for Andre, search results are not displayed in a relevant manner)
6) the BB knows that when you’re on a number field like a tel # field, and you hit a keyboard key that could be letter or a number, then use only numbers - the Droid is not smart enough for this.
7) I tried the voice search today for navigation - it resolved the town/state correctly but then didn’t give me directions so I decided I’d just drive the way I would normally because I didn’t want to pull over to coddle the Droid.
Overall experience - functional plus quirky veering into difficult
I think usability issues and considerations were overlooked by a company that claims it is deeply involved with usability. It would have been really very easy to get a great systems analyst to do a functional requirements deep dive on the competition before they wrote their own base app, or hire talent away from a company that has written telephony apps, or maybe I’ve been in IT for too long ;-)
March 23rd, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Jesus fanboys, calm down. If you’re happy with your phone then great. Are you that insecure that someone criticizing your favorite gadget makes you foam at the mouth and tear them down? Why the hell can’t people be happy with their OS/gadget of choice and stop trying to be frigging TV evangelists and convert the rest of the world to their opinion?
March 30th, 2010 at 4:40 am
In spite of the impossible keyboard, I enjoyed the Droid as a toy, while I had it. But I didn’t get it for play, unfortunately. I needed it to work for email. I have a small business and getting timely emails is critical. Traded out of my iPhone (which got emails timely enough) thinking that by 3+ months into launch, Motorola/Verizon/Google would have their sht together with the Droid. Nothin doin.
From day one, the phone never delivered pop email on time, often not for over a day and sometimes not at all. Wife had the same problems plus lost her exchange account. Technicians at the store had me reset the phone twice and the third time I was in the store, the tech told me he had the same problem with his own phone and ended up returning it for this reason. I called Verizon, got on the phone with a senior tech and got what amounted to a shoulder shrug. Nothing we can do, need to wait till the next software update to see if its better. What a joke. This phone is clearly not ready to do pop email. I just can’t believe this phone went live without this figured out.
March 30th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
I have a droid too and I love it. Never had any problems with it, the only things that I don’t like is that the stock homescreen doesn’t auto rotate and theres no way to clear the market’s search history. The first gripe is easily fixed by downloading a different homescreen app. Everything runs smooth and quick, and I haven’t rooted the phone either.
June 9th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
The droid keyboard does blow, but that was stated in so many reviews at its release that if you were unaware of that or didn’t figure it out in 5 minutes I have little sympathy. I’d much prefer a device with no physical keyboard to reduce size, complexity, etc etc..
The rest of your issues are pretty hilarious… you’re angry at the phone because lag may cause you to rear-end someone? Gee I hope you never drive on the same road as me..
You said it took 5 minutes to take a photo and snap it.. well I just tried it in case my memories of previous photo-sending lag had been surprised.. takes under a minute.
On-off button placement is fine.. Pocket dialing? Pretty much every phone requires you to lock it to avoid that.. I’d say I pocket dial less than other phones and you can always adjust the screen lock timeout if you choose.
Oh and in case you never figured it out.. you have to hold the camera button for a second or two. Yes it’s not as instantaneous as my Nikon DSLRs. Big shocker there.
Anyway I realize you wrote this over 6 months ago but I felt like responding anyway since your gripes are so absurd. Maybe you got a bad phone or you’re just clueless. Who knows.
July 5th, 2010 at 7:07 am
I am on my second droid. It sucks also. Responsiveness is important. If you have all day to dick around, then you are not important enough to have a smartphone all you need is a toy. The droid makes and excellent toy. I love it for navigating, surfing the web and etc. It is a great toy when you are stuck sitting around doing nothing and you have time to wait for it.
First off, it’s nice to have that big screen but I’d really like to be able to hold my phone while using it. I find that it is safest and most reliable used when sitting on a table or other flat surface. Second, the proximity sensor doesn’t like hair. Sorry but I’m not cutting off my hair for the phone. I didn’t cut it off to join the military, I shouldn’t have to cut my hair so my phone will work reliably. Third the touch screen may or may not respond. It seems they should have issued a robot finger stylus with it. It is so responsive and accurate on the TV ads, but both of my droids never responded to so many request/touches in a row reliably. Never! So, you pretty much have to stop everything to do something with the phone. No press one button answer or hang up. Forget talking while driving, while cooking, while breathing, etc.
Well, I could go on and on. I like technology but I also demand reliability. I except companies to test their products prior to putting them on the market, that is what Apple excels at (usually). It annoys me to no end that my phone has so much trouble making phone calls. I could forgive it having trouble with Facebook or Twitter, it is after all a phone. I am not forced to give up my toy for a phone or have two phones so I can make phone calls. I don’t like companies putting me in this predicament because their product is so unstable that I can’t use it for what it is designed to do. Perhaps that is my problem assuming my droid is a phone and not some toy.
July 19th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
I love my Droid. However it dials numbers at random. Once it called a friend of mine 20 times. Next problem the music goes off by itself. Imagine at a meeting my phone is blasting the Supremes. Walking down the stairs of the subway the music went off and they thought I was a Diana Ross impersonator.
Please help. Is it because the phone is in my pocket and something hits the keyboard….