This is one of the questions I faced when considering the Droid purchase. See my first post on why I bought the Droid. Besides the iPhone allure, the issue around keyboards and which wireless carrier to go with. There was also the possibilities of other Android based phones to consider.
Verizon currently only has two Android based phones the HTC Droid Eris and Motorola Droid. Cellfanatic.com has a good detailed comparison of these two. For me the decision to get the Motorola goes back to the keyboard thing. The HTC was tempting. It feels nice in the hand (more like a phone, less like a device). It also has HTC’s pinch zoom (iPhone-ish) functionality. The other thing about Eris for me that was a hard sell is that it’s only $100 less than the Motorola but spec for spec it seems you get so much more from the later. I expect Verizon will have one or two more Android based phones in 2010… and possibly the famed iPhone.
If you are not tied to a certain network like I am then options abound. I know that Garmin-Asus, Dell, Sony, Kyocera are all planning 2010 new Android based phones on various networks.
Why would I a mac loving techie buy a Droid? Two simple answers… I live rural and I like physical keyboards. Well, it was a lot more painful than that.
Apple has some powerful mojo though. I was almost ready to move over to ATT, even though the coverage is horrible at my house, just to possess the beautiful iPhone. I had been able to ignore the fact that on screen typing wasn’t working for me (big hands? old fashioned?). Then the buzz around the possibility of VZ carrying an Android based phone caught my eye. Early guesses and word of mouth stories indicated that had a keyboard and iPhone like specs == promising. The iDon’t ads and preview reviews came out, cool but… too hyped perhaps? Truth is iDon’t need an iPhone killer, just need a solid device that does what I need. Most early hands on demos were positive but always reserving something for the master the house (iPhone). Starting to think I will just live with a VZ phone and a iPod Touch.
By the time I finally went to my appointment with Best Buy I was pretty sure I was not going to get this lame flush keyboard, camera lagging, app store lacking, so not an iPhone killer wanna be device. There are good iPhone vs Droid comparisons and reviews but I think I was over saturated. Had it just go in to try the thing out. It was my first time using Best Buy for mobile phone stuff and liked working with them. They were low pressure, let me play with it for a long time (mid day no one in there), let me compare with iPhone and the other droid Eris. They also process the rebates without me having to mail anything in. Once I got the Droid in hand and had a chance to play with it, type on the keyboard, carry it in my pocket, compare with iPhone in the hand, Eris in the hand. I decided it would work for me.
So here are the basic reasons for plopping down the cash…
- must have VZ network being rural it just works better out where I am
- needed to upgrade soon, was eligible for my new every two
- flexible platform
- real keyboard
- geek now factor
What changed from when I was walking into the store to making the actual purchase. There are a lot of reviews… probably more now. They all seemed to focus on two things… 1. comparing with iPhone 2. comparing with other android based phones. When I started messing with it I realized that I didn’t have that frame of reference so I wasn’t wishing it would do something like the iphone or that like the HTC or whatever. Actually holding the device and trying it out is what sold me. The interface was really clean and understandable to me. Yes, the device seemed a little heavier than the iphone or htc Eris… but it’s more like a metallic vs plastic heavy, not a I can’t carry this in my pocket heavy. The screen is bright (not as big a sell point as the reviewers made out for me personally). The keyboard worked fine for me. It seem to do everything I would have thought and more. It seemed like a very useful tool full of potential…. perhaps that’s what woke the geek in me.
Unboxing the Droid