Today was my second day with the Droid phone, my first full day. We’re getting to know each other, and like any relationship, time brings out the annoyances. There actually aren’t many so far, but here we go…
The Hardware
The droid phone is a little clunkier than the iPhone. At some point I guess I’ll stop comparing the two. But in any case, there are buttons all over the place. The power/standby button is at the top and isn’t very easy to locate without some practice. There is volume and camera buttons on the right side that just feel a little cheap. When handling the device, it’s easy to hit these buttons. Fortunately, they don’t do anything critical.
The biggest complaint I have is with the loose battery cover on the back of the Droid. It doesn’t lock very tightly and I’ve had it open up on me a few times caused by the action of putting the phone in and out of my jeans pocket. I’m afraid I’ll lose that cover.
Battery Life
Speaking of the battery, the droid takes a pretty long time to charge, a good deal longer than the iPhone. But maybe it’ll drain more slowly as well. Standard on the phone is a great battery usage app (buried in settings) that tells you what application and/or function used how much memory. Here’s a current screenshot from today’s usage. I got 7h 15m on a full charge down to about 10% left. That feels a bit less than the iPhone. But I guess that’s the price you pay for multi-tasking.
The good news is that the battery is replaceable. I can definiately see getting a backup battery for the road.
Screenshots
One of the things we take for granted on the iPhone (there I go again) is how simple it is to take a screenshot. Simply press two buttons and voila.
Not so much on the Droid, or the Android OS, actually. To get a screenshot like the one in this post, I had to install the Android SDK. Yeah, the Software Developers Kit. Hello, screenshot app anyone?
The good news is that the screenshot appears on my desktop, so I can easily grab it with Skitch and post away.
Music
You don’t realize how central music is to the iPhone until you use a different device. The music app on Android is almost an afterthought. There is an Amazon MP3 application that comes with the OS that allows you to browse and purchase music.
When you do, it is downloaded to the device and it appears in the Music app. But how do you get your existing music onto your Droid? This is where the Droid shows it’s geeky side. You plug the phone into your computer via the USB port and you mount it. Yes, mount it like an external disk. Then you drag and drop, yes, drag and drop media into the phone. Are you kidding me?
And if you’re an iTunes user, don’t even think about copying over the DRM protected music. It won’t work. So I just copied over stuff that I’d purchased previously from Amazon.
I did discover a great little desktop application called Salling Media Sync. It basically acts as a go-between from the Droid to your iTunes library and automatically copies anything over that you want it to, much like the iTunes interface (music, video, podcasts, etc.)
If you love iTunes, you’ll want to get this app.
The Droid Ain’t for Everyone
The title was a bit overstating things. I still love this phone. I think it might even stick.
I will say however, I don’t think the Droid will be for everyone. The 20-somethings and every-day-user won’t ditch the iPhone for the Droid.
The Droid definitely has geek appeal, which is why I’m enjoying it so much.
