Well, two weeks in, I still can’t say enough about it and I still keep finding new features. Is it as good as an iPhone? I don’t know, I don’t care. Does it make calls, keep my schedules in sync, organize all my emails, appointments and tasks? Yes.
Is it easy to type on? Yes.
Are all the cool apps that the iPhone have on it? Well, it depends on your definition of “cool,” I guess, but yes. The Weather Channel app is exactly the same. Many things the iPhone needs an “app” for are built-in functions, from what I’ve read.
Everyone has different needs. This device exceeds all mine and I still find cool and new uses for it.
If you’re a user of Gmail, Google Docs and Google calendar, the Driod certainly integrates faster and easier. If you are tied to Exchange, it’s a toss-up, though the Droid sync’d up with my Exchange everything in less than 60 seconds.
The integrated search for apps, mail and the Web. And it’s nearly instantaneous. I can’t stop raving about Google Navigation. I’ve seen Garmins, Tom-Toms and was a previous user of VZ Navigator. This beats them all, hands-down. You can overlay searches along your route for any local businesses and you can overlay Google Latitude, Satellite view and you can use Street View too.
Will it kill the iPhone? Doubful. Will it be a major player? You bet. I daresay the Android 2.0 platform will be the best-selling in the future. iPhone is one device, one interface. The open-source platform should make Android the mobile OS of years to come.
So the iDon’t campaign wasn’t the best marketing idea. Its next round of Droid Does isn’t going to make the phones fly off the shelves either, but they are at least a step in the right direction to informing the masses of what this product is and does. But until the “there’s an app for that” campaign started, majority of non-techie people did not know the iPhone was more than music, either.
The only thing the iPhone really has over this device is iTunes. Frankly, I own a Mac and I still don’t use iTunes. I’m not missing much. I can still play many formats of music, including playlists and manage all those songs and lists with a free music organizer that works under Mac, Windows and Linux. Really, what more could I really want?
My recommendation? By a phone that suits your needs. If you’re looking for a phone that checks email, logs into remote computers, plays games and music, syncs calendars, both products are damn fine. But I truly believe if Apple groupies put personal bias aside, they’d find the Droid a bit more robust. Time will tell when the new iPhone hits next summer.