Based on Engadget Review, Droid Has More Cons Than Pros for Me so Far

Web image courtesy of Verizon Wireless

The countdown continues on Verizon’s…

Droid Does

…website. It countdown timer has just a bit over 4 days to go as I write this. I’m still debating whether to buy the Motorola Droid or not. The Droid’s relatively reasonable $199.99 price is the issue, of course. The problem is whether I’m willing to pay $1,680 (plus incidental fees and taxes) over the course of a mandatory two-year Verizon Wireless contract. So, I’m reading previews and reviews of the Droid as they emerge. Engadget has provided a bunch of previews, photos, and videos of the Droid. So, it is no surprise they have an in-depth review of it too…

Motorola DROID review

Here’s a couple of their pros and cons that interested me the most…

- Speed is better than other Android devices but not blindingly fast (con)
- No multi-touch (semi-con)
- Keyboard (based on a photo) does not have dedicated numeric row. Layout looks a bit quirky (cons)
- Navigation pad looks usable. Would have preferred the little trackball that the G1 has (pro)
- Camera performance is so-so (con)
- Video recording is at 720×480 resolution. This is an odd size. It is larger than the more conventional VGA-resolution of 640×480. I didn’t note much of the “rubberband” effect seen in the iPhone 3GS and Touch Pro2 videos I made. (pro)
- Standard 3.5mm headphone jack (pro)

Adding up the pros (+1) and cons (-1), I end up with a -0.5 (the no multi-touch semi-con was the tie breaker). And, Android’s limitation of only being able to install apps in its limited system memory gives it another con (-1) for me bringing the score down to -1.5.

It is staring to look like I should just continue to look for an unlocked GSM-based Android phone. But, I’ll continue to read pre-release reviews until the Droid launches at the end of this week.

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