Former iPhone Owner- Now Droid X

[mwspera1]

After 3 years with the original iPhone, I was ready to move on or move up. I was tired of the small screen, dropped calls, calls going straight to voicemail, dealing with iTunes (and the CONSTANT upgrades), Steve Jobs' attitude, no flash, poor camera, Edge network being useless, non-replaceable battery and memory, etc. The phone was a revolution when it came out but had become tired and more of a chore to use. I am not really a cell phone user, I just wanted a multifunction device to eliminate the need to carry around all those bits of hardware. It worked for a while because I did not really see how awful the AT&T network was. Most people want a phone that does tricks. I wanted a reasonably speedy computing device, good GPS navigator, MP3 player, and a good camera that also was a decent part time phone.

I evaluated a friend's Evo for 4 days. Loved the kickstand, the 4G speed from Sprint, the camera, and lots of other little things. But, as a stand-alone user the monthly cost was too high and the battery life was terrible - even with everything turned off. Since we already had a Verizon account, it would cost less to get a Droid X and join that plan. Actually, upgrading to a new iPhone or going to the Evo would cost roughly double that the Droid X.

Unfortunately, I could not get an evaluation of the X, I would have to buy one. After checking it out at the Verizon store, I was sold. Great device AND 1/2 the cost of iPhone service. It was a no brainer, especially with a 30 day money back guarantee.

After 3 days I am quite pleased with the decision. The Droid X lacks the polish of the iPhone experience. But that little edge is refreshing. I have been repairing and using computers since 1984 (remember the Imsai 8080?)  so I can hack my way through anything. That may be an obstacle to a newbie. They would be safer with the iPhone (the cell phone version of the Camry). Right out of the box (after activation) it would not connect to my computer. Went to the Web to find the solution (unmount the SD card and reboot). That alone would derail a newbie. Once done it performed quite well.

The call quality and performance alone was worth the switch. I am working through the "bugs". NO DOCK CONNECTOR!!! When will the Droid community get it together and make a DOCK STANDARD!!!!???? Without it you are forced to connect to multiple ports with multiple wires and deal with multiple problems.This is a MULTIFUNCTION DEVICE folks, put in a multifuntion connector. Yes, I bought the car dock. Small problem: ignition noise. Not a problem with the iPhone because the dock connector was well designed to eliminate EXACTLY those kinds of issues. O.K. I am scrounging up a ground loop isolator that will likely solve the problem. A little edge, right? I can handle it.

Loaded my legally purchased and ripped Seinfelds and videos. Uh-oh, most don't play, even though they are all MP4 format and created with the same software. Well, it seems that these devices use a different codec. UUUGGGGHHH!!! Will they EVER get this garbage standardized????? Oh well, rerip everything in M4V and hopefully that will take care of it.

I don't think the case will go the distance. I had the iPhone for 3 years and it looks like new. This soft touch plastic on the Droid has a bad track record for wear. We will see.

Will I keep it? Definitely. Will I ever go back to the iPhone. Nope, at least not for 3-4 years until I get the value that I have already paid for out of this device.

Later,

Mike

Friends don't let friends buy iPhones...

[TheGreatOne]

Kudos to you!  Nice solid review.

[ssmith10pn]

I still have an Iphone 3g for my personal and so does my wife. 4.0 made it a slow turd.

My corporate phone is the DX.

I will say this. The X will do a lot more and has a lot more horse power but the things the Iphone does it does it flawlessly.(Exchange Email)

In this area Verizon has almost blanket 3g coverage and with AT&T as soon as you get out of the metro area it goes to edge or no service.

The biggest problem is all of our family is ATT so there is no air time for mobile to mobile but I'm really considering talking my wife into changing.

[PiperCrab]

If you have a 1400 minute plan, you can always add the 10 most called peeps to that list for free mobile to mobile.

Yay, another happy Droid X owner. What is up with Steve and his crappy attire when making a keynote? At least dress like you aren't homeless Mr-I-reinvent-everything-by-using-the-same-crap-and-polishing-it. A turd polished is still a turd.

[curtterp]

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ssmith10pn wrote:

I still have an Iphone 3g for my personal and so does my wife. 4.0 made it a slow turd.

My corporate phone is the DX.

I will say this. The X will do a lot more and has a lot more horse power but the things the Iphone does it does it flawlessly.(Exchange Email)

In this area Verizon has almost blanket 3g coverage and with AT&T as soon as you get out of the metro area it goes to edge or no service.

The biggest problem is all of our family is ATT so there is no air time for mobile to mobile but I'm really considering talking my wife into changing.

---

If you have access to your exchange OWA (Outlook Web Access), you might want to give Touchdown by Nitrodesk a try. I have been using it for a while, and it works 99% of the time. It also has nice setup feature that figures out what services OWA has exposed, and does the setup for you.

They have a 30 day trial.. so you can try before you buy.

No I do not work for Nitrodesk, I have used touchdown for a while, and I am very happy with it. Much nicer than the corporate sync that is provided by Google.

[reallyniceguy]

On the ignition noise, I cant replicate that. What kind of cable are you using? Im using a radioshack gold plated cable. It was cheap, like 10 dllrs. I tried it on my mazda using regular jack and also with my mitsubishi, I think its a radio grounding issue. The ipod connector(i have an ipod) is already grounded very well.Try it in other peoples cars to see how it sounds.

[rabbithabit]

I agree 100%.  I now have an iPhone 3GS paper weight.

[Wildman]

Very nice review mwspera1 and glad you are enjoying your X because it is a nice device and holds its own in my opinion......  Out of curiousity what app are you using to do your videos?  Im using DVD Catalyst 3 and it does videos perfectly and all you have to do is select Motorola Droid from list and the application will do the rest, give it a look at http://www.tools4movies.com/  also you might want to look and Meridian Media Player at http://www.appbrain.com/app/meridian-player-pro-verifier/org.iii.romulus.meridian.proverifier it does nice with playing diffrent formats of audio and videos and gives you widgets as well.

[dogwalker]

I am also a former iphone owner. I now have the Droid X and am slowly learning how it works. I am not a computer person and most of the time I need step by step instructions. Now my problems. I found how to link my photos into my Droid took me awhile but I got it. Now my other problem. I cannot figure out how I can link my contacts that are on my Mac into my Droid. When I bought my new phone the sales person downloaded the contacts that were in my iphone in my Droid but within the last couple days I have put in 3 new contacts.

I thought just by plugging my Droid into my Mac everynight it would link everything like it did with my iphone. I was wrong.

Can anyone direct me to a site or Droid manual where I might find help.

Thank you.

[biohzd007]

I am a former iphone user and I too had trouble getting my contacts to sync with my mac. This is the solution I found:

1. First I sync all my contacts on my droid phone to my gmail account.

2. I turned on iTunes on my mac and attached my old iphone.

3. I click the iphone icon where i can manage my iphone in itunes and select the "info" tab at the top.

4. I check "sync address book contents" and the "sync google contacts". 

5. I go to the google options and put in my user name and password.

6. now i sync my iphone

I have over 4500 contacts that I sync this way and it works awesome.

[jose18]

im have bad luck my old phone was the storm so upgrade to droid x i has alot problem my data wont work in home is very slow and always say no service and text errors and now froyo 2.2 my gmail wont work i when to verizon store they only due is take the battery off they say is ok  but  if cancel i have to pay 350 termination fee

[mwspera1]

Update:

Nearly 2 months now and absolutely no turning back. Android is like a breath of fresh air in a stuffy (iPhone) world. I wound up giving the iPhone to an Apple fanatic. Funny thing, I got a kick in the{word filter avoidance} on the way out of Apple-dom. I wiped the device and then tried to reload. Guess what? UPGRADE TO #@$%$#@ NEW ITUNES NECESSARY!!! Here we go again. One of the very reasons I was getting off this platform nicks me on the way out. 2 hours later iTunes/QuickTime upgraded and the iPhone firmware reloaded. I can finally give it away and kiss iTunes good-bye.

The Froyo update cured the movie (non) playback issue. Some would play and others would not before the upgrade. Now they all play fine. It looks like we also got animated GIFs in the upgrade. Now the weather radar sites will play nice and animate. The update also cured the 1 or so reboots I got per week when playing music in the car dock while trying to punch in street addresses in the navigator. As a matter of fact, I have had NO freezes or reboots since Froyo.

I downloaded about 25 or so apps, mostly free but a few paid. What a dream. Downloads on 3G instead of being forced to go Wi-Fi (as I had to do on the old iPhone). and the stuff loads FAST. Angry Birds is a GREAT free game. Try it out. Google Sky Map, Laser Level, Nasa picture gallery. Great stuff.

I did work out the ignition noise problem. Looks like the Dice interface was the culprit. It appears that this particular problem is not widespread. I used a ground loop isolator (Best Buy). I am still working through the car dock quirks. When you actually navigate to somewhere, the nav screen is almost perfect. It does dim the screen according to ambient light so you are not blinded at night. It does not have a speed readout or direction like my old Garmin Nuvi did. I miss that. There is a small "North" arrow, but the mental math is too much while driving. It does present the streets in a kind of cartoonish oversize mode like most GPS navigators. That is so you can actually see the streets (and read their names) at a glance while in a moving vehicle.

Now the big problem: most GPS navigators will happily show you the exact same screen as you tool along going... nowhere in particular (big streets, 3D overhead view, readable street names). This is the mode you use 99% of the time. However, there is no such function on the Droid X. Sure, you can go into "Nav" or "Google Map" screens, but that ain't the same. The good news in Nav mode is you actually do get speed/direction in the lower left corner. Tha bad news is that the font is white and almost unreadable against the light colored map. Also, the Nav (or Google Map) page is an overhead SCALED view. What that means is that all the streets are depicted in ACTUAL relative size. Small sidestreets are pencil thin lines with a correspondingly tiny font that is unreadable - even with a magnifying glass. They are using an inappropriate map source to view in the car. This is great stuff at home where you can pan and zoom all over the place on a 19 inch monitor. But it is useless in the car. The final "oh, poop" is that the dim level is unchangable. It is WAY TOO BRIGHT at night. There is no way to dim it. No option in the menu, and the  brightness setting in the system settings is ignored. If you switch to the Google Map, the same problems exist except that you can add the "satellite" layer and the picture will dim down as it shows the map as an actual moving picture (green mostly as these views were recorded in the summer). Better but still unusable. You cannot read the street names, even if you can actually see the pencil thin street lines - now somewhat obscured with vegetation and trees. And both are "North Up" with no way to set it to "track up" YECH!. Way too confusing. If they would just allow you to use the Navigate function with NO DESTINATION, that would be much better. Add speed/direction IN BLACK and we would have it almost perfect. if someone knows how to get the unit to just navigate without a destination, PLEASE let me know the trick.

Now, about the satellite/GPS in general. With just the GPS receiver turned on, it takes WAY too long to acquire a position lock. Sometimes 5 minutes. If you turn on the cell tower position receiver AND the enhanced position feature, it locks in seconds. BUT, this eats up the battery at about double the rate vs. just turning on the GPS receiver. This is a definite deficiency as compared to dedicated GPS units. They can acquire very quickly, sometimes indoors (they keep their lock in a closed garage). The GPS receiver in the Droid X appears pretty weak. But, this is a compromise against power usage. Dedicated units rarely are called on to run only on battery power, if they even have a battery-only option. And, they are a LOT bigger physically to house these big batts.

Another annoyance is that many apps rely on a position. So, you need to turn on all the receivers to get any kind of position indoors. Again, this costs battery life... big time. 

The car dock gets quirky when playing music, navigating, and getting a call. There are 3 distinct volumes that all need to be set. And these get set all the time by other apps (and you). Can you say DOCK CONNECTOR???? This is where the iPhone shines and the Android withers. We really do need a dock standard. It would clear up MANY interface problems, especially in the car. So, after you get the music volume right (using the up/down switch), then you switch to the navigate screen and wait for the voice to speak out a turn. Again, set the navigate volume. Then, when a call comes in, you need to set that volume too. Too much stuff while driving.

Battery charging in the dock is also a problem. If the sun is out and the unit gets warmed by the sun, the battery will not charge. The unit gets HOT. This is a problem that needs to be fixed. The primary reason for the car dock is charging. Winter should stave off the problem for the next 4 months, but that ain't a permanent cure.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll check in later with more observations and other ramblings.

Good Luck,

Mike