Posted on 12/04/2009 12:43:52 PM PST by Swordmaker
I’ve had the droid since the third day it came out. I really like it a lot. It’s extremely quick, the battery life is excellent, and Verizon’s network coverage, both voice and 3G is excellent.
I was already a veteran Android OS user. I had the G1, the first Android OS phone, on T-Mobile, from the first week, over a year ago. I really liked the G1, and T-Mobile is a good company with great customer service, but their 3G coverage is a bit thin. Once I tried the droid, and saw that it was much much faster than the G1, the OS is much more refined (and they keep making improvements and sending them out OTA) and on a better network, I busted my T-Mo contract to get it, and I am really glad I did.
The iphone is nice but here are just a few advantages of the droid over iphone:
user removable battery
user swappable and increasable memory card
can tether with Android, iphone cannot
higher resolution screen than iphone
5 mp camera with dual LED flash and camcorder
open source OS — more user customizable than iphone
better voice and 3G network
carrier with better customer service record than iphone
Competition is good for us all. Let the carrier wars continue.
Another problem, one highlighted in a nice Apple ad, is that with Verizon, you can’t get voice and data at the same time. With AT&T you can.
That goes without saying. I am posting this from an iPhone while I am also speaking to a client via the voice channel.
iDon’t want a device claiming to be 3G where iCan’t do that. That’s not the droid I’m looking for.
Ars Technica's Review of the Droid states that if you use its vaunted multitasking, music, or navigation, the battery life is only about 3-4 hours.
That's why Apple doesn't enable multitasking on the iPhone... to keep the core purpose of telephoning operating for the longest time possible.
Yup!
My people travel more out of Texas than in. In fact, at this moment, I have eight people on the terminal server via their ATT 3G cards; one in CA, two in Missouri, one in NYC, two in Texas, one in Michigan (not sure why he’s up there) and one in Kansas.
Every single VZW engineer and suit I’ve talked to. And I’ve talked to a few, being friends with a lot of VZ people here in DFW and being a regular visitor to their national NOC north of the airport.
Almost all the ATT 3G devices can do this. Nothing VZW sells can - even their version of the same phones ATT sells.
Oh, guess what the most popular phone at the VZ NOC is? Even though the Droid is practically free for them, the vast majority of Verizon’s own network engineers refuse to use it and buy iPhones with their own money instead. Interesting, no?
BTW, Verizon upped their cancelation fee to $350 if you cancel your Droid contract.
I’m glad you posted that correction. I was thinking, “Dang, dude. You don’t get along with anyone!”
3-4 hrs of batt life on droid — BS! If that were true, everyone would be returning the phone. The review is wrong!
The 256MB of RAM will hold hundreds and hundreds of apps — plenty for almost anyone. I have about 150 apps, and have 172MB of space remaining!
That’s the point — I know it is capable, but AT&T doesn’t allow tethering — and promises are cheap. I was tethering over a year ago on my G1, and I am tethering whenever I like on my droid (I only use for emergency — I don’t abuse the privilege). I don’t live on “promises”.
It doesn’t have 5MP or a flash, does it?
Open source isn’t “so what” if you have used it. Try getting out of jail and trying it.
Android market has all the apps most people need. iphone has many duplicates, plus your apps cost more. Most Android apps are free. I have only had to pay for say less than 5 apps out of 150 that I wanted.
I noticed you didn’t comment on the user removable battery — what a concept!! Personally, I wouldn’t buy an iphone for that reason alone (along with the crap network it is on)
Let the phone and carrier wars continue!
Yes, they did, and
1) I bought my droid before the ETF doubled
2) the FCC is now “looking into” their ETF doubling
“Every single VZW engineer and suit I’ve talked to. And I’ve talked to a few, being friends with a lot of VZ people here in DFW and being a regular visitor to their national NOC north of the airport.”
Your friends at Verizon are all wrong, or you misunderstood what they were telling you. There is nothing precluding multi-tasking in the CDMA air interface. That’s a hardware issue.
I don’t care what brand of phone anyone uses. That’s up to them.
All I know is that *as implemented by Verizon* and per their engineers, they can’t multiplex voice and data. As they’ve told me the only way that VZ can do it is to upgrade most of their system... and since it costs about as much to do that as it does to just give up and move to LTE, well...
That review specified IF you used applications in MULTITASKING mode, or played music (for some reason the screen stays on???), or used it for constant navigation, then expect only 3-4 hours of battery life... otherwise the talk time is a good 6-7 hours. The iPhone's talk time was about 5+ hours on 3G but 12 hours on the less demanding 2.5G.
Ars Technica is seldom wrong on technical reviews. Other reviews have noted the same concern about battery usage when Multitasking. You don't get something for nothing web.
It doesn’t have 5MP or a flash, does it?
Nope, so far, I haven't needed more than that... but it's low light capabilities are very good. I have a 10MegaPixel camera I keep handy for taking pictures. Does your Droid have a glass lens like the iPhone, or is it plastic like most other cellular phones?
Android market has all the apps most people need. iphone has many duplicates, plus your apps cost more. Most Android apps are free. I have only had to pay for say less than 5 apps out of 150 that I wanted.
Most of the apps I have are also free... and the most I have paid for an app is $2.99 and the rest were 99¢, not exactly going to break the Swordmaker bank.
I noticed you didn’t comment on the user removable battery — what a concept!!
Sorry... missed it. In two years of using my iPhone I have never needed to swap a battery. In fact, in twenty years of using cellular phones, I have NEVER needed to swap a battery. When batteries got too weak to hold charges, it was usually time to get another phone with better capability anyway... so I did. However, my original iPhone, with its original battery from June of 2007, is still going strong being used by one of my daughters, and, near as I can tell, lasting about 80% as long as it did when it was new. two and a half years ago. So why would I worry about a user swappable battery?
I have used the original iPhone to surf the Internet for as much as 8 hours (using EDGE) in one day. The best I have been able to do surfing with 3G is about 5 hours because 3G uses more energy than EDGE... if I anticipate a need for longer, I switch off the 3G and use the 2.5G EDGE.
If I needed more time, there are several solutions, such as the Tekkeon MP1200 MyPower iPhone Battery Sleeve, that adds only about an eighth of an inch of thickness to the iPhone temporarily while you use them and extend the time by several hours, that I could get. But, as I said, I haven't ever felt the need.
That’s the point — I know it is capable, but AT&T doesn’t allow tethering — and promises are cheap. I was tethering over a year ago on my G1, and I am tethering whenever I like on my droid (I only use for emergency — I don’t abuse the privilege). I don’t live on “promises”.
That IS the point... the bandwidth being consumed by iPhone users, some 18 million of them on AT&T, is already adversely impacting the networks capacity to handle data, especially in heavy urban areas, which is really making the AT&T network drop calls even more, just to handle the iPhone's need for data. If a lot of them tether their much more data hungry notebooks to their iPhones, then the network will be far worse off. AT&T was not expecting what the iPhone was capable drawing on its own... in fact, no one was expecting it.
So far, the Droid is selling well—news today puts the number at 700,000 since it was release on October 30th, and I'm very glad for Verizon's users because they need something that is like the iPhone—Verizon's data network has yet to feel the impact of lots of data hungry users impacting their network. Wait until they do. Verizon is not known as a company that gives anything away for free.... nor is AT&T. I suspect they, too, will regret allowing tethering.
My understanding is it’s the current version of CDMA that can’t do it.
Verizon is skipping the next level so to speak to go direct to LTE.
So yes, CDMA actually CAN allow voice and data simultaneously, but only the newer technology.
Verizon, of course, wound up disabling the multitouch function on the device. That's Verizon for you.
The problem is not a technical one but one of User Interface. You (the User Interface) need to spend more time where AT&T has coverage.
:-)
What happen to our Fair Tax?
Bandwidth exceeded....
“the vast majority of Verizon’s own network engineers refuse to use it and buy iPhones with their own money instead. Interesting, no?”
I don’t think you can make an ATT phone work with Verizon, even if you do buy it with your own money.
Better name recognition.
everyone’s heard of a scud missile. Not everyone has heard of a patriot missile.
RPG
AK47
same deal.
Tell a gun ignorant person something shoots like an AR15 and he won’t know what the * you’re talking about. But tell him it shoots like an AK47 and he will know exactly what that is.
Verizon has better coverage than att. even a dumb punk kid knows this.
You seem to be in denial.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.