Under a Gibbous Moon

On Saturday, I picked up the newly released Motorola Droid. Having had the opportunity to use it for the last couple of days, I have to say that it is by a wide margin, the best phone that I have ever owned.

The obvious comparisons that everyone has been making is to Apple’s Iphone. I do not own an Iphone but I do have an Ipod Touch, which is essentially the Iphone sans phone. From my experiences there, it is markedly superior.  It is faster, the screen is more responsive and it has a removable battery and expandable memory.

The new Google Navigate feature is excellent. When using the Google Maps application for directions, it gives you the option to “Navigate” this tcauses the Droid to act like a stand alone GPS navigation system, complete with a map and turn by turn directions.

It multitasks very well (always a sticking point for me with the Iphone). With that I was able to listen to my music in my vehicle while using the navigate feature. It also allows  me to monitor my email, Twitter and Facebook at the same time.

The variety of widgets allow me to customize the three home screens to show the information that is important to me.

The battery life so far has been better than what I would have expected. Nothing spectacular but far better than what I have experience with the Ipod Touch with just a wi-fi connection.

The screen is responsive and razor sharp. The resolution does have some downsides though. The built in Youtube application shows mobile transcoded videos (like the Iphone) and the high resolution (for a phone) does show the faults with the video more clearly.

I have found the browser on the Droid to render faster than the Safari on the Ipod Touch. While navigating a page I would frequently run “off the screen” and have to wait for the browser to catch up. This has not happened yet on the Droid.

The applications in the Android Market have been plentiful and useful. I have one for WordPress . My previous post was done straight from the Droid. I took the picture, cropped it and posted it solely from the phone. Almost all of the apps that I had on the Ipod Touch (sans a few games) I have found for the Droid.

My final thoughts on the Droid are that if you have Verizon and you have been waiting for them to finally get a phone that doesn’t suck then you’re time has finally come. If you have a first generation Iphone and your contract is up then you are in luck and can ditch AT&T’s reputable dodgy network. If you have the Iphone 3GS then you just bought it and I”m sorry.

Oh and yes, it does have cut, copy and paste :)