Update: When you’re done with this post, check out Round 2
If hype were to be believed, the Motorola DROID is the pièce de résistance of the mobile world; the conclusive creation sent down by the Great Smartphone in the sky to rid us of our woes. It would prepare your breakfast promptly each morning, tuck you in at night, and, maybe — just maybe — knock the iPhone down a notch or two.
Beginning about a week before its launch (largely due to Verizon’s incredibly intense marketing campaign) I began getting calls and tweets from friends and colleagues asking about the Droid. They always had two questions: the first would be something like “What do you think of the Droid?”, followed by “Would you recommend it over the iPhone?” Same questions, each.. and.. every.. time.
I’ve been using the Droid as my primary phone for a few days now, and I think I’m finally ready to answer them.
A bit about the reviewer:
Being that I’m only human, it is absolutely impossible for me to be 100% objective when comparing two phones. Thus, my only option is to be as transparent as possible. Going into this review, I had used an iPhone (which, for disclosures sake, I pay for in full) as my primary device for around 2 years. I also regularly use a Palm Pre, Nokia N97, BlackBerry Tour, T-Mobile G1, and an HTC Touch2 to ensure a general knowledge of all the major platforms. I am an iPhone developer by hobby. This Droid unit was provided by Motorola for review.
The Looks:
Comparing the aesthetics of the iPhone and the Droid is.. ludicrous, if not impossible. It’d be like having a heated argument over whether Angelina Jolie was more or less gorgeous than Halle Berry. Each is stunning for their own reasons. Same deal here; the iPhone is engulfed in glistening curves that give it a softer, friendlier look, while the Droid is wrapped in tight, clean angles that make it a shining example of great industrial design.
If we were to consider the overall designs par-for-par, all we’d have left to nitpick is the details. In the Droid’s case, the gold details on the camera button, 5-way D-Pad, and rear casing lose it some points for looking like something straight out of a bad 70’s bachelor pad. The iPhone then loses its ground for the fact that the glossy back casing is damned near impossible to keep clean and free of fingerprints.
The Winner: It’s a tie. Both are drop dead gorgeous, and the only flaws of each are downright trivial.
On-Screen Keyboards:
In preparation for the onslaught of candybar Touchscreens that were sure to follow after the success of the iPhone, Android earned on-screen keyboard support shortly after the launch of the G1. At first, it.. well, it sucked. A lot.
It has gotten better since, however – on the stock build of Android 2.0 I’ve got running on this Droid, I’m able to blast about at nearly the same rate as I can on my iPhone. That’s impressive for Android’s sake, considering that I’ve spent considerably more time on the iPhone keyboard.
That said, the iPhone’s autocorrect seems a bit better at properly attending to my typos, primarily on shorter words that have more potential alternatives.
The Winner: iPhone, by a very slim margin. It just does a better job at guessing what I’m trying to type as I poke my way around a sea of glass. That said..
Physical Keyboard:
For many, a physical keyboard is a must-have. Every smartphone I had prior to an iPhone had a physical keyboard, and I still prefer a physical keyboard after two years. The Droid has one, and the iPhone doesn’t – so it wins this one by default.
That’s not to say the Droid keyboard is all that great – nor is it terrible. It is decidedly average. The buttons are practically flush with each other, and it’s quite easy to jam down on two buttons at once.
To rank it amongst some of the more well known keyboarded handsets of the past few years: the Droid keyboard is better than that of the G1, Helio Ocean, and the BlackBerry Curve, but not nearly as good as anything from the Danger Sidekick line, the BlackBerry Tour, or the HTC Touch Pro 2.
The Winner: Droid, by default.
The Browser:
On the popular web-standards test known as Acid3, the iPhone scores a 100/100 while the Droid caps out at 93/100. Thus, if we’re going purely by measurable standards here, the iPhone browser wins. That said, we’re not robots – standards schmandards, we like what we like.
With that said, I still prefer the iPhone browser. It tends to render pages pixel perfect (as implied by the Acid3 test results), while the Droid would occasionally fall short. Oddly, it renders pages more accurately when they’re being viewed in landscape mode than in portrait mode. What really sealed the deal, however, was multi-touch in the browser. Once you’ve grown accustomed to pinch-zooming, the level of accuracy provided by tap-zooming alone simply doesn’t cut it.
The iPhone browser is also considerably faster, with page loads completing anywhere from 15-30% more quickly with both handsets on WiFi.
The Winner: iPhone, thanks to multitouch, faster pageloads and web standards compliance.
Navigation:
![Screen shot 2009-10-30 at [ October 30 ] 7.28.42 PM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-30-at-October-30-7.28.42-PM-181x300.png "Screen shot 2009-10-30 at [ October 30 ] 7.28.42 PM")
When it comes to the standard mapping/directions stuff, the two phones are about on par. Turn-by-turn voice navigation is a whole different matter, however.
Out of the box, the iPhone 3GS has Google Maps, which does not currently do turn-by-turn voice navigation. The App Store provides a bunch of solutions for this, ranging from a few bucks a month all the way up to a one-time payment of $99 bucks.
The Droid also has Google Maps, but it’s Google Maps with Navigation – and it really, really rocks. It does nearly everything the iPhone Maps app does, with the addition of toggleable layers (show/hide traffic, satellite views, Wikipedia entries, and transit lines), support for Google’s Latitude location-sharing service and, most notably, completely free turn-by-turn voice navigation. You can also search for locations by voice, something we were surprised was absent when Apple added voice recognition to the iPhone.
Like with the browser, we miss the multi-touch support – but we’d gladly give that up for the free voice navigation.
The Winner: Droid. None of the for-pay apps we’ve used come close to the ease of use and functionality Google provides in their free app.
Lock Screen:
On both the iPhone and the Droid, the lock screen is essentially just that: a screen which shows when your handset is locked. The Droid has one small (but clever) bonus feature thrown in which allows you to quickly silence the handset with a single swipe – but considering that the iPhone has a physical silence switch on the side, this isn’t a defining feature. Out of the box, both handset’s lockscreens are equally meh.
Yet, this is still somewhere the Droid manages to outshine the iPhone, by playing on the open nature of Android. Right within the Android Market, you can download applications which greatly expand the functionality of the lockscreen, such as the widget-based Flyscreen.
You can do similar things on an iPhone – but not without jailbreaking. Considering that Apple wanted to make jailbreaking illegal, it’s hard to consider things that require jailbreaking as fair equivalents to things that come straight from Google’s own catalog.
The Winner: Droid.
Battery Life:
I’ll be honest: I haven’t done a formal battery life test with the Droid. Hell, I’ve never done one with the iPhone, either. That said, I’ve been using both devices equally throughout the day, and they’re both hovering around a 50% charge. This holds true with what I’ve seen for the last few days of testing; the Droid’s battery life is right around par with the iPhone’s. The Droid’s 1400 mAh battery is slightly larger than the iPhone 3GS’ at 1150mAh 1219mAh, but the battery hungry multi-tasking probably cancels that out. Without any formal testing, I’ve got to declare it a tie.
The Winner: Tie (With a slight lean in Droid’s direction as it has a swappable battery – but really, what percentage of the population carries one?)
App Stores:
Google’s got around 10,000 apps in their collection. Apple’s got somewhere around 10x that, with the App Store currently floating right around 100,000 items.
Of course, quantity does not equal quality. As anyone who’s really spent a ton of time in either App Store would agree, the majority of applications in both range from bad to horrible, and their are plenty of gems in both. Both have a great application (and a handful of not so great alternatives) for nearly every common need.
The primary strength of the Android market is its openness. Google has stood quite true to their original promise of allowing anything outside of what was undeniably illegal or malicious. This is something members of the tech industry like to tout about as a killer feature – but in the end, it simply doesn’t matter. The only way to gauge the success of an App Store is to try to view it as an average consumer — you know, the ones spending the most money — would. By and large, the average consumer would not care about any of the things Apple has thus far banned. To make an argument that could go on for many pages very, very short: your grandma does not care about Google Voice.
After spending a lot of time in both stores, I feel that I can honestly say that the selection and overall quality of the App Store is significantly better. Everything we’ve seen and all conversations we’ve had with big development houses indicates that they’re putting much, much more effort in iPhone app development than they are with Android.
The iPhone has a tremendous lead here, both in quantity and quality. In time, as Android handsets flood the market and hopefully do away with the feature phone all together, it may very well catch up – but that’s simply not the case in the foreseeable feature.
Winner: iPhone.
Customization:
The smartphone is the fifth limb we never knew we needed. It goes with us wherever we go, helps us function from day to day, and serves countless purposes. Where as many turn to body art to customize their original limbs to express themselves and claim ownership, many will customize their smartphone for all the same reasons.
Customization on the iPhone is depressingly limited. You can customize wallpaper of the lock screen, change your ringtone, and.. well, that’s it. Want to add your own text alert sound? Nope. E-mail alert sound? Nope. That would be absolutely okay be it that the iPhone was a Nokia from 1998.
The flexibility of Android customization is still somewhat limited, but it at least has the basics covered. You can change e-mail and text alerts, app icons, and your ringtone/wallpaper.
The Winner: Droid
Camera Quality Samples:
Photos on the left are from the iPhone; photos on right are from the Droid. Click through to see bigger samples.
The Winner: Based off these photos alone, we can’t say. We had a hard time getting the Droid to focus, especially in lower light. While the iPhone was focusing just fine, the details kept getting lost.
The Screen:
The iPhone rocks a 3.5″, 480×320 touchscreen display, while the Droid has a 3.7″ 854×480 touchscreen display. While the Droid’s screen isn’t that much bigger, they’ve crammed over 160% more pixels onto that tiny little screen. The result? The Droid screen is absolutely, jaw-droppingly stunning.
Now, no one was complaining that the iPhone’s screen was junk. Given more than 10 seconds from device to device, most people probably wouldn’t even notice a difference. When you’ve got both devices side-by-side, however, the difference is clear. Text is that much clearer; curves just that much curvier.
The Winner: Droid
Interface:
This is a huge point, and one that often goes overlooked in reviews. For the past 10 years, Apple has really only done one thing, over and over: they’ve taken something we thought worked fine, and then simplified the hell out of it while maintaining the feature set. That’s exactly what they did to the idea of the smartphone with the iPhone, and it turned the damned market on its head. Windows Mobile suddenly looks like a hot mess by comparison, and most people would go into shock if they tried to screw with S60.
Even in version 2.0, Android does not match the intuitiveness of the iPhone. If you need to change a setting on the iPhone, you always know where to go: the Settings app. On Android, it can be in one of any number of places.
You can hand an iPhone to a toddler, and they’ll figure out the general gist of things in an instant. (No, really – we’ve done it.) That ease of use is one of the things that makes the iPhone so damned appealing.
The Winner: iPhone
Multi-Tasking:
I can listen to Pandora on the Droid while I peruse around the Facebook App. I can’t on the iPhone. Enough said.
The Winner: Droid
Conclusion:
There are really many, many, many dozens of categories we could dive in to – hell, I’ve got 10 more scratched out in my head alone. But we’d be avoiding an inevitable truth: apples-to-apples, the Droid tends to beat or meet the iPhone. Remote wipe and GPS location? Droid. On-device search? Droid wins. Voice control, contacts, coverage, and call quality? Droid, droid, droid, droid.
Now, back to the two questions we had at the beginning:
Get it? He's on the fence. HAH.
What do I think of the Droid? It is incredible. It is, hands down, the nicest Android handset on the market. A very significant chunk of this is not so much the Droid’s doing as it is Android 2.0’s, but the hardware is also leaps and bounds better than anything we’ve seen so far.
Would I recommend it over the iPhone? Two thousand plus words later, you might be a bit sad to read: Nope. But I wouldn’t recommend the iPhone over the Droid, either – and that’s the Droid’s real win here. This is the very first phone in over two years that I would consider carrying for day-to-day use instead of my iPhone, but that doesn’t mean I would recommend it whole heartedly to everyone.
Each phone platform has such tremendous merits. Androids got better navigation; the iPhone has a better browser. Androids got unbeatable expandability and flexibility; the iPhone OS is mind-numbingly easy to use and the rate of growth and drive behind the App Store is simply explosive.
With Android 2.0, we’ve come to a very difficult crossroad. No longer can we recommend one handset over the other simply by its feature set. At this point, it’s all about the person who will be carrying it. For you, dearest TechCrunch Network reader: Yes, I’d probably recommend the Droid over an iPhone. Would I recommend it for your mother, father, or little sister? Nope. If you want a phone that just works and does damned near everything you could want and don’t mind Apple’s closed garden: by all means, get the iPhone. If you can handle a bit of complexity for the sake of flexibility and don’t mind having to tinker a bit: by all means, get the Droid. At this point, I honestly feel that either choice would make any sane person incredibly happy.
Update: You wanted more, so we brought more. Join us as we dive even deeper with iPhone vs Moto Droid Round 2
“Being that I’m only human, it is absolutely impossible for me to be 100% objective when comparing two phones. Thus, my only option is to be as transparent as possible.”
Here’s a very subjective thought: That’s f***ing stupid.
The fuck? How is that at all wrong? There is no such thing as objectivity in journalism when you start talking about whether you like one thing over the other. We’re talking about opinions here after all. Opinion will ALWAYS be affected by personal bias of one sort or another.
Here’s a very subjective thought: Rob’s f***ing stupid.
Offtopic:
Isn’t making these kind of comments in itself the proof of a lack of intelligence? Rob once again had to write the first post, without probably even reading the whole article, so best is to simply ignore Rob trolling.
Ontopic:
I would say the browser is the most/one of the very most important aspects of a phone, but despite the iphone’s browser you shouldn’t forget that one can create a (better) web browser for android (e.g. fennec), which is prohibited on the iPhone.
Expanding upon the ontopic part of my own comment above:
As the droid supports flash(IMHO I hate flash, but its none the less a vital part of the system), I guess its a fair thing to actually make it at least a tie between the browsers. After all, from the users point of view one only gets “half the internet” (quote from a guy with a iphone) without flash (and its something quite easily overlooked by the reviewer).
David — Flash 10.1 for android won’t be available until the middle of next year. There’s nothing to hate about Flash itself. Hate the people who don’t know how to use it properly. In the future there will be just as many horrible html5 sites out there as bad flash ones.
Andrew – There are plenty of things to hate about the people who implement flash and flash itself. It’s a bloated poorly written plugin with serious design and security flaws. I run windows but flash on OSX is notoriously horrible (not Apple’s fault). My latest run-in with flash came while developing a video uploader for a site. Turns out when passing header information (eg:cookies) in a form submit flash tries to get the IE cookies. Seems simple until you try to perform the task in Firefox or any other browser and start to wonder what happened to your header. This makes basic things like session based security a pain to handle and requires a hack.
It’s worse than IE.
“Would I recommend it for your mother, father, or little sister? Nope. ”
Why will my mother, father or little sister want a smartphone? Get them a simple Nokia which has all the features that they would need..
You know what, F***** u all.
@Anand – my family members aren’t simpletons. They want a full-featured smartphone. They’re also not nerds, so they don’t want to have to tinker with a bunch of techie garbage.
They’re exactly the iPhone demographic. If your family is less interested in a good experience, fine, but don’t assume everyone else’s are.
From the logic side of things, if you are not objective you do not possess the faculty needed to be transparent. Objectivity vs Transparency… What a stupid position to put oneself into. If we must go all the way back to Socrates, you’ll find some comfort in Euthyphro.
Not only are you a troll, you’re pompous, pretentious, and completely wrong. A person can easily be transparent about their subjectivity. You’re splitting the hairs of hairs, which contributes zero value to this discourse.
I and everyone else in the universe would like to suggest that you get your hands on the largest, most in-depth tome on Greek philosophy you can find and drop it on your head. For all your self-presumed erudition, you completely lack the skills to participate in civilized society. You should also learn how to use pronouns consistently.
Of course according to your dictionary a troll is anyone who writes anything negative about a post. Do you expect people to take this advertising crap as a non biased journalism? Please do consider that people who stumble on your piece of shit blog do have a piece of brain.
Uh, no. According to my dictionary, a troll is someone who resorts to ad hominem attacks rather than discuss the subject matter at hand. Have a countervailing opinion of the phones in question? Please share! Want to rant and imprecate like an adolescent deprived of his Ritalin? Than you’re a valueless troll.
The question that leaves the rest of us baffled is, if you despise this site so much, why are you spending your Friday night here? Why? The fact that you hang out at a site you hate says more about your personal shortcomings and frustrations than it does about the site. Every post you make from here on out makes you look like an even bigger — what’s the word? — oh yeah, “loser.”
Here’s a Greek quote that applies to you:
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” — Plato
@rob,
you’re a piece of shit. there i said it, basing merely on 3 pieces of your comments, and that’s the whole point.
You are right on one point. In my last hour, I did deliberate between milking a cow, taking a shit and reading techcrunch. Due to the lack of fiber, the latter won. Yes it’s one of those Fridays! As for your attempt at English finesse, Google is here to tell.
Am I the only one that thinks Rob wasn’t being out of line here? Hell, he continues to be pretty level headed despite trolling accusations. Bleh.
I suspect yes Dan. You are the only one. This coming from someone who has never seen previous “issues” created by Rob.
Of course the fanboyism complaints easily get thrown around far to much, and even more so when it somehow involves Apple so what do I know?
My apologies to the author and the comment readers of mobilecrunch. My posts were written in bad taste and with poor judgment.
I did re-read the article and found it not to be biased toward any phone in particular.
Adding fuel to the fire… Phreddy Tran simply owned Rob.
take axe
kill troll
@David Mulder : I agree with you on this point. I love the browser on the iphone, not a huge fan of flash, but it is needed in todays internet atmosphere. As you said, this one feature should, at least in some part, make the comparison equal. With Flash, the Droid gives you the “whole web” so to speak, whereas with the iPhone, we’re still limited in what we can view or visit online.
Droid is little too big for pocket. Physical keyboard adds to bulk, no girl will buy this. While HTC droid comes with no physical keyboard, android keyboard software will be put to test.
I protest. :P
Some girls actually *gasp* still choose functionality over aesthetics. And there are just too many things Apple left out that this phone has.
i agree with kelsey…it maybe true in somecases that girls choose a phone purely for aesthetics but it’s a bit sexist to assume….but no biggie
that said, the droid is not much bigger than the iphone, yet it has a bigger screen and a keyboard….although the curve of the iphone makes it a bit more pocket friendly….just some food for thought
You do realize that the Droid and the iPhone are just about identical sizes? In some dimensions, the iPhone wins, the others the Droid wins, but wherever they are different, its no more then a MILLIMETER or two. I guess the iPhone is also too big for the pcoket and no girl will buy that either?
“I FINALLY READ the article and found it not to be biased toward any phone in particular.”
Great decision, Rob!
@IdenticalSize , considering that iphone has curved edges (and that it is tapers nicely at the back), it will definiely feel slimmer in the pocket. If there is a way to measure the absolute volumes of the two phones, my guess is that iphone is about 20 to 25% smaller (from the pictures, without actually holding them side by side)
Actually my mom and wife are both buying this. My wife’s more excited about the Droid than she’s ever been about any phone. They were both planning to buy Samsung Rouges (and I a BB Tour) until they started seeing stuff on the Droid. Now they’re dragging ME out on Nov 6th at 7am to be at the Verizon store to pick up the phone. (”Three Droids, plz!”) I showed them both the iPhone, since we’re currently with AT&T, and they both said the same thing: “meh.” Needless to say, I was shocked.
I might try to convince them to wait until I can get a good look at the Sony Ericsson X3 Xperia, though. The more I read about that phone, the nicer it looks.
Pics at start and end of the article showing 2 phones side by side are so arranged that iPhone is closer to camera so that it looks bigger of the two! I dont think author did it deliberately though.
Au contrare: I fully intend on making this purchase.
I’m an admitted tech geek wannabe and can’t wait to get my hands on this phone. I’ve been wanting an iPhone now for the better part of 6 months but a key selling point for the Droid vs iPhone debate (for me) is that I can stay with Verizon.
The fact that all the articles I’ve read puts Droid in step with iPhone makes Droid my phone of choice. As far as iPhone actually being BETTER (or worse) than Droid, well they say that it’s better not knowing what you’re missing. I’ve never had an iPhone so I probably won’t notice the difference.
The point: I’m a girl. The size, sleekness, weight and color don’t matter to me, its the functionality that counts. In boy speak, “Its not the size that counts, its the motion in the ocean.”
Actually, I have female friends that would prefer a keypad as their nails don’t work with the capacitive touch screen.
A physical keypad is more convenient for them.
When he mentioned girls, it’s possible he was talking about teenie-bopper, fad-following types. At least that’s how I took it.
I can only comment for my wife but even the tiniest phone wouldn’t fit in the pockets on her jeans, and that assumes that what she’s wearing has pockets. Simple solution to this. Phone goes in purse, or in my pockets. I’m not sure the Droid’s size significantly changes this situation.
No pretty girl would buy it you mean. The pretty girls all own iPhones. The overweight or ugly ones will likely choose a Droid.
I’m a girl and I will be up @ 12:01am to order my Droid in the a.m.!!! It’s all about the Network. You should learn a little more about women before you speak.
As far as ‘pretty’ goes… I do alright. :)
i thought girls like it big??
lets be honest here. both phones you will not be sliding into your pocket.. you will go pay $30-100 dollars for a bulky phone case. then hold on to it all day because your going to want everyone to know you have an iphone or a droid..
@Rob
You are the single most stupid person I’ve seen online quite in a while.
Don, why don’t you get back to the life skill of licking behinds?
Wow. This post was so boring, that I smashed both my iPhone and my droid and flushed them.
Rob, you’re a jackass. Period.
Lighten up a bit, look for chances to laugh whenever you get them… even if it’s in a phone review. you must admit, that was a funny comment.
Well, this is not a good generalization accd. to the OP.
“and most people would go into shock if they tried to screw with S60. ”
Whats the definition of “most people” here?
If you give an S60 phone to the people of the two most populous countries in the world, they would not get screwed by using S60.
The above two countries form the real definition of “most people”.
Same thing cannot be said about our US market.
“Here’s a very subjective thought: That’s f***ing stupid.”
Thanks Rob. Your deeply insightful comments, expressed in such a thoughtful and articulate manner, really persuaded me to your viewpoint.
i personally thought it was a well thought out and honest review. he tried hard to be objectionable and honest in each category. and it all does boil down to personal preference in the end. the iphone lovers will all bash everyone else and claim they have the best phone bla bla bla. but one major thing they always leave out is the carrier they are stuck with and unreliable coverage. some would swear to god that they have no problems. i agree it all depends on your area. In NJ if my Verizon phone doesnt work they all the other carriers dont work there either. but i can goto many areas with a phone from each carrier and see where Att didnt work. i tried it before i switched to Verizon years ago. so if we want dependable coverage here then we are stuck with Verizon. so you try to find the best phone on the carrier that you are stuck with, not who has the best phone.
@Rob:
Ah, I love trolls who took a year of community college & think they’re all that…
Why stop there? Why not launch into a brash discussion of Bishop Berkeley’s perceived reality vs objective reality?
Or do a Derridian deconstruction of the dichotomy and resulting place of privilege inherent in the language of the very questions the author, our dear Greg, is posing?
Or perhaps you should follow the dictate of the gamer — and STFU!!!
I am from Germnay and for every one in German language http://www.goodbe.at/products/apple_iphone_3g_s_16_gb_weiss-56
That is hilarious… Thanks you, you just brightened up my day a bit. It’s good to see a bit of humor on this page.
Would love to see a more in-depth analysis of the call quality.
Like most cell phone reviewers, I’m not stocked with the gear necessary to do a real, hardcore quality review. Everyone tests this by calling the same number a few times and saying “Hey, how do I sound?” a few times – which, when you consider how many variables that leaves out, is a bunch of crap.
That said: call quality on this phone, based solely off my ear and a few test calls I made, seems superb. If I really had to rank it, I’d say it sounds better than any phone I can recall testing. Voices came through clear as day, and loud as heck without distortion.
Geg, please can you speak a bit about seamlessness of the accompanying accessories — if any?
Voice quality on CDMA networks (like Verizon) is generally worse. However, the iPhone likes to drop calls, and AT&T’s coverage is not that great.
However, I don’t really know anyone who buys a smart phone based on call quality. Generally, the other features are much more important than subtle differences in sound quality.
i agree, however my BB storm, which sucks overall, has the worst call quality of any phone ive had and that really gets in the way
I agree with lerch. I am a fellow storm user as well as my girlfriend. Both our phones are horrid at actual phone calls. This is one of my main reasons that I am ditching the Storm. (I can live with some of the other “nuances,” but not phone call quality.)
Can you care to elaborate why, in your opinion, voice quality on CDMA networks is generally worse?
Yeah, it does not make any sense. CDMA is able to pack more bits in the same bandwiidth than other competing cell phone technologies, and audio codecs are able to budget bits any way they like, so if there is a difference in audio quality it is up to the handsets, i would think, not the radios.
If a smartphone can’t match the call quality of an old LG/nokia/razor then how “smart” is it really?
Really? My experience has been exactly opposite (with a work-issued Blackberry Curve on AT&T – and personal “regular” CDMA phone on Sprint) – Sprint is consistently better voice quality for me.
I think it’s more that AT&T drops calls – I use an iPhone in the UK with no call dropping but, when I’m in New York and on AT&T, it drops all the time. If I switch to the T-Mobile network there instead, the dropping goes away (the benefits of roaming!).
You hit the nail on the head. Sure, AT&T is “more bars, more places”, but all the reception in the world won’t help you if the network you’re connected to is overloaded to the point of uselessness. Currently I’m with AT&T and we get multiple dropped calls per day, even when we have 4 bars (the max shown on our phone). Part of this has to do with our phones–older Sony Ericsson w600i’s–but every iPhone owner we know in our area complains about the same thing.
@Gnorb,
Then why in the world, i don’t have any dropped calls as much as iphone users on AT&T’s 3g network when i am using a Nokia 5800XM phone?
I have hardly had any dropped call and i have a talk time of at least 3000 minutes in a month excluding night-time talk time.
@Hary you likely have less calls dropping due to the nokia phone being less sensitive to digital dropouts.
I have to agree with Gnorb, I have an iPhone on Rogers in Canada and I’ve only ever had 1 dropped call, and that was as I was driving on the highway during severe weather and passing from one area code/cell tower, to another.
“AT&T’s coverage is not that great” understatement of the millennium. When you consider the coverage area the iPhone is doomed by pathetic albatross of AT&T.
Verizon just works. Job number one for a phone is to make phone calls. Job number one for mobile phones is to make phone calls from any location.
Everything else is blather and froth.
Is it really possible to have worse call quality than the iPhone on ATT?
according to my roommate, the BB Storm on Verizon sounds way worse than an iPhone.
Just one man’s point…
jimmy i agree, but it definitely isnt because of the network, its because the BB storm (mine included) is a POS….
I agree. It’s the single most important function of a PHONE, and yet no reviewers ever discuss it — and it’s an area in which there are huge differences.
Go to a crowded Apple store and pick up a demo phone and call someone — good luck if they can hear you over the background noise. Then pick up a “dumb” cell phone and call the same person back while standing in the same location in the store. The first question they will ask is “where are you now? It’s so much quieter and I can hear you!”
Smart phones in general have turned into portable internet devices with phone/voice quality as an after thought.
Ahh… Except for a lot of people, the iPhone isn’t really a phone at all. ;) Probably 10% of my time on the iPhone is actually spent on its phone features. I rarely ever make a phone call. It’s usually a text message to meet somewhere and I talk to them face-to-face.
It’s the same with my BlackBerry. Very rarely do I actually make a phone call; most of the time spent on the device is for messaging and web browsing. (Web browsing, by the way, is an awful experience on a Curve 8330.)
Honestly, while we’ve expanded the capability of these devices a lot, we’ve continued to call them phones. This sort of thing makes the average user skip over them completely. “Why do I need another phone? My phone works fine!”
The point is, they’re not really just phones anymore. I know a lot of people who would have been amazed at what smartphones can do years ago. (That is, before the iPhone.) While I’m not exactly a huge fan of the iPhone, I will admit that it has started to bring smartphones to the masses, which is really a great accomplishment.
Then we have another problem. In the eyes of the average consumer, it’s iPhone vs dumbphone.
I myself hate talking on the phone, I bought my G1 simply for it’s “other capabilities” I only have 300 mins a month but unlimited everything else. I tinker with it and test new apps more than I talk on it.
Oh how I wish Droid was a simcard phone :(
There is a GSM version of the Droid coming out.
Reviewers don’t mention call quality, usually, simply because “phone” is one tiny function in these devices. If you’re buying a modern smart phone primarily for talking, save your money.
We’re just in the bad habit of saying “phone”, when what we mean is an always-online pocket computer, and oh-by-the-way, it has this voice application if you want to call someone. Possibly several such applications (eg, cellular, Skype, etc). Someone will eventually come up with a better name than “smart phone”.
@hazydave,
Time has still not come to ignore the “Phone” functionality from a smartphone or any phone.
The reason why it is called Smartphone is because it can do many smarter things apart from being a phone, that a regular non-smartphone can’t do.
Voice is still the main and most convenient medium of communication, atleast for me personally and most of the general public will agree with that.
Regarding a new name for “smartphone”, Nokia already calls them as a mobile convergence devices. In their quarterly reports they no longer mention the word “smart phone”, they mention it “mobile convergence”.
Well, I did say “better name”… I’m not sure “mobile convergence device” rolls off the tongue.
As for voice being the primary function… not for me, not even remotely. These devices are grown up PDAs with microphones more than they are telephones with “smarter things” bolted on.
Voice is increasingly less used by the population, too. My kids don’t call much, but they IM continuously… drives my wife crazy, as our son won’t even use the “phone” function most of the time.
Considering the “phone” aspect a primary function is a matter of personal use, but you could say the same about a desktop PC… some people do have permanently attached voice headsets, others never speak to their PCs. When a device does 10,000+ things other than “voice communications”, many major ones includes, the word “phone” just doesn’t scan.
And going to 4G, voice really does become just another applications… they’re all going VoIP there, no separate voice mode on the network (well, there’s still talk of that for LTE in some circles, but it’s a definite no for WiMax).
Yes, call quality should be the #1 comparison since it’s core function *is* a phone! From what I’ve read in the past and about the Droid so far, it would appear the droid would win this hands down, but I’d like to hear it from someone who has them side by side.
I am exited to hear that Verizon is finally getting a phone as good as the iPhone. I have Verizon and just became eligible for an upgrade. Here’s hoping that the Droid really delivers!
the Blackberry storm2 eats droids for breakfast
You should go into politics, this was the most diplomatic device review I have ever read.
Yeah, call quality (including rate of dropped calls, etc.) is really one important aspect missing from this review, even though iPhone will eventually make it to Verizon.
Google has said that Maps with Navigation will make it to iPhone, so this is only a temporary advantage for Droid.
All in all, great to see that Apple finally has a worthy competitor, that will keep them on their toes for the foreseeable future and for our benefit.
> Google has said that Maps with Navigation will
> make it to iPhone,
To my knowledge, Google have said no such thing…merely that they are ‘working with Apple’, plus the usual boilerplate about how that company is ‘an important partner’. If you have seen comments evincing something more than that, I’d like to see a link.
> so this is only a temporary advantage for Droid.
Don’t hold your breath, waiting for Google Nav on iPhone.
It seems the current beta requires Google Latitude, running natively. Last time I checked, Apple said they won’t allow that, relegating Latitude to web-app status, only.
I don’t ever see Google’s new nav app making it to the iPhone simply because the way Apple thinks. Why would you buy TomTom or any other navigation app from the app store when you could have this for free and is better than any other app available in the same category?
I think you misunderstand Apple’s business model. Apple makes money on hardware, not software. Their goal with the iTunes store is to break even: they make a 40% margin on selling expensive hardware — the software is just a low-cost value-add. The revenue they get from music and apps is really tiny compared to their hardware revenue. In the past year, with 2.5% of the cellphone market, they made 1/3 of all the profit in the entire cellphone industry.
Thus adding software that makes the phone worth more to the consumer is always in their interest. Their main concern with adding features is that it has to improve the user experience. If they can make the Nav app work really well, they”ll add it.
@NormM
Apple will add the Google Nav App, MS will turn WinMobile into freeware and government run health care will be deficit neutral!
Here we go… Obviously, it will depend on whether Apple lets it into the AppStore, but Google wants it to happen.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/28/google_says_its_navigation_will_come_to_iphone_if_apple_approves.html
i think Google Nav will make it to the iPhone before iPhone makes it to Verizon.
Apple likes keeping things simple. Very few models, and very few options. It seems odd that they would make a GSM phone that works everywhere in the world, then manufacture a completely different phone that looks and acts the same, but has CDMA guts so it will work for one company in one country…
And the CDMA network is terrible for smartphones, at least it was 3 years ago. I don’t know if things changes, but when I was on CDMA a few years back, I couldn’t access the data network while on a call…. Is this still true? I constantly look things up on the web (or check e-mail!) while on conference calls. It would kill my workflow if I lost that.
Yes this still stands true, but it’s also why voice quality is much better than on a GSM network.
Verizon will start rolling out LTE (4g) pretty soon. In a few years apple will have to make 4g phones to keep up with the rest of the world since all carriers will eventually move over to 4G. That’s when we’ll see an iPhone on Verizon.
This brings up a really good question. At what point should you be concerned about LTE in terms of future proofing your purchase. It would suck to get a new phone and associated 2 year contract, then have the service provider roll out a new network that you can’t take advantage of. The iPhone 3Gs works on the 850 band that AT&T is currently rolling out … not 4G, but way better signal. The Droid does not appear to have a radio capable of operating on LTE. Verizon is starting the LTE roll-out this year. I could see this as a reason to wait for an LTE capable Droid.
You’re always going to be waiting to buy, if the Next Big Thing is something you need… simply because the Nexter, Bigger thing is always around the corner.
Verizon’s 3G is already pretty good, certainly equal to the demands of most pocket computing uses, if not necessarily a replacement for your home broadband (where LTE or WiMax actually become an option, depending on what others you have).
Verizon is starting field testing of LTE next year, but it’s going to take years to offer reasonable coverage. Sprint got a jump on this, going to WiMax awhile back, but last year it was just Baltimore, this year four or five other cities… but just the cities, and far from complete coverage there.
4G might be a very reasonable thing to demand when that Droid contract runs out in two years, but I’m not worried about it today.
And Verizon already has lots of 850MHz coverage, since they started out in most areas with one of the two possible 850MHz licenses. The original AT&T D-AMPS system was the other in many areas, and that was just recently turned off.. that’s why AT&T’s GSM users (the GSM system was from the merger with Cingular) are just now starting to get more 850MHz coverage.
You actually want the 1900MHz or other HF in populous areas… more bandwidth, more channels. But out in the sticks, more range, and less rain fade.
Yeah, I design radios for a living :-)
Palm solved this on the Pre by locating the tiny little bit of the phone that’s different between CDMA and GSM. At least until they start running the combination chips that are now hitting the market. That makes particular sense given that everyone in the world, well, everyone but Sprint, is going to LTE for 4G.
Each phone platform has such tremendous merits.
true.
the difference being that with upcoming updates, android will no doubt plug all the little niggles you have brought up. it will only get easier to use.
apple are unlikely to change the majority of theirs (customization, multi tasking etc etc) cos lets face it. they are apple and they are cunts.
> lets face it. they are apple and they are cunts.
Haha.. that made me laugh. Too true :)
right. cause Apple didn’t change the Bluetooth stack, or adding native Apps, or adding copy/paste and voice dialing.
they were late to the party, to be sure, but they changed t keep up with demand.
exactly nearly 5 months after the iphone 3gS dropped, finally someone has caught up.
But you can already see the iphone 4G on verizon’s network next year:
Larger screen, twice the pixels.
Multi-tasking with processor boost (which will be amazing with apple’s OS… go check out the mocks)
Google GPS will come to the iphone. (interestingly, apple did acquire maps/GPS firm recently)
iphone OS 4.0… more customization, blah blah blah
They changed to keep up with phones from years before.
Dur, I’m going to repeat what you just said, and completely agree with it, but make it sound like I disagree.
What about camera? Photo/video quality? You might want to add that…
Ah – thanks, will add photo samples in just a second. Took them, but only added the photos from my camera rather than the phones. They’ll be up in just a few.
“Customization on the iPhone is depressingly limited.”
Not for those of use you have jailbroken our iPhones and use winterboard, make it mine and other apps that I’m sure Apple will add somewhere down the road.
Muti-Tasking – Again for jailbrokend iPhones with Backgrounder multi tasking is lot better. I’m sure Apple will have this feature soon.
” Again for jailbrokend iPhones with Backgrounder multi tasking is lot better”
You have used the Droid to make that determination, right?
I switched from the Palm OS Treo and previous devices to the iPhone last year after 3G was released. I, too, love it and can’t believe how functional the darn thing is, but I’m always looking for the MOST functional smartphone. For now, the Apple App Store and finished feel of the Apple interface will keep me, but I’m glad to see the huge leap in the Android market…competition makes everything better. Great write up and I enjoyed the approach you took.
Seriously amazing write up Greg. Love your candidness.
Multitouch is not an issue with the hardware, which you are reviewing, but with the current browser that comes with Eclair. However, Eclair is the first version of Android to support multitouch, so its only a matter of time until the standard browser or a third-party browser takes advantage of it.
As for me, I’ve never used an iPhone before, so I don’t know what it’s like to pinch-zoom. I tried the motion on a touchscreen camera that supported it the other day and the motion felt very awkward. On the other hand, I’ve been double-touching or clicking my whole life, so I feel like the current zoom will feel second nature.
> Multitouch is not an issue with the hardware [...]
> but with the current browser that comes with
> Eclair.
True, but its the same issue with any application — not just the browser.
And let’s recall that Android handsets will be able to run 3rd-party browsers, like the upcoming versions of Opera Mobile and Fennec (’Firefox Mobile’). That should prove interesting.
> However, Eclair is the first version of Android
> to support multitouch [...]
Not so. _All_ versions of Android support multi-touch…ask anyone with an HTC ‘Hero’, phones which are sold with v1.5 (’Cupcake’).
But ’support’ and clear integration are often different things. The applicable lines of code were literally commented-out, in the stock Android ROMs through v1.6 (’Donut’). Word has it that Apple specifically asked Google to disable/conceal multi-touch support, via the GUI.
More info.:
http://www.ryebrye.com/blog/2008/11/17/proving-the-g1-screen-can-handle-multi-touch/
Well, capable is a stetch. Through some cleaver trickery, multitouch is indeed available for rooted android devices. It is not however a complete solution and it appears that there is some hardware (or at the very least driver) limitation for multitouch on the G1.
With 2.0, the multitouch API is part of the OS and not something that has just been grafted on. This makes all the hacks that we’ve previously enjoyed on the G1 still possible, but it also means that developers can write software that natively supports multitouch. By abstracting how mutitouch is actually handled and wrapping it up in an API, this adds some future proofing.
Agreed! Nice work Greg… probably the best comparison review I’ve read yet.
Nice one. Thanks.
Would also like to know about camera quality.
Droid has 5MP over the iPhones 2MP but that wouldn’t necessarily mean better shots.
Hope Droid flies on the 6th…
The 3GS has a 3MP camera, but you’re right MPs are meaningless in any comparison of camera quality.
Droid has replaceable battery , iPhone does not.
So, in Battery life Droid wins
iPhone has a myriad of options like RichardSolo pack, Mophie Juice Pack, IMAX Power, EnerG, etc.
It makes the extra battery point completely moot. If you’re going to carry an extra battery, you might as well carry an extra pack.
Congratulations for having read the review. That’s exactly the point that was made.
can’t help but notice you didn’t mention the camera at ALL, except for the gold button.
What, you mean the part where he posted side-by-side pictures of camera quality from both phones? Not at ALL.
The camera review including the pics were added later, after people started mentioning it in the comments.
.. And I presume the Droid browser provides Flash suppport while the iPhone still inexplicably does not?
Actually I don’t think the Droid has Flash support. Flash in browser is possible with Android though – the Hero has it. The performance is pretty bad though. Any page you load with flash on it makes the load time WAY longer, and video is just about unwatchable.
Adobe says they are bringing it officially to Android though. And since the Droid has a really nice processor (on par with the 3GS), Flash should be much more acceptable in the browser – once it’s available.
I forgot to mention, the version of flash on the hero is made by HTC – it’s called “HTC Flash” so they added it to Android manually. I don’t know if it’s just a big hack or what exactly they did to make it work. But Adobe’s version will hopefully be better.
Nah – neither supports Flash yet.
The only smarthphones currently supporting flash is N900 with Maemo that it’s not even officially released yet.
Nokia N97, N97 mini, and Nokia X6 also support flash in their browsers.
The Droid has a 2x LED flash. And it also records DVD-quality video at 720×480. In that respect, complete destruction of the iPhone.
Actually you can see from the screenshots that the droid does support flash. Check the browser comparison. The iphone is missing the right hand column because the ad failed to load. The ad was in flash and loaded on the android. My guess anyway.
Browsers that render pages properly including plugins like flash will take longer. Comparing the iphone’s stunted browser to a browser on a more capable phone is like comparing lynx to firefox. Lynx is always going to win because it doesn’t need to fetch any js,css,images. So if the iphone browser because it doesn’t have to fetch pesky flash content.
Droid only supports flash lite which doesn’t support much video or interactive features. That said if you watch Adobe’s Flash 10.1 video and the mobile phones you will see it working on a Palm Pre (which you can download the beta now for), MS Mobile, and I believe Android.
Which this is a key feature to me especially when it comes to the browser. The downside to this phone is costs Verizon is one of the most expensive carriers around. They do have a great network but they have already shown that their pricing plans for this phone will not be covered under say the family connect plan. So just like BlackBerry you have to pay a $29 dollar a month premium for using the Droid.
Which puts some of us back on the fence when it comes to these new smart phones.
Big James
Actually,
http://www.ivonson.com/adsense/droid-vs-iphone-the-comparison-chart-pic
Good comparison. I agree that for the average consumer, Android is harder to use. For example, you mentioned the settings. Absolutely – there are so many different places in Android to change settings for just about everything – sometimes it takes me quite a while to remember what friggin screen I need to get to to change something.
But then again I’m not the average consumer :) Android is awesome, I love it and can’t wait to get the Droid. I was a fairly happy iPhone owner for about 2 years but as I kept reading more and more about Android, and how much more flexible and customizable it is – that just kept making me want it more and more. I finally got the Hero a few weeks ago and am fairly pleased with it, except for the fact that it’s a bit slow and doesn’t have a hardware keyboard. Both of those things are huge to me, and with the Droid having such amazing specs, I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
As I comment from my iPhone.. Thanks for the detailed review. It’s ironic to see Apple fighting Google in the mobile market in the exact same fashion they fought Microsoft in the early days.
In the first few years of the home computer revolution in the early 80s, Apple sprinted out of the gate ahead of everyone else with things like a “mouse” and a graphic user interface (instead of DOS) and for a while Apple ruled.
But Microsoft made only the OS, not the hardware and what happened? We all know what happened.
Well guess who is only making the OS and not the hardware inthe mobile revolution?
Agree, apparently apple didn’t learn the lesson, you can’t go against every phone maker with android phones on every network, it’s just too much.
The variety of Android phones that’ll be this time next year it’s gonna be huge, everything from entry level to high end, keyboard no keyboard, big and small, stock android, blur, rachel, or sense.
Plus there’ll be very demographics targeted phones like the cliq that really appeal to teens and social network users, or one targeted to businessmen, that’s something I don’t think apple will do in the near future.
+1
Apple can and is “going up against every phone maker with android phones on every network”. What a ridiculous comment. What are they supposed to do, decide they are not competing with LG, or Motorola?
Once again Apple is demonstrating that simple wins every time. The Droid is a great phone by the looks of it, and many people will prefer it; like many people a basic phone over anything remotely smart. Personal preference isn’t something that can be measured or predicted.
FYI iPhone has a Facebook app, multiple Twitter apps, and all sorts of “social” apps already, as they have apps from Oracle, apps that support MS technology so really they have pretty much every angle covered. Demographically targeted phones are a marketing ploy which simply segment markets arbitrarily – Apple’s strength is that they don’t do that, they make a great device for everyone.
I agree. The simpliticy and consumer convenience of having a few great products to choose from is a definite strength.
The point is Google is focused on building a superior mobile OS that will be available on a variety of phones. Variety is the spice of life… unless of course you are a sheep…. bah bah bah.
What Android as a Mobile OS will hold in store once all major manufacturers run it on their devices remains to be seen. It will be difficult for Apple to fight battles against Open Source on several different fronts.
Fact remains that demographically targeted phones still are a marketing ploy. An Android phone still does everything your average iPhone does.
So… Android can’t run in a “simple” manner to compete with the “simple” iPhone?
Do androids dream of electric sheep?
When it comes to apps developers love having to design for 1 platform. With 50+ million devices it will be hard for Android to catch up. Google was very smart to include a free nav app. That will win people over for sure, however because the iPhone app store has large companies creating apps for a large user base it’s hard to see when that type of backing will exist with Android.
It CAN happen – but it’s doubtful. You can’t forger that the iPod Touch has a lot of followers and shares the same app store. Android will never have a device that isn’t a phone with those numbers.
Ummm Microsoft Server OS’s run over 87.9% of corporate networking in the world. I’d say they’re doing pertty well my friend.. With the release of Windows 7, Server 2008 R2, Exchange and SharePoint 2010 we’ll see a market share drop off from Apple once again. Face is Apple doesn’t work in 90% of the companies out there. Bill and Steve did leave the gate at the same time but Bill’s company is still so far ahead…
Scott,
Calm down.
I don’t think the first comment was meant as a dig against MS. It was comparing how Apple was once in the lead of the PC market but lost to MS who made only the OS. The comparision was then made to Apple vs. Google.
Yes you read that correctly Richard. Not a dig against MS at all. MS won the PC revolution and it appears that in about 2-3 years, Google will win the Mobile revolution in an duplicate repeat of history. I’ll probably stay will Apple OS as I do with PCs (because I prefer it) but iPhone OS will be reduced to about 10-15% market share once Android spreads out by around 2012.
The mobile revolution you are talking about was made by Nokia who invented the smartphones in the end of 90’s and dominated its market. Recently other companies like apple and google created OSs to compete to Nokia, this is not a revolution, its just competition.
Really? That’s why there are Macs and iPhones everywhere now. Go to a business (non-tech) conference and you’ll see them in conference and lecture rooms.
Bill’s company (hello Bill doesn’t work there any more) isn’t “so far ahead” – what are you using to make this comparison. Snow Leopard for example is years beyond Windows 7 – a fix for a crummy Vista, and botched Windows Longhorn vision that’s never come to fruition. Market share is meaningless in a “win” as it’s only one comparison point – look at customer satisfaction – Apple leads by so much that no one else can compete.
It all comes down to personal preference (and in the corporate world the IT Director/CTO’s personal preference that is forced on the rest of the staff). I prefer Mac, you prefer PC. Good for you.
Oh really?
it all comes down to the expertise of errr the experts, to decide and they decide windows. why is that?
oh dont tell me, its because they are ignorant of the merits of the apple system. afraid to think different?
hmm, you have to realize that an organization wide OS choice isn’t just centered around the the end user experience but other issues as well…
Apple is ahead of the game in end user expeirence granted, but they are really really new to organization level work. nothing on mac servers compares to Active directory, GPO control yet.
Oh yeah, and the server hardware platform is subpar, and they dont ritualized on other hardware, basically ignoring the biggest trend in IT for years.
for a large organization they cannot compete, and i dont think they even attempt to
>Apple sprinted out of the gate ahead of everyone else with things like a “mouse” and a graphic user interface (instead of DOS) and for a while Apple ruled.
Um, Apple didn’t rule anything with the Macintosh. It received a lot of attention, and a small and loyal following, but PCs running DOS were the norm, and the Mac never made a serious dent. That’s one of the reasons Jobs was tossed out.
The Mac has never been more successful than it is now.
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Does the Droid have an LED notification light for new voicemail, missed calls, etc. when the screen is turned off?
Yes.
BTW: Comparison camera shots are coming through really soon. Grabbin’ them both all off of the phones right now. iPhone battery picked an awesome time to kick the bucket, meaning I’ve gotta wait for it to juice up to 10% so it’ll stop flashing the battery.
there is no way you can claim the iphone renders browser pages faster. My G2 was faster than the iphone 3gs, largely bc of the networks. the droid absolutely flies.
He did mention he was testing over Wi-fi, so that could be the cause of it.
So you’d compare the speeds of Chrome vs. Safari by testing one on dialup and one on broadband?
Both phones were tested on wifi. Read the article.
Great review, exactly what I needed to hear!
Droid FTW in my view, although I still enjoy the ease of an iphone every now and then.
If the browser is one of the main detractions as compared to the iPhone, watch out. If there is anything that Google is focused on, it is creating the fastest browsing experience possible.
My guess? They were so focused on general functionality of Android 2.0 that the browser slipped from their goal. However, with the release, 2.x will really focus on speed of features and, most importantly, browser.
Competition is awesome for the consumer!
Also, I’d give the Android the big lead on apps. Google Voice works and it integrates perfectly. Skype works across the board and on background (meaning you get skype text messages even when the app isn’t open. The combination of the looser rules and the running in background makes it a no brainer.
The Droid is a far superior phone to the iPhone in almost every respect (I agree with your opinions other than this comment and the one above).
For me though it doesn’t matter. I ported my mobile number to Google, so they are effectively my carrier. From here on out I’m only considering phones with full integration with Google Voice. And that means Android.
Mike, I keep waiting for an article of the Droid from you, come’n man, are u getting it?
yes. i’m just waiting a few days to post seriously on it. want to be sure it hangs in there. the G2 slowed down a LOT when i loaded it with apps.
so Michael, are you switching to the droid from the mytouch?
also, anyone know if mytouch will get android 2.0?
It’s a good point on number portability and removing dependency on any carrier while also providing the opportunity to try both phones in active use at the same time. Does Google Voice support that for the general population yet?
Looking forward to seeing the Droid first hand in the coming week.
Arrington is a Google Fanboy. Period. Besides the previous comment saying that an actual test (not an opinion, but an actual test…) was wrong because he doesn’t like it, he then says the Droid wins on Apps based on exactly TWO apps. GV and Skype both work on iPhone, as well. Skype even supports push notifications, so it doesn’t need to run in the background.
And one more thing, Michael… You say a previous comment that it’s the network as much as the browser…. Then in a later comment, you say “it’s the only carrier that works at my house”. Wouldn’t that work the other way for those of us where AT&T or T-Mobile or Sprint is the “only carrier” that works at our houses?
Just think, all you Googlers out there… You know how maddening it is when Gmail goes down for a couple hours? Let’s see what happens when Google Voice goes down.
Hey Jimmy!
ATT still sux even if it’s your only carrier…
I generally agree with you. I’ve been using 1.5-1.6 in a Google Ion for a while now. I had a chance to play with an Moto Droid about a week ago.
The one area I find the iPhone clearly superior is native media players. But that said, if I want a better media player for Android there’s probably one in the App store.
I think as more and more of the smarts of the smart phone move into the cloud your going to see Google’s real advantages take over. I think the navigation app is the first example of that.
This is 100% relevant for me too.
85,000 apps? WTF cares! How about the ones which make a difference! Well integrated Skype & GVoice are top of the list.
Mike,
I’ve heard you can’t access an app on any OS while making a call on Verizon or Sprint. Is that true?
With iPhone having 100,000 apps and a business model that makes money for developers, a single architecture on 50 million devices, etc., to say that Android has a big lead on apps sounds seriously delusional to me.
If any of the things you mention actually matter to ordinary people, Apple will change them. Apple’s philosophy is to only include features that work really well, and wait to add a feature until that’s true. Android will limit itself to the geek population if it overreaches in this respect.
I love how this guy loves being crapped on by apple!
Wow, that’s interesting. i didn’t know that Google Voice was letting people do that. Their own help pages say you can’t. “Although you can’t currently port your existing number to Google Voice, we hope to offer this option in the near future.”
I have an Android device. I have frequent problems with Google Voice and the app. It lacks a lot of features, notably the ability to tag numbers in your contacts with “Don’t use GV to call this person” or “Always use GV to call this contact.” Instead it’s On, Ask, or Off.
Email on Android SUCKS.. unless you’re a Gmail fanboi, naturally. Google Talk works, but the other IM apps/services suck too. Hmm. see a trend here?
Yes, there are a lot of apps. Slow, buggy apps. And lord knows we need another 5 dozen sexy girl screensaver apps and South Park soundboard apps. :|
and oh yeah, verizon ftw. i don’t care how evil they are, it’s the only carrier that works at my house. and i’ve never had a dropped call.
Mike, are you going to get the Droid now? And isn’t Droid a series, and if so, would this be called the Eris? (I think I read somewhere on TechCrunch about Droid Eris, but I’m unsure).
I think there is a lot to be said about that. People can bicker and debate the failings of one phone vs. another but in the end, how well does it function as a phone?
As a Vzw customer I get about 1 dropped call a year and I have never been anywhere that I did not have reception. I also carry Sprint/Nextel work phone that gets no reception in my living room and does not get any reception at 3 of my work sites where as my personal vzw phone gets perfect reception.
CDMA is balls. I’d never buy a phone without a SIM card. Verizon might be worth it if they introduce SIM card support with their upcoming LTE network.
LTE specs require SIM cards. It’s not a carrier’s choice whether to use them or not.
Still like the I Phone 3gs is much faster and looks awesome and sleek. Motorla still has a long way to go.
Well I guess you have point if you like to take your phone to dinner or show it off at parties.
The speed thing is about the same, plus droid can multi-task remember, what’s the point in being two seconds quicker if you have to be closing and opening apps like crazy.
Until the iPhone can multi-task, I’d rather have functionality over looks.
I think the iPhone will get multi-tasking summer of next year, and don’t think it’s gonna be just a new os version, ohhh noes, they’re gonna pull the same shenanigans that they did with the video and 3gs when the 3g can clearly shoot video, they’re gonna announce a whole new iPhone(3GSX maybe?) .
Multi-tasking is not really all it’s cracked up to be, especially on anemic mobile devices such as these.
If Apple wanted to, they could enable background apps tomorrow. I think Apple has good reasons for not supporting it.
However, that said, having the option to decide whether or not I want to kill battery life and the performance of my phone by running background apps should really be up to my discretion. I think users are smart enough to realise they can only realistically run 2 backgrounds apps at most.
No there not. Most iPhone users have no idea how many background apps they can use in the background. Most iPhone users don’t think about ‘techy’ things. This is why the iPhone excels in the real world. I love gadgets. I can’t live without them and I’m on techcrunch & engadgdet every day. This is not common for most iPhone users. They don’t care about background apps. They don’t care about a ‘walled garden’ or Google Voice.
The Droid wins over techies – but it’s still seems like my Dad would throw it out the window.
when did we decide 550 mhz is ‘anaemic’? seems like i was able to multitask pretty well even with a celeron 300a. even better when overclocked to 450mhz.
And as for video recording on the 3G, not really… It’s a pretty poor experience on jailbroken phones. The hardware can’t really handle it. Apple seemed to make the decision to not support it in the 3G to preserve the user experience.
And therein lies my problem with apple they are such control freaks they won’t even give the chance for users to decide what they want, trust me many 3g users would rather have a not so great experience with shooting video than having to buy a new phone.
I know you just didn’t compare the video app some guys developed in their spare time to what apple could have done, if apple really wanted video on the 3g they would have figure out a way, they are apple for god sakes, they just wanted you to buy a new phone, nothin wrong with that, is all business.
“anemic mobile devices such as these” I’m glad we agree that apple will release a new phone next year exclusive supporting mutlitasking since they wanna preserve the user experience. And well the 3gs will join the 3g and 2g in the 0 to 99 price range.
Alberto,
Most people misinterpret the multi-tasking deficiency of the iphone. It multi task quite well.
- I can talk on the phone, while surfing the internet on it.
- I can access an application while on the phone.
- I can ‘very quickly’ move from a web site, to SMS, to e-mail, and then back to exactly where I was on the website in an instant.
It does multi-task… and the additional multi-tasking that people are asking for will come soon, I am very confident in that. They are always upgrading the software.
What i like the most about the iphone is how easy and impressive it is to surf the internet on it. I have not seen any phone that accomplishes it that easily. It’s the pinch in and pinch out.
The Droid looks like an impressive phone, but for browsing the internet I can’t ever see anyone coming close to iphone. – it’s a very good experience, and I surf the net a lot.
I’ve been using a smart phone since the original Treo 180g. Since then its been mostly the same old junk, moving from the Palm to various blackberries. When the iPhone came out it was a total game changer. Few revisions later I’m still hooked but wouldn’t mind exploring the droid platform some more. However, one thing that may keep me is the Apps, there are just some tools I haven’t seen made for other platforms that are only on the iPhone and I may miss that.
NO COMPARISON OF THE CAMERA ?? thats ridiculous ..
DROID’s got 5MP with flash!
Actually, megapixels count for just about nothing. It’s pretty much strictly a marketing tactic. It’s all about the lens quality. For example, a 1.3MP with a superb lens will out preform a 5MP with an average or below average lens.
Flash is definitely a bonus though. In any case, it’s better than not having flash at all.
Megapixels count plenty… they set an upper bar on performance.
There are certainly other factors, like sensor size and technology, lens design, etc. So while a 2Mpixel camera with a great lens may well outperform a 5Mpixel camera with a crappy single element plastic lens (which is what you find on all too many cell phones), keep the sensor technology and lens quality, and compression level the same, and the 5Mpixel camera will always produce better images than the 2Mpixel camera.
It’s also true that none of these cell phones have cameras that remotely rival even moderately priced P&S pocket cameras. It’s easy to judge… look at the lens size. On the other hand, they compare pretty well to “Flip” style camera/camcorders… and they solve the same problem: photos or video when you didn’t have your camera with you.
And of course, other applications. Video mail, barcode decoding, navigation (look up “Enkin” if you haven’t seen it)… it’s a useful tool on a pocket computing device, even if it’s not going to replace a real camera for anyone actually concerned about print-quality photos.
i’ll give you the flash. It’s ridiculous that the iPhone doesn’t have one (although you can buy an external case with a flash now…)
But the 3MP vs. 5MP argument is just dumb. It’s not about quantity. 5MP of grain and muddy color is way worse than 3 clear and true MP.
At a 12×18 print size, there is no noticeable difference between a 3MP and a 6MP image. This was proven in a NY Times test.
A 5 MP image is not almost twice as good as a 3MP. It’s barely 20% higher vertical resolution. To double the resolution of a photo, you need to quadruple megapixels. So, to see a 100% bump in vertical image resolution, you’d need to go from 3 to 12 MP.
The MP Myth is abundant. Just Google “Megapixel Myth” to read more. It’s about optics, sharpness, color, compression algorithms, and CMOS sensors. Megapixel counts are for guys who measure their penises.
But the real killer is
looks at the pics dude
5MP is always a waste on tiny cameras, because they put the sensors too close together, which results in noise. Granted, it might still end up being higher quality, but nowhere near the difference you would expect just by looking at the numbers.
Also, look at the fucking pictures.
One thing Droid will never be able to compete against with Apple is Mind Share. But who knows? Maybe this will be the tipping point? I doubt it, but you never know.
Then again, maybe given a couple more years with many more phone’s like these on many networks… Droid itself might end up surpassing the iPhone. This phone won’t surpass the iPhone, but maybe Droid will given a couple more years to mature and saturate the market. Food for thought anyways.
Android, not Droid. Droid = phone hardware, Android = OS
uh oh, someone must’ve flashed the Arrington batsign.
Sorry. I’ll put it back in my pants now.
“At this point, I honestly feel that either choice would make any sane person incredibly happy.”
A reasonable conclusion. Which is increasingly rare, when it comes to this subject.
“They’re phones!” as Charlton Heston would scream. “iPhone/Droid/Soylent Green is phones!”
I may have missed it, but I think one factor that plays a major role is the NETWORK!
The fact that the Droid is on Verizon should give it bonus points. I think there is a general consensus that the ATT network coverage is spotty at best. Verizon has much better coverage (I can use my Verizon phone in my basement, but I couldn’t use my iPhone on my front porch. Dropped calls are commonplace on ATT. I can carry on a 2 hour phonecall in my house with Verizon.
Just thought this was worth mentioning…
Seriously? A tie on looks? The iPhone is a beautiful, beautiful device and Droid is downright horrible looking. It is just a weird-looking, chunky hunk of dull plastic.
Don’t get me wrong. I would love for Android to absolutely take over the market with its openness and whatnot, but come on… let’s call a spade a spade here. We’re comparing Halle Berry to Amy Winehouse. Sure she’s got talent, but she looks like a wreck.
And I was starting to think I was the only one. I think the Droid is hideous! Maybe you just have to see it in person… or maybe just with beer goggles on.
Do you think it is the screen that makes it look good in real life?
glad someone else pointed this out – thought I was the only one. I actually thought maybe the photo wasn’t doing it justice – so went over to Best Buy today to check it out (they have an inactive device for demo). have to say its not a very elegant design. I think the keyboard looks rather cheesy. I think they should have ditched the keyboard to slim down the device into a single piece of hardware.
I know this will come as a shock to anyone who has bought into the Apple lifestyle brand, but there is no such thing as an objective standard of beauty. As much as Apple marketing would have you believe that they are the purveyors of all good taste, it isn’t true.
You may not like the way the Droid looks, but the fact that you like the iPhone doesn’t somehow turn you into the objective voice of beauty on Earth. I happen to be quite fond of the looks of the Droid, and happen to find the iPhone to be a pretty mundane piece of design. I think that if the iPhone 3GS didn’t have a huge Apple logo on it, most people would think it was simplistic and toy-like in looks.
To each his own, neither of us have any claim to decide what someone else might find attractive. Clearly the author of the article finds them on par with each other. To think your tastes are somehow more valid than his is just arrogant and ignorant.
Clearly the author of the article has no taste :)
Let’s be honest here. I think most people find the iPhone more aesthetically tasteful, but the Droid is a very thin and well-designed phone, relatively speaking.
Calling the Droid *hideous* makes you hard to take seriously.
glad someone else pointed this out – thought I was the only one. I actually thought maybe the photo wasn’t doing it justice – so went over to Best Buy today to check it out (they have a inactive device for demo). have to say its not a very elegant design. I think the keyboard looks rather cheesy. I think they should have ditched the keyboard to slim down the device into a single piece of hardware.
I think the Droid looks awesome. The iPhone has the old futuristic look of smooth curves. The new futuristic look are those sharp cuts, and I like the semi-matte finish more then the gloss of the iPhone. The phone looks sharp. And the push up keyboard is a statement like, “My phone is really a computer.” The iPhone is just a touch screen and isn’t as catchy to me.
I was thinking this too. There is an objective way to judge the industrial design of these phones. Some people might not like the iPhone’s curves aesthetically, but the materials used to make the Droid look cheap, there are parts of it that are poking out (what’s up with the way the Verizon logo pokes out at the bottom), there are seams all over the place. If it’s angles and hard lines you’re looking for, the Zune HD ( http://www.zune.net/zuneHD ) and Experia X1 ( http://www.sonyericsson.com/x1/ ) do a better job.
It’s interesting how people can’t prefer an iPhone over other phone’s designs without being accused of getting brainswashed by Apple’s marketing. On the other hand, Apple actually employs real designers and shows respect for the design community, hiring people who did great work before working at Apple, showing an emphasis on design at every step of the way, and creating a design culture within the other company. A lot of other technology companies don’t do this, relying instead on engineers to make design decisions, or just leaving the design process to the very end when it’s very hard to do anything about it. Apple should receive more props for actually carrying about this stuff (even the insides of their products look amazing) and putting so much effort into every detail.
You know, there isn’t just one school of design. Yes, Apple is very much in the style of the Parsons/RISD school of design, and they do that style well. However, that is not all there is to the design world. For example, the entire nation of Japan, which is very design focused, has a completely different take on design than western eyes do. For that matter, Dyson breaks just about every design rule Apple lives by, and their products are just as internationally recognized for brilliant design.
I haven’t seen the Droid in person, so I can’t comment on it, but I can think of decades of devices which have won awards and stood the test of time, that just about every Apple fan has steadfastly declared were horribly designed pieces of junk. The Moto RAZR comes to mind as an example of that. It isn’t that I think they are “brainwashed by Apple” as much as I think Apple’s design shamelessly panders to a very specific aesthetic and school of design.
That said, I sure knew a lot of designers who would go on endlessly about how much better designed Macs were, largely because of their “classy” choice of white for their devices, instead of the “horribly gaudy” black and chrome other companies like Sony used, right up until the instant Apple started using black and chrome, at which point it went from “horribly gaudy” to “crisp and luxurious.” That, actually would be an example of a bit of Apple brainwashing.
The Droid is mostly metal. I like the look… it’s Batman’s phone. The iPhone is Clay Aiken’s phone. If you think it’s ugly, at least say it correctly: “It is just a weird-looking, chunky hunk of dull steel”.
Already getting tired of the “Iphone versus Droid” frenzy that the media keeps professing.
IMHO, the Iphone is very nice, have owned three and currently use the GS. Motorola phones are generally pretty nice as well. Loved the Vader, the Pebl, and the Razor and the Droid sounds like its well built and feature rich.
But too bad that doesn’t matter, or not as long as devices are locked to providers and we consumers are forced to choose a provider along with the device. Personally, I feel most comfortable with and trust Tmobile, but they don’t have the Iphone or the Droid and their phone lineup is generally ho-hum. AT&T… not bad, but a bit more expensive and self-serving than Tmobile. Verizon… one word; Satan. They’ll rape and screw their customers as soon as look at them. Been there;done that.
So, for me it doesn’t matter how nice the Droid may be until its available on another provider. Sounds nice though, if you want to sell your soul and get screwed to use it….
I hear you. My solution was to buy my iPhone in HK, where you can get it from the AppleStore unlocked and with no carrier contract — it works with any SIM from any country.
So, take a vacation to HK, drool over the hundreds of major-brand phones available in the dozens and dozens of non-carrier affiliated cellphone shops, then buy an iPhone, Droid, or whatever turns your crank, take it home and use it with the SIM of your choice.
Care to explain how you will use the CDMA Droid with the SIM of your choice?
Ah, the CDMA network standard bites us in the ass again!
Well, the Android has something I’m hoping to see more of- open development, something Apple tried to stifle.
Maybe the next one will be made by the open source community. That would be the phone for everyone.
LOL. Sort of like how Linux is the OS for everyone?
No silly – its like how Microsoft made the “OS for everyone” but cannot get people to use its web search engine without using some fraudulent way to get them to use it.
Quite unlike Google that has made some of the simplistic yet powerful software and made its way into the dictionary.
What I am trying to say despite have typed quite a few words is that Google gets the you and me better than Linus Torvalds. Actually he probably didn’t care much for your and my ease of use when trying to whoop Sun OS and other OSes out.
I had no other point than to call you silly.
I enjoyed your review. I’ve been using an Android phone since Google IO and I’ve loved it. It’s a pleasure to develop for and it never ceases to suprise me when I find a new feature that I didn’t even know. Leave it to Google to be subtly awesome.
The only part of your review that I felt was innacurate is what you wrote about changing the settings. As far as I know, the settings app on the Android is the only place you can go to change settings. In fact, as a developer, there are many settings that applications do not have permission to change without making the user go to the settings app and change them. I’m not sure how much simpler it could possibly be than to have all of the system’s settings in one app on the Android. And I suppose it’s all subjective anyway, but finding apps and settings and pretty much everything that can be done on the phone can be found in just one place, the app drawer. Even if the icon or the widget is on the home screens, the app is still in the app drawer. In short, I would have to dissagree that it is at all confusing to find anything on the android, in fact, for me it’s just the opposite.
Otherwise great article.
I honestly dislike this review… Like how could you even put a section for Physical Keyboard/Multi-Tasking? You just made up sections that iPhone does not have! This is how I would have done it:
Looks – iPhone
User Interface (Menu, Lock Screen, Browser, Media) – iPhone
Hardware (Camera, Specs, Screen, Battery) -Droid
App Store – iPhone
Phone Calls (Coverage, Quality) – Droid
If you see from my way Droid is not an iPhone killer.
“You just made up sections that iPhone does not have!”
Well, the things iPhone doesn’t have are things that some people find very important.
The people who think those features are so important (removable battery, physical keyboard, etc) are probably not going to buy an iPhone anyway, so that doesn’t really matter.
Do any of you realize Verizon’s network can’t handle voice and data at the same time? So if you get a call while you are using your free Google Nav your maps are dead until the call ends and your email is not being sent if you were sending an email when the call came in…
“Apple has long associated with the iPhone: the ability to talk on the phone while browsing the web to search for seafood restaurants in the Marina, or the capacity to effortlessly add, hold or drop multiple parties in the same conference call. CDMA phones from Verizon can’t do(roid) either of those things; data services like the web are dead when you’re on a CDMA voice conversation.” – Daniel Eran Dilger, RoughlyDrafted Magazine
And that’ll be fixed next year with LTE. Do you realize that if you don’t have signal, you can’t get a phone call OR use data?
Isn’t most of the iPhone’s advertising about what other phones can or cannot do? Guess what? Droid has a physical keyboard and after using the iPhone for a year I would kill to have one. It’s definitely a valid section in a review because in most cell reviews it’s included.
Motorola and Google made up a whole bunch of crap that the iPhone doesn’t have. That’s what makes me want one.
What about disk space Is it true the droid only has 512MB?
I was wondering about this. Also how much space is allowed for each app? I really would like the functionality for putting an app on a SD card.
not supported natively… Yet. You can root the phone and do it no problem but I see google fixing this in a near future update.
By default, apps in internal memory (total of 512MB, just over half of that free), data in microSD (16GB by default).
Google doesn’t currently support applications on FAT32 volumes. You can root the phone, format ext3 or whatever, and store everything on the SD card, but it makes it less interchangeable. And you might have issues talking to Windows computer (there is an ext2/3 file system driver for Windows, but it’s not commonly used).
Apps themselves are pretty small. I have about 70 apps (including the defaults), and I have 206MB free (out of the original 261MB free). I only have 7.66GB out of 14.8GB free on the SD card, but much of that’s music.
How about some comments on the Droid’s camera and video capability…..
Good review. I’m still thinking theres not enough attraction for me to switch…i wanted to, but the price point isn’t there. How about paying my cancellation fee? ;)
The Verizon Droid looks amazing ; counting the days till we get it.
This is easily one of the best write-ups I’ve read on the Droid/iPhone discussion. It didn’t have any of the obvious bias that I’ve had to trudge through with most others.
Thanks, Greg. I’d love to see any updated impressions added to the comparison.
Hey I liked your thinly veiled sarcasm. Very witty.
Haha, I can’t tell if YOU’re being sarcastic or not. In either case, you can check out WikiVS http://www.wikivs.com/wiki/Apple_iPhone_3GS_vs_Motorola_Droid for a more “objective” comparison.
There needs to be a word for when someone thinks they’ve gotten a joke without one actually being made. What’s the opposite of “whoosh”?
The experience I have had with motorola has not always been a good one. The phones have been good but not extremely sturdy. I just switch from a motorola phone on Verizon to an iPhone with AT&T and I am blown away by the difference in how sturdy the iPhone is. There are no moving parts and nothing to break. What is your feel about how sturdy the Droid is? Is the slide out keyboard going to break off or get loose? I have come to not trust plastic phones with moving parts. Thanks for any response.
I HAVE BEEN USING A SMARTPHONE FOR YEARS LONGER THAN iPHONE EVEN EXISTED. iT OFFERS NOTHING TO ME THAT MY PHONE WON’T DO. AND i HAVE BEEN FAMILIAR WITH IT. WHY DON’T PEOPLE EVERY PUT VALUE ON THE RECEPTION OR NOT HAVING TO LEARN A NEW SYSTEM.
Any value to learning how to use the caps lock key? :-)
Sorry, that would entail learning a new system, and some people don’t like that.
iPods did no more than any other music player on the market – less, in many cases – and yet they dominated. Usability counts.
As does almost a billion dollars a year in marketing, and a reputation as a designer label for the self-professed Technorati.
Wait, are you saying the technorati actually have influence? Like, over regular people?
Something tells me iPod users aren’t the ones who have been manipulated.
Of course they do. It has long been known that “early adopters” drive general market sales because they are the ones that friends and family turn to when making purchasing decisions. However, in the case of the iPod, I think it had more to do with billions of dollars of advertising over several years than anything else.
The G1 was supposed to be the definitive android phone, then it was the magic, the Hero and and now the Droid. The problem with the platform is that people want the “best” version when the android is all about different choices. I’m still waiting for a keyboard android phone that has keys that are at least as good as the sidekick phones. Those were so fun to type on!
“The G1 was supposed to be the definitive android phone”
If by “definitive” you mean “only”.
true but it seemed like android was going to launch onto other smartphones and non-smartphones around the same time as the G1. Remember when Google announced the OS and everyone only seemed to care about the phone it was being demoed on because they wanted the best experience?
Thanks for the review – one question and maybe I missed this but what about playing music? How do they compare?
Cheers – Eric
Engadget said, “A few of the obvious spots include the music player, which is quite frankly a mess; not only is the navigation poorly thought out, but the application is just straight-up ugly. It’s not easy on the eyes, and not much fun to use either. ”
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/30/motorola-droid-review/
True, but tunes apps are easily replaceable via third parties. The real test is the audio _quality_, and from what I’ve read, the Droid wins here over the iPhone–both when using the built-in speaker(s) and when using headphones.
[citation needed]
Thanks for the info and the link.
I love your selective quoting. From the same article…
“Speaker / earpiece
The sound on the DROID is second to none — really. In fact, this is simply one of the best sounding devices we’ve ever used. Whether it’s audio through the loud (but undistorted) earpiece, or a speakerphone call — even music — the sound which Motorola’s device outputs is crystal clear. Now, obviously Verizon’s reception has something to do with our in-call sound, but it’s likely Moto put some thought into the aural aspect of the phone. There’s not really much to say except that we were more than pleased with the audio fidelity of the DROID, and we can only hope that future phone makers (ahem, Apple) look to this device as a high water mark in this department.”
If they had an unlocked GSM version I’d give it a shot, but until then I’m perfectly happy with my iPhone.
Nonetheless, Apple will release the iPhone in 5 different pastel colors with a “Special Edition” steel version and everyone will forget about the Droid.
Can you tether with the Droid?
Yes you can tether .. have to root it though
Nice review…couple more things to consider:
1. bluetooth range and throughput
2. tethering to pc
3. how open is the system when connected to pc ?
does a file systems show up ?
Thanks
You want a real smartphone there son. Neither Apple nor Google will give you one of them.
Look to Windows Mobile and Nokia for that.
You’ve a funny definition of “smartphone” if the iPhone and Droid don’t count.
they are both missing features that a real smart phone sports. You need to get out more and see the world.
Read http://www.iphonessuck.com and the soon to be announced (most likely) androidsucks.com
What would some of those features be, and who deems them necessary to be considered a “smartphone”?
Linking me to iPhonessuck.com doesn’t count as evidence, because I see:
* An ad for DoubleTwist.
* Vague criticism that the iPhone’s tech specs are outdated.
* Didn’t that exploding iPhone story wind up being the kid having broken his and wanting a replacement?
* Claims that iPods locked people in (really? they play DRM-free MP3s)
* A complaint that someone makes a silly peripheral (how is this Apple’s fault?).
Why would you come to the comments section of mankind’s greatest example of unbiased reviewing (not being sarcastic, it’s really even-handed), and tell everyone that they’re missing the forest for the trees, because they haven’t been to iphonessuck.com?!
Did someone beat you with an Apple product or a… um search engine as a child?
Why the hell does no one here know what they’re talking about when they comment here.
Android allows tethering in various ways. You can buy a tether plan from Verizon or use an app like PDAnet to tether w/o the extra data plan.
Android shows your SD card as a filesystem when plugged into the computer.
Get with the game people.
This was an excellent review – seemed well balanced and allows both products to shine in their appropriate areas.
But I think you downplayed the open-ness card of the Droid.
Who carries a spare battery? No one. That isn’t the issue – the issue is that batteries are a wear part and need to be replaced. I find it very frustrating to have to take my iPod to a Mac shop to change the battery. My current cell phone is on its 3rd battery – each one was easy to change.
And yes you can say that Apple approves most apps – but why? Desktop computers don’t have approval boards. Will a future upgrade restrict which websites I can go to? If a friend develops an app – why can’t he give me a copy?
Same on the browser. You gave the iPhone the nod, but soon Firefox will be available for the Droid, but not for the iPhone. Which browser shows Adobe movie trailers better?
good points
Apple approves apps to prevent the kind of spyware/trojans/botnets from developing that have plagued most of the desktop computers out there. For example, why is there antivirus and antispyware software for Windows Mobile?
There are no restrictions on the web browser.
And if a friend develops an app, he can give you a copy. The iPhone developer license ($100) allows you to load apps directly. You can complain about the license, but only the developer needs it. You add an authorization file (provided by the developer) to your copy of iTunes and then you can load ziped apps directly through iTunes. So, Apple provides a means to do precisely what you want.
The App store isn’t really designed to throttle access to the Phone – it’s mostly designed to be a micropayment mechanism to allow for lower-price apps and much, much, much easier user installation than the traditional method (everyone developing their own payment/distribution system.) The benefit of that is clear when you see that the average cost of for-pay iPhone apps is $3 vs. closer to $20 for Win Mobile ones, and you see that iPhone users have downloaded over 1B apps so far.
put a sock in it
apple does not have the approval board to prevent spyware and viruses, if that was the case they would prevent development and installations on their desktops as well..
and if you pay them a hundred 100 you can install whatever you want? on the device you own?
No restrictions on the web browser? So Apple now has Flash and Java support on the iPhone? Can I install Opera or Firefox on the iPhone? If not, I say “hey lookie — restrictions.”
I know better than Steve Jobs which programs I want on my smart phone.
I think what he did was… was he walked outside, out into the real world, and look around for about five seconds. That’s all the time he needed to see all the people already carrying iPhones for two years, and all the people already carrying iPods for eight years, and maybe even a few people carrying laptops for… uh, something like six months now.
And he marveled at how little anyone cared and concluded that he shouldn’t waste our time by bitching about it in his review.
Also:
* no one has friends that develop software for cell phones.
* no one has firefox, and when it’s out, no one will care
* Adobe movie trailers?! The fuck?
I have firefox… have for years, love it on almost every website. And a large quantity of people do now. No more spyware with it whatsoever while running 3.5 and windows 7. My friend is a programmer, and sees his future as moving into the mobile world and programming for such devices.
to the one that asked. The droid is mostly metal, and very sturdy.
Apple approves applications primarily to ensure they are getting paid for every application of any sort that can run on the iPhone. So without this approval process, you could load in some evil interpreter: Java, Flash/Shockwave, a Commodore 64 emulator (yes, they rejected that one, because it allowed you to download new C64 games that Apple would not be paid for).
That, and perhaps keeping some deals with AT&T, is the entire basis for Apple’s “approval” process. They want you to pay to run code on the iPhone, even if it severely cripples the iPhone (lack of flash support is a big problem.. as much as I hate crazy overuse of flash, if you can’t support flash, you’re missing a big chunk of the modern web).
Oh, hey… I carry spare batteries. I have ‘em for digital cameras, camcorders, and I had them for my Treo before it died. Not always, but yeah, spare batteries are great.
But yeah, the big problem is that you get a phone on a two-year contract, and the typical Li-ion cell is good for about 300-500 charges, or about 3 years of existence, whichever comes first. Any heavy smart phone users charges it every night, which means, if you’re actually using your iPhone, you will need a trip to the Mac store for a battery swap. That keeps the battery price high and highly profitable, and guarantees this as a regular thing for iPhone users.
Exactly the type of review I was hoping for, both in content and conclusion; it confirmed my own assumptions as to how the device stacks up against the almighty iPhone. I’m forwarding along to my fanboi coworkers as we speak so they can shut the hell up about my desire to pick up a Droid, already…
Corporate Mail? iPhone works with exchange seamlessly, including the calendar and corporate address book. How does the Droid support exchange?
Is there an alternative to iTunes? A single place where I can buy music, movies, pod casts, tv shows and manage them all at once? I travel a lot and my iPhone really helps pass the time when it’s loaded with videos, especially when I can select and download them at the airport using wifi.
Dear Doug,
Droid support FULL Exchange synchronization, not just the gatewayed-via-ActiveSync half-assed synchronization that iPhone supports. You should read some of the other reviews, people have tested the Droid Exchange sync and it works very well.
Yeah, you obviously know nothing about Exchange on the iPhone. Try again.
Except that the Droid won’t render HTML emails from an Exchange mailbox, only Gmail.
It is to late. There is no alternative to Itunes for you. You have chosen to buy all of your music and movies from a company that allows you to view them in only one application, theirs.
On the other hand, I buy media from many , many websites (i.e. amazon, yahoo, bestbuy, google) and I am able to choose from many applications to index my drm free songs and listen to them with one of the hundreds of universal software players out there.
Good luck in a decade when Apple decides to not be backward compatible with your collection of 2001 AAC files.
What are you talking about? I’ve bought 200 songs on iTunes and they all work on my Samsung P2 players except for 1 album which I had to convert to MP3(but I suspect not Apple’s fault).