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Droid so far

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I’ve had the Droid for a few days now. Here are my emerging opinions.

Things I like

  • Background processes – push email, IM, and notifications in general provide a superior communication experience.
  • Surprisingly long battery life. Despite running all those background applications, the phone’s battery is still at half full after 12 hours.
  • The LED on the front bezel blinks when you have something waiting for your attention – no need to turn on the screen.
  • It’s fast. Most applications seem to have almost no load time.
  • The slide out keyboard lights up in the dark.
  • Facebook and Google sync everything in the background. When a new contact appears in Gmail, it’s automatically on the phone.
  • The screen is extremely readable. Font rendering is especially good compared to the iPhone.

Things I do not like

  • The camera takes horrible pictures and does not focus properly.
  • Scrolling the home screen is rough.
  • The virtual keyboard does not automatically appear when a text input field is highlighted. You have to tap the field to summon the keyboard.
  • There is a limit of 3 home screens.
  • Some of the applications that I enjoyed on my iPhone do not yet have an Android equivalent. Amazon Kindle is the one I miss the most.
  • They layout algorithm for the home screen truncates application names longer than one line, even when there is obviously plenty of space.
  • The interface aesthetic needs a lot of work. For starters, the black background featured in some parts of the interface is mismatched with the gray gradient background found in other parts. There needs to be a universal design tying all the components together. This would also help unify the appearance of third party applications as their developers take cues from the standard UI and widget set.
  • The volume rocker and camera button have too much play, which makes them feel cheap.

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6 Responses

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  1. K says

    I suspect point #5 on the ‘things you dont like’ will be a big hurdle in preventing Droid from becoming popular. Apple has too much of the mindshare already

  2. Kevin Chiu says

    Yes, but I think companies are realizing that Android marketshare is a growing minority that will be difficult to ignore in the near future. Looking among my current iPhone apps, I note that Evernote and Dropbox Android apps are in the pipeline.

    “Devices running on Android accounted for 17% of U.S. smartphone traffic, up from 13% in August.”

    http://www.ismashphone.com/2009/10/admob-mobile-metrics-report-for-september-android-share-is-growing.html

  3. James Landay says

    I’m really surprised you don’t have larger complaints about the UI than consistency of the colors… what grade did I give you? :) Really, is it that improved over Android 1? I need to get ahold of one or can I upgrade my G1 yet?

  4. Kevin says

    Keywords here: “for starters”

  5. Kevin Chiu says

    @James Landay

    I don’t think you can upgrade your G1 unless you’re willing to install the unoptimized SDK version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ijAgr7v8Mo

  6. Kevin Chiu says

    @James Landay

    Android 2.0 is now available for the G1 – http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/11/14/android-2-0-source-released-already-ported-to-the-g1/



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