Droid Hype

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

So I went to the Verizon store today for fun. All this hype about the Droid is like meh to me. Just like the iPhone hype in 2007. In 2007 I was firmly behind Nokia's N95 in that it was the better smartphone. I still believe my reasoning was correct and that the iPhone 3G with OS 2.0 helped turn the smartphone tide in Apple's favor.

Now in 2009, we have the other phone that gets uber hyped Moto Droid. Now mind you I am an avid iPod Touch user and I used an iPhone 3GS for a bit before giving it away to my parents.

Today I went onto the browser and typed anandtech.com I tried 4-5 times before I could type it out. It wasn't like anymnkdtech.com or whatever mis-presses. The keyboard was just NOT registering my fingers. Ok, I switched to landscape and typed. Even worse. It went to some weird window. I put the phone down.

I picked up the Droid Eris by HTC and opened up the browser. Anandtech.com. Took 2 tries maybe, but at least the other time it caught all my keypresses even though I spelled it wrong. I went to a text message and typed "Hello, this is a test of the keyboard." Maybe a typo or whatever. Went back to the Moto Droid and typed it again. WTF. Couldn't catch my keypresses.

I typed it much slower again and it FINALLY caught my presses. Now, I didn't have that much time to test, but I'm guessing the phone STRUGGLES when you do not let go of the previous key before pressing the next key. The iPhone does NOT have this problem and clearly HTC's Droid Eris does not have this problem. I do know that Windows Mobile phones and Samsung's Omnia HD and many other resistive screens that do not support multi touch HAVE this issue. Droid should support multi touch given its capacitive screen and Android, but I'm surprised its on screen keyboard cannot keep up with this. This was enough for me to conclude Moto has a LONG way to go. HTC clearly understood this and implemented this in their Droid Eris phone. I commend HTC because not only is their HTC TouchFlo 3D interface probably the best proprietary interface out there, but they have TRUE experience in touchscreen phones. We went from HTC's Touch to Touch Diamond, Touch Diamond 2, and now it's porting the same awesome usability into Android which is already in itself 10x more usable than Windows Mobile.

So I played around with other features of the Droid, and I was a little disappointed at interface lag. Flipping screens seemed to show a little choppiness. My iPod Touch 1G seems to show less choppiness and certainly my gf's iPod 2G is choppiness free.

5MP camera is decent. I would take my N82 over it, but that's mainly due to IQ and xenon flash. I have yet to see the updates to the focusing problems. But if they could make the 5MP camera rival the N97, then that would be great since Apple put one of the best 3.2MP cameras in their iPhone.

Google navigation is interesting, but I already have Garmin Mobile XT on my phone. I suppose the free part is catchy.

My conclusion: Unfortunately, the US has been deprived of many great phones that the rest of the world has. The Touch Pro 2 is very underrepresented in the US and the other nice HTC phones like the Hero, Touch HD, Touch Diamond (well sprint gets this) are seriously missing. Not to mention the Samsung Omnia HD, Omnia II, Nokia N97, etc.... So the iPhone gets uber hype because it's the true smartphone besides BB to really come out to the US market (Come on, WinMo gets screwed in the US compared to the rest of the world). Droid is the first heavy push into the US market of Android. You could argue the G1 was an attempt but it was done through T-Mobile, the smallest of all US carriers. Plus it fell far short of the iPhone at the time of launch.

The Droid is a good phone nonetheless. It's certainly not the ultimate phone that this forum makes it seem though. But what can we say when this is all there is on the carrier subsidized phone list?

HTC, please bring the HD2 stateside immediately. Throw in UMTS 850 also please.

 

[zerocool84]

The reason why Winmo phones aren't as big here in the states is that Winmo sucks. Have you read any reviews on the HD2??? It's hardware is good but Winmo makes it crash and other stuff.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

The reason why Winmo phones aren't as big here in the states is that Winmo sucks. Have you read any reviews on the HD2??? It's hardware is good but Winmo makes it crash and other stuff.

Yes I've watched plenty of videos on WinMo. WinMo on it's OWN sucks, but there's plenty of hacking you can do.

The reason WinMo isn't big in the states is because we get CRAPPY winMo phones. BlackJack was decent, but nothing close to what HTC was throwing out to the rest of the world by then. We also have idiotic phones like the LG Incite and what not. Motorola released a slew of bad WinMo phones too. There are plenty of WinMo phones out there but just not carried by the US carriers. WinMo isn't great, but it's not as bad as we make it out here because there's limited phones in the US.

Look at WinMo forums and look at the people talking about their Touch Diamonds crashing. The frequency is something around what iPhone users see which is pretty much what other smartphones see also. It's NOT that bad.

 

[Rottie]

what about webos? do you like it or not?

 

[boomhower]

Motorola killed the hardware keyboard on the Droid. I honestly can't believe they screwed it up that bad. The keys all run together and there are actually blank keys, you have to be freaking kidding me. Other than that the phone pretty much rocks. The build quality is absolutely amazing as is the screen. (Granted I have a Pre so it doesn't take much to impress me with build quality)

If they improved the keyboard and put WebOS on it, then I would have pretty much my dream phone. Oh, and make it available on Sprint.

 

[Glitchny]

oddly enough I can use the hardware keyboard just fine, and haven't noticed an issue with the on screen keyboard. I know there was something about multi-touch being supported but not active on any of the native apps for some reason and now that I'm using a different home screen program little to no choppiness.

It's been my experience that the in store demos are almost always terrible. Loaded with a crapton of apps and generally abused by people. I've never had an issue with my Droid... has been exactly what I expected it to be.

 

[Demo24]

I think the keyboards might loosen after a bit. The one in the store on the rack had very stiff buttons, but the one from an employee had much nicer feeling buttons. Eitherway, it's not great but probably usable after awhile.

 

[Spoooon]

I think the keyboards might loosen after a bit. The one in the store on the rack had very stiff buttons, but the one from an employee had much nicer feeling buttons. Eitherway, it's not great but probably usable after awhile.

It's funny that what throws me off the most about using the keyboard is having access to punctuation marks.

I haven't really noticed any of the typing problems the OP describes, though when I purposely hold down a key and try typing another key, problems emerge. When I am just typing "naturally," I have no diffuculties. Perhaps it requires an adjustment period.

 

[troytime]

it could be possible the phone you were handling was messed up

 

[destrekor]

This is a Google-specific phone. Google has not implemented multi-touch in any of it's apps, but the OS and hardware support it. Apps on the market have multi-touch, and I reckon it won't be long until either one of the currently available keyboard apps (Better Keyboard) or a brand new keyboard replacement app, comes with multi-touch support.
There might be some legal issues that Google itself does not want to get involved in, something about Apple potentially having the patents to multi-touch. Patented tech means Google would have to pay a licensing fee, and well, Google doesn't make any true money directly from Android, so that would be a big pain. So Google might not be implementing that capability directly, but since it's an open platform, others can easily throw it in there and I don't know if Apple will stress themselves out with small independent developers on the Market.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

what about webos? do you like it or not?

It looks nice, but the Palm Pre doesn't feel as nice. I'll take Android still.

I tried my typical speed typing on my iPod Touch, then the Droid, and then the Droid Eris. The Droid Eris picked everything up and so did my iPod touch. The Moto Droid just failed. I do not know why that is..... Maybe HTC tweaked their device a bit, but I would think Android + Capacitive should function like iPhone + Capacitive. The way the Droid was working made me wonder if it was about letting go before pressing the next key. I know this is a huge issue for WinMo devices w/ resistive screens.

Of course you all mentioned the PHYSICAL keyboard. Ah, my bad. I didn't use that as much as I should've. Some people are definitely giving it flak here and I agree. It's not great. HTC definitely takes the cake. Touch Pro and Touch Pro 2 have awesome keyboards. But the Moto Droid isn't THAT bad either. Just try the N97 and you'll see why a 3 row keyboard with a misplaced spacebar is the worst physical keyboard ever made. Ugh.

 

[destrekor]

It looks nice, but the Palm Pre doesn't feel as nice. I'll take Android still.

I tried my typical speed typing on my iPod Touch, then the Droid, and then the Droid Eris. The Droid Eris picked everything up and so did my iPod touch. The Moto Droid just failed. I do not know why that is..... Maybe HTC tweaked their device a bit, but I would think Android + Capacitive should function like iPhone + Capacitive. The way the Droid was working made me wonder if it was about letting go before pressing the next key. I know this is a huge issue for WinMo devices w/ resistive screens.

Of course you all mentioned the PHYSICAL keyboard. Ah, my bad. I didn't use that as much as I should've. Some people are definitely giving it flak here and I agree. It's not great. HTC definitely takes the cake. Touch Pro and Touch Pro 2 have awesome keyboards. But the Moto Droid isn't THAT bad either. Just try the N97 and you'll see why a 3 row keyboard with a misplaced spacebar is the worst physical keyboard ever made. Ugh.

Read my post if you missed it, or read it again.

When you are saying "iPhone + Capacitive", specifically around being able to touch keys at the same time, that is called multi-touch if you were not aware.
Google has not included multi-touch capable apps in the U.S., anywhere. YET, apparently the Euro version will be including it.
The phone itself supports it, and there are apps out there already that support it. With time, more apps and possibly a keyboard with the feature will be released.
There might be some kind of issue/barrier preventing Google from directly providing multi-touch capability in the native apps here in the U.S., but not in the E.U. That leads me to believe it is a U.S. Patent issue, as others have also mentioned.

 

[slatr]

I think there may be a tiny bit of a parallax issue. My perception is that if I type by placing my finder slightly left of any given key, I get much better results.

As a matter of fact, I only use the onscreen keyboard now.

The screen is so sharp and clear, I forgive it this transgression

 

[Hadsus]

I have a Droid and iTouch. No contest for me, the Droid is my fav. I have had both for just a couple of weeks and I'm already sick of seeing that pool of icons strewn over screen after screen. And, BTW, I make as many, or more spelling mistakes on the Touch vs. the Droid.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Read my post if you missed it, or read it again.

When you are saying "iPhone + Capacitive", specifically around being able to touch keys at the same time, that is called multi-touch if you were not aware.
Google has not included multi-touch capable apps in the U.S., anywhere. YET, apparently the Euro version will be including it.
The phone itself supports it, and there are apps out there already that support it. With time, more apps and possibly a keyboard with the feature will be released.
There might be some kind of issue/barrier preventing Google from directly providing multi-touch capability in the native apps here in the U.S., but not in the E.U. That leads me to believe it is a U.S. Patent issue, as others have also mentioned.

I understand. Capacitive is clearly able for multi touch. There's multi touch such as pinch zooming and stuff that has patent issues still. But HTC clearly has been able to address the multi touch issues with typing, and the Droid Eris is equipped with at least that much multi-touch. The Droid itself is not ready for that.

 

[troytime]

I understand. Capacitive is clearly able for multi touch. There's multi touch such as pinch zooming and stuff that has patent issues still. But HTC clearly has been able to address the multi touch issues with typing, and the Droid Eris is equipped with at least that much multi-touch. The Droid itself is not ready for that.

or the droid you handled was messed up.

 

[destrekor]

I understand. Capacitive is clearly able for multi touch. There's multi touch such as pinch zooming and stuff that has patent issues still. But HTC clearly has been able to address the multi touch issues with typing, and the Droid Eris is equipped with at least that much multi-touch. The Droid itself is not ready for that.

The Droid is ready for it, as I cannot imagine anything that would be holding it back.
It's going to take third party intervention. Google itself does not provide this in anything, and this is a "Google Experience" phone, meaning it's exactly as Google delivers it, no Motorola intervention with software.
It'll be awesome if the Better Keyboard 2 devs include multi-touch in their keyboard, or someone makes a Droid-specific keyboard replacement app.

 

[Bateluer]

I like my Droid thus far. The plan is to keep it for until July 2011, then upgrade to an LTE Android phone.

 

[destrekor]

I like my Droid thus far. The plan is to keep it for until July 2011, then upgrade to an LTE Android phone.

Heh, my contract ends in May, 2011 and that's exactly what I am hoping to do.
If they come out earlier it's going to be painful waiting, but thankfully, I'm *fairly* confident even if LTE is awhile away even at that point, I'll be able to wait and stick to the Droid. We'll see.

 

[lokiju]

It takes time to get used to a phone.

It took me time to get used to hitting keys right on a regular basis on my iPhone and I'm now relearning still on my Droid.

But all in all it's not nearly as bad as made out once you give it a fair chance versus a short demo in a store.

If you're actually somewhat interested in buying the phone Verizon does offer a 30 return policy.

 

[hanoverphist]

ive been setting up a few droids here in the office (1 work and others personal). so far they are pretty cool phones, easy to get around in as well as set up. i was not impressed with the camera at all tho, and thats a key feature for me. as for the whole hype thing, the droid is a very decent phone, and deserved to be hyped up. especially if they wanted to actually sell a bunch of them.

 

[basslover1]

ive been setting up a few droids here in the office (1 work and others personal). so far they are pretty cool phones, easy to get around in as well as set up. i was not impressed with the camera at all tho, and thats a key feature for me. as for the whole hype thing, the droid is a very decent phone, and deserved to be hyped up. especially if they wanted to actually sell a bunch of them.

Which they have, around 800,000 right now, and they're expecting to sell 1 Million by the end of the year.

 

[gorcorps]

Which they have, around 800,000 right now, and they're expecting to sell 1 Million by the end of the year.

Pretty good numbers. Has to be Verizon's best start for phone sales.

 

[Demo24]

Now that you can buy one and then get an Eris free, makes it even that more appetizing. I'm tempted, but I'm gonna wait a bit more and see if anything from HTC comes out.

 

[gorcorps]

Now that you can buy one and then get one, makes it even that more appetizing. I'm tempted, but I'm gonna wait a bit more and see if anything from HTC comes out.

What about the Droid Eris? That's HTC

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/...t&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=5070