Verizon iPhone vs. Androids Everywhere

I recently had a pretty lengthy conversation with a Verizon user concerning the addition of the iPhone to their arsenal. This particular person thought that the iPhone was getting “killed” by Android. I tried my best to explain to him that comparing iPhone sales to Android sales was not an apples to apples comparison. The guy just couldn’t get it through his head that the sales of one phone made by one manufacturer and sold only on one carrier in the United States just wasn’t the same as several different phones manufactured by several different companies and sold by several different carriers. He had such a one-sided opinion that he couldn’t listen to reason.

The conversation started when this Android fanboy overheard me telling another friend that the iPhone was going to be HUGE on Verizon. I was explaining that all of the iPod Touch owners that for some reason or another couldn’t use an AT&T iPhone, were going to want to grab a Verizon iPhone so that they could seamlessly upload their music, videos, and apps to an iPhone just like they had been doing in the past with their iPod. Some argue that the Verizon V-Cast Media Player will pick up the iTunes media content and play it on their Android devices, but that’s just not the case. V-Cast doesn’t support the transfer of DRM protected files from iTunes to Android devices. So for all those Verizon users that have iPods, the iPhone is an obvious choice. For this reason, a week and a half before Verizon started taking pre-orders, I felt that the iPHone would be a smash hit on Verizon.

Last Thursday morning after only about 8 hours, Verizon and Apple had to shut down the pre-orders for the best selling mobile device ever offered on Big Red. Verizon alone pre-sold over 170,000 units. That’s not to mention the pre-sales directly through Cupertino. So Verizon iPHone pre-orders are closed until Thursday when they go on sale to the public at Verizon and Apple locations. Some of those lucky people that got through the jammed up servers last Thursday morning at 3AM received theirs today. Others that weren’t so fortunate will be standing in lines in front of Verizon and Apple Stores Thursday hoping they won’t get turned away empty handed. I wonder if that same loud-mouthed Android fanboy will see the lines and wonder what’s causing the commotion.

Motorola Droid X: Impressive, but not Perfect

Time for New Adventures

After almost two years of dating an iPhone junkie and constantly having to watch me navigate through the Facebook for iPhone and Foursquare apps, my girlfriend finally decided it was time to make the jump from flip phone to smartphone. Helping her upgrade to that new smartphone was an eye-opening experience. It was big jump considering the required additional monthly data plan and it was a very tedious decision considering the number of choices out there. If Verizon had offered an iPhone, the decision would have been much simpler, but regardless of all the rumors we heard back in the summer, that’s just not happened yet. Maybe next year Verizon users.

First Impressions

After searching the web for nearly every smartphone comparison out there, she  decided on the Motorola Droid X . Almost immediately upon arrival, she determined that it was much too big. When Steve Jobs compared them to Hummers, he was telling the truth, because these things are MONSTERS!! Being the techno-geek that I am, I did my best to convince her to give it a few days to see if it would grow on her. After all, no touchscreen smartphone device was going to be as compact as her old flip phone LG VX8350. She finally consented to try it out for a few days to see if she could live it.

Software

She and I both noodled around the Android 2.1 OS, with its MotoBlur UI overlapped, to finally figure out enough to get it set up to a usable fashion. I was impressed, but didn’t see anything that made me want to move away from iOS4. I’m sure I’m a little spoiled with three years of improvements for iOS, but Android has a little ways to go before it’s as easily navigated. For instance, it took me about two and a half hours just to get the phone to vibrate on incoming text messages. Now this might seem trivial to you, but she was going to SEND IT BACK the next day if we couldn’t get it to vibrate on incoming texts while set to silent mode. Wanting her to keep it so I could play with it some, I went to work right away trying to solve the problem. Why Motorola or Google didn’t have that setting included in the sound settings menu I’ll never know, but after finding nothing about the problem on Verizon’s or Motorola’s web sites, I finally found the answer after searching an online Android forum. I found several posts asking the same question, “How do I set my new Android device to vibrate only on incoming texts?” The answer was hidden in the text messaging settings menu which you have to navigate through the touch screen settings menus and then select a hidden menu by pressing one of the four physical buttons at the bottom of the phone. Sorry Google, but that’s way more complicated than the settings>sounds>vibrate>on/off with iOS. Regardless of the confusing configurations paths, my girl finally decided to give Droid X a few more days.

Performance Positives

The 1GHz OMAP processor was VERY snappy and the X jumped in and out of the different menus and apps. I noticed some lag when opening the camera, but it wasn’t really enough to be a deal breaker. The Verizon service was everything they say it is. I never saw her drop a call in the past week. Don’t kid yourself Big Red; there are spots where you don’t have service, but I know that it’s unrealistic to think you can get cell service EVERYWHERE. Also, regardless of Steve Jobs’s videos on different smartphones suffering from the same attenuation problems designed into iPhone 4, I couldn’t do anything to cause the Droid X to drop signal bars other than driving away from a cell tower. Glad you finally let that one go Steve. Win for Moto and Big Red!

Performance Negatives

The battery life is ATROCIOUS! She had to start carrying a plug in charger so she could charge her phone during the day at work. If by some unusual miracle it lasted through the afternoon, she was looking for an outlet early in the evening to charge. Sorry iPhone haters, but you can’t compare the battery of the Droid X to the new improved battery of the iPhone 4. Not even close! The battery on my iPhone 4 has never had to be charged before 10 or 11 o’clock in the evening. Big, GIANT, battery depleting FAIL!

The touch screen response also seemed very touchy and jerky even. If I tried to expand a picture to enlarge it for better viewing, it would expand in a choppy motion. Being the first Android device that I had ever really explored I thought it might be common to all Android devices, but after borrowing a friend’s first generation Motorola Droid I didn’t notice the choppiness nearly as much as I did with the Droid X. It might be something to do with the large 4.3″ display screen problems. But whatever the reason, it didn’t compare to the smoothness you experience when expanding a picture or web page on an iPhone. The screens and menus are equally touchy causing you to go into incorrect menus repeatedly and then having to “back out” using one of the four physical buttons at the bottom of the display. Another Fail.

The Final Straw

After visiting the Verizon store, buying a gel case, car charger, and screen protector film, she tested it out for the rest of the week and weekend. She finally decided that she just couldn’t live with the big phone because it wouldn’t even fit in her jeans pocket, and she didn’t want to leave an expensive device like that lying around on a restaurant table or on someone’s cabinet in their kitchen. To me it didn’t seem that large, but it was almost an inch taller and about 3/8 of an inch wider than my iPhone 4. Plus, the pockets on guys’ pants are much bigger than the pockets on girls’ pants (unless you’re a girl that wears momma jeans). Anyway, now she’s waiting two days for an HTC Droid Incredble just because it’s only about the same dimensions as the iPhone 4 and she thinks she’ll be able to carry it more comfortably in her pocket.  A more detailed review on that one will be upcoming in a few days after it lands tomorrow.

Final Thoughts

The Droid X is an excellent choice if Verizon is the best choice for you. The software my be a little jerky and choppy, but then it hasn’t really been improved over the last three years like that of the iPhone. The soon to be pushed Android 2.2 update could possibly improve the smoothness of software, the lag of the camera app, and maybe even the battery life (which could probably be slightly improved with a few settings tweaks). For a girl, I’m not sure you would ever get comfortable with Droid X unless you carry it in your purse all the time. But for a guy, I don’t think you’d notice the size difference much at all between it and most other touchscreen smartphones. It is in fact a very powerful and capable device. After all, Verizon is correct when they say “Droid Does“; I just think they could and WILL do even better.