You'll have to do another one when the real Google phone comes out, the Google Nexus 1.

yea that thing is firing up debates with the tech nerds :D like me!
lol

I would line up for one if it had a keyboard. I'm not impressed by the Cliq or the Droid keyboards, I my G1 keyboard.

being the not monie having type, I am using the voyager :D
its keyboard is pretty user friendly, and even though its touch screen on the front is not reactive, i like it :D
right now nexus one is like the big talk on who will be the main holder. Even though pix say it will be for one or the other, its debated wether it will be all round use :D

I'm not quite sure I understood that completely but while some providers will sell the Nexus One for themselves, Google will be providing one unlocked for whichever sim card utilizing network you want.

networks and adaptibility is the key :D
and if those are true, it will definately go for a win!
And who knows what kind of aps will be availible for it. :3
of course I cant realy rly on the rumor mill about the suppose aps and such.

Well you don't need to. The Android Market is already very populated and while it doesn't have the number of apps iTunes does, the categories are more than represented. Also Google has a link to the phone right on their google.com page now ^.^

that is one thing the iphone has the upper hand on... the HUGE amounts of apps :D

Only at current. When you release an app for the iPhone, assuming you can even get ahold of an SDK, it takes months for it to show up on iTunes. With Android, you can start developing now and get gets onto market much faster.

true, but iphone's aps are plentiful as they are pointless :D

*waves his hand* These aren't the droids you're looking for.

Thanks much for the comparison, and sharing your personal experiences with each. I have wanted an iPhone for a long time, but can't get one due to being on Verizon. When they released the Droid I waved it off as a wannabe, and all but ignored it. Now that I realize it's comparable, if not better depending on personal taste, I'm definitely going to start looking into getting one.

Thank you again.

If I was already on Verizon and didn't want to switch, I would definitely get a Droid.

Seems to be the smartest thing for me to do. Waiting for the iPhone to go to Verizon might be fruitless anyway.

You can always have an iPhone unlocked to go to another network, just no subsidized phone that way.

Still can't take it to Verizon in the states. GSM versus CDMA.

Ah, didn't know carries still differed. Guy at work has one and I've watched him fool around with it and done so myself, it's a cool phone. Now if only they would make a Zune phone. . .

I didn't even know that. But, if what the dude above me said is true, I guess it doesn't matter. Either way, it would probably just be easier to get a Droid.

Pretty much explains my position. I've used an ipod touch fairly extensively before getting this and I am floored by how sweet this little device is. I've been successfully won over.

awsome!.. a at&t ad came up as i finished reading.. lol

actual tactile keyboard > touch screen typing.

I agree, though I prefer the G1's 5 line space-between-keys keyboard myself. It gets crap for that but I won't switch to the actually faster with higher resolution Droid because of that.

I got one lately and like it a lot.

One plus is that Google's App store is much less strict than Apple's, so you can get things like emulators without having to jailbreak the phone. The controls are a bit wonky, but it works.

Interesting comparison. I was just thinking about when I get a new phone if I want to try for one like the iPhone or Droid. Either that or this one that is almost literally half a camera lol

Which network is Droid on? We are with T-Mobile right now. And though I don't have a big problem with Apple products either since I own an Ipod Classic and love it, I didn't know about the lack of removable storage the iPhone uses. The SD stick options with the Droid sound much more like what I'm wanting in a phone, especially with how I love to customize and add stuff.

Droid is exclusively Verizon right now, and the iPhone is exclusively with AT&T, right now. There've been a lot of rumors about Apple abandoning AT&T, but I've been hearing them for the past year, now.

You may or may not know that the Droid uses Google's open-source OS called Android, which is available on various phones across all the networks. It's the OS that matters, not the phone. That's the great part of Android, though - you get the exact same - or nearly exact same - app across various phones, all with the same apps available (exact same app in the market will work on usually every Android-enabled phone).

Few notes you probably didn't notice about Android: It has full GPS location AND step-by-step audio driving directions with 3d map view (just like a normal GPS Navigation), for free. It also auto-syncs with your Gmail account, which means your Google Calendar and all of your GMail contacts are automatically loaded on your phone. I could switch to a different phone with Android on it, log in, and my calendar and contacts would show up on my phone as soon as I logged it in, without having to manually move them.

Give it a little bit longer and nobody will know what the iPhone is anymore :P (exaggeration but still) Android is a much better OS that's available on more than just the one over-priced phone.

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I was aware of that, but once spoiled.. well, you kind of want everything. I don't think Apple's phones are going anywhere. I'm actually pretty interested to see what they do in response. I love the free market.

It's really funny .. it's called Android, but it's spelled Linux. Everytime Linux gets renamed and rebranded, people love it. Oughta change the name of Linux itself. See if that works.

But please don't take this comment too seriously. =]

That's like saying Counter-Strike is just Half-Life / Half-Life 2. May run off the same engine, but it's not the same thing :P

That's just what I meant: don't take my comment too seriously ;).

It's simply an observation I've made. Products that advertise akin to "Powered by Linux" are oftentimes avoided, unless someone simply gives it a new name. Smart move by Google. Though to the authors of the actual kernel, this must feel like they're being robbed of all the glory that comes with the success of such devices.

People avoid Linux because it can be more complicated and you really do need a decent working knowledge of computing in general. Same reason people use Macs over Windows, you don't need any working knowledge of computing to use a Mac. But it's a closed environment.

I like the Droid's OS myself. It feels quicker than the iPhone's, more responsive. A phone is still largely a closed platform though. Easy to make any OS work great.

Got a Droid. Love it. :)

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1115003/

Ended up debating the stuff myself a few days ago, Kinda included more on the Nexus One in mine.

This was actually very helpful!
I quality control new and refurbished Verizon phones and was very impressed after a function test of the Droids. I liked them a lot better than the Blackberries (which come in for repairs by the truckloads...) and was really wanting more info of what the customers thought.
So far we haven't had any returns except for water damages and the speaker grill crumples if you try to remove the battery with too much force.

FWIW, the Droid is coming to AT&T's network later this year. Motorola filed with the FCC for AT&T's bands under the name "Sholes". I'm more than a little sick of all these exclusive deals and fifty-year contracts that allow the carriers to continue their screw-the-customer mentality rather than attempting to lure in new customers with better service and better features. There are several other Android-based phones that will be coming out this year that are very nice, as well. Personally, I'm going with the Nokia N900 though because I can write my own apps for it, can set it up as an ssh relay, can VPN with it, and it has Fennec which is the mobile version of firefox. The only downside is the batttery life but if you've ever used a Palm Treo, you're used to it.

You guys and your smart phones. Lucky bastards.

I noticed the harder I work, the luckier I get.

Ya know, that... okay, yeah, that does make sense. You have good point, sir.

=] the droid also syncs your phone book with facebook if you have one, and it also syncs thumbnail pics from facebook of your friends so you don't have to have the awk pause when one of the 100 jennifers you know calls you.

also you can root your droid and make it multi touch if you want to. but i don't know how well that works with the wireless updates which they just randomly send to you.

i have a g1 and they send update packs through the air so you might just have a update out of nowhere.

the phone automatically syncs with your various email adresses that you set up with the phone. either on the base gmail account, or on the other email application which you set the sync periods.

=]. if you are super cheap too you can download the apps that cost money online and use appsmanager i think its called and install them straight onto your phone from your memory card.

and on video playback. i tried watching a movie on my g1 it was ok.... not too great but the droid is a faster phone so it might work better

A very good review. I have an Eris myself, and I functions just like an iPhone.

Verizon's monthly prices are ridiculous for what you're getting, so if HTC doesn't show off a great new Sprint phone at CES, I'm going to go with the HTC Hero. The Sense UI is SO MUCH BETTER than the standard Android UI, plus Sprint's $70 monthly Everything Data plan has unlimited mobile to mobile calling, data, email, and messaging; which is the best all-around smartphone plan I found so far.

I love my T-mobile G1. Had it over a year now and it's been great!

I go teh droid for Christmas, i love it!!

nice review of the phones though:3

The Droid Operating system receives its software updates through the network, automatically downloading or prompting the customer to upgrade at the soonest available time. As far as syncing with Mac, I'm not quite sure there are drivers out just yet for all mac Os', might be for the older versions but I'll have to check at work tomorrow to see for sure. Now as for purchasing apps and the like, Everything from Android market place that you want to purchase (though check around, as for just about every pay-for app there is a similar free app ) goes through Google Checkout strictly. With Googles open Android OS people can submit apps easily and cheaply, and a lot of them for free for download.Last I checked, there was over 10,000 apps and quickly heading towards 15,000 apps in the android market, and that number will continue to grow exponentially as more developers realize the growing popularity and use of the Andriod OS, which as mentioned by a few commenter's above, is spread across several platforms/carriers and continues to spread!

Leaving AT&T without feeling like I'm loosing something. That's all I need to know.

The Droid is capable of dual-touch, they just can't legally do it thanks to Apple's trademark. There's a couple browsers in it's app market though as well as a hack that will let the Droid do so though.

I've had a Droid since the week before Thanksgiving and I'll definitely stick with it.

I got a renew plan that just came up. And I was thinking about upgrading from my rather disappointing Blackberry Storm to a Droid. I just might do that now, thanx to this review. :3

i just got the iphone recently here in japan i lvoe it

i have been waiting to upgrade for over a year and the market just gets more full and i still don't know what to get! D: my htc tytn ii will have to just keep soldiering on 3yrs 2months and counting.... xD

Thanks for the review, Fisk. I think when actual users review phones and other products, it means a lot more than when we get opinions from professional critics. I'm an iPhone user, and I really love mine. Like you, I made the decision to purchase one after I had a chance to get my hands on a friend's. That friend has since moved to Utah, where her iPhone doesn't work, and as a result, she switched to Verizon and picked up a Droid. In her opinion the iPhone was better, but just like you've pointed out, it wasn't so much better that the Droid paled in comparison.

Nice review!

im the only one in my family that doesnt have an i phone, i was quite amused about the droid considering that the software is open source. it would be my little plaything

The droid ain't a bad phone in my opinion, I mean heck it beats the sh** out of the iPhone in some places like cutomisation ( unless the iPhone is jailbroken then well iPhone wins but not many people jailbreak do they? I did though ), having a physical keyboard to actually type without looking ( which some of us tend to do a lot ), image quality is great ( even when the brightness is down ) but I would still go with my iPhone by a long shot since from my hands on experience with the droid I was like annoyed of why isn't multitouch on there when the hardware fully supports it? ( a little hack can get around that but requires a special rom file erm not exactly comfortable with those things are we? ), so much features avaliable when jailbroken, so many apps to use and the overall responsiveness of the device. All in all they are boh great devices and wouldn't really mind too much if I either had a droid or an iPhone

Nice unbiased comparison ^^

My brother-in-law has an HTC Tattoo, which runs Andriod 1.6 (also known Eclair, i think. Yes, Google as a sense of humor, lol). Anyway, he's slightly technically challenged, but he picked up the operating system in a day or two, and he loves it. Try teaching someone to use WinMo in the same timeframe ;) It's a lovely little device.

I've only once had an opportunity to play with an iPhone. In South Africa they are just horrendously expensive, Apple is pretty much a niche luxury brand here, which does not help the brand's popularity too much. Still, i was rather impressed with the fluid interface, which was the benchmark of what a full-touch device should be for a couple of years now. Not anymore ;)

Unfortunately, my personal opinion is Apple is basically a 'niche luxury item' here in Canada too. Their laptops, portables, ipods, iphones, etc are all expensive and rather uncustomizable. :T

Individuality and customization rank very high on my requirement list when i buy anything ;)

I bought the Droid the second it came out. I was the first person in my city to acquire one. They are the best phones to get! I love mine and I use it all the time.