Useful comparison b/w droid 1 and droid2

[asilver]

Seems like I got NO actual feedback from the useless reviews of the droid 2 so far so I'm listing the differences that I have noticed on mine so far.

1: it loads up all your old apps and updates them automatically upon activation, all my droid replacement refurbs didn't do this
2: its faster (can't tell how much until I've used it for a few weeks) but transitions through screens are smoother
3: it comes with motoblur supposedly, I don't even know what this is, so I can't tell any difference, thus anyone who wants a droid 2 but to have it operate like a droid 1...mine does...so uhhh I don't get it.
4: the graphics are different, icons are different, I like both the droid 1 on 2.2 and the droid 2, they are similar but the colors are often reversed in a lot of menus
5: ergonomically it feels better, camera button and volume button are much better feeling.
6: battery door cover looks almost identical but the foam is thicker and it is on their tighter than any of my 4 droid 1's
7: keyboard is much more tactile with the raised buttons and I like the arrows much better than the dpad, however I'll use the pre-installed swype for most my typing since that's what I'm used to.
8: calendar still doesn't scroll in month mode LAME only scrolls in week mode
9: camera mode is faster on droid 2..I think....I initially started it and droid 1 took 10 seconds to load, but after a battery pull they are closer in speed, so hard to say if there's an actual difference.
10: the unlock swipe takes longer on the droid 2...dunno why
11: on droid 1...gmail would always get confused on conversations that were of the same subject line for example if the subject was blank, it would combine emails from different senders....and it wouldn't show the correct email unless you got in the emial out and back in, droid 2 doesn't have this problem, it just shows EVERY email in the list, and you can scroll from oldest to newest...big improvement
12: start up time from power on is about 2 seconds faster on droid 2...not really a marked difference
13: all the icons are different...I actually perfer all the icons on the droid 1 versus the droid 2...but i'm not that 14: forgot to mention they changed the order and icon for the menu / back / home / search buttons on the screen...this is just annoying..why did you have to change the order...lol..I'm used to my back being all the way on the left, now it's 2nd from the right.
15: the alarm is much improved, it used to switch between portrait and landscape as you try to snooze thus cancelling the alarm, it now functions where the entire screen is the snooze and in order to cancel you have to slide to unlock...so to speak
15: Gallery is improved, it allows scrolling up and down with the slider that's found in contacts and it references the dates the pics were taken so you know how old of pics you're searching through
16: Camera has integrated gps function to show where photo was taken
17: separate camcorder app
18: power, volume, and camera buttons feel much better, fit and finish is much tighter
19: usb fits much tighter then before
20: speed while loading memory heavy application is greatly improved such as raging thunder 2, the load time is about 5 seconds faster.
21: has DNLA so you can share photos / audio / video with tv's or computers of the same DNLA technology
22: the market is different: shows comments in their own window AND allows for automatic updating, you can select this per app, I don't remember this being on my 2.2 droid 1???

 

[Diver88]

thats mostly the difference between 2.1 and 2.2. my rooted droid one running froyo does most of what you just listed. and has been doing it for a few months now.

 

[YankeeDudeL]

I think the integrated GPS w/ the camera is kinda cool.

 

[asilver]

thats mostly the difference between 2.1 and 2.2. my rooted droid one running froyo does most of what you just listed. and has been doing it for a few months now.

really.."most" hmmm maybe you should try a Droid 2 before you state such things as you are unfortuately incorrect.

 

[twistedlim]

I had some time to play around with the D2 today. I was really impressed with the keyboard. I hardly ever use the keyboard on my D1 and could really see myself sliding that keyboad out on a regular basis. Scrolling from screen to screen seemed kind of rough or jiggly. I dowloaded launcher pro onto the demo model and it was as smooth as my D1.
The Adobe Flash works incredibly well with youtube, I just can seem to get it to work on my rooted droid.
Fit and finish I would say is a draw. I love the feel of the droid and the D2 is every bit as nice.
Speed wise my overclocked (only to 800) D1 seemed more responsive and had better luck browsing the web. This was on 3g so maybe wifi is a different story.

Overall it is a great phone. If my droid dies (almost killed it last night) I would pick up the D2 in a heartbeat. But apples to apples, my rooted droid holds a charge great since I can clock down to idle at 125. It is just as fast and gets great reception. Just can't justify the upgrade right now but if a new (gingerbread) OS comes out soon I will get the D2 without hesitation.

Nice phone you have here folks, if you could just change the kernels out and add cpu manager it would be perfect!

 

[YankeeDudeL]

Nice phone you have here folks, if you could just change the kernels out and add cpu manager it would be perfect!

Agreed, if this was as "rootable" as the OG Droid, it'd be a lot more tempting. But it sounds like Motorola is putting the kibosh on that.

 

[RJT185]

Question for the D1/D2-Users and general Android-Connosieurs;

With 3.0 being around the proverbial corner, will the D2 be able to meet the rumored minimum specs?

also

If (and I hope When) the D2 is rooted, the encrypted bootloader would prevetn custom ROM's but we would still be able to clean out bloatware and install off-market apps, right??

 

[mihalich]

Regarding the motoblur stuff that is one of the biggest differences between d1 and d2 software wise. All the stock android messaging apps are replaced with the motorola apps and moto widgets. Personally I can't stand them, but my wife who has the d2 doesn't notice it cuz she never had the d1.

Moto can't leave well enough alone.

I love everything else about the d2. Wish I had it.

Joe

 

[ngsm13]

Question for the D1/D2-Users and general Android-Connosieurs;

With 3.0 being around the proverbial corner, will the D2 be able to meet the rumored minimum specs?

also

If (and I hope When) the D2 is rooted, the encrypted bootloader would prevetn custom ROM's but we would still be able to clean out bloatware and install off-market apps, right??

The encrypted bootloader (like the DroidX), would still allow custom roms but only with stock kernel....

nG

 

[1979w72]

Camera has integrated gps function to show where photo was taken

Just an FYI, geo-tagging is available on the original Droid. Between tagged pics and My Tracks, my dad and I were able to map out some new property pretty well.

 

[RJT185]

The encrypted bootloader (like the DroidX), would still allow custom roms but only with stock kernel....

nG

oh sweet! thanks!

 

[ckochinsky125]

really.."most" hmmm maybe you should try a Droid 2 before you state such things as you are unfortuately incorrect.

no im pretty sure i also can do those things with my rooted droid 1 so he is right

 

[twistedlim]

The encrypted bootloader (like the DroidX), would still allow custom roms but only with stock kernel....

nG

The ability to change kernels and adjust how how they work for optimum performance and battery life, and the option to change basebands to find the one that works best for my area will keep me in a D1. Not to mention wifi hotspot. The only thing I cannot get to work properly is flash.

 

[asilver]

Regarding the motoblur stuff that is one of the biggest differences between d1 and d2 software wise. All the stock android messaging apps are replaced with the motorola apps and moto widgets. Personally I can't stand them, but my wife who has the d2 doesn't notice it cuz she never had the d1.

Moto can't leave well enough alone.

I love everything else about the d2. Wish I had it.

Joe

I used handcent on my d1 and d2, but I did occasionally revert back to the stock app, so my usage is limited, that being said, I don't see how the d2's messaging app is much different then the d1?

I'm almost thinking that since I got this droid2 as a warranty replacement for the d1, which was delivered the day of the launch that some motoblur things aren't on my phone??????? I dunno I don't see how motoblur does anything on the d2?

am I removed from motoblur b/c I use things like launcher pro, and handcent, does it desensitize me to the negative aspects of motoblur, or does my phone simply NOT HAVE IT?

still confused.

 

[Redflea]

I used handcent on my d1 and d2, but I did occasionally revert back to the stock app, so my usage is limited, that being said, I don't see how the d2's messaging app is much different then the d1?

I'm almost thinking that since I got this droid2 as a warranty replacement for the d1, which was delivered the day of the launch that some motoblur things aren't on my phone??????? I dunno I don't see how motoblur does anything on the d2?

am I removed from motoblur b/c I use things like launcher pro, and handcent, does it desensitize me to the negative aspects of motoblur, or does my phone simply NOT HAVE IT?

still confused.

I think he's more referring to the moto-blur widgets, not the underlying messaging apps.

AFAIK, Moto-blur provides more home screen do-hickies and some additional social networking features that some like and some don't.

 

[Redflea]

FYI - wifi tether works w/the D2 w/root, so that is also available w/a rooted D2.

I played a bit w/a D2 today, looking at performance, and it seemed quite fast and smooth. I was very pleased, as this phone had the full 7 home screens set up w/a ton of moto-blur and other widgets, etc.. When I get mine and remove all the extra widgets from the stock home app and then install Launcher Pro, I'm going to be quite happy with the performance.

The 8GB internal storage on the D2 is very interesting to me, as that provides me ample secure internal storage for any files that I want to keep on the D2 and have PW protected (I always use a PIN lock). I'll have my 16GB card + the 8GB for a total of 24GB...that and the doubled app memory to 512 is great...I was running out of space on my 16GB card in my D1.

Other than desperately wanting to run CM 6.0 on it, I'm thinking the switch to a D2 will be good. I would not have paid to upgrade from the D1 to the D2, but as a free upgrade for my warranty replacement it's looking like I'm going to be pretty happy.

 

[asilver]

FYI - wifi tether works w/the D2 w/root, so that is also available w/a rooted D2.

I played a bit w/a D2 today, looking at performance, and it seemed quite fast and smooth. I was very pleased, as this phone had the full 7 home screens set up w/a ton of moto-blur and other widgets, etc.. When I get mine and remove all the extra widgets from the stock home app and then install Launcher Pro, I'm going to be quite happy with the performance.

The 8GB internal storage on the D2 is very interesting to me, as that provides me ample secure internal storage for any files that I want to keep on the D2 and have PW protected (I always use a PIN lock). I'll have my 16GB card + the 8GB for a total of 24GB...that and the doubled app memory to 512 is great...I was running out of space on my 16GB card in my D1.

Other than desperately wanting to run CM 6.0 on it, I'm thinking the switch to a D2 will be good. I would not have paid to upgrade from the D1 to the D2, but as a free upgrade for my warranty replacement it's looking like I'm going to be pretty happy.

what's the advantage of rooting for wifi tether when you can just use pdanet? I used pdanet on my D2 just to test it, works just fine.

 

[YankeeDudeL]

I used handcent on my d1 and d2, but I did occasionally revert back to the stock app, so my usage is limited, that being said, I don't see how the d2's messaging app is much different then the d1?

I'm almost thinking that since I got this droid2 as a warranty replacement for the d1, which was delivered the day of the launch that some motoblur things aren't on my phone??????? I dunno I don't see how motoblur does anything on the d2?

am I removed from motoblur b/c I use things like launcher pro, and handcent, does it desensitize me to the negative aspects of motoblur, or does my phone simply NOT HAVE IT?

still confused.

If it's like HTC Sense, it's basically like a home launcher. My g/f has the DInc and after I put LauncherPro, I realized she couldn't use the sense widgets. Much like you can't put LauncherPro Plus widgets on the stock launcher. Hope that makes sense.

 

[droidrew]

I have LauncherPro and I am still able to use the Ninjablur widgets. You just don't have a category for them anymore, they are listed along with all the other widgets.

 

[Redflea]

what's the advantage of rooting for wifi tether when you can just use pdanet? I used pdanet on my D2 just to test it, works just fine.

Haven't used PDAnet in a while, but IRRC it requires SW on the computer as well as Droid, and didn't support HTTPS unless you got the paid version.

Wifi tether doesn't require any SW on the PC and supports HTTPS, it's free.

 

[asilver]

Haven't used PDAnet in a while, but IRRC it requires SW on the computer as well as Droid, and didn't support HTTPS unless you got the paid version.

Wifi tether doesn't require any SW on the PC and supports HTTPS, it's free.

bluetooth pdanet requires no software but USB pdanet does I think

If it's like HTC Sense, it's basically like a home launcher. My g/f has the DInc and after I put LauncherPro, I realized she couldn't use the sense widgets. Much like you can't put LauncherPro Plus widgets on the stock launcher. Hope that makes sense.

yes thanks this finally makes sense.

 

[Redflea]

bluetooth pdanet requires no software but USB pdanet does I think

So is going over BT as fast as straight Wifi?

 

[asilver]

doesn't make any difference if you use USB versus bluetooth for speed.

I think the speed differs more if your cell phone is hooked up to WIFI or 3g.

of course if your phone works on wifi you'd probably have your laptop just hooked up wifi anyways, and at that point tethering is useless.

for 3g I think I get 2mb download.

my phone on WIFI get's upwards of 15mb download

My computer hooked up with ethernet gets almost 30mb download

 

[mdeamicis]

i have a droid 1 ruing froyo official version, non rooted

19: usb fits much tighter then before
if minewere any tighter it would be to tight

16: Camera has integrated gps function to show where photo was taken
mine did this on 2.1 the day o got it, even has sub folders for locations and dates

17: separate camcorder app
always been an app for the camcorder, all you had to do was load it

22: the market is different: allows for automatic updating
that is a froyo feature.