By The all-stars at Engadget got some great video footage of the Motorola Droid at the launch event that we wanted to pass along:
Just a heads up… we’re going to get our own Motorola Droid right now. So stay tuned for some AWESOME coverage from Phandroid!!!
I guess the comparison to the iphone didn’t turn out the way he expected.. lol
Lol, did the long sigh give it away?
I do like the scrolling in the browser. It’s not faster than the iPhone’s, they just made it so that it doesn’t have as much of a resistance to scrolling.
Anyone know if this has ‘convo’/’threaded’ style text messaging?
OMG want nooooowwwwww
based on the first review with the lady my iphone is gone on the 6th. I was glad to see the driod is able to play video’s so i’m all set :)
For the comparrision i guess that is one of the few spots AT&T has a good 3g signal! My iphone has NEVER loaded a page that quick!
The product lady is an idiot. You can tell she’s a Motorola employee and isn’t familiar with android.
That test between the two browsers is not an accurate or fair test at all. First of all, the Droid has true multitasking capabilities, thus it may have been sending and receiving all kinds of data in the background that the iPhone just is doing. A genuine test would have all background functions or apps disabled on both devices, and more than one site would be tested multiple times.
Hey, I got an idea. How about explaing the phone function. Ya know the main feature people supposedly buy these for.
I personally don’t care if it can find the gps coordinates of the nearest pizza place at 2am.
I want to make phone calls with it. That makes me a contrarian I guess.
I can’t wait for the day when we won’t have to hear “for an android device” at the end of compliments on and android phone’s performance.
fred, if you don’t care about those features, there are much cheaper phones that offer good call quality. If features are not important enough for you to care about, then this probably isn’t the phone for you.
::LOUD SWEARING:: This thing may beat the iPhuck on some features but WHY THE HELL CAN’T THEY MAKE IT AS QUICK?! Looks like I get to wait around to see if the HTC Passion will let me down too…. I just am hoping this is the fault of the hardware and not as much the fault of the Eclair OS. If it’s the Droid hardware then the Passion could be what I’m hoping for… Time to get my hopes up all over again!
For the iPhone/Droid speed comparison, they should have the devices farther away from each other, as there may be interference between them.
Better to video one, then the other. Overlay one video over the other to show the two simultaneously.
I don’t know what vid you were watching KW, that looks pretty quick to me…
@fred – it doesn’t sound like you are the target audience for this phone. I think at this point everybody assumes the thing can send and receive phone calls… that’s really not so revolutionary. Something like voice quality or if the device drops calls etc… you can’t really get an idea for that from a 2 minute video anyways. I think most technically minded people are more interested in all the other stuff the device (and Android) can do. I for one and actually not much of a talker. I use and play around with my G1 for hours every day… but I probably only talk on it for about 20 – 30 minutes a month.
The wifi test is nice and all.. but 3G would have been more interesting.. The browser test shown really isn’t that big a deal.. although it does point out something.. Why the heck does it have to load the unused Google search screen when your loading a bookmark ? .. that’s just pointless, and obviously wasted a little time in this test.
@Powderhound – It is pretty fast, don’t get me wrong. It may even be fast enough for most people. But what I want is for someone to be able to get rid of the choppy switching. I can still see the lag when dragging between screens, pulling up different apps etc. and it appears to load webpages slower than iPhuck on wireless at least. These are things that piss me off ROYALLY. I want to be able to have phone with all the great features and without the lags. I want to be able to stand next to an apple fanboy and beat him hands down. My guess is that with the correct hardware backing Eclair this is possible. Looks like the best bet right now is gonna be the Passion or maybe even the Pre depending on how the Verizon version turns out. Let me just say this again though. The Droid looks very fast. Just not as fast as some people may be looking for after seeing an iPhuck.
Wish there were an edit button on my post :/ To clarify before someone jumps on me, I wasn’t implying that the Pre will be running Android (obv runs webOS), I was just referring to the phones most likely to have what I am looking for speed-wise.
Am I the only one that noticed the Droid had to load the ads on Engadget.com? The iPhone never loaded the ad above the “showcase” of new articles on the right. They really should’ve done a few tests, this one test is hardly conclusive.
LOL does this thing even have an accelerometer?
Can somebody do an in-depth comparison of the iPhone 3gs to the Motorola Droid? I currently have the iPhone and am more than disappointed (I’ve had all 3 versions of it, and feel like it still misses some key features, like better camera, flash, multitasking, etc.).
Yet, EVERY review out there says that the Droid is great “…for an Android device.” That leaves me wondering in what ways it does NOT stack up against the iPhone. If it’s simply that the Droid gives more user options and has less applications, that’s fine. But what else makes the iPhone shine when compared to a Droid?
@jack
Yes, per motrola’s website.
http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-DROID-US-EN.alt
@Jack I’m assuming you are asking if it has an accelerometer because when she turns it landscape at the home screen it doesn’t switch? If that’s all then that doesn’t mean anything, the stock Cupcake, and Donut don’t rotate on the home screen when you turn the phone sideways but some of the customer firmwares do. I’m pretty sure this phone is supposed to have an accelerometer.
My sorry iphone would never load a page that fast! To bad we have to wait till the 6th! GRRRRRRRRR!
Yes it has convo style text messaging
this looks so sweet but the software keyboard is still small and stupid and the keys are very close to each other while on the iphone its better and keys have more space between them.
And one more thing, Droid is supposedly 3.7 (or 3.8) inch screen then why is (the screen) less wide than the iphone !!! this is stupidly disappointing
My ipod touch doesn’t load nearly that fast on wifi. I get most of the page loaded, and the bar across the top at about 90% before I wait what seems like forever for it to complete. All the meanwhile, I can’t scroll, select, or do anything else as I’m LOCKED OUT of controlling movement of the page. Not sure if other mobile html browsers are the same, but Safari absolutely sucks in that aspect.
Note that the browser comparison is done over WiFi, not the ATT vs VZW networks. So, over a WiFi connection the iP3gs beats the Droid, but try them over the actual 3G networks they will run on… ATT being inept beyond belied and mind-numbingly slow, I am betting the Droid on VZW will crush it.
never cared for the iphone myself. i’ve played with it enough that i would have fallen in love with it if it was really as great as everyone makes it out to be. the only thing that makes it good is the GPU, but any device with a fast GPU would be great. hell, even a winmo device that could render as quickly as an iphone would be acceptable and would beat the iphone in functionality if not in stability. i can’t see why the droid couldn’t destroy the iphone, in fact, i’m betting that even if the initial release doesn’t accomplish it, the imminent hacks and upgrades will make this thing into a juggernaut that the iphone won’t even get close to without some major changes. of course, i’m also aware of verizon’s impeccable ability to harsh the mellow of any new device they allow onto their network. this would be the only wrench in the gears that i can foresee.
@Accelerometer comments
Switching to landscape via the accelerometer is a setting which is off by default in Android for devices with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. The lady showing off the phone clearly missed that one.
Also, as for the speed test, the Droid is still loading data for all of those widgets (Facebook, Pandora, SportsTap… etc) in the background as long as the Home application is still in memory. Also, the phones were placed very close together, and since they were both on WiFi, could have interferred with each other. Lastly, the browser in Android 2.0 supports Flash 10, which I’m assuming is why the ad showed up on the Droid but not the iPhone.
iWant.
BM said: “That test between the two browsers is not an accurate or fair test at all. First of all, the Droid has true multitasking capabilities, thus it may have been sending and receiving all kinds of data in the background that the iPhone just is doing. A genuine test would have all background functions or apps disabled on both devices, and more than one site would be tested multiple times.”
No, it’s a perfectly fair comparison. People who use Android phones are quite likely to have stuff going on in the background, and are unlikely to disable everything before browsing.
ok lets hear about the htc passion now so i can make up my freakin mind
@BM
I’m sorry, but if the OS allows you to run apps in the background and that can result in a slower experience for the user, I don’t see how the test is invalid at all. Apple has obviously consciously and very deliberately made the decision to terminate every app (with the exception of mail, phone and ipod) upon close for the benefit of performance.
The ‘best’ test is a normal real world condition test. The iPhone by its nature is always going to have nothing else running, and the Droid is most likely going to have a bunch of stuff running. This was one of the things that infuriated me the most about my HTC Magic and led me to switch back to the 3GS. Performance just became unacceptable as far as I was concerned after starting a few apps and having really no way to actually close them (sure you can go get taskkiller, but why should I have to?).
I’ve already seen a few videos of the Droid scrolling in landscape mode that really make me wonder if this thing has enough power for the big screen.
@ironi
the first generation and 3G versions of the iPhone essentially run on identical hardware to the G1/MyTouch yet are significantly faster from a perception perspective.
I am worried that Android is very resource heavy compared to iPhone OS and thus needs substantially more hardware to achieve the same ‘performance’.