Impressions of the Motorola Droid (Android)

I'm not going to write a review about the Motorola Droid. You can read plenty of great reviews on sites like Engadget, CNET, PC Magazine, and others. I'm just going to share a few of my impressions of the Motorola Droid.

First, the pros:

• It's a very fast device and I really like the large capacitive touch screen. Great overall performance. Compared to other Android phones like the HTC Droid Eris, the Droid has exceptional performance.
• The Android OS is very easy to use for both beginners and seasoned smartphone users.
• The device is very thin and still has respectable battery life. In fact, this device is only barely thicker than the iPhone.
• The voice recognition built into Google search and Google Maps works really well. Loved using the spoken turn-by-turn GPS navigation. No need to purchase 3rd party GPS navigation software.
• You can tether. Can't do that (easily) with the iPhone.

Now, the cons:

• The slide-out QWERTY keyboard buttons are small and shallow. Not great for heavy typing if you have large fingers.  My HTC TouchPro2 has a much better keyboard.
• The camera was only mediocre, although the camera button is easy for anyone to use. I liked the built-in flash.
• Sorry international travelers, but the Droid is not a World Phone.  CDMA only. No GSM.

So, if I had to buy a new smartphone on the Verizon Wireless network, which one would I get? I'd get the Droid.  What if the iPhone became available on Verizon? I'd still get the Droid. What about the HTC Google Nexus One? Hmm, now I need to think about that one.

I want to thank the folks at Epocrates for lending me a Droid so that I could test the beta version of Epocrates.