The DROID X by Motorola is clearly a sports car among the current smart phones on the market. Lets take a quick tour.
Platform
The DROID X currently runs the Android 2.1 platform which is very well done & continually improving.
Touchscreen
I’ve always been a little wary of touchscreen phones for two reasons.
1) I have big hands and fat fingers which make it a little difficult to be accurate when typing. Much to my surprise, with the generous 4.3-in. screen, this hasn’t been too bad. And once I got the hang of the Predictive Text (Swype) feature it has really been pretty easy to use.
2) It drives me crazy when anyone touches a TV or computer screen. To remedy this pet peeve I highly recommend carrying around a micro fiber cloth to clean off the oil on the screen.
Voice Quality
The voice quality of the DROID X is decent but I’d personally recommend getting a Bluetooth® headset to go along with it.
Battery Life
As with most portable electronics, battery life is a major concern. Having used the DROID X with Twitter, Gmail & Facebook constantly running in the background with the default screen brightness, the 480 minutes of continuous use is a little generous if you’re looking for active use. To help improve battery life I highly recommend an app such as the free Advanced Task Killer.
Still Camera
The still camera is 8 MP and has a very decent auto focus feature. Compared to other phones on the market right now I really don’t know what else you can ask for.
Video Camera
The video camera is an amazing HD 720p (1280x720p resolution) camera with 3 built in microphones. Having shot a few test videos with it I’d personally rather use this instead of toting around something like a Flip. The only other things I could really want would be 1080p with an external mic option, but this is a phone so I really have no complaints.
Apps, apps & more apps
Packing 24 GB of storage out of the box with the possibility of expanding to 40 GB you should have plenty of room for any of the numerous apps available in the Android Market in addition to the pre-installed applications.
Of the pre-installed applications, Google Maps™ Navigation is an excellent GPS application which will get you where you need to go. You can actually speak your destination to it, using the excellent speech to text feature of the Android platform, and be on your way. And if your destination is on Google’s Street View, it will show up on the screen when you arrive.
For social media I highly recommend choosing a Twitter app & the Facebook app. For Twitter there are numerous app options, so give a few a whirl and see what you like. My personal favorite is Seesmic. And if you use WordPress I highly recommend installing the WordPress app.
For games there are also numerous options. Everyone will want to install Angry Birds and then take a look through the other game options in the Android Market. There are plenty of excellent free games to keep you busy.
Bottom Line
I highly recommend the DROID X. Of the smart phones currently on the market, the DROID X does just about anything you can throw at it. But I would probably buy a second battery to go along with it.
Technical Specifications
- Network: Verizon 3G
- Platform: Android 2.1
- Battery: Up to 480 minutes continuous, up to 220 hours standby, 1540 mAh Li Ion
- Memory: up 8 GB on board, 16 GB removable microSD pre-installed (supports up to 32 GB microSD)
- Display Size: 4.3-in.; WVGA (480 x 854)
- Weight: 155 grams
- Size (H x W x D): 65.5 x 127.5 x 9.9 mm
- Camera: 8 MP, Digital Zoom, Flash, Auto Focus, Cropping, Rotating, Geo Tagging
- Video Camera: HD 720p quality (1280x720p resolution) up to 24 fps capture; up to 30 fps playback, 3 microphone technology
- Media: Android Media Player, Video & Audio (AAC, H.263, H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, WAV, eAAC+, WMA v10, MIDI, AAC+)
- WIFI: 802.11 n
- 3G Mobile Hotspot: Be a mobile hot spot for up to 5 other devices
- Connector Type: Micro USB, HDMI® Micro Connector Cable
- Data Transmission Rate: USB 2.0 (High Speed)
- Other: Bluetooth®, SMS, MMS, Predictive Text (Swype), Speakerphone
Preinstalled Applications
- Google Apps
- Gmail™
- Google Calendar™
- Google Contact Sync™
- Google Latitude™
- Google Maps Street View
- Google Maps™
- Google Maps™ Navigation
- Google Quick Search Box™
- Google Talk™
- Google™ Search By Voice
- Youtube™
- Email: Corporate Sync, Google Mail, Push Email, WebKit
- Web Browser: Android HTML Webkit, Adobe® Flash® Player
- Other: Calculator, Calendar, Clock, Wallpaper, Ringtones (AAC, AAC+, eAAC, eAAC+, MP3, OGG)
Disclosure: The DROID X by Motorola was provided for review by Verizon Wireless.