What I Like and Dislike About the Verizon Droid

The Verizon Droid has only been in my hands for a few hours, so I can only share very general impressions so far. I have snapped a few pics to let you see the Droid in action, as well as alongside the iPhone 3G and the Palm Pre. Read on to see my likes and dislikes after a brief affair with the Droid.

Likes

• Display — the screen is brilliant and very resolute. It is a joy web browsing on the Droid.
• Build quality — the phone is solid in the hand and is the best built Android phone I’ve tried so far. The slider works perfectly, and feels like it will stand up to the tests of the road warrior. The Droid feels a bit heavier than expected as a result of the solid metal build. It is impressive how thin the phone is considering it has the sliding keyboard.
• Android 2.0 — this new version of Android is more polished and fits the Droid well. It’s not a huge jump from version 1.6, but it’s decent.
• Call quality — I have been pleased with the quality of audio calls. There have been no issues of any kind.
• Web browsing – the Android browser works really well on the large screen of the Droid. It is fluid to manipulate with the finger, and the double-tap method of column zooming makes up for the lack of pinch and zoom.
• On-screen keyboards — the soft keyboards in Android 2.0 work well in both portrait and landscape. I prefer on-screen keyboards over physical ones, and the Droid versions work really well. The predictive text and auto-correction work very well.
• Camera — the 5 MP camera on the Droid can take good pictures, if I am patient with it. The flash is a welcome feature, and the video recording is very nice.
• Google Maps Navigation — this is fantastically useful and would be even more so with the Droid car dock which I don’t have.

Dislikes

• Keyboard — the physical keyboard is better than no keyboard, but it will take getting used to it. The keys are very flat and it is easy to make typos while using it. The single biggest problem with this keyboard is how there is no predictive text nor auto-correction while using it, even though they exist for the on-screen keyboard. Including it with the real keyboard would have offset the typing difficulty a great deal.
• Camera — the slow operation of the still camera has it appearing on the list of dislikes, even though the video camera is something I like. It is possible to take pretty decent stills with the Droid, but the slow operation and non-intuitive controls usually require taking several photos to get one just right.
• Plain home screen – I was spoiled by the great HTC Hero widgets due to the Sense interface, and the Droid seems very plain without good widgets. There are a lot of widgets available in the Android Market, but it requires searching through them to get ones that I like. The Droid home screen only has a few application icons on it as it ships, and it needs some additional functionality out of the box. Only having the standard three home screens that Android provides is not a liability compared to the seven on the Hero, as there are no cool widgets to put there anyway.
• Power cord – this seems nitpicky but the USB charging cord that comes with the Droid is so short to almost be unusable. I have an outlet on the floor, just inches from the corner of my desk, and the cord will barely reach the corner of the desktop for charging. The Droid almost perches on the edge of the desk as a result.

That’s the extend of my evaluation so far, but I will continue to use it and share that experience. I’ll also be shooting some video soon of the Droid in action. My current feeling is that the Droid is the best phone currently available on the Verizon network. If I had an upgrade available I would consider getting a Droid. I probably wouldn’t pick one up at full price.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks