My Droid rocks my socks

Before I proceed to gush about how much I love my Droid, I'm going to give my one caveat to this phone.

It's really not a very good phone to actually use as a phone.

Now this is fine with me, as I don't actually like talking on the phone and therefore I don't make a whole lot of phone calls. Surprisingly, I've had no problems with the call quality itself (the most common complaint about this phone)--people's voices sound crystal-clear. But when I do use it as a phone, actually holding the phone up to my face has been a bit problematic. There's some sort of distance sensor that detects when it's close to your face and turns the screen off. I have long hair, and apparently this can play havoc with the sensor, because the screen is constantly turning on during calls and then my cheek hits buttons on the screen, causing calls to be muted or disconnected. These aren't issues while using a bluetooth headset. Even when using a bluetooth headset, however, I find that having to hit a separate button to turn on a virtual keypad (for things like "press 1 to speak to customer service") is kind of irritating.

Good thing I don't use the phone much.

OK, now the awesome things.

1.) Full Google Voice integration. I use GV for all calls and texting, and I love that when I make an outgoing call, it prompts me to choose GV or Verizon. And I can text through the GV app or through the native texting app (although I use neither--I use a third party app I downloaded from the Android Market.)

2.) The web browser on this thing is gorgeous. I've had friends with iPhones drool over it. I use a third-party browser (again from the AM) that supports tabbed browsing and pinch-and-zoom, and it's wonderful.

3.) Apps!! The Android Market has so many neat apps--I find myself using this phone for more and more every day. Personal and work (Microsoft Exchange) email and calendars, note-taking, to-do lists, travel plans, music and podcasts, keeping tabs on my bank and credit card balances, taking and post-processing pictures, emergency flashlight, e-book reader, tuning my guitar... the possibilities are almost endless. Seriously.

4.) Google's Android operating system is infinitely more tweakable than Apple's. Unlike the iPhone, the Droid supports multitasking and running programs in the background, and this opens up so many possibilities for what this phone is capable of. For example, google "Locale for Android" and check out that app--it's amazing!

5.) I know a lot of people like that it has the built-in keyboard... I actually don't, and it's because I would have had to use a qwerty keyboard that I held off so long on getting a smartphone (this one was my first one.) I can T9 like no one's business, but put me on a tiny qwerty, and I'm down to something ridiculous like 11 words per minute. Fortunately, it's possible to download other virtual keyboards aside from the stock one that the phone comes with. I used a T9 one for a while and wasn't all that impressed (I tried several, actually) but now I use a beta version of Swype (google it if you're not familiar with it) and it rocks. DEFINITELY an improvement over either the physical or virtual keyboard for me.

6.) One word: TETHERING. There's a tethering app called PDANet available for free on the Android Market. This means that when I'm traveling within the US, I can hook my phone to my laptop and get high-speed internet on my laptop through my phone. This has already saved me hundreds of dollars in airport and hotel wifi fees, and as an added benefit, my phone charges while it's tethering! It's win-win. :-)

7.) I'm a serious amateur photographer, and I love the camera on this thing. No, it's not perfect, and I'd much rather have my DSLR, but there's an old saying about the best camera being the one you have with you, and even by that adage, this is a better than average cell phone camera. But what really bumps my camera's awesomeness up is the ability to post-process pictures with one of the numerous programs available on the Android Market (I favor PicSay Pro and Vignette, personally.) I've taken a number of pictures where people have been shocked that they're actually cameraphone pics--being able to post-process pictures in the phone quite nicely compensates for common cell phone camera issues like incorrect white balance (when your pictures end up tinted blue or green or something odd like that.) Speaking of Android Market apps, there are a couple that you can download that you can use to create and send postcards straight from your phone using pictures you've taken. It's a bit more pricey than the average tourist postcard, and you don't get the nifty postmark from a different city like you would sending a postcard on vacation, but I can't think of a more personalized postcard than taking a picture of something and sending it to someone. So neat! Which leads me to my next point...

8.) This thing is awesome for travel. I already mentioned the tethering thing, so I'm not talking about that. I travel internationally as well as within the US, and while I can't use my cell phone/data plan overseas, I can still use the wifi whenever I find available wifi, a process aided by a free app called WifiScanner, which will display all available wifi networks and their signal strengths, and you can use it to pinpoint where the signal is the strongest. When I can find a wifi connection internationally, I'm able to do most of what I already do with my phone. I can't make calls with it (although I'm looking into the logistics of that) but I can text (through Google Voice), instant message, check email, use the phone's apps, upload pictures, and do anything else I can do with a data connection. Last month I was in Costa Rica, and where I was staying charged for an internet connection. I paid for a week's connection using my phone, since that was the most convenient to use most of the time, but when I wanted to use my laptop, I just tethered through my phone rather than paying for a separate connection for my laptop. Wonderful! I've also done this on airline flights that have for-fee wifi, since if I just want to check my email or send a text, it's easier (and uses less battery) to do so than having to get out and fire up my laptop.


All in all, I really really love this phone. I probably should dock a star from my review for the fact that using it to actually make calls is somewhat problematic, but since (like I said) I don't really use it for making calls, that's not a big deal for me.

Now if only this came with a dual CDMA-GSM option so that I could put in a SIM card and use it for voice and data overseas... Hey, a geeky gal like me can dream, right?