Let me start off by talking about the Droid’s web browser. This phone is great for people who don't like to wait! Websites are rendered extremely fast and I have never had to wait more than a few seconds for something to load. The internet really blazes along. The only fault is that Flash is not yet available on the Droid but it will be at the start of next year. The browser works either vertically or horizontally depending on how you are holding the phone. To zoom in on a page you just simply tap twice on the screen where you want to zoom.
A very important asset to the Droid is the voice-search technology powered by Google along with Google maps. Personally I hate having to type everything one key at a time on that tiny keyboard. The Droid eliminates this problem. You can easily tell the droid what you’re looking for and it will do a search for you. I have found the voice recognition to be extremely accurate and extremely easy to use. You can also use the voice functionality within Google Maps. Say you're driving somewhere, you glance down at the gas gauge and, oh no! Your're on empty! Simply say “Map of gas stations”. It will then automatically show you all the closest gas stations for that area. What if you suddenly get a hankerin' for a big mac on the go? You could say “navigate to McDonald’s” then it would find the nearest location for you and can give you turn by turn voice directions all the way there. You can even see a satellite view of your route or a street view in case the plain old maps aren't enough for ya.
The 5.0 megapixel camera on the Droid is another asset that does not dissapoint. The images are high quality with very little, if any, blurring. You can also use the camera for various apps such as Google Goggles which allows you to take a photo of an item then it will do a Google search based on the item in the photo rather than based on text. This also works by taking a picture of businesses. Another app allows the camera to be used as a barcode scanner enabling you to find instant information on any product.
As far as apps go there are plenty of neat ones already available and the app library is growing at a rapid pace (there is already over 10,000). One of my favorites is the Ustream broadcaster which once again uses the camera to allow you to broadcast from any location that you desire. There is really an app for just about anything you can imagine. It certainly already has all the essential apps that you desire. The Droid is also great at multi-tasking, allowing you to run many apps at the same time without slowing down the phone’s performance.
As for the keyboard on the phone it comes with both an onscreen keyboard that can be used vertically or horizontally and a pull out keyboard. Personally I prefer the onscreen keyboard. With the pull out keyboard, I find myself making many more typos and hitting the wrong keys. The onscreen keyboard has bigger keys and is just easier to type with in my opinion. If I had to pick a flaw on the Droid I would say it would be the pull out keyboard. I think it could’ve been designed a little bit better. Especially for people who have large man fingers like myself.
The Android operating system as whole performs nearly flawlessly, everything is extremely smooth and so easy to use. I can’t stress enough how user-friendly Android is. I have yet to experience anything complicated about using this phone. Basically you just tell it what you want and your every wish is the Droid’s command. For this reason I believe the Droid to be the best PDA/smart phone on the market today. I don’t believe any other can really even begin to compete. I highly suggest you go out and get yourself one!
Nice post. I hope to get a droid as my next phone in the futureeee... go figure that. Sounds just as good if not better than any iPod or iPone.
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