Droid

So as I said, I got a Droid. Back in '09, when the teaser ads for the device began to surface, I thought it was a joke. The name implied that it was simply an Android phone for Verizon, but somewhere along the way, I must have read something that I interpreted as stating that it was going to be completely different from Android, and simply used a couple of Google services provided by the company. This made no sense to me; sure, it was logical to whip up some special features on the iPhone, back before Android had launched. But doing so again would have been counterproductive to their new phone OS.

Sure enough, the Droid does have some quirks that keep it from being identical to other Android phones, but said phones often have their own qualities that keep them from meshing with the Droid. For example, there are certain Apps that are not Droid compatible, yet the Nexus One can't play some games due to screen resolution issues. But this isn't a post about Android inconsistencies (maybe I'll do that another day, when I know more about it). For now, let's stick with the phone at hand.

The Droid has gotten mostly favorable (and some raving) reviews, and the key to that is that it does a fine job of aping the iPhone without feeling like a cheap knockoff. As a counter example, consider the LG Venus. Verizon got that sucker out as quickly as they could once the iPhone launched, and dammit if it didn't look silly. The interface was as close as possible to a 1-to-1 copy of the iPhone's, only the icons were not quite as slick, and the App support was a mystery. It tried to ride the wave, but it didn't look much better than a Chinese knockoff. They tried to one up Apple by including a keyboard, but it ultimately made the phone a lot chunkier than it needed to be (or at least it looked chunkier to me). LG ran into the same problems that most companies have when they compete with Apple. They can't make their software quite as simple and elegant, and they can never cram the same hardware into a device with the same small size and simple shape. No one really makes competitors to Apple products, so much as wannabes. I say this as a Linux fan with no Apple products in my life, and who looks for a reason to criticize the company. That doesn't stop me from admitting what they do damn well.

So back to the Droid. From a hardware perspective, Motorola avoided most of the pitfalls that plague the competition. It's a bit thicker than an iPhone, and the screen is a bit bigger, but overall you've got two devices of roughly the same size and shape. That's critical, because the iPhone is common enough that most of us know how it looks and feels. If the Droid was too far off from that baseline, immediately people would be turned off. It sounds silly to be excited that someone managed to get the right form factor, but as I mentioned, it happens so rarely that it feels significant. Better yet is the fact that they managed to do so while still cramming in a keyboard and camera (and if you get the keyboardless Droid Eris, you'll have something even slimmer). This does come with a sacrifice however. Most phone keyboards have big chunky keys that are easy to type on. Motorola avoided this with the Droid, knowing that such a design would make it too big. Instead the keys are very flat, almost flush with the phone. It is much easier to mistype on it than on even the simple texting phone I once had, and while you do get used to it, it still grates me a bit to know that in this case, we still had to sacrifice function to get the form. One the other hand, the keyboard has a d-pad like cursor. I have no idea how many smart phones have something like this, but damn if it isn't nice. It beats having to switch from the keyboard to the main phone pad, as I had to on my old phone in order to edit texts.

I have no idea if the camera is any good, because I've not had much use for camera phones. I hear that it is slow to snap and is a little weak in picture quality, but I get the feeling that these are the opinions of gadget heads who aren't satisfied with a five megapixel camera on their goddamn phone. My standalone digital camera is still five megapixel. I think I'll be happy with whatever the Droid gives me.

The data port looks similar to a standard five pin USB cord, and my research says it is a Micro USB, which isn't quite as general purpose as a five pin, but is apparently common among phones, so there's no proprietary extras that you need. The data cable nicely fits into the A/C adapter, meaning you don't need any extra trinkets in order to connect the Droid to a PC. Also nice is that the headphone jack is standard sized. Again, this is likely common with smart phones, but it is new to me. My old text phone had a smaller headphone jack, and both the data cable and SD storage were sold separately, so I took advantage of none of its special features. This makes me wonder if phone makers have gotten more generous, or if this is simply a luxury that is only afforded to the more expensive phones. All I know for now is that I feel like I'm out of the cellular gulag.

So what else does the Droid hardware do differently than the iPhone? The 16gb of storage comes from a swappable MicroSD chip, so you can add something bigger later on should you want to. This is one of those stupid things that every phone should have, but Apple unsurprisingly refused. I'm curious as to what other devices do in this regard. Additionally, there are four keys on the bottom of the touch screen, in order to assist with actions which aren't mapped to the screen, and which don't mesh well with the fairly standard actions on the keyboard. This is essentially the iPhone's Home button times four, and while that sounds like a stupid gimmick, it works fairly well. Or rather, the iPhone works fairly well with one button, but my brain is wired in such a way that it throws me off. On the Droid, there is a "back" button that is distinct from the "home" button. The other two buttons bring up Google search, and general settings related to whatever program you're running.

It sounds like a matter of spreading functionality out for no reason, but I guess my experiences with game consoles makes it click with me. For example, on the PSP/PS3, you'd use the circle button to back out from a program, but the home button takes you to the main OS at any time. Same deal here. The settings button is also nice, because it lets you easily find out what you can and cannot do at any point in time. The settings button will either be really smart or entirely silly depending on the person. The problem is that it is context sensitive, so the only thing about it that's standard is the look of it. One of the most common complaints that I hear about Graphical User Interfaces is how users do not like when menus change in size or context without any clear explanation as to why. This is exactly what is going on here, so it's no surprise that it has been a bother to many. You have to understand that not only is is context sensitive, but that its purpose is to give you a few basic options no matter where you are in a program, without having to back up to another page or start it up fresh. But this doesn't match up with what we expect. I think a good compromise would be to create a few constant options that allow you to access general phone settings in the like wherever you are. The Droid sort of does this with the home key, but it isn't quite the same.

On that note, the back key is a little screwy. It may back up out of an app, but it may not close it. If you're in the browser, it will act as a browser back button, retreating you to the last page you visited. I think that's the general flaw with the four buttons - only two of them work the same every time. The other two have slight changes in their purpose depending on what your are doing, and while you can adjust to them eventually, it increases the learning curve. Still, I think part of it comes down to how you approach the device. As I've mentioned, the simplicity of the iPhone works for most folks, but I prefer the flexibility of the Droid, even if isn't always clear on how to master it. This doesn't make either approach (or thought process) better, just different.

On one last note, the buttons aren't keys, but touch sensitive regions. There are times when you hit one, and nothing happens, because you didn't hit it in the right spot, or maybe your touch was too quick. The phone does give haptic feedback when you do it right, but it only helps so much when you don't know what it is you are doing wrong.

The rest of the phone's plusses and minuses are based on the Android OS itself. At first glance, all the screenshots I saw of it suggested that it had a very inconsistent interface. In reality I was simply watching different apps in action, which of course will fill the screen with whatever it needs. The OS itself is quite uniform and nice. In it's basic form, it isn't too far from the iPhone's OS. You have a main screen where you can drop shortcuts to apps, and the screens for changing settings and finding music mimmick the list format of the iPhone. What Android does better is in regards to control. There is a small button on the bottom that will expand with a list of all of your applications, meaning you can add as little or as many to the main screen as you want. There's also an upper toolbar which works like the one found in the GNOME desktop environment for Linux. It displays the time, running tasks, and your signal quality, and this too can be expanded to display alerts and messages. You can also change the background image on the phone, though making your own requires cropping the picture to a specific resolution, at least if you want it to be perfect. Overall, Android has the simplicity and aesthetic qualities of the iPhone OS, but still feels more like an actual computer operating system. The main screen isn't so much an app launcher as it is a mini desktop for you to do as you please.

Going back to the settings/music parts of the interface, I like it, but it could use some work. In a way, it is more consistent than the iPhone's (keep in mind that all my comparisons are based on fairly limited time with the iPhone/Pod Touch, so sorry if I get things wrong). There, most of the settings pages are colored in grey, despite the fact that the main screen is in black. On Android, these pages are black, and it technically doesn't clash with the main menu, because that can look however you want it to. So there's an extra layer of mental consistency when it comes to appearance, but the contents are another matter entirely. Some settings are a simple yes/no check box. Others are a small dot that gets colored in when you choose 'yes'. Still others will expand with a list of hidden options. Still more can be clicked on, leading to another page. There can be some confusion as to what you can do with each option in a list, though eventually it makes sense once you realize how they're formatted. From what I can tell, the main settings page and music list are clicked, and any pages below that have dropdowns and toggles. It's easy to figure out, but still not clear initially.

Overall, the speed with which programs run is fine by me, and while the pseudo open source nature of Android makes it's App Store a wild west scenario compared to the iPhone's, most of the ones I've used have integrated nicely with the OS.

Lastly, I wanted to mention the ability to "root" the Droid. I haven't done it, and probably won't, but it is the Droid equivalent of jailbreaking an iPhone, though as is the case with the Droid, it's far more dangerous and powerful. From what I can tell, it simply gives you more control over the phone. You can load newer versions of Android before they pass Verizon's testing, and you can load apps which will overclock the CPU. You're not supposed to do this, and screwing it up will brick the device, but that hasn't stopped people from giving it a shot.

I've heard some people make the statement that the Android OS, and by extension the Droid itself, are different enough that it isn't right to call it a "Linux phone". And I agree - a truly open source, Linux based device would not only let you root it, but would probably encourage such behavior. But what restrictions do exist make sense. Smart phones are becoming more like computers, but unlike computers their main purpose is to make phone calls. Device makers can't allow the actions of users to interfere with these basic features, so certain restrictions must apply. This is why the iPhone is so strict, and we see that most people are just fine with giving up control in favor of usability. It makes a lot of sense no matter how you slice it. Furthermore, while the philosophy of Free Software doesn't prevent one from selling your software, it doesn't rub well with corporate types who are focused on profit. Google likes to have some power, while letting their users be mostly free (or at least feel like they are). For now, I think these compromises are fair, without actually compromising the device. Perhaps I'll think differently in the future.

But with all that being said, I feel that for all intents and purposes, this is a "Linux phone". Like Linux itself, the Droid lets you do things that most phones would never dream of. You can change the storage, the programs, the look and feel. There's even an approved app that lets you tinker with the phone's Linux-esque file structure. Compared to the rest of the market, the Droid and it's siblings aren't the wild west - they're a goddamned state of anarchy.

And just like Linux, Android spends so much time focusing on this freedom that it ends up trading away intuitiveness. You have to figure out how to do everything, because features are designed to address a techie's frame of mind. If you don't have that frame of mind, it won't be easy to sort everything out, and even if you do, you might not agree that it is the best way to go about it.

For geeks like me, this is pure heaven. It is also why, despite so many negatives within this review, I am still in love with the phone. I don't mind getting past a few quirks, especially if I become a better user because of it. I also enjoy rollicking in a bit of compu-anarchy, because I'm not afraid of it.

But if this is supposed to be the iPhone's competition, it needs more mass market friendliness. I'm glad a phone like this exists, but it feels like a niche product being thrown into the big leagues. As long as it sticks around I'll be pleased, but I do wonder if this might sabotage Android's chances. Geeks might not mesh well with general purpose computer users, but both are critical. Android wants to bring them together, and I wish them luck, as I'll be counting on it's success for the next few years. For now, I'm afraid I've been given this wonderful treat that will be taken away in due time.