Features
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Motorola Droid

Motorola Droid, offered by Verizon Wireless is an increasingly popular smart phone model. The Droid as the name indicates, runs on Google Android mobile operating system. The combination of Googles revolutionary operating system coupled with Motorola Droids high-end configuration is one of the main features that make Droid popular. The Motorola Droid offers a smooth touch-based interface that adds comfort to Internet browsing on the move.

A host of Google services, like GMail, Blogger and Orkut are available on the Droid. Furthermore, Google Android has a library of highly resourceful open source applications developed by a passionate Android developer community. The rich user experience of Droid places it in the league of path-defining mobile devices like the Apple iPhone.

Design and interface

The Motorola Droid at the first sight sports a rather conventional black box design, with a sliding screen that exposes a QWERTY keyboard. However, a closer look reveals some interesting details such as a large screen with a fairly sensitive capacitive touch sensitive interface. The screen supports a rich pallet of 16 million colors at 440*854 pixels. All of this translates to a bright screen loaded with a vibrant set of colors and amazing picture sharpness, which are all essential for a touch-based smartphone. The large screen however makes the phone rather large in dimension and a bit heavier as compared to peers; however that is a worthwhile trade-off for the larger touch screen that it offers.

The capacitive touch interface is quite sensitive and offers effortless navigation, without any noticeable glitches. The phone is also equipped with the much famous accelerometer that automatically keeps the display orientation fixed even when you rotate the phone. The basic look and feel of the operating system is not too different from other Android phones, except for few droid specific tweaks and some new updates of Android 2.0.

Keyboard

The QWERTY Keyboard underneath the sliding screen of the Droid is flat and square without any rounding. It takes an effort to exactly see what key you are typing as your fingers glide over the flat keyboard. The effort may reduce once you get used to the keyboard layout.

Besides the QWERTY Keypad there are four hot-key buttons at the bottom of the screen - Back, Home, Search and Menu that facilitate easy browsing and navigation. The Search hot-key brings up Google Search at a single click. These buttons are quicker and better usable than similar functions available through the touch menu. 

Connectivity

The Motorola Droid runs on CDMA 1X on 800 Mhz as well as 1900 MHz frequency bands. The phone provides excellent data as well as voice connectivity powered by CDMA, which is known to deliver good clarity and data connectivity. The Droid also supports data access through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11 B and G bands. The phone can also connect to a PC through a micro USB connector.

You can easily synchronize Outlook email, calendar and contacts; GMail; and even your Facebook updates through your PC/Laptop or through a direct data connection. Droid supports Push mail facility for Outlook Exchange Servers and GMail. The web browser bundled within the device supports even HTML 5 and allows easy navigation through bookmarks and multiple windows.

Multimedia support

Droid offers total support to a wide range of audio and video formats. With an audio engine that supports all popular audio formats such as MP3, OGG and WAV, the device makes a portable audio player redundant. The phone also allows you to view videos in 720*480 DVD quality at a smooth 30 fps rate. The phone also has great support for streaming media, which is very popular today in the era of YouTube and Hulu popularity.

Google mobile services and other applications

One of the major advantages of using an Android powered phone is its seamless integration with a host of Googles Mobile Services. The suite of services include Google Calendar, Maps, Contact Sync, Quick Search and Google Talk. The phone manages to keep up very well with the Social Networking wave, with support for Facebook apps, YouTube and more.

Conclusion

The Motorola Droid comes pretty close to the coveted Apple iPhone in terms of its functionality. However it still has some more way to go in terms of improving some elements such as the keyboard. Google Android, moving forward will have lots more to offer with its open source community ever developing newer and better applications. Owning a Motorola Droid that is regularly updated can help you get the most of Googles mobile initiatives and for that reason we think its one of the best smart phones currently available.

Pros:

• Large screen and rich user interface
• Faster browsing with updated browser and applications
• Unmatched support for Google Mobile suite of applications

Cons:

• Flat keyboard design which is not too ergonomic
• Does not support GSM and does not have a dual network arrangement

Technical specifications

Motorola Droid photos

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