Motorola Droid from Verizon ~ My Thoughts

Those of you who know me know that I have had iphone envy for quite some time now, but I have Verizon and didn’t want to switch so I was kinda out of luck.

Since I started blogging a little over a year ago, my use of my cell phone has evolved quite a bit.  I have a fancy Palm that has all kinds of bells and whistles that I only used for the calendar so I knew where I had to be when, with 4 kids and a hubby with 2 jobs it was a necessity!  I didn’t have internet access or even text messaging.  Then I went to SXSW and quickly realized I was going to be lost if I didn’t have a quick way to communicate with the mass of people I was going with so in the car on the way to the hotel, I called and signed up for text messaging and learned how to tweet through text messages. Of course everyone I was with had iphones and hence the envy began.

The next big leap for me and my phone was when I went to Blog World Expo in Vegas in October.  Everyone was Whrrling (I love Whrrl!) and I couldn’t do it from my phone It was possible but because I didn’t have internet access it cost me A LOT to do it.  So when I came home from Vegas I called again and added internet access to my plan.  This is when I realized the limitations of my Palm, it was ok for organization and text messaging but there are no apps and the web browsing is lousy.

I started to hear about the Droid from Verizon and got very excited! The weekend they came out we were at a friend’s house and he had just upgraded to one and I was amazed at what it could do.  I even shuddered a little when I touched it lol.  Everything I envied in the iphone plus a slide out keyboard, on a phone I could get through Verizon, I was in heaven!

Thanks to my bloggy buddy OrganizerSandy, I made a contact at Verizon and was given a Motorola Droid to test drive for a few weeks.  I was like a kid on Christmas morning the day I met the rep at Panera to get the phone!  I brought it home and played with it for days before I took a break.  So, here are my thoughts on the Motorola Droid from the perspective of a busy mom of 4 who is very active in social media.

The Droid connects with Google which is awesome if you have gmail.  All of your contacts and appointments from you calendar go right into your phone without having to sync anything! When you change it online it automatically changes on your phone no need to connect up to your computer through a cord or bluetooth.  I am still getting used to the Google Calendar, my Palm synced with my outlook, but so far I am liking it and haven’t had trouble adjusting.

Another cool Google feature is Google Search by Voice.  Looking for pizza where you are? Just click search say PIZZA and Google will find all the pizza places near where you are! Not only can the phone “hear” you but it knows where you are at too! Kinda freaky huh?

Social networking is very easy with the Driod.  You can connect very quickly with Facebook and Twitter and once connected, it is a breeze to stay in touch with all your online friends.  There are several apps available for Twitter, and the best thing to do is try them out and find the one that works best for you.  When I first got the phone I was disappointed to find out that my favorite desktop app Seesmic was not available for the Droid, but within a week, they had built an app and had it in the marketplace for free. I quickly downloaded it and that is what I ended up using.

The apps, oh my the apps! There are so many applications available through the Droid Marketplace you couldn’t possibly get through all of them.  Many of them are free and some you have to pay for, I didn’t pay for any I was able to find all that I was looking for in the free choices.

Here a just a few of my favs

PicSay ~ Take a photo and go from this

to this
Then with a quick click you can share it on Twitter or Facebook!
Jewels ~ A fun time suck game like Bejeweled
List Master ~ Make a list for EVERYTHING and check it off as you go no more lost paper notes, nuff said
Bic Concert Lighter ~ get ready for your next concert without a real flame
Google Sky Map ~ Turn you phone into a window into the sky.  Knows your location, turn toward the sky and it will show you where to find the constellations, planets and other solar objects. Very cool.
Advanced Task Killer ~ Stops all running aps to save your battery life
Photo Puzzle ~ Turn any photo on your phone into a puzzle to pass the time, you choose the difficulty.

And a few of the kids favs

Zebra Paint ~ Has a collection of coloring pages and a color palette touch the color you want then touch the area you want to fill in.
Bubble Wrap Game ~ see how fast you can pop the bubble wrap! Sounds cool too.
Steamy Window ~ breathe on the “window” to fog it up then write on the window with your finger.
Magic 8 Ball ~ a blast from my past! “Tell me Magic 8 Ball will I get to go to the next conference?” Magic 8 ball says “Cannot predict now”
Fortune Cookie ~ Shake your phone to crack open your fortune

I could seriously go on forever, there are so many to choose from that cover any need you may have.

One of the reasons I was so excited about this phone was because of the slide out keyboard it has, I really didn’t like the touch screen pad on other phones like it.  This ended up being my biggest disappointment with the phone.  After using it I got used to the touch keyboard and stopped using the slide out.  The main reason I did this is because the slide out was sort of uncomfortable to type on because it was off center and the keys are flat and run together.  I prefer “bubble” type keys that have distinct separation between them.  The other thing was when you use the slide out the phone does not auto complete or suggest words for you, you have to be using the touch screen in order to have this feature.

You can also use your Droid as an MP3 player, you can download your music from your computer and even make your own personal ringtones from your music.  It comes with a 16 GB microSD card, not enough room for you? You can remove the included memory and put in up to 32 GB.

32 GB might come in handy if you like to take photos like I do and the Droid has an awesome camera.  It’s a 5 MP camera with image stabilization, a 4x zoom and a very bright LED flash, perfect for Whrrling or just taking photos of the kids on the run.  Here is a Whrrl story I created using the Droid, you can see how clear the photos are.

The Droid comes with Google Navigation as part of the package, no need for a GPS when you have this little baby! I went to Columbus while I had this phone and it was great to be able to navigate around a town I didn’t know and not get lost going from my hotel to dinner and back again!  Another great gadget that came in handy while traveling was the docking accessory they also gave me to try out.  Put your phone in this cradle and you can listen to your tunes and set the alarm to get you up the next morning, all while charging your battery.

Speaking of the battery, as with any device that you are using a lot, the battery goes fast.  Depending on how many apps you have running, the battery drains pretty fast.  For normal use I was able to get about 2 days out of the phone, but for a busy day of traveling and attending an event I barely got a day out of it, I ran out of juice at dinner that night.

Overall I loved this phone, it was a sad, sad day when I had to return it so the next person could try it out.  It was fantastic to go on the road to an event and not have to depend on my laptop to say in touch.  I checked my email, took photos, tweeted and sent messages on Facebook all from my phone.  I was also very impressed (as were a few of my friends who use that other phone) at the clarity of the sound when talking on the phone, because after all when you come right down to it, it is a phone right?  And the best part? It comes with “The Network” at no extra charge.