Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last few months, you’ve seen the commercials. “DROID does,” they say. So I asked Verizon for a DROID. I wanted to see how it would stand up to the iPhone. They let me spend a month with the latest would-be iPhone killer.

A Robotic Kind of Pretty

I had seen the DROID in photos and commercials but not really up close. What shocked me was that several times, I saw people referring to blog posts claiming this was an ugly phone. It’s not curvy like the iPhone and it’s not quite as shiny as the LG Chocolate Touch, but it’s definitely better looking than the G1. DROID pulled off just the look you would expect from a personal assistant robot phone. It’s hard, cold metal. It’s not a warm elegant aesthetic. It’s a robotic kind of pretty. While I prefer the soft roundness of the iPhone, I don’t dislike the DROID at all.

(Click here to see all the photos)

One of the notable features of this phone is the built-in keyboard. It’s something that many iPhone owners have complained about the lack of, so it’s welcomed with DROID. In addition to the slider keyboard is a slick little navigation pad. Both the face and the back of the phone are completely flat. There isn’t one button sticking out. There are four buttons on the face of the DROID, Back, Menu, Home, and Search. Under the battery cover is the SIM card, the microSD card and, of course, the battery, another “does feature”. I would rather have the microSD slot more easily accessible, but at least it’s tucked away safely. The sides of the phone include the standard volume buttons, micro USB connection and a dedicated camera start/shutter button. The power button is located at the top, where I like it, but I found it harder to use than other phones. I really had to try to get it to turn on or off. I don’t want a phone that will turn off or on unexpectedly through an accidental brush of the power button, but it shouldn’t be too hard to do, either.

The touch screen was very slick and easy, unlike most touchscreen phones, and it surprisingly seemed brighter than my iPhone’s screen (which I keep at full brightness). The screen and its response to human touch is very important in a phone of this caliber and DROID really impressed here.

A Good Smart Phone Makes You Forget It’s A Phone

Smart phones aren’t for everyone. All the features would probably be more in the way for my mom, for example, because she’d never use them. For everyone else a smart phone is an extension of their online or work life. It allows us to continue to check email, tweet, update facebook and browse the web while on the go. A smart phone is really just a super-portable computer that makes phone calls, so it should feel a little like one. The DROID does a pretty good job of this. With the built-in slider keyboard, software keyboard, GPS, 5 MP camera, WiFi, integrated turn-by-turn (which I loved, by the way), and everything else, it really lives up to the claims in the commercials that it will help you with just about everything.

One of the things I noticed as well was the notifications for new emails, tweets, etc were tucked up out of the way in the status bar at the top. We iPhone owners were happy to finally get push notifications, but they’re still often in the way. When I get a text, it jumps up in front of whatever I’m doing on my iPhone. If I’m sniping an eBay auction, too bad. With DROID, any new text messages, emails, or tweet notifications are placed visibly at the top where I can see them and deal with them on my own terms. Well done, there.

Because the DROID marketing campaign was centered around the idea that it “does” what (presumably) the iPhone doesn’t, I tried to do things on it that I couldn’t with the iPhone. One such example (and the only one that failed me, really) was Adobe Flash elements in web browsing. I hate that I can’t view/use Flash in my iPhone browser and really had my hopes up for DROID, but Flash was not available at the time of my review. At least there’s a planned date for it. I also was a little disappointed to find no “pipe” (|) key on the keyboard. For those of us who work on unix/linux servers, it’s sorely missed. The other 99.9% of you will never even notice it.

The web browsing experience was very smooth. Not only was the scrolling seamless, but it also pops up a sneak peek of the complete page shrunk way down so you can see where you are in the page and if you need to scroll up or down to get to what you’re looking for. I need that on my desktop, too! The browser offers up all the typical options like bookmarking emailing a page, etc. The zooming was not all I’d hoped for. It worked, but just wasn’t as intuitive as on the iPhone’s pinch-zoom. The screen is a good size, and pretty clear, so zoom isn’t that much of a concern, though.

An original concern I had with the Android platform and the phones that run it was the selection of applications. While there’s still room for growth, the Android application marketplace is now full of all kinds of apps for most needs. There’s a few missing gems still, but all the basics are covered, including a few I’ve never seen on the iPhone. I loved the bar code scanner (an early Android app) and one that acts as a metal detector. I’m not sure how it did it, but it could detect metal objects I placed over the phone. I was showing that off to several people. Needless to say, my original fears about the app marketplace are no more. The ones that don’t yet exist soon will and the open platform development opens the door to all kinds of possibilities.

Should I Buy A DROID?

I already have an iPhone (and the contract that comes with it), so I won’t be shelling out the money to move just yet. However, DROID has me thinking about my options. I moved to the iPhone after years with Verizon and definitely noticed a drop in coverage. DROID is on a great network, for sure and is a great buy for anyone looking for a hot smart phone on a reliable network. A friend of mine wanted to buy the review phone I had and eventually ended up buying a DROID in the store to replace his iPhone. Verdict : If I didn’t have a phone right now, I’d probably be in the Verizon store buying a DROID.

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