Anyone get the Moto Droid today?

[destrekor]

Anyone buy the screen protectors from VZW? My spidey sense told me they were a rip off even with my 25% work discount.

they cost more then they should, but they work perfectly. protect screen from day 1 = no scratches on screen, ever.

 

[PlatinumGold]

I ordered one from the VZW website today, was too lazy to drive to the store. i'll have it monday. which is fine by me as i am working 18 hours this weekend.

 

[Deeko]

anyone know how to create or have a one touch vibrate setting? instead of silencing all sounds, i'd like to have a vibrate setting for incoming calls - instead of going into the menu or holding down the volume button

When the phone is locked, you can just slide to the left (opposite of unlocking it)

 

[Bateluer]

My brother did. Might as well snag them and protect your screen right away instead of paying shipping & waiting a few days. They work fine; his came in a 3-pack.

What exactly are they? Just plastic sheets that adhere to the screen? I don't think I've seen anyone I know with a touch phone using one.

 

[Bashbelly]

Picked one up after work. Was told i got the 2nd to the last one out of 30. So far its very smooth, no hiccups at all. Web surfing is amazing. Phone feels extremely solid. Started looking at google apps...wow thats insane going through all of them lol. My only gripe has to do with them nickle and dime'ing you to get exchange email from work (they want 15 dollars a month on top of data plan WTF).

 

[Jeff7181]

My phone froze already. I had been on a call for roughly 30 minutes and the screen would not turn back on after taking it away from my face. I tried sliding open the keyboard, pressing the lock button, let it cool off thinking maybe the sensor got warm from touching the side of my head, cleaned the touchscreen surface.

The bottom 4 buttons would light up, but the display would not come on. Had to do a battery pull.

 

[PlatinumGold]

has anyone tried to install VLC on the droid yet? for me, that would be the biggest killer app of all?

 

[Deeko]

Picked one up after work. Was told i got the 2nd to the last one out of 30. So far its very smooth, no hiccups at all. Web surfing is amazing. Phone feels extremely solid. Started looking at google apps...wow thats insane going through all of them lol. My only gripe has to do with them nickle and dime'ing you to get exchange email from work (they want 15 dollars a month on top of data plan WTF).

They're only really enforcing that for corporate customers. You don't need it.

 

[KillerCharlie]

double post, forums suck

 

[KillerCharlie]

Does the weight bother anyone? Are you okay walking around with it in your pocket?

 

[destrekor]

Does the weight bother anyone? Are you okay walking around with it in your pocket?

the weight feels perfect. Yes, it's in my pocket. Has a little more heft than a phone in my pocket has had before.
But now, I actually feel like I'm carrying around a device, one of quality. It seems all other phones, no matter the value/quality, have always felt more like things... like toys almost. Cheap.

Just like I absolutely love the weight of my PSP-1000. Haven't held the PSP Go, but the PSP-2000, and the 3000 model, feel like inferior pieces of trash. Weight helps convey a sense of build quality and helps me "feel" the value. Heavier devices I treat with a lot more care.

Thankfully my Zune HD, while feeling like paper in terms of weight, feels like it's built like a tank. A light tank, neigh a futuristic sci-fi tank with the light-as-air armor that has the same strength capabilities.
It's... odd. It confuses my hands.

But the Droid, I am comfortable with it. It feels like I need to always baby this thing. The construction is superior to every other phone I've owned, at least of it's same class. I owned another Motorola phone that was sturdy as a tank, though it didn't convey that in the exterior materials, but had a proportionally similar heft based on it's size.

This is Motorola's proof they still have what it takes. Now it's just up to Verizon to make sure it gets sold (here in the US. Good idea for Motorola to branch out in Europe too). Motorola deserves this phone to be a major success based on what I've witnessed so far.

Most issues people have come across are OS quirks and apps that weren't build around Android 2.0, so that will improve with time. Hopefully an improved, faster camera app. Though focusing I don't seem to have a problem with, it's just slow. Picture quality, with properly focused shots, are what I would expect from a phone with a stationary lens and small CCD. I don't expect award winning photographs, I expect a camera on a phone to merely serve as a practical tool. The Facebook and YouTube integration in the Droid really help sell that, just don't go expecting to take still pictures of high speed action unless you get a lucky first shot.

 

[Zenmervolt]

After playing with it for a day now I can give some of my initial reactions:

Call quality is fantastic. My old Palm 700 wasn't bad, but this is much better all-around. The speakerphone also is clearly superior. Importing of phone contacts could not have been simpler, but this is largely due to my having most contacts in my Exchange account so they all fed in as soon as I synched exchange.

I'm just starting to get used to the new keyboard; without spelling and punctuation I'd be pretty good already, but I'm having to re-learn the positions of all the alt keys since the 700 had a different alt-key setup than the Droid (obviously).

I updated the PRL this morning and that went very smoothly (if you haven't done it yet, I strongly recommend updating the PRL as they do not do this at the store when you buy the phone).

The phone itself takes some getting used to if you're coming from a Palm. Even though it's lighter than the 700, it has a similar feeling of solidity. It doesn't have quite the same "I'm a business consultant" vibe as the older Palm phones, but it does everything the Palm can do and it does it better. As others have noted, the volume rocker switch feels inexplicably flimsy though a closer inspection doesn't reveal huge amounts of play. It feels off, but it doesn't seem to actually be off.

Verizon forced a download of a battery meter and TasKiller, the latter of the two being actually useful and the former having been subsequently uninstalled.

The amateur astronomer in me is loving the Google Night Sky app and I look forward to really testing the Locale app in my business travels. The voice dialer is solid and I'm glad to have voice dialing back after missing it on the Palm.

Overall, I have to say that this seems to be a smartphone where the emphasis is on "phone", whereas the iPhone seems to be an iPod touch first and a phone second. For my needs, the Droid fits perfectly and if someone was more worried about audio quality and using their smartphone as a business device I really think that the Driod is the superior option. For someone who was not using the phone as the primary device for professional communicatio I can see preferring the iPhone's slightly more polished interface, but the Droid has the fundamentals down cold.

ZV

 

[gizbug]

I updated the PRL this morning and that went very smoothly (if you haven't done it yet, I strongly recommend updating the PRL as they do not do this at the store when you buy the phone). ZV

'How did you do this? Dial *22899

 

[Zenmervolt]

'How did you do this? Dial *22899

*228

Choose option 2.

Updating the PRL is particularly important for people who travel extensively as it keeps the phone up-to-date with the most recent preferred roaming providers. However, it also updates information about preferred local frequencies as well.

 

[SoulAssassin]

Has anyone bought a skin/case that they liked? I bought the leather pouch and I'm taking it back. Stupid thing is velcro...that's classy. Probably just going with the plastic belt clip but I wouldn't mind some kind of protective hard rubber/plastic skin.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Has anyone bought a skin/case that they liked? I bought the leather pouch and I'm taking it back. Stupid thing is velcro...that's classy. Probably just going with the plastic belt clip but I wouldn't mind some kind of protective hard rubber/plastic skin.

I'm sticking with the leather pouch; the velcro doesn't bother me and I think that they can't use a magnet due to the way the Driod uses magnets to trigger certain modes (e.g. the docking mode or the car mount mode). A magnetic pouch would probably interfere with that and cause the phone to display while in the holster.

I don't like the plastic cases as I feel they make things bulkier. I've always preferred a "naked" phone.

 

[Deeko]

Personally, I'm not putting mine in a case. Between the kinda rugged design & glass screen, I think it will hold up well on its on. Also, I'm using the various docks, so the more "permanent" style cases won't work anyway.

 

[destrekor]

Personally, I'm not putting mine in a case. Between the kinda rugged design & glass screen, I think it will hold up well on its on. Also, I'm using the various docks, so the more "permanent" style cases won't work anyway.

Same.
I liked the soft rubber shell I used on my Omnia, but while I dropped it a lot it seemed that shell both sometimes helped me grasp it better before losing grip and dropping it, but also tended to make it stumble around after pulling it out of my pocket, which was a challenge each and every time since the soft rubber helped grip the jeans.

I have a screen protector (stick on film) and am even tempted to just take that off. The glass screen will easily take abuse before scratching unlike plastic screens. And the body seems more durably constructed so drops will likely just make scratches on the case. Although I'm being very careful with the way I handle the Droid, though I've always done that when the phone is new, and it's after the accident that leads to the first drop, that I tend to get into a mode where over time I drop it more and more often. It's a multiplying occurrence, comical when looking back.

Hopefully having no protective case will keep me careful enough to keep it from ever being dropped that first time.

 

[GTSRguy]

How are you guys getting the droid? Dont you have a contract? I gotta wait a year before i can upgrade to a new phone

 

[Deeko]

How are you guys getting the droid? Dont you have a contract? I gotta wait a year before i can upgrade to a new phone

Nope. I was getting a free Verizon phone from work, so I canceled my T-Mobile contract (during the period in September when you could do it with no ETF), so I signed up for Verizon month to month. Decided I'd rather have Droid than the one I got from work, so I signed the contract.

 

[Deeko]

Hmmm I have a dead pixel. Not sure how I feel about that.

 

[wolf2009]

How are you guys getting the droid? Dont you have a contract? I gotta wait a year before i can upgrade to a new phone

+1 I too have 1 year left on my LG Dare.

Can I upgrade sooner ?

thinking maybe should get a contract on Sprint or T-Mobile, $10/month everything unlimited

decisions decisions

 

[Jeff7181]

+1 I too have 1 year left on my LG Dare.

Can I upgrade sooner ?

thinking maybe should get a contract on Sprint or T-Mobile, $10/month everything unlimited

decisions decisions

I'd recommend against Sprint. They provide a decent service for a decent price but their customer service sucks. Sprint's employees told me a specific feature was available with my phone and plan... then Sprint says it was only available because of a network error that has now been fixed, they were not willing to do anything at all to restore my satisfaction as a customer.

If you look into more news about Sprint, there's the possibility that they'll be bought out by T-mobile, they're one of the largest pay as you go providers and they'll be disabling Phone as Modem support completely in the near future. These three things being true, I decided one thing... Sprint cares more about having pay as you go customers rather than contract customers. They're not as hard on the network as those on plans and they end up paying more for what they do use.

 

[Bateluer]

Isn't Sprint larger than T Mobile in terms of subscribers and revenue? I don't really see T Mobile buying them out.

 

[boomhower]

Isn't Sprint larger than T Mobile in terms of subscribers and revenue? I don't really see T Mobile buying them out.

Yes, but T-Mobiles parent company is much larger.