9 Things My Dumb-phone DOES that my Smart-Phone DON'T... and vice versa

[Thanassi44]

From My Blog

Grape Holes: 9 Things My Dumb-phone DOES that my Smart-Phone DON'T... and vice versa

 

[doomedromance]

I would have much rather had a better quality 3.2 mp sensor with Ziess optics over the 5 mp junker. I got it the day it was released, and to me focusing, though annoying, was never really an issue. It was the bad quality even when properly focused. Direct sunlight, its very usable, but with dim lighting it's almost useless, IMO. It was obviously a purely marketing decision to give it another 1 up on the iPhone on the spec sheet. But in practice the iPhone wins and the Droid is destroyed by the 3.2 mp in the new Blackberries. The Tour's camera puts this to shame. The Droid has so much noise, and to me it seems they've added some noise reduction processing, which would explain why taking a 5mp shot takes so long for the camera to recycle. The Bb Tour seemed to have a much shorter depth of field which I also liked. I think the Droid needs to have a much more focused auto focus bracket rather than it covering the whole screen, which makes specific focusing on objects at a different range a guessing game. Will it do it now? No. How bout this time? No? Focus again? Finally the right subject...


About the receiving calls:
Can't you swipe one way to answer, and the other way to ignore and silence? or is that not what you are talking about?

 

[fmcgirt]

I would have much rather had a better quality 3.2 mp sensor with Ziess optics over the 5 mp junker. I got it the day it was released, and to me focusing, though annoying, was never really an issue. It was the bad quality even when properly focused. Direct sunlight, its very usable, but with dim lighting it's almost useless, IMO. It was obviously a purely marketing decision to give it another 1 up on the iPhone on the spec sheet. But in practice the iPhone wins and the Droid is destroyed by the 3.2 mp in the new Blackberries. The Tour's camera puts this to shame. The Droid has so much noise, and to me it seems they've added some noise reduction processing, which would explain why taking a 5mp shot takes so long for the camera to recycle. The Bb Tour seemed to have a much shorter depth of field which I also liked. I think the Droid needs to have a much more focused auto focus bracket rather than it covering the whole screen, which makes specific focusing on objects at a different range a guessing game. Will it do it now? No. How bout this time? No? Focus again? Finally the right subject...


About the receiving calls:
Can't you swipe one way to answer, and the other way to ignore and silence? or is that not what you are talking about?

Totally agree about the camera. I am just hoping the upcoming upgrade will help make it acceptable or at least on a par with the iPhone camera.

 

[mooshu47]

That was a great article. Well written and to the point.

 

[Fadelight]

I came to the droid from the Dare. Just so you know, a couple of the things on that list could be changed via 3rd party app, or via the settings on your phone.

 

[sooper_droid12]

I take a lot of these reviews with a grain of salt because usually the person using it hasn't been using it long enough to figure out the utility or potential of the DROID. That being said, I don't know why people are complaining about the camera. The iPhone camera and its pictures are not anything to write home about. Basically, it's all processing software. Yeah, the iPhone will tend to saturate more than the DROID, but that's not necessarily what everyone wants. Same difference between a Canon and a Nikon.

 

[fmcgirt]

I take a lot of these reviews with a grain of salt because usually the person using it hasn't been using it long enough to figure out the utility or potential of the DROID. That being said, I don't know why people are complaining about the camera. The iPhone camera and its pictures are not anything to write home about. Basically, it's all processing software. Yeah, the iPhone will tend to saturate more than the DROID, but that's not necessarily what everyone wants. Same difference between a Canon and a Nikon.

When comparing pictures between my Droid and my iPhone there is a noticeable difference in sharpness. With the iPhone images are very clearly defined and very much in focus while the Droid images always appear very slightly out of focus even though I get green brackets. The iPhone images at 3.2 are very close to the BB 8700 which is also 3.2 and both are superior to the Droid at 5. I sure hope you are right about the processing and it can be improved with better software.

 

[bthoward]

There are applications that can do a lot of the things you whine about... If you'd searched for them for a little while before writing down that it can't do these things you'd probably be happier. Not to mention all the mis-information you end up feeding to people who read it. A little bit of ignorance can go a LONG way.

 

[Fadelight]

If I wrote a blow about the Droid, it would look something like this...


Bad:

1) Pressing the home button should end a call. It sucks when you forget and press home after a call ends, and then have to go back into the phone to hit the soft end key.

2) (not exactly the phone)... the car cradle was poorly designed. It blocks the power button, the camera, and the speaker on the back.

3) there needs to be an option for a truly adjustable dimmer when docked in the home dock.


The good:

1) Everything else.

 

[bthoward]

Bad:

1) Pressing the home button should end a call. It sucks when you forget and press home after a call ends, and then have to go back into the phone to hit the soft end key.

See the problem is that some of us need to be able to access calendars and/or emails and other phone applications to be able to carry out the phone conversations we're in.

 

[tpriddy]

Gave my Dare to my brother today.

I love my Droid, but I'll forever miss my Dare. I put a starter configuration on the Dare for my brother and kept reaching for the lower-left corner of the screen to navigate instead of the upper-left back-arrow of the Dare UI. Going back to the Dare for just an hour excercise of configuration quickly came more automatic after some moments, but mainly served to remind me how "natural" the multi-tasking-based UI of the Droid truly is.

The Dare is a great phone. It is the right size and weight and the battery life is excellent, but after using the Dare for a year and praising how intuitive its interface is, I rationalize that I wasn't merely fooling myself, I was just ecstatic to be freed from the super-crap of the previous VZW-UI.

I fear I may forever miss the great Dare camera, but I was ashamed to tell my brother that the camera settings are immediately lost and must be continually re-configured. The Droid camera works pretty well now that the focus-fix is in! ;-)

He actually appreciated the mollasses slowness of the Dare scroll/flick. He had tried his daughter's smart phone and could not appreciate the Droid-like scroll speediness. I am truly vexed though by the Droid tap/warp scroll bug... sigh!

I fear it unlikely that he could be patient enough to explore, what seems to me now to be, the maze of the Dare UI that poorly maps its function to the settings.

I loved my Dare. I'm now in love with my little Linux Droid. I'm a nut.

 

[mully]

I would have much rather had a better quality 3.2 mp sensor with Ziess optics over the 5 mp junker. I got it the day it was released, and to me focusing, though annoying, was never really an issue. It was the bad quality even when properly focused. Direct sunlight, its very usable, but with dim lighting it's almost useless, IMO. It was obviously a purely marketing decision to give it another 1 up on the iPhone on the spec sheet. But in practice the iPhone wins and the Droid is destroyed by the 3.2 mp in the new Blackberries. The Tour's camera puts this to shame. The Droid has so much noise, and to me it seems they've added some noise reduction processing, which would explain why taking a 5mp shot takes so long for the camera to recycle. The Bb Tour seemed to have a much shorter depth of field which I also liked. I think the Droid needs to have a much more focused auto focus bracket rather than it covering the whole screen, which makes specific focusing on objects at a different range a guessing game. Will it do it now? No. How bout this time? No? Focus again? Finally the right subject...


About the receiving calls:
Can't you swipe one way to answer, and the other way to ignore and silence? or is that not what you are talking about?

My BlackBerry Storm 9530's camera is nothing to be proud of. Pictures....even in sunlight, are below average at best.

 

[syntrix]

I would have much rather had a better quality 3.2 mp sensor with Ziess optics over the 5 mp junker.

What Zeiss optics? I've owned many over the years for DSLR's. You aren't talking about crap zeiss optics on sony point and shoot cams are ya? If so, then I'll raise you two in advance!

 

[syntrix]

If I wrote a blow about the Droid, it would look something like this...


Bad:

1) Pressing the home button should end a call. It sucks when you forget and press home after a call ends, and then have to go back into the phone to hit the soft end key.

2) (not exactly the phone)... the car cradle was poorly designed. It blocks the power button, the camera, and the speaker on the back.

3) there needs to be an option for a truly adjustable dimmer when docked in the home dock.


The good:

1) Everything else.

I can hit the power button on my car cradle.... I have the OEM Motorola one. Are fake ebay ones out already?

 

[punkzanyj]

See the problem is that some of us need to be able to access calendars and/or emails and other phone applications to be able to carry out the phone conversations we're in.

Right, so it should just have physical call/end keys LIKE ALL THE OTHER ANDROIDS. It amazes me they expect you to purchase and use a phone with no call or hangup buttons.

 

[syntrix]

Right, so it should just have physical call/end keys LIKE ALL THE OTHER ANDROIDS. It amazes me they expect you to purchase and use a phone with no call or hangup buttons.

It amazes me that you would buy a phone with no call or hangup buttons if that was your requirement!

 

[CRPercodani]

I can hit the power button on my car cradle.... I have the OEM Motorola one. Are fake ebay ones out already?

Exactly, I have no trouble hitting the power button either. Also the speaker is pretty damn loud and I hear it just fine when using the GPS or making calls, The camera is blocked most likely because it wouldn't be very safe.....safe at all to be using the camera while driving. It would be cool to use it as a dash mounted camera but it would end up promoting to much unsafe usage.

 

[syntrix]

Speaker is insanely loud, and people can hear me just fine on the other end. I was skeptical at first, but WOW this works well!

I've heard some people drill a hole in the car cradle to do those in car videos. Only time I would want to do that is on the track or at autox, but I'd rather mount up a better video camera.

 

[nasarius]

It amazes me they expect you to purchase and use a phone with no call or hangup buttons.

Yeah! And that piece of crap iPhone is going nowhere! One lousy button? Pfft.

 

[mully]

^^Lol....good one.

 

[Fadelight]

I can hit the power button on my car cradle.... I have the OEM Motorola one. Are fake ebay ones out already?

I bought mine from Verizon. I didn't know Motorola was selling their own already? That might make all the difference in the world between yours and mine.