My New Droid X

I confess. I'm a tech geek. I love gizmos and gadgets. So, when it comes to cell phones, I've been very unhappy :( that I live in Verizonland, the province — until now — of pretty yucky smart phones. For the past year, continuing to struggle with my clunky Windows Mobile phone, I've clung to every rumor that maybe, just maybe, the iPhone will be coming to Verizon soon.

I'm sure someday it will, but I got tired of waiting. So last week I queued up at a Verizon store in Scranton to pick up the much-hyped Droid X on its launch day. I felt like a teenager lining up for Lady Gaga tickets.

I've been using the Droid X for a week now, and I couldn't be happier.It's speedy, customizable and has this HUGE 4.3" screen. That screen makes the onscreen keyboards incredibly smooth to use. (I've never been a lover of onscreen keyboards). There's also very accurate speech-to-text dictation, and Motorola wisely added a Bluetooth voice dialing app. (Voice dialing isn't slated to be part of the Android platform until the release of the next version of Android, coming later this summer.)

The purpose of this post isn't to get into an iPhone versus Android shoot out. Probably if the iPhone had been available on Verizon, I would have gone that route. But now that I've spent time with the Droid X, I'm not sure I'd flip over. This is one really sweet phone, and well worth considering if, like me, you're a captive of Verizon.

Comments

[bluelite]

Did you even consider a Palm Pre on VZN? It has a great operating system, a nice screen and a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

[ar]

I've heard several other similar rave reviews by Droid users.

[nick]

If you're in Sullivan and hunting for cell service all the time like most of us check out the "Antennas" app for Android. It's pretty fascinating -- simple concept, it shows you which cell tower you're connected to at any given time. But it you run it for a little while it'll start to figure out where all the towers are around you, etc, and you can watch yourself get handed off from one to the next as you move around.

Obviously it doesn't really change your reception but I love it. If you have a weak signal knowing which direction it's coming from is damm handy, you can drive in the right direction to get a better signal, or stand on the best side of the building, etc. It also explains a lot of what seems random... like when you're in a dead zone and keep getting passed back and forth between two towers like a football. Love it.

The Tricorder app is also just amazing, shows data from all the sensors in the phone (cell service, wifi, audio, etc). Essential geekout tools, both free...

[Tom P]

My Iphone works great via ATT service in the Beechwoods.