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Working on the Motorola DROID review – post your questions here!

by Michael Oryl on October 29, 2009 10:10 pm

Motorola DROID for Verizon

OK guys, I’m starting to put pen to paper (or finger to key) with the DROID review, so if you have any specific questions or things you want me to consider for the review, leave a comment. I’ll try to answer all the questions that come in within the next week or two, and it might help me catch a few things I would have otherwise missed for the review.

So ask away!

UPDATE: By request, a gallery comparing the size of the DROID with a Motorola RAZR V3 after the jump.

UPDATE2: The Motorola DROID review has been posted on MobileBurn.com.

: Motorola DROID and RAZR

: Motorola DROID and RAZR

: Motorola DROID and RAZR

Michael Oryl

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Comments

Roland Stone

What’s the quickest way to silence the ringer? Like if you’re in a movie theater and forgot to turn your phone off, how quickly can you shut off an unexpected ring? Does it have a hardware ringer switch like Palm phones?
Or will you be embarrased and fumbling with two hands trying to shut it off?
http://www.notsuperhuman.com Matt

2 Questions:

1. Is there a shortcut to pull up phone favorites, like double clicking the home button on the iphone?

2. Is there a way to remove applications like youtube and amazon market? I am a small business owner and may not want employees watching youtube on their phones all day.

Thanks for the help
Ken

How well does Google voice integrate with the new OS?
http://lukehutch.wordpress.com/android-stuff Luke H

The G1 has a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM processor throttled to 350MHz unless you are running cyanogenmod or similar — but even at 528MHz it doesn’t feel much faster than at 350MHz because of the really slow memory bus. The DROID has a 600MHz TI OMAP processor, not much faster than the G1 in terms of clockspeed. I have seen the DROID stuttering on a few videos so far in much the same way that a G1 does. I’m sure the DROID is faster, but really — how much faster?? And does Android 2.0 have JIT compilation on Dalvik yet?
sully

This will be my first step into owning a smart phone. While you can tell me the size and I can draw it out on a piece of paper, I would still like to see the phone held up to a normal size flip ( or clam shell) phone to get an idea of what I will be carrying in my pocket.
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  New photos added comparing the DROID with a Moto RAZR V3.
s

can its cpu clock be set back to normal ? (i assume its under-clocked to save battery life)
the pre and 3gs both run the same cortex a8 cpu at 600MHz.

You can also mention that since none of the Android Snapdragon based phones have a keyboard, the droid is still the only choice for those that need one.

As for the others (infinity,liquid,passion,dragon) I suppose a small bluetooth (rollable) keyboard will suffice….does eclair’s bluetooth stack support the human interface device (HID) profile?

thanks Mike
DroidDaddy

I’ve recently read several comments from another tech blog site regarding the Droid’s “limited” ROM space. And, honestly, I’m getting concerned. To sum it up, pretty much what was discussed is that 256mb of ROM is just simply not enough, PERIOD. I’m about to drop $600 on the Droid next week but if I can’t download top/premium game apps b/c I’ll be restricted to the device’s ROM storage & can’t load onto the 16GB SD Card…then what’s the point? Could you please clarify what is what? Thx.
Argenys

Does it have a oleophobic coating on the screen to help repel oil from your fingers?
http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl

@Roland, the lock screen has a simple function for putting the phone into or out of silent mode. No hardware switch.

@Matt – You mean favorite contacts? The Contacts icon will load the last view of contacts you used, so if you use the favorites view all the time, that is what you will get: favorites.

@Ken, I just installed Google Voice last night – I am not too familiar with it. The phone calling seems to work as expected, but text messages sent to the GV number go into the GV inbox, not the normal text messaging inbox. You can have GV configured to send those messages through to your phone as text messages, too, but they don’t come from the original sender’s number (though it is included in the message).

@Luke H – The homescreen animations are not smooth, but that doesn’t slow them down. And everything else on the phone seems to be very, very fast. Even boot up times. My friend Sascha at PCMag ran a few benchmarks, and all of them showed massive performance boosts. 100% and greater speed gains. It’s fast. There’s more to a CPU than MHz.

@Sully, I will see what I can do about getting a quick side by side picture with a more traditional phone.

@S – I have seen no CPU settings yet and don’t know about the HID profile. I doubt it, to be honest. I don’t imagine I will have time to try out one of my keyboards to test that.

@DroidDaddy, the built-in flash ROM is what stores the system image (the OS) and the apps you pre-install. Media and some support files, depending on the app, can go on the storage card, but apps have to install to the main device. My Droid has 239MB free at the moment with a handful of apps installed. My CLIQ has quite a few apps installed and still has 169MB free. I’m not worried.

@Argenys – I have no idea. Never heard of that type of screen coating, though it sounds nice.
Chris

I wear a size 16.5 ring is the keypad going to be an advantage for me or is it about like using the digital one just with real keys?

I don’t know much about Google Voice but it appeared to me that on Tmobile you could use your cell phone number over a wifi connection if your phone had wifi (g1 for example). I may have misunderstood that but will that be available for the Droid or is Google Voice the only way to do that and with a separate telephone number?

Mostly I want to know about call clarity and signal strength. One of the things I have had issue with on Motorola phones on Verizon is the way they jump towers isn’t as effective as Samsung. I would like to know more about connectivity as you travel around. Though I imagine you live in a big city where coverage has no holes. I guess the only way to test it is to get it and try it for a couple of weeks but if you can use it steady for a few weeks and just give an idea of coverage and what not. The Razors and 815s and others that I had were really bad about that.
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Chris – I can’t tell you how you will like the keyboard, but I have to believe it will work better for you than an on-screen keyboard.
  
  There is no UMA support, if that is what you are asking about with the WiFi question. T-Mobile is the only carrier that offers it, and most of their phones don’t even support it.
  
  Signal strength seems great, but I will withhold judgment until I have had a proper amount of testing with it.
Raymanism

1) 2.0 added the Bluetooth Object Push Profile (OPP). Can you now transfer files (pictures, or MP3s etc..) over Bluetooth to other phones?
2) If Bluetooth file transfers are now possible, do you need to pair the two phones first to be able to do the transfer, or can you just search for phones, and send files to a phone without pairing?
3) 2.0 now supports multiple gmail accounts etc.. Can you set different notification tones to each e-mail account?
4) How does the thickness of the Droid compare to the international HTC Hero (not Sprint’s Hero)?
5) Can you run a CPU-hogging or graphic intensive program/game on the Droid and G1/Magic/Hero side by side to compare loading speeds and performance?
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Raymanism – I see no *obvious* way to transfer files other than images (via Share) from the DROID to another device. I was able to send an image to the DROID from my laptop. Was unable to send while unpaired.
  
  No separate tones for different Gmail accounts. As to the thickness, you can read the specs. I don’t have an EU Hero. And no, I can’t do a side-by-side comparison with any of those devices – I don’t have them, and don’t really have the time anyway.
Argenys

oleophobic coating is what the iphone 3gs and htc hero have on their screen to help repel the oil of ones fingers. Basically im asking does it get really smudgy or just a little?
Jiholl

Would love to hear your initial thoughts on call quality…the reviews on the other major sites suggest it is not that good. Engadget review though says its amazing…trying to understand why such mixed results. Thanks…great work.
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Jiholl – Our initial tests seem to suggest that there are call quality issues. The DROID user hears decent, but slightly weird sounding audio. Remote callers think it sounds pretty bad, though. Bad enough that it sounds barely different when the speakerphone is activated.
  
  That kinda suggests a decent speakerphone and poor regular call quality. I’m going to do more testing, though.
Raymanism

Michael, was sharing images available in previous versions of Android, or is this something that was introduced with 2.0?
Can you share videos via bluetooth as well?
Would appreciate it if you can take a few pictures of the image sharing screens on the Droid.
http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl

@Argenys – No such coating is my guess. Gets grimy.

@Raymanism – Not sure when sharing was introduced. My CLIQ, which is Cupcake 1.5 based, does not offer it in any way I see. Videos can be shared via Bluetooth. As to pics, not worth shooting them. Nothing to see, you just select Bluetooth as the destination for the share and select from pre-paired devices to send to.
anna

Will the Droid have mobile broadband capabilities?
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Anna, I don’t know what you mean, really. It is a 3G device. Are you asking if it can be used as a modem? The answer to that question, at least, is not right now. There seems to be no app support for that. If that’s not what you wanted to ask, try rephrasing the question.
Robert

Right now I have itunes on my macbook pro synced with my ipod touch. Does the Droid sync with this also, or can you explain how Amazon music works.
Will iphoto work?
How about icalender?
Sorry but I am a Mac user, but really want the Droid.
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Robert – No, I don’t believe it will sync with iTunes on your mac.
  
  And I don’t know what you mean when you ask if iPhoto or iCalendar will work. I’m not a Mac user, so that doesn’t make too much sense to me. Amazon MP3 store is an store application where you can shop for music and download songs directly to your phone.
LARRY

Ergonomics… why the slide and not the tilt? Many if not the majority of people who use the qwerty ahve the phone sittting on a besk or some type of platform, it just makes so much sense to have the screen tilt toward the user, the additional cost would be very little inthe overall total and would be an additional selling point. I like the phone but will wait for one with 3 things this unit doesnt have, a faster processor, more ROM, tilt screen.
David Sisco

What is typing on the keyboard like. Other sites did not like the feel and response of the keyboard. It may be something that I will have to try myself.

You keep talking about your cliq, do you recommend it?
http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl

@Larry – Most devices have no tilt. For me personally, I have no use for the tilt. I don’t try to touch type on a phone, I hold it in my hands. I don’t watch movies on phones, either. The additional cost in parts might be little, but the phone would likely be a lot thicker than it is now, and I believe most people would prefer smaller/thinner to tilting. As to the processor, it is already fast. MHz do not equal speed. This is a Cortex A8 style CPU – it *is* fast.

@David – The keyboard is passable, not great. I can type out messages on it with no real problem, but it is more cramped and offers less key feel that many others. The CLIQ is my personal favorite right now in terms of reasonably compact keyboards. Plus I like the d-pad being right there. It is the device I am using personally. I prefer it to the Hero only because of the keyboard.
Bruce

Does the phone have SMS thread messaging?
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Bruce – Yes, all Android devices have threaded SMS.
Norbert

Since the Android doesn’t allow BT voice calling, you have to initiate the voice call using a button on the Droid and then the call is connected through the BT headset. Would you please put it on the dash and drive around and let us know how well this works.
Allan

Currently a Verizon customer – Is the Verizon Back-up Assistant software available/functional on the Droid?
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Allan – I don’t see any pre-installed app for Back-up Assistant.
sully

I think I was the one that requested the photos next to the Razr. Thanks. I get a much better idea of the size. Thanks again.
Leah

I had the G-1 and it did not have a FB app because apparently FB and android don’t get along. I changed to Verizon Rogue because of this but do not like paying for evey single game. The G-1 android had so many free games or they cost 1.49. I am very interested in returning the rogue for the droid. Will it still have free games like the g-1 and how does Facebook work?
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  Facebook is now available for Android devices, and it seems to work just fine. There are plenty of free apps/games for all Android devices.
Steve

A couple of weeks ago my phone decided it needed a cleaning so it took spin in the washer and dryer, (damn carpenter pants!), well since I’ve been using my son’s old phone. Anyway, I’ve been in and out of the Verizon store a couple of times looking at new phones since and one that impresses me the most is the HTC Imagio. The phone feels right in the hand and HTC touch flo makes it easy to use but I’ve been waiting for the 2 new Android phones to arrive.
I did on my last trip to Verizon have a chance to handle the Motorola Droid and the HTC Eris (non working).Understanding that these two phones under the hood are not in the same class I must say from strictly a hardware point of view I was not impressed with the Droid. It was boxy and sharp cornered and did not feel right in my hand. Handling it, putting it in my coat and pants pockets I could feel the two halves of the phone sliding in my palm all the time. The buttons were hard and flat and the phone seemed quite heavy. On the other hand the Eris was sleek and rounded, lightweight, form fitting, a real pleasure to handle.
If HTC had introduced the Imagio running Android 2.0 with a flash on the 6th I bet Motorola would be shaking in there boots. Still, I think HTC is the way to go. It’s like what good is a car with a big engine if you don’t feel right driving it.
Michael, I hear the buzz and have been reading multiple reviews about the Motorola Droid and nothing about the HTC Eris. Why are they downplaying the Eris?
The Eris is basically the Hero repackaged running Android 1.5 (I think) and guessing that a 2.0 upgrade will be available soon, I’m trying to decide on getting the Eris or the Win 6.5 Imagio. I guess the real question is Android with a lesser phone or Win 6.5 with a better phone. Any thoughts or insight you can provide me to help me decide.

PS
I’ve must have read and watched a dozen reviews on mobile phones at Mobile Burn and Android Authority. Kudos, they were all well written and well spoken. It would be nice to add to your site a comparison chart so it was easier to compare phone specification but otherwise an excellent site.
Brian

Can you set a contact on your home screen for quick calling, like your wife or kids? I saw a video on a website of this, but haven’t heard any confirmation elsewhere.
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Brian – Yes, you can. I did this myself. Can be set to directly message or call or email.
anna

I asked about Mobile Broadband capabilities – I think the proper terminology is tethering – can the Droid be tethered to my pc? thanks!
richard

Can you put movies on it? (DVD)
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Richard – Yes, it supports a number of video formats.
Adam R

Why is it that i am unable to send a sound with a picture, i can only send a voice recording. Also i cant find where any of the touch settings are on this phone. Thanks
sarah

How do you turn off the vibrating keys i.want them to be silent?
ryan

the phones great the app support is not bottom line 1 out of 20 apps i download actually works why cant android 2.0 let 1.0 and 1.5 apps run?
michael levine

How do you remove phone contact favorites–every time I make a call, the phone number lands in my favorites–how do I edit this?
newphoneuser

How can i send songs through bluetooth on the droid? :)
Navi

Michael, I have lot of mp3 files and contacts on my laptop, how do I transfer those to the Droid?
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  Just sync with Windows Media Player or something similar that can sync music to any random storage device. The Droid shows as a USB mass storage disk.
Tyler

due to having a contract with sprint, can i still get the droid and have it work with my carrier?
Jim Ibsen

Email occasionally gets stuck in a loop “loading”. I have to shut down and reboot to get out of the loop.
Navi

Thanks Michael, the music worked out perfect! How about transferring all my contacts from Microsoft outlook?
Rick Watkins

Where’s the numlock on the Motorola Droid?
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  Just hit Alt twice.
Dan

Love the phone! Loaded lots of music and enjoy listening to it thru earphones. My question, How do you turn the damn thing off!? How do you turn the media player off when you are done listening to music?
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Dan – You mean other than hitting the play/pause button? That’s generally how you stop it. If you are worried about it running in the background while it’s not playing music – don’t. The OS worries about that. You don’t generally need to manually close stuff.
Dan

I know about the pause button I just didn’t know if I needed to shut it off so it didn’t wear down the battery.
Dan

Is there a website that I can go to so I can learn more about what the droid can do and how all the stuff that it can do works? Yes, I am a bit lame!
Anthony Russo

I have had the Motorola Droid for a couple days, eveything seems to work well. Today, all of a sudden, when placing a call I get a small banner “recording started” and cannot hear the person I am calling, when call ends I get the banner “recording saved” . The fix has to be something simple, can anyone help
?
Spencer

I own the droid, just a couple questions i have about using it. How do you get to facebook chat from the facebook App. I have had trouble setting up my other emails to the Email app. it comes with
Jim Grieme

Got the DROID (Verizon) for my wife and she loves it! Problem is the “voice commands” needed to be able to use the “call” feature on my Parrot 3200 LS Color do not work. I contacted Parrot and they replied that this is a software problem with the DROID. My question is this: will future updates from Verizon/Motorola fix this so the DROID integrates as seamlessly as my Blackberry Storm?
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  @Jim – Android in general doesn’t support Bluetooth initiated voice dialing. No ETA on when to expect it.
Dan

My turn to share

http://cache.vzw.com/multimedia/mim/mot_droid/droid.pdf

Online users Guide
jonathan

how can i send music through bluetooth to another phone cause i can’t figure out how to do it
leona

how do u turn on th mass storage
- http://www.mobileburn.com/ Michael Oryl
  
  In theory, you plug it into a computer with a USB cable, pull down the notification window, click on the USB icon, and then select Mount. Then it should show up on your computer as a drive.
Jamie

My Motorola Droid has turned off and will not come back on….It is charged(and we have paid our bill, just in case someone asks the question)….My husband’s did this just last week, however, his came back on by itself….I tried calling it from his phone, but it went straight to voice mail…..This thing is so weird…Help, please….
Tiffany

simple question, but is there a setting to remind you that u have a text/email waiting. ie every 5 minutes??
http://www.androidauthority.com Chuck Zich

Jamie, have you tried a hard reboot? Try holding the power button and the X button at the same time until a yellow triangle with an exclamation point appears.

Tiffany, you can download an app called “SMS Popup” that will put your text messages in a new window on top of everything else until you either reply, close or delete it. It will also allow you to have the text read to you from the phone (great if you are driving). Otherwise, the LED light serves the purpose of always knowing you have something waiting.
sydney j

I’m trying to get a banner on my homescreen and I can’t do it. Is there a way to put a banner on your screen? And I also want a signature for text messages but I can’t figure out how to do tht so I want to ask you if the droid has a signature for text messages.
Mackenzie

um does the droid phone let you set a banner for text messaging?????
Jay

Is there a way to send music files from the droid via bluetooth?
fabian

how do you send music via bluetooth??
brittany bishop

How CAn u send mp3s!!!! Need to find out plz that sucks if u can’t!!!!!
kirk

How can you turn off the initial “Droid” sound when the Droid is turned on
michele

When downloading any of the apps to droid, has anyone noticed advertisements at the bottom of the app, and if so has the pictures on them ever downloaded to you photo gallary
Pupworth

How can I save a picture to my gallery that was sent to me via text message?
Thanks!
stacy bell

how can a phone call be answered when only using the pull out keyboard and not the touch screen. (tuouch screen not working). i can’t drag the green arrow to answer a call.
susan mayfield

On my Droid, not DroidX, as i type emails or even move the phone slightly when entering passwords on voice mail, the text i’m using disappears, back button doesn’t bring it back. Sometimes half finished emails just send.

How do i avoid this and how can i get back to the screen i was working on?
http://redz90@gmail.com marc stern

Is there a way I can stop the home button on my droid x from turning on the phone when it is in my pocket or belt case?
austin

Is there a way to put a sig. For ur text messages
don101

how do you transfer music via BT to another phone from a motorola flip out????
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