Most people here seem to be judging the phone by its physical appearance and their own personal preference of a physical or virtual keyboard. That is very little information to be drawing the broad conclusions I've seen here.
People also made similar conclusions after the introduction of the iPhone and suffice to say, they were quite far off the mark. I can't seem to open the boy genius review of this thing, but if it does have a faster processor than other android phones its responsiveness should be improved, which has been a major flaw of most Android phones to date. I honestly don't have much experience with Android (and I think many people are in the same boat), so I would need to use it more and try this phone before I made conclusions of the same magnitude that I've read here.
I find myself looking at other phones more a more lately and will take a long look at this one as well. My iPhone 3G is, hands down, the best phone I've ever owned. That said, AT&T's network in my area is deplorable. "3G" is up and down like a yo-yo. No missed calls, but suddenly I have a voice mail. Text messages that show up hours after being sent. Signal strength while sitting in the same location going from full strength 3G to Edge to No Service and then back to 3G. Why should I pay a premium for crap AT&T service?
I know that all the carriers here in the US have "issues", but I'm starting to question the value of owning the iPhone with AT&T as the carrier. If they don't add another carrier next summer, then I will probably have to go elsewhere for an inferior phone but better phone service.
That was a major mistake allowing them to name the phone Droid. First of all, they'll be sued by Lucasfilm, second, if the phone is a bust it'll be tied very, very closely to the entire Android moniker. They would have been much wiser to call it the "Transformr" (yes, there's a letter missing on purpose) and license the name if necessary from Hasbro.
Lucas will license it faster than you can say "Hans Solo", and every character in his next movie will be blatantly carrying one.
That was a major mistake allowing them to name the phone Droid. First of all, they'll be sued by Lucasfilm, second, if the phone is a bust it'll be tied very, very closely to the entire Android moniker. They would have been much wiser to call it the "Transformr" (yes, there's a letter missing on purpose) and license the name if necessary from Hasbro.
I'm amazed at home people make comments before research. They OBVIOUSLY got licensing rights for the name. You can find that info anywhere. Links not needed.
I have a 3G and it seems to do perfectly fine with coverage. Is the 3GS supposed to be better?
It's never been studied, I think . It's supposed to be the same - however, many complaints here in NYC still come from 3G users (that I know of or read about). Us 3Gs users (again that I know of or read about) don't have as much a problem really.
I find myself looking at other phones more a more lately and will take a long look at this one as well. My iPhone 3G is, hands down, the best phone I've ever owned. That said, AT&T's network in my area is deplorable. "3G" is up and down like a yo-yo. No missed calls, but suddenly I have a voice mail. Text messages that show up hours after being sent. Signal strength while sitting in the same location going from full strength 3G to Edge to No Service and then back to 3G. Why should I pay a premium for crap AT&T service?
I know that all the carriers here in the US have "issues", but I'm starting to question the value of owning the iPhone with AT&T as the carrier. If they don't add another carrier next summer, then I will probably have to go elsewhere for an inferior phone but better phone service.
I'm in the same boat. I don't live in the sticks or anything, but I constantly face dropped calls, hours-tardy text messages, phantom voicemails from undelivered calls, and generally mediocre voice quality. I even have a spot in my office where my phone has no signal at all, however if I move it 1 foot, I magically have five bars. It's not as if I work in a Farraday cage or anything, just my home, made of wood and drywall.
Part of my job requires me to qualify hardware for different companies, which has included me testing the various Verizon 3G cards. I can put one of those cards in the same place as my iphone and suffer no signal degradation. As a matter of fact, when I try and find places the VZ card doesn't work, I'm at a complete loss. On the other hand, one doesn't have to drive very far to fall out of (first) 3G range, then att range altogether. ATT's network deployment is the very definition of "FAIL", as it may work in metro areas, but unless you have no desire to explore what may be outside the local loop freeway, ATT's network is useless.
Where's the side profile view of it? I want to see how thick it is due to the keyboard.
I'm not against physical keyboards, I just think that most of the time the downsides to having one on a mobile device outweigh the benefits. But I'm open to convincing...
Where's the side profile view of it? I want to see how thick it is due to the keyboard.
I'm not against physical keyboards, I just think that most of the time the downsides to having one on a mobile device outweigh the benefits. But I'm open to convincing...
I think it's somewhat telling that the G1 (and Pre) users clamored for a virtual keyboard, claiming that the physical keyboard often wasn't convenient to use. Virtual keyboards are the future, probably even at the desktop (or laptop).
The only people that are going to give a rats ass about this mobile platform will be the minuscule percent of people that either troll CNet because they hate the fact of Apple's success or the people that purchase one because it looks pretty and end up having to support their 3 years contract.
Think about it, who in the consumer world knows and cares about Android? No body and the sales have proven it. This is another classic example of what we all watched unfold over the iPod and iTunes. I am not saying they should give up, I am however saying; people that believe this will kill the iPhone and it's multi billion dollar ecosystem are sadly mistaken.
I think it's somewhat telling that the G1 (and Pre) users clamored for a virtual keyboard, claiming that the physical keyboard often wasn't convenient to use. Virtual keyboards are the future, probably even at the desktop (or laptop).
Desktop/laptop virtual keyboard? That will work well for the hunt & peck typists i.e. the slow people will hold the faster ones back. Virtual keyboard works best for handheld because of the heavily constrained size and the small distance between screen and keyboard.
How can they simultaneously criticize the iPhone and copy nearly every aspect of it? It rings hollow.
Copy nearly aspect of it? How so? What specifically are you talking about? The iPhone didn't really introduce a lot of new features -- it simply revolutionary in the fact that it integrated all of those features EXTREMELY well.
Wow, that phone is amazing! It doesn't look like any other phone I've seen come out in the last 18 months!
Motorola and Verizon sure did their homework on this. Put my 3GS on craiglist this morning, and am currently camped out in front of the my local Verizon Store.
Seriously? Lowell McAdam seems to be obsessed with coming up with the iPhone killer instead of focusing on getting a danged decent handset. Last year it was the Storm, now it is the Droid, and the Storm 2 will be a complete failure because they already burned that bridge with the rushed Storm last year. So glad I left Verizon for AT&T and my 3GS. It helps that I get great 3G coverage where I live, too.
wow, that phone is amazing! It doesn't look like any other phone i've seen come out in the last 18 months!
Motorola and verizon sure did their homework on this. Put my 3gs on craiglist this morning, and am currently camped out in front of the my local verizon store.
The design is not bad. It's not as elegant as an iPhone but it's definitely too plain to be "ugly".
Many people prefer a physical keyboard. It won't be too much of an engineering challenge to produce another version without one in the future if that's what the market wants.
Nobody even mentioned that this will run the new Android 2. Your dear leader himself has proclaimed the declining significance of the hardware with a shift of focus to the software.
If Motorola can build a solid device to offer a good experience with Android, then this thing can become a serious challenger for the iPhone.
And if you don't want to be called pathetic fanboys you should hope that this happens, and not just to put pressure on Apple but for a little diversity in general!
The only people that are going to give a rats ass about this mobile platform will be the minuscule percent of people that either troll CNet because they hate the fact of Apple's success or the people that purchase one because it looks pretty and end up having to support their 3 years contract.
Think about it, who in the consumer world knows and cares about Android? No body and the sales have proven it. This is another classic example of what we all watched unfold over the iPod and iTunes. I am not saying they should give up, I am however saying; people that believe this will kill the iPhone and it's multi billion dollar ecosystem are sadly mistaken.
Huh? You're not even making sense. What does CNET have to do with anything? If someone is on Verizon, they're limited to Verizon phones. If they go into the store to get a new smartphone, they're gonna see the Droid sitting up there with the rest of the phones. You don't have to be a tech geek to get exposure to new phones -- simply walk into your local cell store.
As to the iPhone is successful and who cares about anything else (including Android)? Good grief!!! I guess every other car manufacturers should just stop producing cars because BMW makes good sports cars, Lexus makes good luxury cars, and Honda makes good price-conscious cars.
And the reason why Android has been limited before in sales (at least in the U.S.) is because it was only on T-Mobile if I recall correctly. However, that will change soon since AT&T and Verizon are both getting Android phones.
Comments
People also made similar conclusions after the introduction of the iPhone and suffice to say, they were quite far off the mark. I can't seem to open the boy genius review of this thing, but if it does have a faster processor than other android phones its responsiveness should be improved, which has been a major flaw of most Android phones to date. I honestly don't have much experience with Android (and I think many people are in the same boat), so I would need to use it more and try this phone before I made conclusions of the same magnitude that I've read here.
I know that all the carriers here in the US have "issues", but I'm starting to question the value of owning the iPhone with AT&T as the carrier. If they don't add another carrier next summer, then I will probably have to go elsewhere for an inferior phone but better phone service.
That was a major mistake allowing them to name the phone Droid. First of all, they'll be sued by Lucasfilm, second, if the phone is a bust it'll be tied very, very closely to the entire Android moniker. They would have been much wiser to call it the "Transformr" (yes, there's a letter missing on purpose) and license the name if necessary from Hasbro.
Lucas will license it faster than you can say "Hans Solo", and every character in his next movie will be blatantly carrying one.
That was a major mistake allowing them to name the phone Droid. First of all, they'll be sued by Lucasfilm, second, if the phone is a bust it'll be tied very, very closely to the entire Android moniker. They would have been much wiser to call it the "Transformr" (yes, there's a letter missing on purpose) and license the name if necessary from Hasbro.
I'm amazed at home people make comments before research. They OBVIOUSLY got licensing rights for the name. You can find that info anywhere. Links not needed.
I have a 3G and it seems to do perfectly fine with coverage. Is the 3GS supposed to be better?
It's never been studied, I think . It's supposed to be the same - however, many complaints here in NYC still come from 3G users (that I know of or read about). Us 3Gs users (again that I know of or read about) don't have as much a problem really.
I find myself looking at other phones more a more lately and will take a long look at this one as well. My iPhone 3G is, hands down, the best phone I've ever owned. That said, AT&T's network in my area is deplorable. "3G" is up and down like a yo-yo. No missed calls, but suddenly I have a voice mail. Text messages that show up hours after being sent. Signal strength while sitting in the same location going from full strength 3G to Edge to No Service and then back to 3G. Why should I pay a premium for crap AT&T service?
I know that all the carriers here in the US have "issues", but I'm starting to question the value of owning the iPhone with AT&T as the carrier. If they don't add another carrier next summer, then I will probably have to go elsewhere for an inferior phone but better phone service.
I'm in the same boat. I don't live in the sticks or anything, but I constantly face dropped calls, hours-tardy text messages, phantom voicemails from undelivered calls, and generally mediocre voice quality. I even have a spot in my office where my phone has no signal at all, however if I move it 1 foot, I magically have five bars. It's not as if I work in a Farraday cage or anything, just my home, made of wood and drywall.
Part of my job requires me to qualify hardware for different companies, which has included me testing the various Verizon 3G cards. I can put one of those cards in the same place as my iphone and suffer no signal degradation. As a matter of fact, when I try and find places the VZ card doesn't work, I'm at a complete loss. On the other hand, one doesn't have to drive very far to fall out of (first) 3G range, then att range altogether. ATT's network deployment is the very definition of "FAIL", as it may work in metro areas, but unless you have no desire to explore what may be outside the local loop freeway, ATT's network is useless.
I'm not against physical keyboards, I just think that most of the time the downsides to having one on a mobile device outweigh the benefits. But I'm open to convincing...
Where's the side profile view of it? I want to see how thick it is due to the keyboard.
I'm not against physical keyboards, I just think that most of the time the downsides to having one on a mobile device outweigh the benefits. But I'm open to convincing...
I think it's somewhat telling that the G1 (and Pre) users clamored for a virtual keyboard, claiming that the physical keyboard often wasn't convenient to use. Virtual keyboards are the future, probably even at the desktop (or laptop).
Think about it, who in the consumer world knows and cares about Android? No body and the sales have proven it. This is another classic example of what we all watched unfold over the iPod and iTunes. I am not saying they should give up, I am however saying; people that believe this will kill the iPhone and it's multi billion dollar ecosystem are sadly mistaken.
I think it's somewhat telling that the G1 (and Pre) users clamored for a virtual keyboard, claiming that the physical keyboard often wasn't convenient to use. Virtual keyboards are the future, probably even at the desktop (or laptop).
Desktop/laptop virtual keyboard? That will work well for the hunt & peck typists i.e. the slow people will hold the faster ones back. Virtual keyboard works best for handheld because of the heavily constrained size and the small distance between screen and keyboard.
How can they simultaneously criticize the iPhone and copy nearly every aspect of it? It rings hollow.
Copy nearly aspect of it? How so? What specifically are you talking about? The iPhone didn't really introduce a lot of new features -- it simply revolutionary in the fact that it integrated all of those features EXTREMELY well.
Motorola and Verizon sure did their homework on this. Put my 3GS on craiglist this morning, and am currently camped out in front of the my local Verizon Store.
i think this is prettier than their pos creation...
wow, that phone is amazing! It doesn't look like any other phone i've seen come out in the last 18 months!
Motorola and verizon sure did their homework on this. Put my 3gs on craiglist this morning, and am currently camped out in front of the my local verizon store.
lmao!
Many people prefer a physical keyboard. It won't be too much of an engineering challenge to produce another version without one in the future if that's what the market wants.
Nobody even mentioned that this will run the new Android 2. Your dear leader himself has proclaimed the declining significance of the hardware with a shift of focus to the software.
If Motorola can build a solid device to offer a good experience with Android, then this thing can become a serious challenger for the iPhone.
And if you don't want to be called pathetic fanboys you should hope that this happens, and not just to put pressure on Apple but for a little diversity in general!
The only people that are going to give a rats ass about this mobile platform will be the minuscule percent of people that either troll CNet because they hate the fact of Apple's success or the people that purchase one because it looks pretty and end up having to support their 3 years contract.
Think about it, who in the consumer world knows and cares about Android? No body and the sales have proven it. This is another classic example of what we all watched unfold over the iPod and iTunes. I am not saying they should give up, I am however saying; people that believe this will kill the iPhone and it's multi billion dollar ecosystem are sadly mistaken.
Huh? You're not even making sense. What does CNET have to do with anything? If someone is on Verizon, they're limited to Verizon phones. If they go into the store to get a new smartphone, they're gonna see the Droid sitting up there with the rest of the phones. You don't have to be a tech geek to get exposure to new phones -- simply walk into your local cell store.
As to the iPhone is successful and who cares about anything else (including Android)? Good grief!!! I guess every other car manufacturers should just stop producing cars because BMW makes good sports cars, Lexus makes good luxury cars, and Honda makes good price-conscious cars.
And the reason why Android has been limited before in sales (at least in the U.S.) is because it was only on T-Mobile if I recall correctly. However, that will change soon since AT&T and Verizon are both getting Android phones.
even the Zune HD looks better.
not going to get anywhere with that total lack of style.