Droid by Motorola

Hello readers! When I started this blog I had the idea of some day expanding it and making it more than just a book review blog. I attempted to sign up for a few product review places but I haven't been able to gain admittance into any of them. I suppose that may be because most of my reviews are on books! So I've decided to start adding a product review here and there. Though I have little to review that would be of interest, I am taking a step and starting today. :-)

Today I will be reviewing the Motorola Droid - my phone!

The Review:


My Ranking: 8 out of 10
Ages: 14 & up

The Motorola Droid is a Verizon phone that was released in November of 2009. It is the first phone with the Android software and the first phone that seriously competed with the IPhone. While newer versions of this phone have been released, such as the Droid X and Droid 2, the Motorola is the original Droid phone.

My mom bought this phone in spring of 2010. She absolutely loved it and used it very often, enjoying most the ability to post on her blog from it. When mom and dad upgraded their phones a few months ago, I got the leftover Droid; a hand-me-down. This was just about the coolest hand-me-down EVER. lol

Anyway, as I have had it for a few months I know all of it's ups and downs and am ready to laying all down for ya.

First of all, the pros.
The touch screen on the Motorola is smooth and very accurate. It feels good below your finger tips and is usually easy to navigate with. I have never had to slide open the keyboard and navigate with the keys - which brings me to another point. The Motorola is one of the few Droids that comes with an attached keyboard. While I find this keyboard a nuisance and never use it, when my friends are playing on my phone and aren't use to the touch screen keyboard they find it nice to have a regular keyboard to use.
The connection speed is excellent, often times bringing up pages faster than our wireless Internet does. 

The touch keyboard on the Droid is splendid. Spaced evenly with a double wide spacebar, it makes for an easy to use and accurate typing space. I, personally, never use the provided keypad, as I stated before, and always use my on screen keyboard. The keys are separated well and are large. Though I couldn't find a picture of the other other keys, by clicking the button in the left bottom corner you will be able to select numbers and your common punctuation marks. From that page, if you click ALT, you will be able to choose from the many provided symbols. While I myself prefer the Itouch and IPhone keyboard, it was quite easy to switch to this one.(I owned an ITouch before I obtained the Droid)

The apps are easy to access and are listed alphabetically, making finding the apps you need a sinch. Not only that, but you can put up to 16 apps on each of your 5 home screens, making locating your favorites easy. 

I have many other things I like about the phone, but seeing as y'all probably don't want to be reading this all day, I will continue on with the cons.

The first con I'd like to point out is the thickness of the phone. Because of the keypad that is attached, it doubles the bulkiness of the phone. While I will not be tossing this phone out because of the fault, I do find it somewhat aggravating at times.
Another thing to point out is the occasional freezing problems. Every once and a while while browsing the Internet it will suddenly shut down the browser, returning you to your homescreen and closing all of the web pages you had open. It is very annoying sometimes, but as it only happens on occasion and perhaps only with my phone, it simply needs to be pointed out.
I couldn't decide where to put my opinion of the battery life - in the pros or cons- as I can't really decide. Compared to my friend's Samsung Transform it has excellent battery life, but when using it steadily throughout the day it is usually in need of a charge by around 3pm. And that's having charged it all night and unplugging it at around 7:30. I suppose it would just depend on how much you use your phone during the day.

The only other fault I'd like to point out is a very simple one and it makes me chuckle a bit that I'm even pointing it out but...it doesn't have a one of those holes where you can attach a phone charm.(pictured right) I found this to be a great downfall as a teenaged girl.

All in all, I am very pleased with my phone and prefer it to many of the other touch phones I've tried. While I really like Apple's technology, I found the Droid met all of my expectations and I prefer it when comparing it with the IPhone. I recommended this for people 14 and up, as I believe that with the amount of responsability you have when holding a phone with internet and countless apps would best be trusted in the hands of a mature teenager.

While Verizon no longer sells this model of Droid, they are easy to find used on Ebay and other sites. If you're looking for an easy to use, reliable, and really cool phone, the Droid Motorola just might be for you. :-)