Droid 3 First Impressions/Reviews

[darthakakios]

Aesthetics: The look and feel of this phone are great for me. I was a little concerned due to the size change from my old phone, but honestly I barely notice, except of course when looking at the screen size difference.

Screen: The resolution is wonderful. The touch sensitivity right out of the box was perfect, coming from my last phone I am very pleased.

Phone: I have not used bluetooth yet so I can't comment on that. The speakerphone though has been a godsend as I find the call volume to be somewhat quiet. I often have to switch to speakerphone just so I can better or fully hear the person on the other end.

Overall User Interface: My last phone being a Blackberry I honestly was a bit lost when I first got this device. Since I have had time to dig around and familiarize myself, I am very pleased.

Widgets: I really do not use any widgets except one for the weather. It works fine.

Signal quality: As I said before, I came to this device from a Blackberry. The Storm line to be precise. I had both the original Storm and the Storm 2. Signal quality with them was awful at best. Frustratingly inconsistent. Now, finally I have a reliable signal. I have seen others mention signal issues with this device but I suppose I am a lucky one, because I have not had a single problem in this regard.

GPS: This area is the greatest letdown to me. No matter what combination of GPS services I use, my location apparently is never available. Living just outside of Boston, MA I would expect much better. In fact, Google's own services have "pinpointed" my location to be in Chihuahua Municipality of Mexico. Sorry, but not even close folks. Most of the time, I can get reasonably close to my actual location after about 10 minutes of attempting to update my location. The inconvenience is troublesome.

Social Networking: I do not use any social networking sites.

Calendar/Email: The calendar works just fine. I did run into an issue with one of my email addresses suddenly not connecting to my phone any longer. I had the phone for about 2-3 weeks when all of a sudden it said it could not connect to my hotmail account any longer. I tried to re-add it and failed, I tried using manual settings instead of automatic, still failed. So I have resigned myself to using the browser to check that email account.

Battery Life: Another troublesome area for me. I was shocked at how quickly my battery drains when using the basic features of the phone. Aside from GPS, this is the ONLY area that the Blackberry devices exceeded the Droid 3. I have since started using the extended battery and the issue is less of a bother.

Performance: Web browsing, email, MMS, and SMS are all lightning fast. I have never had any issues with call clarity or dropped calls.

Media: The music could honestly be a bit louder than it is. Videos are very nice on the screen.

Keyboard's: I love having a REAL keyboard again!!! Goodbye and so long to the "innovative" surepress of the Storm line. This was actually one of the biggest draws for me in getting this device. I was waiting and waiting for the Bionic, but finally I decided to go ahead and get this because of the keyboard, also because I did not need the 4G LTE battery drain.

Camera: I am not liking the bluish haze or how fuzzy pictures turn out on this camera. I am far from a professional photographer, but I would like a photo to look like reality. Not some hazy blue blur. I have not taken any videos with the camera at this time. If I do and can find my post here once again I will edit this portion.

How the Droid 3 compares to Blackberry 9530 and 9550: Against them both I have to say that overall the Droid 3 is far more advanced. The difference of signal strength and call quality being the biggest performance factors. The real keyboard as opposed to an all touch device is wonderful to me. The only things I can give the RIM products the edge on are the volume of the speaker, the GPS, and the email connectivity. Battery life is about the same for me. All in all I am glad I made the switch.

Disappointments: Well, the above mentioned email, GPS, and speaker volume would of course top this list. I must admit, I do not care for the pre-installed apps. Most of which I do not see the need for. This is just my opinion, but why force any apps on the consumer? I will never need the Blockbuster, MOTOPRINT, Skype, or Slacker applications. Overall I am quite pleased with the phone and I would give it a 8.5/10 rating.

Quick Edit: I have found a slight fix for the blue photo issue. When in camera go to the settings, select the full 8mp resolution as opposed to the 6m fit to screen. Also, turning the flash completely off helps. Some pictures may be a tad darker but they won't be blue.

 

[BluePlate]

Just got the d3 last week, upgraded from the d2g, and I must say, I am loving it!! I'd had a dx before the d2g and was suffering from the fact that my desire for a physical keyboard meant such a smaller screen (I'd been waiting on the Merge, but...). I admit I'd have gotten the d3 just for the larger screen + physical keyboard combo alone, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the rest of the package.

Things I'm happy about:

I love the screen, and the interface has been great. Very smooth, none of the lag I had constantly with the d2g, very zippy and pretty. Call quality is fine, nothing to shout about, but not a problem at all. 3G speeds are great for me--I'm not missing 4G (though I never had it, to be fair...).

And, of course, I'm madly in love with the keyboard; who knew the difference a dedicated number row could make? Just for entering passwords, it's worth it. What a beautiful typing experience.

And an unexpected surprise: my battery life has been PHENOMENAL! My d2g had to be charged several times a day (and that was with the cpu underclocked, notifications near-nonexistent, and the extended battery); with the d3, I go into the evening with a 70% charge. And that's with moderately high use!


My only complaints:

I can't get rid of the "all apps" icon in the dock. I can customize the others, but I'm used to having 4 of my choice. I've already discovered that I can put the "All apps" folder as a home page shortcut, so why am I forced to keep it in the dock? Also, the slider mechanism seems looser than the one on my d2g. I take my phone *everywhere* with me, which means it goes from purse to pocket to clutch to the waistband of my sweats, and I feel like there's a little looseness to the slider, especially at the lower left corner. It seems to "pop" open there quite often and sit at an angle, but maybe that's the case I have on it. I noticed with my d2g that the case made the slider buggy, but I'm not ready to go case-less with the new d3 yet.

My d2g was rooted, but only to try to assuage battery life issues, so I'm not missing that here. All in all, I can see having this phone a long time!

 

[RoninX]

GPS: This area is the greatest letdown to me. No matter what combination of GPS services I use, my location apparently is never available. Living just outside of Boston, MA I would expect much better. In fact, Google's own services have "pinpointed" my location to be in Chihuahua Municipality of Mexico. Sorry, but not even close folks. Most of the time, I can get reasonably close to my actual location after about 10 minutes of attempting to update my location. The inconvenience is troublesome.

I think you have a defective phone. I live in Boston, and I never have any problems with my D2's GPS. It locks on quickly, and the position is always accurate.

I'd ask for a replacement unit, if I were you.

 

[doogald]

I just picked up a D3 two days ago. I had an Eris for almost two years, upgrade to the Bionic but exchanged it for the D3 just before the 14 day return period was up.

Aesthetics

Not bad. The phone is a decent length and width. A little thicker than I would like; a little heavy as well. I'm not sure that I love that extra lip on the bottom, but it's not that terrible. I suppose I should say that I was not really looking for a phone with a keyboard - just a great 3G phone, with the world phone support being a slight plus.

Screen

I think it's great. I know that some people love to hate the pentile display, but it's bright, has great resolution, is easy to read. Bright using it outdoors on a sunny day as well - I'll take that in a heartbeat.

Hardware

Fantastic. The phone is *fast*. Battery life is better than I expected. As I said, I wasn't looking for a hardware keyboard (though years ago I had a Psion 5mx and Revo, and Moto Q9c as well), and the D3 has the best keyboard I have ever used on a mobile device. The phone doesn't slide open too easily, and neither is it stiff, and remains solid when the phone is open. The fit and finish is great on this phone. The removable back seems flimsy, and is a touch hard to remove when you need to, but it attaches firmly. The battery fits in tight. The phone just looks and feels both well designed and well built.

The capacitive buttons have great haptics and react perfectly to a touch. The power button is placed a little awkwardly for one-handed use but you get used to it quickly.

Phone - including bluetooth & speakerphone usage

One of the major reasons I moved from an HTC phone to a Moto - I wanted a phone with a radio that I could rely on to hold a signal and a call. I haven't used either BT or the speakerphone yet, though I rarely do use them.

Overall User Interface (including the new Blur)

I don't love the Blur - it has some weird looking transition between homescreens, and moving icons and widgets onto homescreens is awkward and unreliable. Twice I've had my wallpaper suddenly switched back to the stock wallpaper. I'd prefer at least one extra dock icon. All that said, it's not terrible, either. The phone performs well and I have bot noticed any launcher hangups when going back home from an app.


Widgets

A little on the light side. There is no messaging widget. The calendar widget is great - much better than stock Android, and better than HTC's as well. I'd prefer some sort of mobile data widget as well. I don't use a lot of widgets normally, but Sense is much, much better.

Signal quality (Compared to other devices)

Again, night and day compared with my Eris. I'm very pleased with it.


Battery Life

So far it's been reasonable and better than I expected. I used the phone a lot yesterday, taking it off power at about 9 am and it was at 48% when I went to bed at 11:30 pm. Today I took it off power after a brief charge at 1 pm that brought the phone up to 92% and at 10:45 pm it is now at 72% (I didn't use it quite so much today.)

With the Eris I had a 1750 mAh extended battery and typically had about 30% to 50% when I went to recharge at bedtime. It was never over 60%. And I was using the Eris far less, both because it was too slow and also to try to conserve battery.

Performance

Again, it's fast. I have noticed no lag at all.


Camera (both still & video)

I've only used the still camera. I don't love the camera app, but replacement apps are fine. It's good enough. Not the iPhone 4/4S, but few phones are that good.

How the Droid 3 compares to your previous smartphone (if applicable)

I think I've already covered it. It's a little bigger than my old phone, but it doesn't feel too big, like the Bionic felt.


Disappointments

Not many. It's a bit strange that the phone comes with a micro SD card slot but no card.

 

[e-gadget-guy]

- Droid 3 on order today. I'll review it after ~24hours with it. Friday?

I'm new to A|C coming from P|C and a 1.4 yo pre plus. Have only had Palm and webOS, and BB. BB sucked [tour]. webOS hardware woes are frustrating. one bad thing is no autofocus camera. even on the 2. The pre3 would have, but seems like vaporware now. C'ya in 3 days...

OK - I won't tell you the story of how much trouble it was to GET the D3. I'll leave that for another forum.

I have had it since Sat and it's Wed.

FORM FACTOR: It's HUGE compared to my pre 2. The weight is not bad, but it's a little challenge to reach the whole screen, but I'm already getting used to that.

SCREEN: big and bright. I like having more of it.

TOUCH: It seems to respond well to my touch and is fairly acurate.

KEYBOARD:
-OnScreen: Too small for my fingers. I find that I hit the wrong key too often. NO # row. The H/W kb and my touchpad and ASUS tablet both have a # row. I miss it.
-HardWare: I really like the hardware keyboard. It is big and easy to use and I find myself favoring it over the OnScreen.

MultiTasking: Ugh! where are my cards????? I hate not being able to easily close apps. I have d/l d one app manager, but can't seem to find it in the app list. Some apps like WAZE show notifications that help with that.

NOTIFICATIONS: Good, don't get in the way... almost too unobstructive. also too persistent. I mean, do I really need a notification for every app install?
OTOH, it does give me information.

APPS:
-YES, there are many many more apps. and new apps all of the time. Big third party apps like waze and shopsavvy are great.

-FORCECLOSE: This bears mentioning because of the shear number of times it happens. Apps are constantly needing to FC. Even legacy apps like the MARKET and the mail/gmail apps.

-APPBRAIN and FAST WEB INSTALL: Also worth a mention [thanks to my BRO] use it for apps instead of the MARKET. Hasn't FCd yet.

-WAZE: saw this on my iPad but it's Wifi and dosn't work well due to no wifi on the road. ASUS xfrmr does work while tethered to my pre2, iPad doesn't. D3? well Now I don't need a GPS for navigation. I have a mount and the D3 sits in it, powered and using WAZE to get around. LOVE IT!!!

CAMERA: 8MP AutoFocus is very nice! Finally I can use QR scan. and the pics are better.

WHAT I MISS: WEBOS: Cards, preware, WOSQI, Just type [which brings up app search too], small FF., swipe to delete in email, cal, etc.
WHAT I DON'T MISS: no focusing on cam, buggy interface, slow response to fingers., no OSKB,

BATTERY LIFE: The jury is still out on whether it's worse or better. It seems to be much worse with Wifi on... but too soon to tell. EDIT: I can see that there are more options with the camera app than I'm used to on a phone. I am looking forward to being in a situation to take some good snapshots.


ECOSYSTEM: The whole problem with webOS is that it is currently EOL, or at least one foot in the grave. What this means is that the HW is behind the times. If the camera on the pre2 had focusing, I would not be so willing to switch. If the pre3 which has focusing had released, I would have bought it. Android is not going away any time soon and is IMHO on par with iPhone's mindshare. Or at least close. webOS is almost not known, with many people never even using it. the Firesale of TouchPads helped that. But big apps and commercial ventures don't have apps for webOS but do for Android. That's one of the reasons I switched.

OVERALL: I would say that I am mostly happy that I switched/upgraded. This phone lets me do things that I could not with the pre 2 and I can't stand not having the best toys in the place...

I think I'll keep it!

 

[BBooDad]

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Pro's: good overall build except power and volume buttons designed by someone with their head in the cloud, instead of with common sense. Tons of apps, lots of memory, fairly fast. Good battery life. Holds my 8000 songs EASY (and sometimes randomly starts belting them out, when out of range of the connected Bluetooth devices!) Works well with my Ford (MS) Sync hands-free system in my Escape, and also with a Creative BlueTooth speaker I have on my desk at work.

Cons: Camera is a joke. Did I mention the stupid power and volume button design? Android is like the Traumatic Brain Injury cousin of webOS or iOS. It looks OK, but behavior is "off", and very picky about doing things in the right order, and occasionally starts belting out the music app at random times!

Overall: a reasonable phone. Not nearly as nice to use as webOS Pre's, or iOS, but if you are tied to Android and a keyboard, it is a very capable work phone, and can be coaxed into good settings to take pics of your kids OK.

Buy again? If I had to choose a current Android keyboarded phone to get particular apps, yes. If I had choice, though, would get a webOS Pre3 or iOS phone.

=================

I also came to the Droid3 from webOS Pre's, in my case a Verizon Pre3 that I got on eBay, so not vaporware! But it didn't run the last standing medical pharmacy database, so I had to get a different phone. If I had my choice, would have got an iPhone. But my wife has Android, so I figured best to get the same basic OS, be able to help her with hers, and share chargers, etc. I did not consider BlackBerry, having already watched one OS die, not about to buy from another dying OS.

After having had it a week now, I am fairly satisfied. Compared to using a webOS phone, it sucks. But that is king of to be expected as no one else on the market can touch webOS Synergy, cards, ease of deleting, etc. So I just keep telling myself to "Get over it!" and eagerly await Android 4.0.x ICS that has major changes from the inventor of the webOS interface. Fingers crossed....

Now all that being said, overall it is light years better than the Samsung Epic I tried a year ago. Much better app memory, and GPS and BlueTooth actually work. Epocrates, Sanford Guide, LexiComp, and about a dozen other medical medical programs were immediately installed, off my prior Google profile from the Sammy. I love the hardware keyboard, though would prefer a vertical slider like I had with webOS.

The camera - is a slow joke compared to the Samsung Epic, and even slower than the Pre3. It has lousy exposure and white balance and flash control with the built-in app. I haven't tried video yet. it does do barcode and QR code scans well, and Google Goggle works like a charm. The stock camera app takes very nice pics inside, if you like blurry, over flashed, blue pics that is.... (Just repeat "Get over it, Get over it, Get over it! Ice Cream Sandwich, Ice Cream Sandwich, Ice Cream Sandwich..."

Battery life - pretty darn good. I turned off the GSM option which helps. I leave GPS and wifi and Bluetooth on all the time, and it has easily went all day at work without getting too low.

Phone reception, 3G reception, are way better than the Pre2 or Pre3, and about same as the Sammy. Not surprising considering Motorola is a market leader; heck, they invented cell phones, I think (at least the first ones looked like the handset of our field radios we used in the Marines in the 80's, lol!). I like that it is a world phone with GSM capability, on the off chance that I travel like I plan too....

Docks: the home dock is cheap and overpriced and hard to get the *&( % HDMI port to plug in. But the phone works very well with it, makes great bedside clock, and can tell that the office dock is not the same, remember a different set of settings there.

Multimedia: does OK. I picked it because it was the smallest keyboard phone that was up to date that Verizon had. I have yet to watch a video or play a game on it (or even download one). But it takes decent pics of my kids, with Camera360 and Camera Zoom.

One beef: the power/screen on and volume buttons are pathetic. Geesh Motorola!

Overall - I think I'll keep it, still have a week to change my mind!