Electronics Top Reviews

Comment from Kane
Time July 23, 2010 at 6:51 am

The specs on the Droid X are impressive, however buying a Motorola phone has become a terrible idea with their current trends. Motorola has delayed updates to their current phones multiple times (Motorola Cliq users are up in arms as I type this since Motorola is the ONLY Android phone manufacturer that this has phones operating Android 1.5. See [...] for more info).

On top of poor support Motorola is locking capabilities out of their phones to prevent the owners of said phones from upgrading the phones themselves (as of right now Motorola is the only Android manufacturer to do this).

The Droid X is a pretty nice phone when you look at the specs, but it is by no means a top of the line phone. Phones like the HTC Evo, the Nexus One, and Samsung’s new Vibrant line are all better alternatives when you look at nothing more than phone specs. Add in Motorola’s continued degradation in service and you’re simply looking at purchasing a future headache in the Droid X.
Rating: 1 / 5

Comment from Kevin Peterson
Time July 23, 2010 at 7:33 am

Already the owner of two HTC Incredible phones, I thought it would be nice to get this for my wife. But within a few days the screen went bad (plenty of examples online) and Verizon’s stance is basically…awww, so sad. Now we will put you back in line for a replacement. So even though I got mine on the first day, I must now wait at least 10 days before they will ship a replacement, rather than getting the RMA as a higher priority order.

It is just unbelievable that Motorola and/or Verizon would not set aside some units for RMA replacements and ensure that customers who received a bad phone had a replacement the very — next — day.

On the upside, they are crediting me with a 10% discount on my bill for the next 6 months and have agreed to ship FedEx P1 when it does become available.

But the bottom line here is that Motorola and Verizon have both admitted that this phone has screen issues that may not pop up for several days or even weeks, so it just seems too early to believe that there are not many more phones out there just waiting to display the same display issues. My recommendation, at least for the first few months, is to just get the HTC Incredible.
Rating: 2 / 5

Comment from Pen Name
Time July 23, 2010 at 9:24 am

The Motorola Droid X is a Google Android phone from Verizon that is an alternate version of the Motorola DROID A855 Android Phone (Verizon Wireless) (the direct successor to that phone will be named the Droid 2). It is substantially different from that model, mostly due to the lack of a slide out physical keyboard (a big improvement).

PROS – Beautiful large display makes watching multimedia feasible and texting MUCH quicker, fairly light for such a large phone, nice form factor, captures 720p video and can output to an HDMI display, three microphones make for crystal clear audio (phone works great when actually used as a phone), Android OS is amazing, 3G Mobile Hotspot!

CONS – Larger than traditional smart phones, 8MP camera takes decent shots, but not as sharp as you would expect and actually not as nice and detailed as the iPhone’s 5MP camera. Notification LCD needs to be larger (closer to Blackberry’s size). Android requires a Google Account to use the phone, and you cannot change the default account without wiping the phone and resetting to factory settings. You cannot use multiple Gmail accounts on the phone either. Gtalk application is inferior to Blackberry Messenger, and does not sync with Gchat. Mobile indicator for Gtalk does not work and in general, chat through Gtalk is a huge pain compared to BBM. The speaker volume is fairly low and could sound better.

VS IPHONE- I’ve used pretty much every touchscreen phone there is, and have yet to find one that actually lives up to the hype and can go head to head against an iPhone. After using it for two weeks, I don’t believe this phone will actually lead to the demise of the iPhone, especially now that the iPhone 4 is out and fixes a lot of the flaws of the previous generation, but it is definitely a worthy competitor, and I think it will satisfy a lot of Verizon customers who have been waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon (which may never happen). I constantly hear people say they are waiting for the iPhone on Verizon and how much they want one and I always ask them “why do you want an iPhone.” People seem to think it is the best phone out there, but can never really explain why. While it is a good phone (current antenna problems aside), the only advantage iPhone really has right now is their huge number of applications. 250,000 to Android’s 70,000. However I predict that within a year, Android will have come very close to that number.

FORM FACTOR – The Droid X by Motorola is everything the original Motorola Droid should have been. I originally could not decide if I wanted to keep my HTC Incredible or try the Droid X, and was leaning toward the HTC just because I did not want to have people make fun of me for carrying around a massive “brick” as a cell phone. Yes, it is currently the largest smart phone Verizon offers, but it actually does not feel as large as I thought it would and I’ve grown accustomed to it. If you have particularly small hands, you may want to consider trying this phone out in the store first, because it is going to feel very different in your hands than smaller phones. Additionally, if you spend several hours on phone conversations without the speaker, yuo may want to take a second look at it, because it is not as comfortable to hold the phone to your ear as other phones. While physically larger than the original Motorola Droid, it is much thinner and lighter, which makes a huge difference. I am actually less aware of it in my pocket than my old Blackberry Tour. The main reason it is lighter is because it loses the bulky slide-out keyboard from that device and just uses a touch screen. The big size of the phone is mainly take up by the 4.3″ display, with 4 small buttons on the bottom for Menu, Home, Back, and Search. It contains a dedicated button on the bottom righthand side for taking pictures and 720p HD video. The other side has slots for micro USB and micro HDMI output. A stereo jack and sleep button are on the top. The back of the device is mostly flat. The bottom of the phone is noticeably thinner than the top, where it bevels up (where the flash is), and rests very nicely in your hand. The casing of the phone is plastic and feels very smooth in my hands. I’ve only had the phone for two weeks but have not noticed any scracthing at all on the surface of the device, and I’m leaning toward not purchasing a case or any type of protective film at all (except for the actual screen). I think anything other than a silicone case would make this phone look too big. The body of the phone is soft-touch plastic, which is one of the reasons it is so scratch-resistant and feels great in my hand.

OPERATING SYSTEM – The Droid X comes pre-loaded with Google’s Android Operating System v2.1, with an update to 2.2 scheduled for late August. If you have never used Android before, you will really be in for a treat. Unfortunately the Android App store is not organized at all and it’s very difficult to find decent apps on it, so I recommend going to a third party web site that lets you sort through the Android Marketplace. I also recommend people try an app called LauncherPro, which really adds a lot of functionality over the traditional Android home screen. It also comes with Swype, which is an awesome alternate texting program. When I first made the transition from a Blackberry to an Android touch device, I was very concerned that texting would be too difficult and I would hate it. There is a learning curve, but it only took me about three days before I was typing faster on my touch screen than the physical keyboard on my Blackberry. Once I started using Swype, my speed increased dramatically. It’s as easy for me to text on my phone now as to compose an email on my desktop. Lastly, one of the absolute best features of the Droid X, is that it comes with the option of adding Verizon’s 3G Mobile Hotspot for a reasonable monthly fee (I don’t want to mention it since it will likely change), which is an app that provides access for up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices. You get a decent amount of data bandwidth in the package, so for someone who mainly uses the Internet for web browsing and email, you can actually get rid of your existing internet service and wireless router, and just use the 3G mobile hotspot. I have not actually tested out the speeds yet, but this is great if you want to take your laptop to the beach or if you like to browse the web from the tops of trees like I do.

PHONE USE – I only was able to use the phone for a few days with actual service, but never had a dropped call during that time and call reception and quality is excellent, thanks mostly to the phone’s three microphones). The speaker phone is also crystal clear, much more noticeably than with the original Motorola Droid. Audio on video capture sounded excellent as well. Motorola really put a focus on voice quality and the actual “phone” features of this device, rather than the current trend of making an mp3/media player that you can also use to make phone calls. I was able to get through about 1 day on a full battery charge with what I would consider average use, and a little under three days on standby.

DISPLAY – This is where the Droid X really stands out. It has a 4.3″ screen with a 480×854 resolution. This phone is designed with multimedia in mind. I’ve watched a few movies on it and the larger screen definitely makes it acceptable. This is the first phone that I’ve watched movies on and not felt like I was watching movies on a cell phone. The display looks great, and works much better in the daylight than something with an AMOLED display like the HTC Droid Incredible. However the Incredible’s display actually looks crisper and more vibrant in the dark than the Droid X. The larger 4.3″ screen makes a BIG difference for texting. I don’t have huge fingers, but I do make mistakes sometimes when texting on a touch screen by pressing the adjacent keys. The touch screen keyboard with the Droid X has larger keys and that extra width that the larger display gives you makes all the difference. I noticed a noticeable improvement between texting on the 4.3″ Droid X after using the 3.7″ Droid Incredible for so long.

CAMERA – Given that the Droid X has an 8MP (default is actually set to 6 MP) camera and can shoot HD video, you would expect it to take the best pictures of any cell phone camera. While the pictures did look excellent, I found them lacking i detail when I compared them to my friend’s iPhone 4 (which is a 5-megapixel camera). HD video was very smooth and acceptable, however I’d recommend upgrading to a 32GB microSD card if planning on shooting more than a couple videos, as this really ate up my storage space. I was fairly impressed with the flash, and the Droid X took some decent low-light shots, although I still prefer a standalone camera for taking night shots. Shutter lag (the time between pressing the button and the camera actually taking a picture) is about .5 seconds. I would have liked a camera with zero lag, but the Droid X’s is certainly acceptable. Even at 8MP, the Droid X does not take the best pictures and video among your current options for camera phones, but I was definitely satisfied with the final results, if not slightly disappointed due to coming into it with the often misguided assumption that “more megapixels = better pictures.”

SPECIFICATIONS

Processor – 1Ghz TI OMAP 3630

Size – 5.0 x 2.6 x 0.4 inches

Display – 4.3″, 480×854

Battery – 1500mAh

Camera: 8-megapixel, dual LED flash, 720p HD video-capture

Storage: 8GB onboard, 16GB microSD card included (32GB max)

Ports: Micro HDMI out, Micro USB

Other: 3 microphones (one noise-canceling), GPS, Bluetooth

Overall, there are a lot of new Verizon phones on the horizon at the time of this review, but currently, the Droid X is the way to go for Verizon customers looking for an acceptable comparison to the iPhone. That being said, even though I think the Droid X is the best phone Verizon currently has to offer, there are so many new Android phones coming out in the next 6 months, that I don’t think the Droid X is so significant that everyone needs to go out and get one. If you are not eligible for the promotional price of this phone with a contract, it may not be a bad idea to wait and see what other Android offerings are available before the end of 2010, especially with the Droid 2 and Samsung’s Galaxy S series on the way.

Rating: 5 / 5

Comment from Chad A. Hasselius
Time July 23, 2010 at 10:58 am

If Apple can be faulted for valuing style over function, Motorola can be faulted for the exact opposite. Nearly everything about this phone has been put together with function in mind- from the awkward bulge in the back housing the camera and antenna, to the awkward locations of the buttons on the sides of the phone, to the rubber bumpers on the front of the phone above and below the screen, and even the relatively bloat-free Motoblur interface.

One notable exception is something you don’t even notice until you pick up the phone. The back of the phone is actually made with anodized aluminum, coated with a silicon-like substance for better grip. The aluminum offers better stiffness and rigidity in a smaller, lightweight package. It also isn’t very good for reception, although I haven’t had any reception issues yet. It is fairly expensive to fabricate cases about of anodized aluminum too. Aluminum is more expensive than steel for example. It conducts heat very well, so the back does heat up at times but it cools down quickly too.

While the screen is large, the overall size of the phone is not. Compared to the dimensions of the Iphone 3G or Iphone 3GS, it has the same width and is only a half inch longer (10% longer.) The thickness is the same too, except for the area of the bulge. See the photo I uploaded above for a visual comparison.

Surprisingly, the bulge in the back actually helps you hold the phone to your ear. When you put your index finger under the bulge it rests on your finger. But it isn’t very aesthetic, and even worse it exposes the camera to scratches since the bulge is what lays on the table. Laying the phone down with the screen up leaves it more vulnerable to breakage than if it was screen down too. But the way this phone was designed, laying it screen down will scratch the screen.

In case you haven’t seen videos of it taken apart yet, you should know it is very well engineered. You can tell by the way it’s put together that they weren’t designing 10 other phones at the same time. The Droid X doesn’t need a bumper case to get good reception either. Motorola has been making high quality phones ever since the RAZR in 2004. The 1st Motorola Droid was the best selling Android-based phone for most of the last year, though marketing had a lot it do with it. The processor the Droid X uses is a 45nm processor with an ARM Cortex A8 core, while current phones with Snapdragon processors (such as the Evo and Droid Incredible) are 65nm with ARM v7 type cores. So the Droid X processor should be faster and more efficient than most other phones out there, except for the Iphone 4 processor which is similar in every way except for faster graphics (PowerVR 530 vs PowerVR 535.)

However, the battery savings of the efficient 45nm processor are offset by the large screen. The screen is a major source of battery drain for smart phones, but you should know Motorola’s estimated 8 hours of talk time and up to 220 hours (9+ days) of standby time is plenty. It does take a couple of hours to fully charge the Droid X though, which is longer than I thought it would. Although the screen doesn’t have as many pixels as the Iphone 4′s screen, there are a couple of prime benefits to having a larger screen. Because of it’s large size I find myself not putting the phone so close up to my face anymore. This is easier on the eyes, and doesn’t trick my mind as much into thinking it is earlier in the day than it really is. Anybody who has been up really late after being in front of a bright screen knows what I’m talking about. Also, the larger screen space would help with playing games on the Droid X too, if Android developers would come up with any good games to play on it. The screen is crisp enough to view 720p high definition videos on it. And there is a noticeable difference in web page rendering speed with this 1 Ghz processor over my old phone with a 600 mhz processor, and same 3G type connection.

You would think the larger screen would help with typing text, but I find I have to move my fingers further distances between keys which makes things slower. This is alleviated with Motorola’s Swipe feature though. Swipe allows you to not need to ever lift your finger off the screen. It is off by default, but should be on by default. Some people say Swipe is the Droid X’s best feature. Personally, I find the voice recognition software to be even more innovative and useful. Voice to text has worked flawlessly for me. The only trouble with Swipe is you have to go back into settings to turn it off again if you want it off for user names and passwords and other stuff keyboard typing is better for. It should be more seamless.

High definition Youtube is another great feature that isn’t available on other phones, such as the Iphone. Now, if we could only watch Hulu and/or Netflix on the Droid X that would be really great. The Android operating system is definately more capable than the Iphone OS- from the widgets, to the included navigation software, the voice recognition, faster browser, and so on… But it is also less simple and less intuitive to navigate, especially when using the web browser, accessing stored files, using the Google Maps, etc.

Would I recommend the Droid X? Only if you absolutely needed a phone right now, which I did. Verizon says their 4G LTE network will be launched in up to 30 markets by the end of the year, covering 100 million people. It will be faster than the Wimax 4G networks AT&T and Sprint have rolled out, which are technically just really fast 3G networks. Around the time 4G is launched, HTC will have 4G phones out with dual core 1.5 Ghz processors on it. Motorola is planning a 2Ghz phone by the end of the year. We’re talking 2 times the processing power and at least 2-4 times the internet connection speed. This will allow things that would previously have been unimaginable, such as streaming 1080p high definition movies to your phone and sending it to your big screen TV via HDMI. 4G will also bring about the end of unlimited data plans though, so you will pay more if you capitalize on that speed advantage. And if you live in an area where 4G won’t be rolled out for awhile, this may not be as important to you.

I’m giving this phone 4 stars because I think the case could have been styled a little better, and in a few months it will be obsolete. If you get a new phone around the Christmas season it shouldn’t be obsolete for a couple of years.

Update: Since writing this I have noticed the phone will drop it’s connection and reconnect about a half dozen times a day, even within a pretty stationary location at my house. Other phones have not done that. I’m not sure if it is a software issue or connection issue.

Update: Text to voice is a really nice feature. The phone will actually tell me verbally who is calling just before playing the ring tone. It will say their name if they are in my contact book, or it will say their number if not. It also verbally tells me when the connection is dropped. Pronunciation is about the same as a Tomtom or Garmin navigator unit.

Update: The battery life is real good when talking on the phone and when on standby, because the screen is not on. This is why Motorola lists those specs only. When the screen is on I’d estimate battery life to be about 4-6 hours depending on how many apps you have running in the background and how bright the screen is. For most people this will probably be all day battery life, unless you play games or surf the internet for more than 4 hours in a given day or spend a lot of time outdoors where the screen brightness is turned up.

Update: The software is not completely bug free. In the last 5 days I’ve had the video player freeze up twice (had to reboot the phone to get it working again) and the browser freeze up a few more times. I’m hoping it will be more stable once the Android 2.2 update comes in a month or two. I will update then.

Update: I commented before about the lack of Hulu or Netflix. At the time I hadn’t checked out the Blockbuster app. You can indeed rent movies from Blockbuster over your phone. However, movies cost 4 times more than Redbox to rent. The movies don’t stream, so you have to download the whole movie file first before it plays. And you have to download with a WiFi connection, you can’t download with your Verizon connection. I am hoping for more capabilities when Flash arrives with Android 2.2.

Update: Motorola has limited HDMI output to user generated pictures and videos (the pictures and videos you made yourself on your phone.) You can not stream the Blockbuster movie to your TV via HDMI. Why did Motorola even include HDMI then? My HP laptop does it just fine, but Motorola is worried about copyright issues. Ironically, an illegally downloaded TV show or movie without a copyright stamp on the file will play just fine from what I’ve read.
Rating: 4 / 5

Comment from Riz
Time July 23, 2010 at 11:58 am

This is the best phone i’ve ever owned. Better than my old iPhone & EVO.

*Its a nice size device, comfy to hold, slender, not too bulky.

*Screen is a good size, clear and crisp picture.

*8MP camera and 720 video is bad a$s. No need for a Flip.

*OS works smoothly and is easy to learn.

*Android Market has lots of APPS, more than i need.

*3G Internet is speedy and i can browse flawlessly.

*Swype is heaven! [nuf said]

*Tons of built in memory (comes standard with more than EVO, which saved me $$$) and its expandable!

–> Best of all, it works as a PHONE!

Verizon has fantastic coverage everywhere i go, where my AT&T iPhone and Sprint EVO (30 day free trial, thanks but no thanks Sprint!) both had the worst service and dropped every other call. Don’t get me wrong, they are cool devices but worked poorly as a phone.

This does what all others can PLUS it makes reliable calls. A phone that works as a phone, wow!

The only thing this doesn’t have is a front facing camera, which is not necessary IMO.

I love this phone & carrier! It’s fast, reliable and it works. Get one!

Rating: 5 / 5