I love my Droid, but...

[dancingcrab]

Okay, I really do love it. And I'm not just whinging, I would like to hear if others have similar problems or fixes. I've tried various things to no avail.

Anyway... I love my Droid, but (no particular order):

1) The camera sucks. I think it could be good, but most shots, especially indoors, are incredibly blurry. I thought the 2.0.1 update was meant to fix a lot of the problems.

2) It crashes. Not regularly, but more than my Curve 8330 did. In particular, the browser can get itself in a fix. I think maybe it has something to do with my wifi, but not sure.

3) The integrated Google Talk app BLOWS CHUNKS. It would be awesomely amazing, but is entirely unreliable and constantly signs me out (occassonally deciding to randomly sign me in).

4) Calendar is kinda clunky.

5) Gmail app is actually great. My only gripe is that once in a blue moon, it manages to delete a thread by itself.

6) This is a BIG one: my Droid likes to SYNC ITSELF TO DEATH!!! It will kill the battery overnight, from 100% to dead, which makes the alarm function useless. Almost more irritating, it appears to be a random occurance, although has happened more frequently of late. I've tried myriad cures. No luck. (It's doing this right now, as I type.)

7) Wifi will cut out, making me wait about two minutes or so before I can use data again. (Happens every 30 or so minutes of browsing, so not a big problem.)

8) Gets pretty darn hot...

To rebuff people that think I might be hating (I'm not, I love it!), here is why the Droid is great:

1) Screen!!

2) Optional physical keyboard.

3) Looks awesome.

4) Great integration with my Google accounts.

5) Solid battery life (when not syncing itself to death).

6) Awesome call quality.

7) Google Navigation!

8) Good loud speaker/speaker phone.

9) Google Voice integration is sweet.

10) Multitasking and tabbed browsing.

11) Etc.

 

[Rudolphe]

1. I agree about the camera, it needs updating. 5.0 megapixels should look better than this.

2. The only time my phone crashed was due to a faulty launcher on a custom rom. Besides that my phone's been on for a week straight since the last unintentional reboot.

3. Don't use Gtalk no opinion on that.

4. The calendar is clunky, especially coming from a blackberry.

5. I seriously dislike the Gmail app. I don't think the phone handles E-mail very well. I'm sure the majority of my hatred is due to the fact that i'm coming from a Blackberry which handles E-mail better than any other device hands down. I wish there was an email app similar to chomp or something that could do it better than the built in app.

6. Well, the phone isn't the best at battery management but there's things you can do to help. First, always plug your phone in at night. Second, you can add the power controls widget to one of your home screens, this will let you turn off Wifi, Bluetooth, Gps, Sync and control backlight brightness. Third, install one of the many task managers on the market, this way you can kill all the apps running in the background that may be slowing you down.

7. Never had any issues with Wifi, i'm on at home with it constantly and connect to a few other networks when i'm on the road. The one time i did have issues at home i rebooted the phone and my router and never had a problem again.

8. Expected.. especially from a multitasking machine like the Droid, lots of processor utilization there.

 

[mobilemedic20]

My responses:

1. I actually think the quality's fine, but it's quite SLOW at taking pictures, which annoys me.

2. No crashes for me, not even sure what you're talking about - phone's been very stable.

3. No issues with me on the Google Talk, but I don't use it too much. Not sure if it's signing me out or whatever, but that would be annoying if that's the case.

4. Agreed on the calendar - and to add to that (no pun intended), adding new events doesn't show up properly on the computer end. They need to work on the calendar.

5. No problems with Gmail app either.

6. Plug your phone in at night! Why wouldn't you do this? Especially if you're using it as an alarm clock. Otherwise, I don't notice sync doing anything crazy.

7. Yeah i've noticed that with wifi a bit too... not sure what that's all about, but not too big a deal.

8. Yup, I've noticed the heat too - gets warm. I'm getting used to that though.

Android still needs work! But, I don't have any intention of going back to Blackberry anytime soon - I think Android and iPhone are probably the two best OS's available, for what it's worth. I'll be turning in my Droid for a Nexus 1 next week, so we'll see how that goes!

 

[DeeMat]

My opinion...

1. Agree with Mobilemedic - have found myself taking less pictures than I used to with my previous phone
2. No crashes
3. Dont use Gtalk
4. Calendar takes a bit to get used to but it works fine - I use Outlook and the Google Calendar Sync
5. No problems with Gmail
6. I plug my phone every night. When I have forgotten to, I still have battery in the morning.
7. Wi-fi never cuts out
8. Hot on occasion but rarely.

Kicks BB's behind.

 

[that1bb]

1. I agree the camera is bad. If you turn off auto focus, and set it at 2 MP I get decent results.

4. I recommend calendar pad. It can display an entire month's events at a glance.

Check out Dialer One. I think you will like it.

 

[MckeanOne]

Pure calendar is a really nice calendar app. It costs a nominal fee but worth it.

 

[Charmed Juan]

#8 It gets hot when the processor is working hard, Downloading something, doing the Navigation thing, or other heavy processor work.
If your battery is going down at night, something is in work.
If you have a podcatcher set to download at night, that could do it.
Plug it in at night.

 

[dancingcrab]

Thanks for all the responses.

Regarding #6, I don't think I was very clear. I appreciate people saying 'plug it in!', but regardless, it should be able to last eight hours starting at full capacity.

See, the problem is that this is a glitch. The sync icon just isn't disappearing. I can manually toggle sync off, but that shouldn't be necessary. The only means of fixing it is a battery pull, which irritates me for two reasons (three if you count the fact that I shouldn't have to do it): one, I use a Seidio Innocase, which is great but is a pain to remove; and two, it makes me feel like I own a BlackBerry again. Bah.

The heat thing is more of a discomfort than anything else - it cools down quick enough when I'm not taxing the PUs, but it is rather warm to touch. I'm concerned it may lead to processor death down the line.

Oh, and for those not experiencing crashes - that's great. I'm not experiencing many, but the three or four times it has happened, it's been a huge pain.

Still don't regret the switch from Storm 9550 though. That was a nightmare. I'm hoping that 2.1 will fix a lot of my issues...

::EDIT:: Meant to say: I don't use a podcatcher. I use virtually no apps, except for Google Voice and GBCoid and Gameboid.

 

[WarER4X]

...The only means of fixing it is a battery pull, which irritates me for two reasons (three if you count the fact that I shouldn't have to do it): one, I use a Seidio Innocase, which is great but is a pain to remove; and two, it makes me feel like I own a BlackBerry again. Bah...

Uh oh... now you've done it. Get ready for a slew of posts telling you to stop pulling the battery because the Droid isn't a Blackberry.

Of course, those posts are correct. Just turn the phone off and turn it back on and save the battery pulls for when the phone freezes so bad that it won't respond to the power button or ctrl-alt-del trick on the keyboard.

I, too, hope the camera photos improve with a software revision, but I do think the video capture works pretty good.

My phone definitly gets the hottest when running the navigator, especially when I'm charging it at the same time.

I had my sync get stuck running for a couple days once, but it was Google Listen that was doing it. That problem has since gone away.

More often, I will see my GPS get stuck trying to get my location and can't always figure out what app causes it. When that happens and I'm worried about battery life, I just turn off GPS and when I turn it on later, it's all better.

-SR-

 

[dancingcrab]

Uh oh... now you've done it. Get ready for a slew of posts telling you to stop pulling the battery because the Droid isn't a Blackberry.

Of course, those posts are correct.

I'm okay ignoring such responses. I used BlackBerrys for a few years; I understand the difference. The fact is that turning my Droid off and on didn't fix the continued syncing, whereas a battery pull did. Go figure.

 

[Romple]

Had my Droid for under a month coming from a Storm which I had since release. I now understand how double leg amputees feel after getting bionic prostheses installed. Sure it might not be perfect, but compared to the alternative it's probably the best you're gonna get.

Just saying anyone using any "smartphone" can put up a similar list. I just focus on the good stuff until the bad overwhelms it. Do you think maybe you just have a particularly bad Droid?

 

[Rudolphe]

Had my Droid for under a month coming from a Storm which I had since release. I now understand how double leg amputees feel after getting bionic prostheses installed. Sure it might not be perfect, but compared to the alternative it's probably the best you're gonna get.

Just saying anyone using any "smartphone" can put up a similar list. I just focus on the good stuff until the bad overwhelms it. Do you think maybe you just have a particularly bad Droid?

I miss my damn storm man. I'm really missing Push Notifications and the RIM developed apps... As an actual phone and messaging device the Berry blows the Droid away. Plus I could crank out close to 80wpm on the storms Surepress portrait view keyboard. I might be trading my droid for a storm2 soon.

 

[Romple]

It's still taking me a bit to get used to the lack of Surepress. But even the Storm2 is miles behind in performance than the Droid. I've tried really hard to break my Droid. Downloaded at least 50 apps the first week and i've yet to experience anything remotely close to a slowdown. I managed to lock up and battery pull my buddy's Storm2 in about 10 minutes.

But every phone will have its ups and downs. There was a lot I liked about the Storm but if you use any of these devices with any other device in mind there's inevitably going to be areas you feel envious about.

 

[Rudolphe]

Your definitely right about that, i know if i go back to the storm i'm going to miss the speed and overall look and feel of the droid. The versatility and sheer number of extremely useful apps. The cooked roms... the large screen, widgets, the browser.. and the integration with Google Accounts, maps, voice commands, navigation... the positives are many. If I could find a dock that had a phone button that went across the bottom of the screen, a facebook app with working notifications and somehow get push notifications for accounts other than my Gmail account i'd be in Smartphone heaven!

 

[MBSMD]

I'd have a hard time going back to my Storm 2 for a few reasons -

- Browser. Nothing on the BB can touch Android's web browser. Not Opera Mini, not Bolt. Nothing. And since the webkit browser they showed off at MWC doesn't exist outside the lab yet, it doesn't count.

- Google Voice. So nicely integrated.

- WiFi tethering (rooted). TetherBerry worked, but this is so much better.

- HTML email support. It's 2010 and the BB OS 5 still can't format an HTML email correctly. For shame, RIM. For shame.

 

[YourMobileGuru]

How long have you had your Droid? The more times you charge and drain (but NOT completely, that only decreases the overall life of the battery) the battery the better battery life you get.

Charge your battery at night and any time you can. It can't be overcharged. This is a Motorola phone and Motorola = sucky battery life (thought the Droid gets better than my other past Moto handsets) that's par for the course.

You can change the sync settings:

Home > Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync un-check Background data or Auto Sync

Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth if you aren't using it

Home > Menu > Settings > Wireless and Network Settings (or just use the power management widget)

 

[fry-lock]

Sounds like you might have a bad phone. I bought my wife and myself both droids yesterday, and mine exhibiting similar problems to 1, 2 and 7. After 3 battery pulls, short bit of searching and the fact my wifes droid was stable as a rock, I figured I got a defective phone, and had it swapped out. I haven't had a single problem since. From what I understand, the OS should be pretty stable as long as you don't have any poorly written apps installed.

The funny thing is, when the sales rep handed it to me, I opened the browser, and it immediately crashed lol.

 

[D_H]

i would turn off your location for your gps when not using it as well...that drains the battery too..good app that is free is power manager. you can turn on/off wifi, and bluetooth

settings> Location & security> use gps satellites

 

[Knyte]

So far my issues have been the following on both of our droids..

1. It gets hot at times!! 5- 10 min using an app.. what??(replaced my 1st droid because of this and vzw said it wasn't normal.. and they both still get hot lol)
2. False signal of 5% battery life(little window telling me to plug it in to the charger) after a full charge and left overnight. When I plug it back in it starts at 70% charging instead of 5% that it was griping about.
3. ehh camera could be better but then again this is phone.. lol

Things that should have been in the software to begin with:

1. Notification tone for sms/mms per contact.. using handcent for this
2. ability to send mp3 file via sms/mms.. again using handcent for this (VZW claims the phone can't perform this function lol)
getting tired of using an app that has sooo much more fluff when these 2 little things are what I want lol

 

[anon(7436)]

You people need to :
1. Cycle your batteries correctly the first time
2. Stop using so many damn applications (you know you don't need to)
3. Turn off those process killers (I know you're using them!)
4. Hold your cameras still for more than a quarter of a second
5. Stop b!tching.

Deal with it, or go buy a new phone. Not that difficult.