Motorola Droid X review roundup
Laid low by the dreaded iPhone 4 death grip? You've got some options. You can sign up for a class action lawsuit against Apple. You could go into an Apple store and complain about the reception. Or you could put down the iPhone 4 and pick up a Verizon Droid X instead. The Droid X, the latest handset in Motorola's popular Android line, is scheduled to hit stores on July 15 – and according to the first batch of the reviews, this phone's a doozy. Let's go to the scorecards.
Display
As we've mentioned before, the Droid X is packing a 4.3-inch high-resolution display. Those dimensions "may not sound huge, but for a cell phone this is fairly enormous," writes the AP's Rachel Metz. Moreover, "the Droid X's screen isn't just large; it's also brilliant and crisp. It's really fun to watch videos on it, read Facebook status updates from little on-screen 'widgets,' check e-mails and poke around online. Colors look bright, and text is easy to read."
Camera
The Droid X is rocking an 8 megapixel camera capable of shooting HD video. The phone is also equipped with three microphones – so amateur auteurs should be in heaven, right? Not so fast. Over at Boy Genius Report, the Droid X camera gets some pretty low marks. "Shots from close range and indoors tended to be a bit blurry and grainy," writes BGR's reviewer. "Now, we understand this isn’t an SLR or a point-and-shoot — this is your cell phone we’re talking about here — but we did expect a little more from the DROID X’s camera."
Call quality
Meanwhile, USA Today's Edward C. Baig says the Droid X can do something iPhone 4 can't. "Droid X belongs at or near the top of the Android list," Baig writes. "Verizon has a sterling reputation. Call quality was good. In a week's worth of testing, I never had a dropped call. Find an iPhone user who can say the same. I hear all the time from folks wondering if and when the iPhone will land on Verizon's network. I wouldn't bet on that happening soon."
The OS
The Droid X will ship with Google's Android 2.1 operating system, but Verizon says users will be able to upgrade to Android 2.2 by later this summer. Over at the New York Times, David Pogue calls the Droid X a "speed rocket... It’s impossible to overstate how satisfying it is to use a snappy, responsive gadget," he adds.
Pogue especially likes that Android is open source, which allows each phone maker to "enhance what Google provides. Motorola has added a thin layer of its own that cleverly ties in Twitter and Facebook posts. For example, you can see all Twitter, Facebook and e-mail messages that each person in your address book has sent, all in one place," Pogue writes.
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