My thoughts are posted inline below (long):
Originally Posted by aquastorm
I've had my Droid for a couple of days and wanted some input from others on my observations/reservations.
1. This phone is not ergonomic. The biggest issue I have with this is the phone is not easy to hold with just one hand. I seriously question the placement of the unlock button because once again it is very akward to pick up the phone with one hand and attempt to unlock the phone with unlock key.
Totally agreed on this one. There really is no reason the Unlock button could not have been placed on the top left of the phone instead of the top right. With it's current placement, you have to brace your hand against either the volume button or the camera button, which inadvertently leads to pressing things you don't want to, because you have to unlock the phone then shift its position in your hand before you can USE it. Aain, no excuse and terrible design on moto's part. ANOTHER ergonomic issue that I have is the design of the touch menu buttons on the bottom. I always manage to accidentally hit the search button or back button with the corner of my palm because it only needs a light touch rather than a physical press.
2. The physical keyboard is a total joke and almost completely useless. The mouse thing on the right side is a total waste and shouldn't be there (what was moto thinking it's almost as if they didnt get any input from anyone on the phones build).
This was an interesting item for me. My last two phones had mediocore physical portrait keyboards (nothing as good as a BB, but "ok") and the touchscreen keyboards were USELESS. I still consider a well made physical portrait keyboard to be the pinnacle of typing because you're thumbs don't have to travel as far, making it FASTER when you learn it well, and you don't have to continuously correct the autocorrect software just because you wanted to say something different than the norm. Needless to say, the droids keyboard was NOT one of its selling points when I was considering buying it. FLAT, with NO tactile feedback to tell me when I move from key to key? seriously?
HOWEVER, over the last few days, I have gotten a hell of a lot better at typing on that physical keyboard than I ever expected. When I first started, I could type the fastest on the landscape screen kb (the portrait one is and still is useless to me).... but now I really have gotten pretty fast with the physical kb, and I'm getting steadily faster. I'm still getting used to the placement of the shift and alt keys, because they're reversed from my old phone, but thats just a matter of retraining. The fact that it has TWO shift and TWO alt keys, one on each side, means it has A LOT of potential for typing much faster than I currently am (another matter of retraining).
With that said, it's a look and type keyboard ONLY. There's no way I can touch type even a few letters on it (which I could do with old phones) - fast typing requires intense visual concentration on my part to keep my fingers hitting the right buttons. It's also very tiring on my fingers to use it, because of the additional distance my thumbs have to travel in landscape mode, particularly for someone with very mild carpal tunnel.
Finally, I absolutely HATE the spacebar on it. The positioning is fine, but the way the physical button is constructed, it's really three physical buttons underneath, with one large 3x1 keycap over the top. BUT since the keycap is soft plastic, every single time I mash in between two of the buttons, I FEEL the button press from both of then and I then think in my head that I accidentally hit two keys. This is very disjointing when typing on a flat monospaced keyboard where you already have to be EXTRA careful of not hitting in between two keys and triggering both of them.
The D-pad, contrary to many people's opinion, really isn't so bad. When my hand is on the keyboard and typing away, the last damned thing in the world I want to do is to take my hands off the keyboard and move the cursor. The d-pad allows for this functionality wonderfully, so I can begin a new email, type in who its to, add a cc, subject, compose the message, and hit send, all without moving my fingers off the keyboard. THIS is why the d-pad is there, and for this function, it works PERFECTLY. not to mention its great for moving forward or backward a few characters in the text, much more precise.
3. The lack of physical call and or end buttons is ill advised too I believe. This is a phone first of all not a laptop so making a call should be first priority and should be easier to initiate than it is.
Again, coming from a line of phones that had physical buttons for everything, SEND/END buttons are pretty ingrained in my mind as well. I am surviving just fine without them... but there are definitely moments when I want the call to end NOW and I am still waiting for the touchscreen to "catch up" to what I was asking it to do (just because the normally fast phone decided to lag in that moment). I'll live without em, and don't know where you would have put them on a phone like this.... but I'll miss em.
Before I ordered the Droid I went into a store and looked at both the Eris and the Droid and I noticed while I was there that I was gravitating towards the Eris more it was just more comfortable to hold and play with. In the end I decided to go with what most reviews were saying which is that the Droid is the best Android phone available and the best on Verizon but now that I have been dealing with the annoyances of the Droid for a couple of days I am seriously doubting my decision.
Does anyone else feel the same way? I really think from what I have experienced that maybe the Eris is the better phone due to it's ergonomics, sense UI and more logical layout/design. I'm aware that the Droid is technically the more powerful phone BUT if 2.0 is truly coming to the Eris as well then I see no advantage at all for the Droid...
The Eris is a good phone, hands down. When I went into the store a few times to play with the phone before purchasing, every single time I looked VERY closely at the Eris. At the time I never expected to become accustomed to the Droid's physical keyboard, so the lack of one on the Eris was not a huge detractor, not to mention the fact that the HTC Sense UI keyboard on-screen was much better than the stock Android keyboard. HTC as a company was a huge + for the phone, not a detractor, because I knew that folks over at xda would be sure to cook up a new and awesome ROM for it anyway to fix any nagging problems. Then you add in PHYSICAL send and end keys, a phone that weighs half as much, and PHYSICAL menu keys, and a trackball! oh my! so pretty!
BUT in the end, it came down to a matter of hardware. I buy my phones for long term 2-3 year usage. The Eris may be getting 2.0 later on... but it will still be on an outdated processor. Considering that I already have my Droid running a little choppier than I would like, if I had gotten an Eris I would be throwing it across the room by now out of sheer frustration at the lag. I NEED the extra speed, but some folks don't. And I have good eyes, so I REALLY REALLY appreciate the crystal clear, ginormous screen!!!
All in all, the Droid has its quirks, that is for sure... but I am glad I did not get the Eris. The Eris is perfect for a certain group of people -- if I had a non-tech savvy wife, I'd tell her to get the Eris simply because its a cleaner UI and a smaller, prettier phone. Even if she was tech savvy, I'd tell her to get the Eris because its a cleaner, better designed phone. But I got the Droid for RAW power and screen side, and in this, it does not disappoint. I'll be keeping mine, but I can totally understand someone wanting to switch to the Eris (just don't be surprised if it's lagging like a mofo on the new app you want to run in a year, you've been warned!)
Phones are a very personal choice.
