‘Stopped by the Verizon store in the Bend River Mall yesterday to check out a Droid phone. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they have one available to play with. (I’d failed to find Android phones at T-Mobile and Sprint stores previously). After a half hour of poking around with it I walked away less than impressed. I’m not going to do a detailed review because there are plenty of those around. Suffice it to say it didn’t live up to all the hype.
Don’t get me wrong, the phone itself is nice enough. The hi-res touchscreen offers a big productivity boost over other Android phones. And the physical keyboard is better than average, but for a guy with big hands it’s still not exactly easy to use. I wish they’d ditched the D-pad (the little gold keypad to the right of the keyboard) and just made the keys bigger. I also have to wonder how well this [rather pricey] device will handle being dropped. I know a lot of iPhone users who are on their second or third phone after having broken the displays. And the Droid will be similarly prone to damage. (more…)