Throwback discussion: Motorola Droid 1. but with rooted updates!

[wirednuts]

HOLE LEIGH CRAP!

so i bought a droid off ebay for $43 shipped. its got lots of zings but a perfectly clean screen. now i finally get why people rave about gorilla glass. i also now dont know why i put a screen protector on my transformer.

but aside from that. the phone itself. 550mhz arm7 cpu. even with CM7 it is a bit sluggish. until you overclock it! 900mhz without issues and this old thing is as fast as most new phones ive tried. it is every bit as responsive as my tegra2 tablet (i know, much high res kills performance, but still). LOVE the cm7 rom too!

i bought this phone to use unactivated, as a little girlfriend to my htpc. i thought it would be a nice remote.

turns out, since i have sprint, google voice can be integrated without even adding a new phone number. so now i get calls and texts on my phone and this wifi-only droid, simultaneously! so its my htpc remote AND a 2nd phone. sure, it cant leave the house unless i go somewhere with wifi, but call quality has skyrocketed for me. i get bad reception in my house, so i normally connect at some terribly low bitrate and all my calls sound terrible most of the time. not with this droid running google voice! always full strength wifi reception, along with good voip provider equals stellar call quality. just love it for that!

since then, ive been playing games with it. some games are more fun on this phone then on my 10" tablet (tablet is awkward to hold! too big!)

then, if i go somewhere, its my new gps device too. now i can have a standalone gps device that doesnt tie up my cellphone. love it.

im just trilled with what such an 'old' and cheap phone can do. the texts... ugh that is so convenient to see and send my texts on a separate device from my phone. really, i have been seriously thinking about going back to a dumb phone for my main phone. the only reason i cant is because i like to tether my 3g service to other devices.....

anyone else finding these old android phones make great coffee table media hubs?

 

[AstroManLuca]

install gmote on your phone and on your HTPC and prepare for your mind to be blown

 

[titan131]

What's the battery life like at 900MHz? I thought it was crap at 550MHz. Good phone tho, nice screen and built like a tank.

 

[Bateluer]

What's the battery life like at 900MHz? I thought it was crap at 550MHz. Good phone tho, nice screen and built like a tank.

With a low voltage kernel and the right rom, the Droid 1 saw much improved battery life even at a 1Ghz+

 

[titan131]

With a low voltage kernel and the right rom, the Droid 1 saw much improved battery life even at a 1Ghz+

Oh right, that's cool. I just kept mine at stock, bit too complicated for me, all that technical stuff =)

I looked for a guide for rooting my Nexus S and found one on the XDA forums but didn't really understand what they were on about. Managed to do it tho from a really great youtube video. I guess if I can find a similar one for the Droid 1 I might try it. Though I actually have the milestone 1, same phone really, but might need a different rooting technique, not sure.

 

[wirednuts]

yeah i think rooting is a bit different for every model phone. the droid is very easy, no need to flash anything- http://androidforums.com/droid-all-...oid-without-rsd-lite-up-including-frg83d.html

and once you root, all you do to flash a new rom is put one zip file on the sd card, then boot into recovery mode (hold down x while powering the phone on). select install from zip, and bam its done. way too easy.

battery life is great. usually around 2 days on a charge. this is because the cell signal is disabled. no need when it doesnt even have service anyway! the only caveats, google nav gps will not work unless it sees a cell tower first. so i use a program to turn on the cellular radio if the gps is not getting a lock. but then the problem is this program will turn airplane mode back on, so that kills the wifi. for that, i use another program to turn the wifi back on if it ever goes out for whatever reason. amazingly, these two apps work perfectly together and i have no issues with gps or wifi staying working.

gremote was the reason i bought the phone! actually the reason i bought the tablet, but a 10" tablet is too big for a remote. this phone has been working well for that, although gremote has a long way to go before its convenient to use everyday... that said its the best, which is kinda sad.

i also like using this for pandora, as a standalone camera, and alarm clock.... however i dont like using the same phone to do all of these things. i am now seriously considering having one in each room of the house. for the price, why not?

ive also been thinking... i have friends that love my htpc, but have little money or knowledge to fix problems. whats stopping them from buying a droid X or X2 and using the hdmi out? they would get netflix at least, and im sure there are other services i havent found out about yet.

oh i almost forgot, for those who dont have 24/7 servers- they have torrent apps too! something most people wouldnt do with their phones, but if you buy one just to torrent you basically have a SUPER low power torrent box for $40. sorry, after waiting for the raspberry pi for a year now i think i finally got one

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

lol my Droid/Milestone is at 1100mhz. It's nowhere as fast as my Nexus S @ 1ghz, and honestly my SGS2 wipes the floor with both. Not sure what you're talking about. This is comparing CM7.

Yes the Droid @ 1100mhz is ages faster than its 550mhz stock, but trust me that 256mb is really holding you back in memory. Even if you do memory optimizations like the V6 supercharger, it's just NOT enough memory.

 

[trmiv]

I don't think you've tried enough new phones! I've had to turn my OG Droid back on a few times since I've had my Galaxy Nexus, and even at 1.1ghz it's slower than crap. I considered using it as you do, for web browsing, media, etc, but it was just too damn slow so I turned it off and stuck it a drawer.

One thing that does amaze me every time I've picked it up though is how tiny it feels. My Galaxy Nexus never feels big when I use it. But when I do happen to pickup the Droid I'm like "holy crap this thing is tiny!"

 

[podspi]

Ah, the OG Droid. Mine was a great OCer, ran it daily @ 1.25ghz. Battery was bearable at that speed (12ish hours?).


Question though: How did you get Google Voice to work? Every time I try to install it on any phone ever, it asks me to confirm my phone number (on my actual phone and on tablets, wified-phones, etc), and it never works.

I've since upgraded to the D4 and love it, <nostalgia>but nothing will ever compare to that first, bold 'iPhone killer' that the D1 was supposed to be. </nostalgia>

 

[AstroManLuca]

Ah, the OG Droid. Mine was a great OCer, ran it daily @ 1.25ghz. Battery was bearable at that speed (12ish hours?).


Question though: How did you get Google Voice to work? Every time I try to install it on any phone ever, it asks me to confirm my phone number (on my actual phone and on tablets, wified-phones, etc), and it never works.

I've since upgraded to the D4 and love it, <nostalgia>but nothing will ever compare to that first, bold 'iPhone killer' that the D1 was supposed to be. </nostalgia>

The Google Voice setup is a little weird. When I run it for the first time on a new device (or a fresh install), there's one step where it always fails. But I can always skip that step. All the configuration you need can be done through the regular Google Voice website on your computer.

Then again, I haven't used GV on a phone or device without service. I only use it to forward calls and receive/send text messages. For that it's great; it lets you ditch your texting plan entirely and save some money (although you will then have to give everyone your GV number; the workaround there is to port your existing number into GV so texts sent to that number make it to GV).

 

[shortylickens]

I tried CM7 on my Droid and it was nice but really just made me want a better phone.
I got a used Atrix 2 just to play all the free apps from Amazon. It was worth it.

 

[wirednuts]

i know the 256mb memory hinders its performance a bit, but slow? no way. im comparing it to my tf101, and honestly, its not that different. at stock speed, stock rom? YES, its a slow piece of shit. not fun to use. but a 500mhz overclock and steeldroid rom (based on cm7), its snappy and not annoying at all.

its basically been my "landline" phone that is transparent to my real cell phone. same number, both phones ring on calls and texts... its just great. and, since its a cell phone, e911 service is there too! when im home, my cellphone stays on the kitchen counter while i use the droid. and if i go somewhere, i have even taken both phones and leave my cellphone in wifi tether mode... so i can use my droid as my cellphone it works incredibly well.....

 

[trmiv]

Really, faster than the Transformer? The Transformer is no massive speed demon, but I found it waaaaaaaaaaaaay faster than the OD Droid, even OC'd to 1.1Ghz. Really I was ready to totally dump Android after my Droid 1 because it was so slow, but that was my only experience with it. When I got the Transformer it was way faster, and saw what Android could do with a decent device. So I stuck with it and went Galaxy Nexus, which flies.

But hey, if it makes you happy, go with it!

 

[wirednuts]

No, the transformer is still faster.. but not by much. Games, its no contest- the tf101 hands down. But most everything else? I just dont notice much difference. Just being honest here.... i guess my tf101 is bunk but i doubt it......

 

[AstroManLuca]

No, the transformer is still faster.. but not by much. Games, its no contest- the tf101 hands down. But most everything else? I just dont notice much difference. Just being honest here.... i guess my tf101 is bunk but i doubt it......

Is your transformer running a custom ROM? A lot of the time, the stock software is a bit slow or laggy compared to what you get with a rom.

 

[notposting]

My OG Droid is basically unusable and that's running at 8 or 900 MHz with a stripped down ROM. No way is it usable ugh. It's my alarm clock in the bedside dock.

 

[wirednuts]

transformer is stock, but with the latest update (a week ago?) that FINALLY took the lag out of the device. it is very quick now, no matter how much crap i have running on it.

maybe i just need to post a youtube video of my phone in action? well, i might go back to steeldroid first (i couldnt get playstore to update so i flashed to a nightly build of the real cm7... and honestly i dont think its as good as steeldroid)

but unusable? thats a line where my touch pro 2 almost touches... thats a whopping 650mhz arm 5 cpu- after overclock. now THAT is sluggish!

 

[podspi]

transformer is stock, but with the latest update (a week ago?) that FINALLY took the lag out of the device. it is very quick now, no matter how much crap i have running on it.

maybe i just need to post a youtube video of my phone in action? well, i might go back to steeldroid first (i couldnt get playstore to update so i flashed to a nightly build of the real cm7... and honestly i dont think its as good as steeldroid)

but unusable? thats a line where my touch pro 2 almost touches... thats a whopping 650mhz arm 5 cpu- after overclock. now THAT is sluggish!

TBH, I found CM7 for the OG Droid to be terrible. They had a lot of issues with devs dropping out for either personal reasons (happens), or because they wanted to switch to working on flashier devices (sigh).

The best ROMs for the OG Droid (imho) are Chevy's SS ROMs.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/chevyno1/

The last version I used was 5.5 but there is 5.6 out now.

 

[wirednuts]

yeah i forgot what i was using, but it turns out it was steeldroid. i tried straight cm7 late last night, and that lasted 20min. it was clunky and obviously not optimized that great.

steeldroid went back on and its back to normal again. just love it, smooth and fast. i think the hardware acceleration for 2d mode helps a lot, as that is not an option in cm7 (didnt see it at least). i might try chevy's rom sometime but im tired of programming this phone now... whats funny is i never intended to buy a droid1, as i bought a droidX first but the seller never shipped the phone. so i bought this in a pinch and its been so much better then anticipated... maybe when i get the X i will go right to chevy rom.

btw, it looks like steeldroid is still being updated, last being a few days ago. while chevys rom is 6 months old. not sure if it means much though

 

[wirednuts]

update- droid X is finally here! biggest difference is the screen. so much nicer sized for what i want to do with it.

what-a-bitch to root! it had the 2.3.6 ota update already when i got it, so yeah, the bootloader is locked and the phone is difficult to root. if anyone is following this thread, i tried 4 different methods, and none worked until i found this guide- http://www.droidxforums.com/forum/d...oot-cm7-rom-guide-droid-x-621-ota-update.html

so it took me 2 days, about 6 hours of work to figure out how to root this thing. but its done. steeldroid on this one as well. a bit disappointing that with the DX, just like the og droid, you must have the cellular radio on for a few sec so the gps can get a lock. its a pita if you try to keep the phone in airplane mode most of the time. plus, if youre somewhere out in the sticks with no reception, dont be relying on this to get directions. i have heard this might just be a google maps limitation though, so i might try copilot sometime and see what happens.

i love the motorola droid dock! when you put the phone on it, it changes the screen to a clock/media mode. its why i wanted a droid, and its exactly what i thought it would be like. its nearly perfect. the only catch is you need to push the phone down onto the dock to get it to seat. which means, to take it off you need to hold the cradle down. pretty annoying but oh well.

best part? i bought the phone on ebay, listed as "stuck on bootloader". $60 bin free ship. i expected the worst, and when i got it the phone fired up into the OS no problem. its like new, and they normally go for $120+ in this condition.

so, yeah. an update for a thread about old news im happy though, im really digging inactivated android phones.

 

[nitrous9200]

I still use an original Droid as my main phone, which might come as a shock to most here, but it's mildly overclocked and works fine. Its biggest problem is a lack of RAM; it only has 256MB as I recall, so I had to uninstall all of my applications that ran in the background. I'm using Peter Alfonso's Gingerbread ROM which is so good, it could have been an official update. (CM7 was slow & unstable for me)

I'm planning on finally upgrading after two years, but I could see this thing being a great GPS with a standalone navigation app and the Moto car dock/car charger (can be had for cheap on ebay).

 

[podspi]

I still use an original Droid as my main phone, which might come as a shock to most here, but it's mildly overclocked and works fine. Its biggest problem is a lack of RAM; it only has 256MB as I recall, so I had to uninstall all of my applications that ran in the background. I'm using Peter Alfonso's Gingerbread ROM which is so good, it could have been an official update. (CM7 was slow & unstable for me)

I'm planning on finally upgrading after two years, but I could see this thing being a great GPS with a standalone navigation app and the Moto car dock/car charger (can be had for cheap on ebay).

My Droid hasn't been able to get a lock once it lost service. I've seen spec sheets saying it only has A-GPS, which I THINK implies GPS only works with cell service. Would love to be wrong, though I've never gotten a lock out of it since.

 

[wirednuts]

the droid (or is it just google maps? i dont know, because my droid x does the same thing) wants to see the cellular radio on for a few seconds first. i dont know why. it gets some data from it (somehow... mine are inactivated yet it still gets something from the cellular connection). if you turn on the cellular radio, then open google maps, the gps will get a lock. then you can turn airplane mode back on. the gps will hold the lock until you turn off the phone or exit out of maps for a good bit.

it was very frustrating for me to figure this out, and i dont want to keep the cellular radio on because of battery life... but i just now look on the bright side and say "well, with the cell radio on, i get 911 ability )

 

[wirednuts]

and btw, steeldroid for the dx is not good! from what i can tell though, it was never even tested with the X. and it shows. its weird though, its a completely awesome rom for the droid 1, and completely opposite for the droid x. i think its obvious the developer has a D1 but not an X.

so i am now on ssx2.2 and its GREAT. very very fast, and everything works as it should. unthemed! ive tried a couple themed roms now, and i dont like any of them. im partial to the original android scheme.


edit- just snagged three droid x's on the bay for $150 total! all three are "stuck at bootloader" and in otherwise very good condition. its a pc shop that claims they dont know how to flash phones and they generally dont deal with phone repair. so im hoping all they need is a sbf flash! $50 droid x is my cup of tea... especially when you overclock them to 1.3ghz- they are little screamers.