To Droid or not to Droid?

[LF55]

Well, my 2 year con was up with Verizon so I opted to buy the Droid after some research and comparison. Price was $149, +t&t.

I talked it over first with some iPhone users (my son Cris included), and found there is some general grumblings about the Apple locks, and the AT&T net. Making a side by side comparison of specs between the Droid and the 3GS, the Droid wins in almost every category. Not the least of which is the 5 MP camera w/flash and 4x zoom, 480 x 854 screen res. (2 x 3GS), open source OS, slide-out keyboard and on-screen, 16 GB mem on board, replaceable battery, SMS & MMS, and about 10k apps on the market at roll out on 11-6. Runs on CDMA, EDGE, EVDO, GPRS, GSM, HSDPA (3G), HSUPA / 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100 versus GS3's GSM/EDGE / 850, 900, 1800, 1900.

I'm not slighting the 3GS. Apple after all defined the market, but I think this latest device is one up on Apple, and worth looking at.

[Swanny-CG]

Let us know how you liek it after a couple weeks. I'm a BB man myself but I think I'm going to need a second phone here pretty soon and I had my eye on the Droid.

Did they charge you $149 even after re-upping for two more years?

[Lin]

My Verizon contract is up next October, and I have been seriously looking at an iPhone. I've used a PDA phone for a few years now and have enjoyed it, but after purchasing an iTouch, using it and researching both, I had pretty much decided on getting an iPhone. Then came the Droid.

There are written pros and cons to both phones and both carriers. Verizon's current ad "there is a map for that" isn't entirely honest, and they're comparing apples to oranges. On the other hand, ATT's famous call-drop syndrome is real; I was with them before going to Verizon 3 yrs ago, and remember the call drops that I haven't had with Verizon. So, a small list of the pros and cons I have come up with includes but is not limited to the following:
ATT: call-drop // VZW: rare call-drop
ATT: less 3G than VZW but not as much as advertised by VZW
ATT: simultaneous phone and data use // VZW: choose one or the other, no simultaneous use
ATT: freedom for customizing phone // VZW: locks down customization and/or charges for it
ATT: phones aren't nerfed (RAM, CPU, etc) // VZW: nerfs phones (my HTC has half the RAM/CPU that same phone with other carriers has)
Last, VZW's early contract term fee for the Droid is $350...double what it used to be.

I was about to break my VZW contract and go with iPhone....but after reading a ton about the iPhone and Droid, I have chosen to wait until Summer 2010. By then the iPhone 4G will be out and Droid will have had a chance to catch up in upgrades and apps. I'll make a decision at that time.

All in all, the Droid is supposed to be a great phone, and should be a good choice. Keep us informed about how you like it!

[LF55]

Let us know how you liek it after a couple weeks. I'm a BB man myself but I think I'm going to need a second phone here pretty soon and I had my eye on the Droid.

Did they charge you $149 even after re-upping for two more years?

Yes, it was a $100 rebate on line, and an additional $50 for re-uping with VZ for 2. I've come from the Palm a few years ago, and I loved my BB 8830 and the RIM OS, but this animal is a horse of a differnet color. I used my son's iPhone for about a week, and I really liked it. That is what led me to think about the change to Droid.

[LF55]

My Verizon contract is up next October, and I have been seriously looking at an iPhone. I've used a PDA phone for a few years now and have enjoyed it, but after purchasing an iTouch, using it and researching both, I had pretty much decided on getting an iPhone. Then came the Droid.

There are written pros and cons to both phones and both carriers. Verizon's current ad "there is a map for that" isn't entirely honest, and they're comparing apples to oranges. On the other hand, ATT's famous call-drop syndrome is real; I was with them before going to Verizon 3 yrs ago, and remember the call drops that I haven't had with Verizon. So, a small list of the pros and cons I have come up with includes but is not limited to the following:
ATT: call-drop // VZW: rare call-drop
ATT: less 3G than VZW but not as much as advertised by VZW
ATT: simultaneous phone and data use // VZW: choose one or the other, no simultaneous use
ATT: freedom for customizing phone // VZW: locks down customization and/or charges for it
ATT: phones aren't nerfed (RAM, CPU, etc) // VZW: nerfs phones (my HTC has half the RAM/CPU that same phone with other carriers has)
Last, VZW's early contract term fee for the Droid is $350...double what it used to be.

I was about to break my VZW contract and go with iPhone....but after reading a ton about the iPhone and Droid, I have chosen to wait until Summer 2010. By then the iPhone 4G will be out and Droid will have had a chance to catch up in upgrades and apps. I'll make a decision at that time.

All in all, the Droid is supposed to be a great phone, and should be a good choice. Keep us informed about how you like it!

I'll let you know down the road Lin. I post on a Droid forum (droidforum.net), and hear people saying the same thing, that is they want to wait and see before making the purchase. I'm not usually the one to jump first, but since my contract was up at the beginning of Nov. and the roll out was on the 6th I decided to take the plunge once I did my homework. All I can say is no regrets yet, lots of oohs and ahhs, and I've made the transition with little pain or discomfort for an old goat like me.

I am seeing the VZ online price as $199 for the Droid. Only difference for me was an additional $50 off for renewal.

[one pump]

Pay as you go $10.00 a month just in case phone i keep in the truck FTW :O)

[LF55]

Can't beat that 1Pump!

[LF55]

Let us know how you liek it after a couple weeks. I'm a BB man myself but I think I'm going to need a second phone here pretty soon and I had my eye on the Droid.

Did they charge you $149 even after re-upping for two more years?

Well 3 weeks have passed Swanny, and I am still a happy camper with the Droid.

[Swanny-CG]

Do you have a full data plan? Do you use it for email? If so, how is the integration with email/contacts/phone dialing?

I don't care about flickring my tweets on facebook, I only want a solid, well-built, intuitive phone to use if I need to buy another one. So far my BB is an asskicker of every other data-type phone I've seen but I don't want to worry about email sync on a personal device, I'll just go gmail and webmail on my own device.

Thanks foir getting back to me on it.

[LF55]

Do you have a full data plan? Do you use it for email? If so, how is the integration with email/contacts/phone dialing?

I don't care about flickring my tweets on facebook, I only want a solid, well-built, intuitive phone to use if I need to buy another one. So far my BB is an asskicker of every other data-type phone I've seen but I don't want to worry about email sync on a personal device, I'll just go gmail and webmail on my own device.

Thanks foir getting back to me on it.

Swanny, I have a full Verizon data plan, and I use it for email (both gmail and an aol account), sexting ; ) and synching to my Outlook calendar. I'm big fan of BB too (I cried when my 8830W went back), but this is a different animal altogether.

It comes with Gmail, the Google browser (of course), but I have added the Dolphin browser (free) which gives much more functionality. There are plenty of additional apps both free and buy.

I haven't been a big fan of text to speech, but with the Droid I am using it all the time. If I say "Swanny", it will check my contacts list, and then present other options like swanny.com, a picture of a swan, or maybe a swan's knee. It's pretty intuitive.