Possibly buying Droid, two questions.

[sunwest]

Hey guys. I'm thinking of purchasing a Droid, possibly this weekend. A couple of questions. The phone would be primarily for business use.

How is the volume and clarity while on speaker? This is important to me as I'm constantly in long meetings, on speaker, in a room with moderate ambient noise.

Is it possible to set a custom tone when a text message comes in? With my current iPhone, the only choices are default tones that are short. I need to wake up at night if one comes in, so I need to define a tone that is more than just a short sound.

Thanks!

 

[CRPercodani]

The speaker on this phone is insanely clear AND loud. I would venture to say it is the best speaker on any phone besides maybe the Touch Pro 2. And for Text tones you can set it to anything that you want, some are louder then others but you shouldn't have any problem finding one that will wake you up.

 

[doomedromance]

The speaker phone is really loud. I'd say almost twice the iPhone volume. It get's a little crackled on max but still very clear.
If (big IF) you can stand WinMo, HTC did an amazing job with the TouchPro2. I used it for a while. Speaker phone is amazing and if you put the phone down on a table face down it automatically switches. I thought the battery life was pretty terrible though. I couldn't deal with the lag that WinMo would bring to the table. Android 2.0 on droid is a much nicer experience. It's not quite the business powerhouse that WinMo is though. Android apps are a lot cheaper than WinMo apps, other than DataViz Office, but its on sale for $15. I haven't found any buisness card reader like World Card that comes on the TouchPro2.

You can use what ever mp3 you want for notifications. All you do is make a folder named "notifications" on your SD card and drop what ever you want into it and they will show up in your selection of sounds. Same goes for "alarms" and "ringtones." Not really sure if you can do custom notifcations for individual contacts on stock Android. I don't utilize that kind of thing. Only problem I see is that all notifications is one tone. SMS, Email, USB Connected, etc all the same tone. But actually, I forgot, you can go into your messaging settings and change the notification ringtone for text messages from "default" to whatever. So I think that would making text notifications different from email and system notifications.

 

[sunwest]

Sweet, speaker volume is a bit of a low point on my iPhone right now. It is usually sufficient at full volume for most conversations, but some the person talking comes in too quiet. I'll try to test this further as its one of the most important points for me in my new phone.

No custom ring tone selections for incoming texts on iPhone is a major limitation. Some are just as important as a call. I can not understand why Apple does not get that and allow custom tones that sound for more than a couple of seconds.

Now, hopefully Google gets the GAL issue settled for Exchange, but that's a lower priority for me anyway.

 

[CRPercodani]

Yea you can change different notification sounds. The only one I haven't figured out is the USB connected one and also the Start up sound.

 

[sunwest]

The speaker phone is really loud. I'd say almost twice the iPhone volume. It get's a little crackled on max but still very clear.
If (big IF) you can stand WinMo, HTC did an amazing job with the TouchPro2. I used it for a while. Speaker phone is amazing and if you put the phone down on a table face down it automatically switches. I thought the battery life was pretty terrible though. I couldn't deal with the lag that WinMo would bring to the table. Android 2.0 on droid is a much nicer experience. It's not quite the business powerhouse that WinMo is though. Android apps are a lot cheaper than WinMo apps, other than DataViz Office, but its on sale for $15. I haven't found any buisness card reader like World Card that comes on the TouchPro2.

You can use what ever mp3 you want for notifications. All you do is make a folder named "notifications" on your SD card and drop what ever you want into it and they will show up in your selection of sounds. Same goes for "alarms" and "ringtones." Not really sure if you can do custom notifcations for individual contacts on stock Android. I don't utilize that kind of thing. Only problem I see is that all notifications is one tone. SMS, Email, USB Connected, etc all the same tone. But actually, I forgot, you can go into your messaging settings and change the notification ringtone for text messages from "default" to whatever. So I think that would making text notifications different from email and system notifications.

Thanks, double the volume is what I wanted to hear.

Very nice indeed about the mp3 notifications. Man, I might get the phone tonight.

 

[Trel]

Can't really comment on the speaker question as I've not been in a similiar situation yet with it, but as far as tones, yes it has many pre-loaded ones, and there's an app 'Tone Picker' which will easily let you choose any tone not just notification tones, (and including any mp3 or sound file) as a ring tone or notification tone.

 

[FireChief]

Hey guys. I'm thinking of purchasing a Droid, possibly this weekend. A couple of questions. The phone would be primarily for business use.

How is the volume and clarity while on speaker?

AND

Is it possible to set a custom tone when a text message comes in? ... so I need to define a tone that is more than just a short sound.

Yes, I have found the speaker volume and clarity to be much better than my old phone (Centro).. and it has worked well when setting it on a table with a few folks around...

Yes, you can set a custom tone .. The "TaDa" tone is a few seconds long.. Works well.. but there are others that are long too..

FC

 

[aquastorm]

The voice quality on this phone is VERY good both listening and talking while on speakerphone or otherwise. I really see the call quality as one of this phones biggest strengths... No worries at all concerning that

 

[doomedromance]

All but one of my phones were Motorolas. That's one of their strong points. Does anyone besides Motorola even make walkies anymore. Haha.

The voice quality on this phone is VERY good both listening and talking while on speakerphone or otherwise. I really see the call quality as one of this phones biggest strengths... No worries at all concerning that

 

[galt]

You did not ask, but if you really spend a lot of time on speakerphones in meetings, you should invest in a bluetooth conference speakerset. It will provide awesome quality for about $100, and true conference room speaker phone capability, with multiple speakers and mic (usually in a triangle) to disperse/accept sound in all directions. It also plays your music at better quality. Som epeople buy a speakerphone just to have room sound.

Bit the Droid built-in one is fine for casual use.

 

[Barbara]

I have the zinging arrow, "message for you sir" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail as my notification tone for sms. It's not that long or terribly loud but it does amuse me.

 

[aquastorm]

I believe you also can set any mp3 file as a ringer or alert tone. I downloaded the Wendy Williams "how you dooooin" ringtone and transfered it to my Droid via Double Twist. If you touch the menu button on the phone while looking at the file it allows you set it as ringtone.. Anyone know if you can also do the same for alerts?