Wait for the iPhone - Motorola DROID A855 Android Phone (Verizon Wireless)

If you're thinking of purchasing this phone because you're tired of waiting for Apple to develop an iPhone for Verizon -- wait a little longer.

The major problem is battery life. It's not that the battery life is limited considering what the phone can do, but that it's unpredictable. I've fully charged the phone at night only to find that the battery is nearly dead in the morning. I've also had the experience of having the battery drain from nearly 100% to 5% in four or five hours while doing nothing other than sitting on my desk.

It seems to be the Droid way or no way, because user options and settings are severely limited or non-existent. For example, the messaging and e-mail auto-correct feature is inconvenient at best, and idiotic at worst. The word "I'm" autocorrects to "O'Neill." "Tom" autocorrects to "Tomorrow." And a proper names becomes posessive -- "Bill" becomes "Bill's." Either you notice these and spend a lot of time pressing the delete key, or you don't and send some pretty confusing messages.

This would be okay if there were an option to turn off auto-correct but there doesn't appear to be one. There don't appear to be a whole bunch of options for anything. For instance, I wouldn't mind an option to have e-mails deleted when I delete them because you actually have to delete your e-mails twice -- the first time they go to the Trash folder. Again, just give me an option.

I inquired about options on the Motorola web site and was told I would receive a response in 24 hours. I'm still waiting nearly two weeks later.

The screen display is nice and internet access is speedy. Though the sound quality is good, arranging music files is cumbersome. You can't import playlists and it doesn't seem possible to create more than one playlist anyway. That would be a user option, and that's not the Droid way.

Other nuances I've experienced include continuously receiving notifications -- over and over -- that you have e-mail only to find that it's the last e-mail that you've already read.

The included apps are bare bones -- the planner has limited features and, regardless of which view you left it in, has a fondness for displaying the week view which is the least useful. Unlike the iPhone and iPod Touch that have a planner that will automatically take you to the current day and time, the Droid planner greets you on the same day and time where you left it -- even if that's on a date three months away. You press "Today" a lot. The calculator redefines the concept of basic and I've been unable to locate a business calculator app in the "market." Available apps in the "market" don't even come close to those available for the iPhone.

So yes, the Droid screen is big and looks good, internet access is quick, and sound quality is excellent, but if you care about functionality (including some predictability of battery life), and you can't wait for Apple to develop an iPhone for Verizon, then go with a Blackberry or buy a basic phone and carry around an iPod Touch.