First Impressions

Today I picked up the Verizon Droid that debuted in a lackluster but second to best glory of the iPhone debut(s). There was a line… but only for the preview unit, unlike the first day at the Apple Store for an iPhone where you see a line around the corner. No complaints though, it just means I got my phone earlier than expected!

First impressions of the Verizon Droid phone: It’s sleek, it’s solid, and it reminds me of batman. That was more than enough to keep me intrigued. It has all the functionality you would expect from a comparible iPhone device and then some… one feature that really struck out at me that no one has really mentioned: vibrating feedback. I find it really cool that the phone vibrates on certain types of touch. It makes the phone feel like it’s responding in a way that my iPhone never responded to me… It’s like a new sensation of love washed over me in awe. Ok… I’ll stop geeking out about it, either way, first impressions were great!

One more thing I’ll add to the first impressions based off other reviews that came out before the release: there was mention of sluggishness in the UI. I experienced and still have not experienced any sluggish behavior with my Droid.

Geek Bonus

The phone speaks a really awesome “Droid” noise on certain events (like new e-mail.) It’s an awesome sound and make me want to hi-5 the closest geek around me.

Time to Compare

Let’s compare the iPhone now to the Droid now. Oh, and I also want to mention that I still own an iPhone. I used to have the 3GS iPhone but I lost it in Ibiza, so now I’m stuck with my back up. Either way… as a current iPhone user I just want to point out that the Droid satisfies me just as much as the iPhone does. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything except… the camera of the 3GS. We’ll get to that in a second though.

Let’s go over the network quality first:

Network Quality

Coming from AT&T I never knew what was “better” in terms of audio/cell quality. Now I know… Verizon has an amazing network.

Size:

They’re roughly the same size. The Droid is a tiny bit bigger because of the slide-out keyboard, it’s not a huge difference though.

Weight:

They feel pretty much the same.

Marketplace:

You’ll find what you need with the droid. Of course the iPhone has a wider selection but there’s only so many purposes an application can fulfill. I’d say the types of applications you’d actually use on a day-to-day basis are available for both the Droid and iPhone. Oh, and installing the apps is a breeze. I’d say even easier than on the iPhone.

Browser:

It works great on the Droid and the iPhone. No complaints for either.

Maps:

This is where the Droid wins flat out. Holy moly is the GPS Navigation freaking sweet! I’d say the phone is worth it just to take advantage of this feature. It’s perfect… and free! I’m a little pissed off at how amazing this is though because it killed me in my Garmin stock… :(

Camera:

The reviews were true on the camera. The camera does suck on the Droid. However I don’t know if it’s the hardware or the software. Compared to the 3GS it truly sucks, but compared to the 1ST Gen… well you be the judge:

iPhone Shot | Droid Shot

iPhone Gallery | Droid Gallery

To my eyes… they’re roughly the same quality once taken. And if I’m not mistaken the 1st gen iphone is a 2.0 megapixel camera and the droid is 5 megapixels. Yeesh that’s embarrassing. However megapixels isn’t everything about a camera. There’s the sensors and other stuff that I don’t know about. Either way, Droid camera sucks! The videos are decent though.

Contact / Social / Media Integration:

This is another area where the Droid really excels at over the iPhone – the way that all your contacts are synced with Facebook, Google, and other services is really damn cool. As soon as I bought my phone I already had 95% of my contacts in my phone just because it was already in Google Voice (oh, and that’s another amazing feature on its own that the Android platform obviously supports). As soon as I added my Facebook details as well, all those contacts synced with my Facebook contacts and a majority of my contacts now have profile photos, e-mail addresses and phone numbers I didn’t know about… overall a really cool experience.

I know I didn’t write this post very well. I’m not trying to write up an impressive professional blog post. I just want to share a couple feelings I had and my experience with the Droid as well as a comparison to an iPhone.

In Conclusion

The Verizon Droid is a damn good phone. I’d say it is definitely the second best phone on the market but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be your primary phone. I’d settle for the Droid over the iPhone just because it’s a breath of new air, and as a geek I like new toys. I’m not missing any of the features on my iPhone, so what’s the loss? I see only gains with the Droid only features.

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