Help used a droid today

[snowcrash]

My friend got a Motorola Droid today so played with it beside the moment. I think the Moment does great against it....the AMOLED screen is really impressive and much better then the Droid. The Droid GPS works much better then the Moment...it can find itself easily indoors...my Moment right next to it could not. Hopefully the Moment GPS issue is a software and not a hardware issue. Only other thing that was better on the Droid was the onscreen keyboard. For some reason I had way fewer errors typing with it on the onscreen keyboard...hopefully that is a function of Android 2.0 and we will get that improvement as well.

overall i am very impressed and think the Moment holds its own against the Droid...funny thing was I was getting 3G reception on Sprint, and he wasn't getting any on the "superior" verizon network.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

I agree. I was playing with the Droid at an electronic store, and the physical form factor just is not as ergonomic as the Moment. I love the keyboard of the Moment far more, and I hate the "reverse-chin" of the Droid. The Moment looks more generic but it is much more ergonomic.

 

[kahale]

I also tried the droid at a verizon store. I like the screen size. I wish the moment came with at least a 3.5 in. The droids keyboard was ok but the keys were a bit flat for my liking. Also for some reason the droids os was so slow and not as smooth as my moment. Tho I guess ppl have been messing with it a lot and have a ton with apps running. So I close all apps with taskiller and it was still slow. Hm...

 

[pastafarian]

Ditto. I played with a friends Droid yesterday and it was less impressive than I expected. Unlike the iPhone, this phone doesn't live up to its hype. As mentioned, the GPS issue doesn't exist with 2.0, but other than that? Here's a few impressions.

- The much vaunted build quality wasn't there. The battery cover is loose and prone to falling off. The keyboard slider works well mainly because it doesn't slide as far out at the cost of a 4th row of keys. The material color choice works well (basic black) and fools one into thinking it's better made than it is.
- Speed, good but not amazing. From reviews, I was expecting 2.0 + hardware to make the Droid zippier than the Moment. Not true, at least not observable. The Droid is no faster than our Moment.
- Reviewers have been luke warm to the keyboard, I'm not. It SUCKS! Having a longer screen is great, but if it comes at the cost of moving the D pad to the keyboard and reducing the the size of the keys, it's not a compromise I'd make. Not only is the keypad missing a dedicated number 4th row, the top row of keys is too close to the screen body. I found this keyboard hard to type on and far below my old TP or the Moment in feel, quality and accuracy.
- Design. Not my cup of tea. I think Motorola in trying to out do Apple and make a design statement went too far into the ugly. The body overlap serves no purpose and doesn't look good. The phone doesn't sit in the hand right, too many edges and corners. My guess is that Droid users will be much more likely to drop thier phones than Moment users. Nice choice of shell materials.
- The screen is nice and the extra length is welcome, but I'd trade that length for a better keyboard in a heartbeat. The default Droid wallpaper is hideous and makes the screen look terrible in store displays. The touch controls at the bottom of the screen were not very responsive.
- 2.0 wasn't all that impressive either. Either it isn't faster than 1.5 or Droids hardware isn't as fast as advertised. That the GPS works well is worth the cost of admission. The only real new features are the unified mailbox (meh) and being able to double tap to zoom in the browser (oh joy). Multi touch would have been a game changer, but it looks like Moto/Google/Verizon get a big fat FAIL on that point!

If I were a Verizon customer, this would probably be my phone. OTH, Moment owners shouldn't have any Droid envy. Our phone is at least as good and maybe (slightly) better. Much better when you consider the ~$1000 or so cost difference in ownership over 2 years.

 

[Ms_Kady]

If I were a Verizon customer, this would probably be my phone. OTH, Moment owners shouldn't have any Droid envy. Our phone is at least as good and maybe (slightly) better. Much better when you consider the ~$1000 or so cost difference in ownership over 2 years.

I had Verizon for a week and could not justify the extra money to be on their network. I did not notice a big enough difference in coverage to want to stay with them.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Ditto. I played with a friends Droid yesterday and it was less impressive than I expected. Unlike the iPhone, this phone doesn't live up to its hype. As mentioned, the GPS issue doesn't exist with 2.0, but other than that? Here's a few impressions.

- The much vaunted build quality wasn't there. The battery cover is loose and prone to falling off. The keyboard slider works well mainly because it doesn't slide as far out at the cost of a 4th row of keys. The material color choice works well (basic black) and fools one into thinking it's better made than it is.
- Speed, good but not amazing. From reviews, I was expecting 2.0 + hardware to make the Droid zippier than the Moment. Not true, at least not observable. The Droid is no faster than our Moment.
- Reviewers have been luke warm to the keyboard, I'm not. It SUCKS! Having a longer screen is great, but if it comes at the cost of moving the D pad to the keyboard and reducing the the size of the keys, it's not a compromise I'd make. Not only is the keypad missing a dedicated number 4th row, the top row of keys is too close to the screen body. I found this keyboard hard to type on and far below my old TP or the Moment in feel, quality and accuracy.
- Design. Not my cup of tea. I think Motorola in trying to out do Apple and make a design statement went too far into the ugly. The body overlap serves no purpose and doesn't look good. The phone doesn't sit in the hand right, too many edges and corners. My guess is that Droid users will be much more likely to drop thier phones than Moment users. Nice choice of shell materials.
- The screen is nice and the extra length is welcome, but I'd trade that length for a better keyboard in a heartbeat. The default Droid wallpaper is hideous and makes the screen look terrible in store displays. The touch controls at the bottom of the screen were not very responsive.
- 2.0 wasn't all that impressive either. Either it isn't faster than 1.5 or Droids hardware isn't as fast as advertised. That the GPS works well is worth the cost of admission. The only real new features are the unified mailbox (meh) and being able to double tap to zoom in the browser (oh joy). Multi touch would have been a game changer, but it looks like Moto/Google/Verizon get a big fat FAIL on that point!

If I were a Verizon customer, this would probably be my phone. OTH, Moment owners shouldn't have any Droid envy. Our phone is at least as good and maybe (slightly) better. Much better when you consider the ~$1000 or so cost difference in ownership over 2 years.

Spot on assessment.

 

[scotth501]

I still can't get over the SAR (radiation) rating on the Droid at 1.49W/kg. The FCC max is 1.60. The Moment comes in a much better 0.68.

Look at the lowest 20 phones currently available, most are Samsung.

20 lowest-radiation cell phones (United States) - CNET Reviews

Scott

 

[Stoney62]

I picked up my Droid Friday morning and took it back Saturday morning. Seems the vaunted Verizon network isn't as good as they claim,. I had no zilch none signal at home. I thought the virtual keyboard sucked -- way too many errors typing. and the HW keyboard wasn't any better (and maybe worse).
Sprint offered me an Airave device for free and free monthly service to stay with them. Now I get seven bars at home and the display only has 6. Sprint has really came through for me. Love the Moment's HW keyboard. Now to get the GPS working properly and a way to add contacts to email recipients and get the battery properly conditioned and I'll be as happy as a pig in Stuff.

 

[MobstaJ]

As far as the onscreen typing accuracy vs the droid. Install the onscreen HTC keyboard, that should solve the problem.