- Nov 5, 2010
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So, I got my Droid X2 a little over two weeks ago, figured I'd give my own impressions and benchmarks. This is my first smartphone owned so my basis for subjective comparison is pretty limited but I'll do my best.
There isn't much I can say about the build, it's exactly the same as Brian Klug's review on the Droid X. The only real differences are the functional features, which are the nVidia Tegra 2 AP20H core (ARM A9 with the GeForce ULP clocked at 300 MHz) and Gorilla Glass-encased qHD screen at 960x540. It comes loaded with Android Froyo 2.2.2 with an update to Gingerbread 2.3.3 sometime in future. The phone itself has 4GB onboard memory (~2GB available for the user, the rest reserved for apps and system use) and ships with an 8GB microSD card installed.
Benchmarks
I tried doing as many as I could...though I couldn't get the Quake 3 port going on my phone and GLBenchmark would always crash while trying to calculate my scores. I clocked USB data transfers with a 350MB video file, measuring 4.3MB/s to the internal memory and 2.3MB/s to the microSD card. This puts the flash memory at class 4 and class 2 respectively. My only Wifi throughput so far was through 11g via Ookla speedtest with 13.5MB down and 12MB up within 15 feet of the router through one wall, I'll update with 11n and ideal 3G performance when I can.
I did my own signal attenuation test as well, though probably not as rigorous as AT usually does with time and location restraints.
Open Palm: 6 dBa
Naturally: 1 dBa
Cupping tightly: <10 dBa
The cupping number is what I would consider worst-case as it only lost 10dBa of signal under a very unusual hand position, which is cupping the entire right side of the phone. The call quality is quite good, even better in some areas where my old LG VX8360 wouldn't get signal. iPhone 4 this ain't.
Other benchmarks easily place the phone in the top tier of performance (if it's acceptable to add them to AT Bench, that would be awesome)
BenchmarkPi - 736ms
Linpack - 36.985
Neocore - 53.5
Sunspider 0.9 Javascript Test - 4604ms
Rightware Browsermark - 51460
Subjective remarks
The display is sharp with no backlight bleed that I notice. It's very usable as a Kindle/eBook reader and doesn't even feel like I'm reading any slower than hardcopy. In portrait mode Swype was quite easy to learn and the keys are just large enough even for my fingers, though there is a bit more difficulty the further the keys are from the hand, when doing manual typing. The automatic camera/camcorder settings seem to work very well in the majority of situations I've used them, easily more user-friendly than some simple point-and-shoot cameras. Overall image/video quality is great.
I only have a couple of issues with the Droid X2:
Battery life: With the most minimal usage the battery only lasts 2-3 days. When used under my work day for music (primarily as a music player on an 8 hour work day, mostly onboard with some Pandora via 3G for a couple hours) and some light web browsing up to 1 hour, the battery has maybe a quarter charge left. The display also chews through a lot of energy, as the bootloader is locked with a black-on-white motif. I usually keep the phone on automatic brightness, but even in sunlight the display is visible at 25%.
Memory usage and responsiveness: The Motoblur interface is rife with bloat and usually has a lot going on in the background. I highly recommend a program killer app. Though the phone is advertised as having 512MB RAM, it only registers as having 404MB via Android System Info. Even with Advanced Task Killer on safe, under the best circumstances I only free up to 150MB RAM. This glut comes into play most when changing orientation. I have a Zune HD which also makes use of the Tegra 2, though the gyroscope in the Droid X2 doesn't feel as snappy especially under load. Obviously the Droid has more work going on in the background from handling additional wireless ability.
Rear-hardware layout: It's worth echoing Brian's complaint about the layout of the battery and card location. The battery release is little more than a sheet of laminated plastic to pull. While it feels just sturdy enough for repeated use, my main complaint is that the battery NEEDS to come out to remove the microSD card. Only the smallest amount of clearance would be needed between the card and the battery itself.
On the whole, I'm glad I waited as long as I have to jump into the smartphone world. I weighted getting this over an 4G LTE phone and I'm not really missing the difference. The phone is 3G but with a good signal the phone is rather quick with web browsing. The Droid X2 feels like a high-quality phone and I don't terribly miss not going with LTE. It's certainly a large phone and probably not best for someone with smaller hands. If you're not hellbound on having the fastest internet all the time over the cell wireless band, this is definitely a smartphone to consider.
There isn't much I can say about the build, it's exactly the same as Brian Klug's review on the Droid X. The only real differences are the functional features, which are the nVidia Tegra 2 AP20H core (ARM A9 with the GeForce ULP clocked at 300 MHz) and Gorilla Glass-encased qHD screen at 960x540. It comes loaded with Android Froyo 2.2.2 with an update to Gingerbread 2.3.3 sometime in future. The phone itself has 4GB onboard memory (~2GB available for the user, the rest reserved for apps and system use) and ships with an 8GB microSD card installed.
Benchmarks
I tried doing as many as I could...though I couldn't get the Quake 3 port going on my phone and GLBenchmark would always crash while trying to calculate my scores. I clocked USB data transfers with a 350MB video file, measuring 4.3MB/s to the internal memory and 2.3MB/s to the microSD card. This puts the flash memory at class 4 and class 2 respectively. My only Wifi throughput so far was through 11g via Ookla speedtest with 13.5MB down and 12MB up within 15 feet of the router through one wall, I'll update with 11n and ideal 3G performance when I can.
I did my own signal attenuation test as well, though probably not as rigorous as AT usually does with time and location restraints.
Open Palm: 6 dBa
Naturally: 1 dBa
Cupping tightly: <10 dBa
The cupping number is what I would consider worst-case as it only lost 10dBa of signal under a very unusual hand position, which is cupping the entire right side of the phone. The call quality is quite good, even better in some areas where my old LG VX8360 wouldn't get signal. iPhone 4 this ain't.
Other benchmarks easily place the phone in the top tier of performance (if it's acceptable to add them to AT Bench, that would be awesome)
BenchmarkPi - 736ms
Linpack - 36.985
Neocore - 53.5
Sunspider 0.9 Javascript Test - 4604ms
Rightware Browsermark - 51460
Subjective remarks
The display is sharp with no backlight bleed that I notice. It's very usable as a Kindle/eBook reader and doesn't even feel like I'm reading any slower than hardcopy. In portrait mode Swype was quite easy to learn and the keys are just large enough even for my fingers, though there is a bit more difficulty the further the keys are from the hand, when doing manual typing. The automatic camera/camcorder settings seem to work very well in the majority of situations I've used them, easily more user-friendly than some simple point-and-shoot cameras. Overall image/video quality is great.
I only have a couple of issues with the Droid X2:
Battery life: With the most minimal usage the battery only lasts 2-3 days. When used under my work day for music (primarily as a music player on an 8 hour work day, mostly onboard with some Pandora via 3G for a couple hours) and some light web browsing up to 1 hour, the battery has maybe a quarter charge left. The display also chews through a lot of energy, as the bootloader is locked with a black-on-white motif. I usually keep the phone on automatic brightness, but even in sunlight the display is visible at 25%.
Memory usage and responsiveness: The Motoblur interface is rife with bloat and usually has a lot going on in the background. I highly recommend a program killer app. Though the phone is advertised as having 512MB RAM, it only registers as having 404MB via Android System Info. Even with Advanced Task Killer on safe, under the best circumstances I only free up to 150MB RAM. This glut comes into play most when changing orientation. I have a Zune HD which also makes use of the Tegra 2, though the gyroscope in the Droid X2 doesn't feel as snappy especially under load. Obviously the Droid has more work going on in the background from handling additional wireless ability.
Rear-hardware layout: It's worth echoing Brian's complaint about the layout of the battery and card location. The battery release is little more than a sheet of laminated plastic to pull. While it feels just sturdy enough for repeated use, my main complaint is that the battery NEEDS to come out to remove the microSD card. Only the smallest amount of clearance would be needed between the card and the battery itself.
On the whole, I'm glad I waited as long as I have to jump into the smartphone world. I weighted getting this over an 4G LTE phone and I'm not really missing the difference. The phone is 3G but with a good signal the phone is rather quick with web browsing. The Droid X2 feels like a high-quality phone and I don't terribly miss not going with LTE. It's certainly a large phone and probably not best for someone with smaller hands. If you're not hellbound on having the fastest internet all the time over the cell wireless band, this is definitely a smartphone to consider.
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