Thoughts On My New Droid
Read More about the Motorola Droid
Droid’s Main Competitor: The iPhone 3GS
I’ve had my new Droid for a week, and it’s time to record my impressions thus far. It’s obvious that both the phone and the operating system had their targets squarely on the iPhone, and for good reason. The popularity of the iPhone is astonishing, and it’s one of the defining devices of our generation. That said, the Droid has a lot to live up to.
I’m not going to say that it’s better or worse than the iPhone, because it’s neither… it’s just different. There are many similarities between the two devices in terms of functionality, which is nice. They are both compact and extremely powerful. I will list a couple of differences, and why I like each phone because of those differences.
Operating System
There are two separate philosophies that drive the intent of these systems. The iPhone is concerned with User Interface and maintaining beautiful minimalism. Android, on the other hand, focuses more on options, information hierarchy, and expandability. Both are great, and it is impossible to determine which one is better. I don’t have much experience with the iPhone, so much of my commentary will be anecdotal.
Integration
Since the Droid is running a Google-built OS, there is tight and seamless integration with all of Google’s services. This means you get perfect integration with Gmail, maps, calendar, etc. The iPhone does best serving up the Apple applications that every single American uses; mainly iTunes. The main thing I’m bothered about is not having any syncing capabilities with iTunes. I have to carry a separate iPod because I don’t want to convert all my music from .m4a to .mp3, and then upload everything to the Droid. It’s just not worth it.
Expandability
Apple pretty much has the lockdown on the app market. There is the Android Market, which even though it is robust and comprehensive, doesn’t come close to the amount of options given by the app store. I think Apple will hold this segment of the mobile market for an indefinite period of time.
Final Thoughts
The Droid does have some really cool capabilities, and probably more than I’ve discovered yet. The ability to run multiple apps is great, and I really like the slide-out physical keyboard. It has some smart user interface ideas, and my favorite find is the ability to post photos to social networks directly from the camera utility. There’s no need to store the picture, log into Twitter, and then go and find it. You can take a photo, and directly upload it to TwitPic with literally 2 clicks.
All in all, it’s not earth-shattering like the adverts say, because at the end of the day it’s still just a smartphone. It’s a really great smartphone, bust still just a smartphone.
Thanks for the post – I’ve been eying this phone for a little while now because I’m fed up with my current phone, but don’t like the idea of being locked into Apple’s product ecosystem (and iPhone ownership is expensive). Since I use a lot of Google services, it seems like Android would be the logical platform for me, but with a new one coming out every month or so it’s hard to commit to one.