Yes, folks, that's a photo taken on a Droid. This might be an iPhone blog, but the one question I've been getting a lot around the office lately revolves around the Droid from Motorola and Verizon.
Everyone I've talked to agrees that the coverage for voice and data is more reliable on the Droid than the iPhone. But I think what ends up happening is this guilty feeling where people who have iPhones would almost feel like they are cheating if they even so much as looked at a Droid, let alone embrace one.
I did find one person, iPTIB friend and caller Dan, who not only looked and embraced, he switched. Yep - went from an iPhone to a Droid and sold his iPhone. He's an official Droid switcher.
So I thought it would be interesting for you to hear what Dan thinks after using the Droid for a little while. And where appropriate, I'll insert some comments however I think Dan does a pretty fantastic job of being fair and telling it like it is.
I think some of you will be surprised. Clearly, switching from an iPhone is not for everyone, but at the end of the day the most important thing is that you are happy with the phone/mobile device that you carry in your pocket and spend your hard-earned money on. I have no plans to switch now, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued by what Dan had to say.
Keep in mind as you read that Dan is based in Chicago. So while specific areas/streets might not apply to you, you get the idea.
On using Droid inside buildings
-- It's totally apparent that AT&T's building penetration sucks, meaning that indoors or in areas with many tall buildings (i.e. Michigan Avenue), their network struggles. It's why I get EDGE in my office, and it just sputters along for half the bus ride home. AT&T needs more 850MHz down here.
-- Verizon's building penetration rocks since they rely on the lower frequencies.
-- Out in the burbs, where my parents live, it's a bit of a toss-up. My folks struggle to make phone calls in their house on their iPhones, but I don't have any problems with the Droid. Outdoors and in open areas there's virtually no difference. (SCOTT'S REPLY: Usually, I don't have problems with establishing iPhone calls in open areas, but keeping them connected tends to be a problem in Downtown Chicago.)
-- And if it matters, I am consistently clocking speeds of 1.2Mbps+. I've seen as high as 2.3Mbps downtown. (SCOTT'S REPLY: Oh, it matters!)
On multitasking
It's amazing. Was sitting a a hotel bar running the Meebo application while text messaging and checking sports scores with SportsTap. Flipped between all 3 tasks without any hassles. Totally awesome. (SCOTT'S REPLY: I understand what Apple is trying to say when it says that allowing things to run in the background slows down the overall experience, but I think that as processors get faster that Apple needs to strongly reconsider that stance to keep pace with the competition.)
On navigation capabilities
The Google Navigation is quite literally going to drive TomTom, Garmin, Magellan, etc. out of business. It duplicates or even beats their functionality at no extra cost. And it integrates perfectly into the rest of the phone. You can have the nav running in the background while you do other stuff like surf the web or text message. (SCOTT'S REPLY: Google's navigation looks solid, but I hope it's ultimately more accurate than what I see in Google Maps. It's good, but I find mistakes from time to time.)
On the media player
Media player is so-so, definitely not as straightforward as the iPhone. But it is definitely usable. I'm not crazy about Windows Media Player for sync operations, but maybe I'm just too used to iTunes. (SCOTT'S REPLY: I've used Windows Media Player on a mobile device and I HATED IT! I know that one of the best things about the iPhone is the interaction with iTunes. If one thing keeps me from ever switching, I know this will be it. Kudos to Dan for being able to overlook something this important.)
On the keyboard
Physical keyboard is overrated if you're coming from the iPhone's on-screen keyboard. I'm probably faster with the on-screen keyboard. Fortunately the Droid has both. (SCOTT'S REPLY: Agreed. I think I'm faster on the on-screen keyboard although I still type in excess of 100 wpm on a physical keyboard. I think the whole thing saying that the on-screen keyboard and lack of a physical one is a weakness is completely wrong.)
On the camera
Nice to finally have a decent camera, and one with a dual-LED flash. Why the iPhone's camera (even in the 3G S) is so lousy I'll never know. See attached photo that I snapped. Not a digi cam replacement, but certainly produces usable pictures. (SCOTT'S REPLY: The attached photo that Dan speaks of is the photo that leads the post.)
On multitouch
No multitouch is disappointing, but the interface is still very straightforward without it. (SCOTT'S REPLY: I don't worry so much about the interface not being straightforward, but I've just become used to multitouch. Case in point - a few months ago a colleague handed me his BlackBerry to read something and the first thing I did was tap on the screen to blow up the text. I was lost when I couldn't.)
On apps
Not really sad to lose a lot of my apps. The only ones I ever used exist on Android: Facebook, Twitter, Shazam, Wikipedia, etc. (SCOTT'S REPLY: This is a different world for me. How would I play Skeeball? Bejeweled? There's so much I would miss in the realm of apps that I'd go crazy.)
On summarizing the whole thing
Verizon's network is absolutely obliterating AT&T's downtown. That was my primary reason for switching. I can make/receive calls and use data services in all the places the iPhone wouldn't. So tonight I sold my iPhone 3G 16GB on Craigslist for $350 and terminated my contract. The $80 ETF is fine by me. It's a big relief. Really, it feels great. The whole "gee I hope I have coverage" voice in the back of my mind is gone. I can always get on the data network and always make/receive calls. Isn't that what a phone is supposed to do? (SCOTT'S REPLY: Yep. That's exactly what a phone is supposed to do. I find it very hard to argue with that.)
And there you have it - straight from the mouth of an iPhone-turned-Droid user.
Let me -- and Dan -- know what you think by commenting here or on
Twitter.
Thanks for calling - and thank you Dan for taking the time to send me this great information. I hope the Droid continues to be exactly what you were hoping for and then some.
25 Comments
Derrick -Lex- said:
I'm also a "Droid Switcher". And I also left the Apple & AT&T. But it wasn't the Droid that had me switching, it was the Palm Pre before the Droid. I was so sick and tired of Apple and their "you get what we give you" attitude. I was fed up with things like SlingPlayer not being permitted to stream over 3G while a million Windows Mobile phones on AT&T's network could! Rejection of Google Voice for no apparent reason, it's not like it's true VOIP. No ability to pay a monthly fee for insurance (AppleCare doesn't count since it doesn't include accidental damage, or theft insurance). Crappy service with AT&T. It wasn't horrible, but I had to put a repeater in my house just to bump up the signal in my home. Not so much Apple's fault. When I had an iPhone I had the original and then the 3G. Now everyone and their grandmother has an iPhone and they all look alike!! It's no longer "cool" to have an iPhone since chances are everyone next to you has the exact same one! LoL.
I loved the Palm Pre, but the lack of apps and my worries that the issue of attracting developers will remain an issue forever thus sealing Palm's fate made me switch to a Droid.
I always knew the next phone would be Android. But having trailed a MyTouch from Tmobile put a BAD taste in my mouth. It was slow as dirt. Froze constantly, lagged ridiculously. And of course TMobile's 3G coverage was laughable. But I only wanted to try the phone.
Then I went to the Sprint Hero. Not bad, but I knew I wanted a physical keyboard. That was a requirement.
I just felt like Android didn't have a compelling device that made me say "YES, now I'm ready to make the Android switch". Until that is... DROOOOID!
The processor was up to spec (finally no more ARM11) instead a fast Cortex A8. Sufficient RAM, a physical keyboard (you say you don't need it, I say it's mandatory no matter how tiny you think the keys are). It had a large capacitive touchscreen, even threw in Android 2.0 to really make switching more compelling.
All I can say is if you were thinking about making the switch to the Android platform, the Droid should be your ONLY choice. It's the first Android device that I think allows you to experience what Android was meant to feel like.
I think the user experience is much more consumer friendly [than previous android builds] but still needs some work in simplifying things for your average consumer. I'm an IT geek so I know how to work these things, your average consumer might have issues trying to find things buried so deep in menus.
I'll run down my quick reviews (I talk too much).
Verizon Coverage: EXCELLENT! MD/DC/VA Metro Area Not one dropped call since launch (that was my fault) and not one situation where I didn't have AT LEAST 1 bar! AT&T was never horrible for me, so coverage between the two would have been a non-issue.
Multitasking: EXCELLENT, though it's not as sweet as the way Palm Pre multi-tasks. But it gets the job done, albeit not as pretty-like. Major gripe I had with iPhone!!
Navigation: EXCELLENT. It's better than all the nav systems I've used because clearly the info is update much more frequently through Google, and integration of traffic for free only makes it better.
Mediaplayer: "I ONT KNO" I'm not your average music junkie I guess. I don't like to hear old songs all the time. Everyone once in a while I might want to listen to some throw back tracks. But for the most part I don't keep a library of old music. I simply listen to XM, and the Radio, everytime I hear a song I like, I make a note of it. At the end of the month I grab those tracks (I won't tell you how I do it) then I burn a CD/DVD and play it in my aftermarket headunit in the car, OR I will drag and drop them to my phone. I'm not even familiar with playlists, syncing music, etc. I think it's much easier [for me] to drag and drop it. But I've heard our music player and sync capability is not on-par with iTunes. Frankly, I was HAPPY to uninstall iTunes when I sold my iPhone. It's a bloated resource hog and slow as dirt to sync pics, and contacts!
Keyboard: OK, nice to have the option of on-screen keyboard and physical. The physical is mandatory for me. But honesty the physical keyboard it just OK. I honestly think I typed faster on the Palm Pre keyboard which is just strange when you consider the orientation.
Camera: Good, apparently there's a bug that strangely enough every "x" number of days allows the camera to focus properly then other days it won't focus properly. Very strange, but I've read it on Engadget and Motorola (or was it Google) confirms this. There's an update to resolve it Dec 11th. For now I'll say it works PERFECTLY since I'm not on the off days (strange) but initially it sucked!
Multitouch: :( I miss it. I still sometimes go to expand a webpage using multitouch gesture since even my Palm Pre had it after leaving iPhone. That pretty much sucks. I think the iPhone has it beat on that front. Double tap works to zoom in, but then you use a magnifying glass which can be come annoying at times. It's quicker to multitouch!
Apps: I think it's important to say that while Android doesn't have 100,000 apps! It does have 10,000 apps and I've yet to come across an instance where I couldn't find an app to do a job I needed/wanted. I think people need to come to that realization. Now with that being said I had to give up my Palm Pre because with only 300 apps, I couldn't say the same about finding an app when I needed it.
Derrick -Lex- said:
forgive my typos, lengthy posting, and my shameless plug for blog now. http://www.derrickisonline.com
Scott Kleinberg said:
LOL - I don't mind - and after an awesome comment like the one above, feel free. Seriously, though, great and insightful comments for me and all to enjoy.
This is very interesting... I am a first generation, second, then third generation iPhone user, and a long time Apple user. After traveling most of the year on business, and scheduling travel already for next year, I am seriously considering switching to the Droid. The bottom line is AT&T's service is still not even close to Verizon or Sprint. Even though I've received AT&T notifications that they've upgraded their 3g network, I still get dropped on calls, even when I'm passing a cell tower that is loaded with antenna's. The frustration level with AT&T's service has finally pushed a long time Apple user into considering the switch. On holiday vacation this week, I'm going to have to stop by the Verizon store for a Droid demo. Sad day indeed...
Scott Kleinberg said:
I think at the end of the day that different devices will always offer something different to each user and each user finds one particular thing more important than another. I've said it once and I'll say it again - competition is so good in cases like these because it makes Apple take notice of what users want, like and expect.
Dan Parmelee said:
The fact of the matter is that AT&T is just trying to cram as many subscribers onto their network as possible. Capacity is an after-thought, though not to their marketing department. AT&T is famous for giving us all the run-around with the "oh we promise we're upgrading, just wait a little longer." BS. I've waited for a long time and nothing has changed.
Vote with your feet. Why pay $85 a month for AT&T when Verizon can provide better service at the same price? What good is an iPhone if half the functionality is almost unusable?
Trick15 said:
I am a lover the the Iphone, the phone itself is just amazing. But I just can't rely on AT&T for their service. I have lived in all parts of the city and still get the same crappy service everywhere. It just amazes me that here in such a huge city they do nothing to expand the service. Any events where there are groups of people, it overloads the network and of course everyone's service is non-existent.
I have looked and played around with the driod. I did like some of the features but when it came to the phone itself...I am a Apple guy. But have to say the service itself is putting me on the fence. Wake up AT&T!!!
Dan Parmelee said:
Trick15, how long will you wait until you give up on AT&T? There have been problems for a year now. A YEAR. It's one thing to see a brief problem in the first few weeks, but that's 12 times you've forked over money for a service you aren't even getting.
Wouldn't it be nice to never have to think about whether or not you have coverage?
al4klub said:
I think, in summation, when the iPhone is no longer exclusive to AT&T, it will realize its potential. Other companies upping their game is good for iPhone users as it puts pressure on Apple (and by extension, AT&T). I think Apple will continue to improve on its product. The challenge for other companies is to keep with Apple and try to surpass them. That will be good for all.
Wiz said:
Okay, I'm an anomalie here. I've been with AT&T since the late 60sn and while their coverage is so much less than great, it is good enough for me to use my first, second and third gen iPhones on. Now tell me this is not true, that while you are able to mulitask on the Droid and the Pre, you can't do anything while you are on a call? Really? I admittedly get pissed that I have to shut down Bejewled2 (Blitz no less) to see where the damned busses are, so I would like multitasking, but it is no deal killer for me (oddly neither is AT&T's crappy coverage, but doing things while I talk on the phone, well once I've done that, I always want to do it. I send emails to people while I talk to them, I play Bejewled while I'm talking, I takes pics and send them while I'm talking on the phone. I send texts while I'm talking on the phone. The thing is, I never thought there was anything special about that. So when other folk are talking on the phone, that's all they can do?
roz said:
I was on Verizon for 10 years. Its a good network but it was not perfect. Calls dropped all the time. Connections were not always fast or present.
ATT's service is far from perfect, it is very easy though, when dealing with complex systems to start to generate herd thinking. People think that ATT coverage has a problem and then when a call drops or is unclear the fault is assigned to the network. It might have been the other caller. It might have been an area where no good coverage exists. On another phone if the same thing happened you might think, oh my called dropped, that happens on cell phones. If it happens on an iPhone with ATT, then you think "damn ATT"...
I read this blog entry and I can see that there are some aspects he is excited about. The Nav app on the Droid is awesome. The thing is though that its all crap after that. The UI is a huge mess on the Droid. Tons of buttons that don't make sense. I spent a few hours playing with one and I could find no rhyme or reason to it. The Droid does not look that great to me as a device I would be using all the time. It seemed quite painful to me. The keyboard was totally unusable. Yes you can use the soft-keyboard but it bothers me to carry around this thing with this big clunky aspect to it for no reason.
I think if the iPhone was on Verizon it would be an attractive device and at least it would address the issue of people switching away because they don't like ATT. Still I think I would stay with what I have. There is a lot not to love about Verizon too. They are kind of jerks. They put a big stamp on all their devices and time after time I would wait for a new phone from them only to find it crippled when it finally reached the stores. That sucked and i don't ever want to go back to them.
Christian Hayes said:
Just an FYI.. Droid does, in fact, support multi touch. The default browser and keyboard do not, currently, but there are apps that do. The Droid hardware and Android 2.0 both support it.
Christian Hayes said:
Also, Scott, you should look into this stuff yourself before making grossly wrong assumptions regarding the Media player and App selection aswell. And you do not do 100 WPM on a ANY phone keyboard.
Scott Kleinberg said:
No grossly wrong assumptions in this piece, Christian. Not a one. Do you want to tell me that the media player and the overall media experience is on par with or better than iTunes? Please don't tell me that, because it's not. And please don't even try to compare the apps available for the Droid with what's available for the iPhone. There's no comparison - although I'm happy that there are less fart apps available on the overall Android platform.
And I believe I could have been clearer - I do not type 100 words for minute on a phone. I do on a regular computer keyboard/laptop.
Teemu Kurppa said:
The major problem that background processing causes is not that it slows down overall experience, but that it consumes battery in unexpected ways. If 2-3 apps poll their servers in regular intervals for new content (even if there isn't any), it's a kind of guaranteed that phone's network stack is using full power mode all the time and consuming a lot of battery.
My impression is that Apple has stated this is a main reason for excluding background processing and their background notification system tried to solve this in a controllable, user-understandable way.
Christian Hayes said:
that's a pretty lame excuse.. how about leaving it up to the end user to decide the app to battery life balance we would like to achieve? I don't like Jobs' bubble.
Dan Parmelee said:
roz,
There's no excuse for AT&T's coverage on Michigan Avenue. It's one of the busiest areas of the entire city. They don't have the capacity, plain and simple. Rather than owning up and quickly adding more antennas or a bigger backhaul, they do nothing...and we all sit and take it.
Look, I know I can't get a 3Mbps download out in the middle of some cornfield down state, but why can't I even get on the Internet in downtown Chicago?
Scott Kleinberg said:
Excellent comments here, everyone. Thank you. I know that this is one of those topics that rile people up and that's ok. At the end of the day, everyone is going to have a complaint about something. I can't bash AT&T because I've been in cities where my iPhone has performed flawlessly. But I do not like the fact that I have so much trouble establishing connections and calls in the middle of Chicago - especially since another carrier is so much better at it.
At the end of the day, while I respect Dan's decision to switch and am thrilled that it's what he was hoping for, I'm still an iPhone person and will keep my iPhone. Are there things about it that I wish were better? You bet there are. But I firmly believe that the competition handsets like the Droid bring will ultimately make other devices stronger.
Jodi Blackley said:
As a staunch Apple user, I have never been able to take advantage of the iPhone because I refused to leave the VZW network. So, I've been living vicariously through my iPhone friends, waiting for the day VZW came out with something decent.
I had the Droid in my hands as of 8:00 am on 11/6/09 and haven't looked back. Now, not only do I have a tool that works seamlessly with my calendar, contacts, and favorite applications, but I have the VZW network!!
Everything that was mentioned in the review was spot on.
Broderick Lang said:
I have a complaint I can't help but make here and it's regarding Scott's response about the media player.
I won't defend any downsides to Android's media player, but Scott's response is utter nonsense. If music were such a crucial aspect of his iPhone, he wouldn't be using it. The iPhone and iPod Touch have bar-none the worst sound quality available in popular PMP market. It's tinny and a huge degradation from previous generations of iPods which already weren't known for their ability to actually reproduce sound well, so much as be adorable and easy to use.
The Droid isn't necessarily any better, but I'm not going to pretend it's a great music player in order to take a dig at a competing product. As for Windows Media player, it is a hideous program to use. But why is the choice suddenly between iTunes and Windows Media Player? The Droid as the potential to sync with a wide variety of players and conveniently, even requires NO player or program at all to sync video music and other media with it; you can drag and drop it right in. The iPhone on the other hand is stuck using ONLY iTunes (not to mention the limited range of playable formats). It's completely dependent on it which is no treat in my opinion. Better than Windows Media player? Sure, but it's still worse than pretty much every other option out there.
It's cool if you find iTunes a better jukebox than Windows Media Player and also cool if the media interface of the iPhone is better than Android's. However, it's a falsehood to think Android is tied to Windows Media Player, and a larger one to pretend the iPhone is good choice for your portable music (at least if you claim music playback is crucial to you). Anyone with half an ear and 10 seconds on almost any other device on the market would be aghast at their iPhone, if they're not already even without the comparison. To patronize the writer with a "Kudos to Dan for being able to overlook something this important." is beyond embarrassing if you're speaking about the iPhone. As an iPhone user, you overlook it every single day. At least Dan has the good sense (or honesty) to acknowledge when something's not meant to be ideal for music, and would rather admit that and use something different for his music (or just be ok with what he's got if he doesn't mind) than to pretend an awful music player is actually a great one for the sake of one-up-manship.
Broderick Lang said:
This is one of those angry internet comments you regret almost the moment after you post it. I'm making some unfair assumptions here over things that were not said and somewhat working out arguments that belong elsewhere with others in this post. However, the post I would like to have would still emphasize:
The Droid has no ties to Windows Media Player and can manage music and other media in more ways than an iPhone.
Neither phone is a great music player, you would be doing your music and ears and disservice to expect a good listening experience from either. If one of your primary concerns with these phones is music I would suggest it not be, and you look into a nice player for your portable music needs. However if you don't care much what your songs on the go sound like, bear in mind that the Droid, while not iTunes friendly, is incredibly easy to use, and plays a wider variety of music formats. If your tied to iTunes, I don't envy you, but each his own and enjoy your iPhone.
Scott Kleinberg said:
I hear what you are saying, Broderick. And I never meant to indicate that Windows Media was tied to Android. What I meant to say - and perhaps could have stated more clearly - is that I think iTunes is a fantastic experience and I find it hard to believe that anyone or anything will top it. And personally, while I have several iPods, the reason I choose to put my music in my phone is so I can carry around one device. That's very, very important to me.
I appreciate your points and I respect them.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Robin said:
Funny about your opinion on iTunes, I completely disagree.
I don´t have a Droid (yet) but I´m already an ex-iphone user, the reason.... iTunes: I absolutely hate that program and as it´s the only way that Apple allows to sync your media I decided to sell my iPhone.
iTunes (at least when I had my iPhone) doesn´t/didn´t run on my 64bit windows, it isn´t compatible with a DLNA server (Where I have all my media) and the program started to crawl after adding only a fraction of my media to iTunes. Not to mention the fact that iTunes almost keeps your media hostage. For me after trying to adapt for to month it was enough to decide the iPhone is not for me.
BTW I have heard that iTunes runs much better on a mac than on windows so for Mac users it might be not as bad.
Don Lorenzet said:
Mutli-tasking? Try using a data app while on a phone call with the Droid -- you can't do simultaneous voice & data because of the Verizon CDMA network. But you can easily do both -- data & voice -- at the same time on an iPhone!
Robin said:
You can by using sipdroid (VOIP) and it helps to lower you phone bill as well.
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