Review: Motorola Droid Cell Phone

by Jyl Johnson Pattee on March 5th, 2010 | 5 Comments »

Cell phone? Seriously? I call it my do-it-all-save-the-day

Smart Device.

The Droid has inserted itself into my daily life right next to my toothbrush and my Mountain Dew. We wonder how we lived without cell phones, right? I'm wondering how I managed without a walking hand-held laptop like the Droid.

I made a list of things (other than cell-phone/email) I've recently transformed the Droid into and the list was so long my notepad started complaining.

My Favorite Things About the Droid

Voice Activated Browser: Hands down this is my favorite feature of the Droid. I've searched for Easy Oreo Truffles, Gymnastics in my town, Brandon Mull (for the tween reader in my house), and it never fails. Awesome when you are in a hurry or away from a phonebook or laptop. Look at how readable the webpages are.

Pandora: Think about this. You don't need radio. Satellite radio? Forget it. With Pandora on your phone you have your own radio station, and with a data plan you take it with you anywhere you travel! The sound quality is fairly good even without earphones. How about at the Gym? I love my tunes while treadmilling, but even with a few hundred songs on a playlist I get tired of the same songs. Pandora on my Droid solves jogging boredom! (Note: You wouldn't fiddle with it while driving, now would you?)

In the Kitchen: Seriously. The whole world of recipes in a little black box. Imagine Foodwhirl.com or Epicurious.com or iVillage.com sitting on your countertop, helping you stir creamy alfredo for dinner, or reminding you to whip the egg whites before you combine solids and liquids for Easter morning waffles. This is the digital recipe book I've been dreaming about. (Be careful not to drip chocolate cake batter on your friend... I mean phone!)

Photo to Flickr to Twitter: Sometimes you need to share an image Right That Second. The 5.0 megapixel camera on the Droid spits out amazingly clear images. I never need to miss a shot again. At the park, during a kid concert, after interrupting little wanna be me with lipstick all over her face—CLICK! Picture taken. Set up your Flickr2 Twitter account and you can email, save, and share your image with a few swift taps, beeps, and wooshes!

Backseat Crabby-Pants: Kids driving you crazy on a long drive? Believe me, I know. We live 75 miles from the nearest Costco. We are in need of serious munchkin entertainment on those trips! Droid Got Apps? (and games?) Oh yeah, Droid Does. Hundreds. Amen. (Good luck getting it back from your tween by the way...)

On the Go Shopping and Cost Comparison: Let's say you are looking for shelves for your tween's bedroom and you've walked into a big box store and found something that might work. But, last night you were browsing around a few websites with similar products. What to do? Pull out your Droid, quickly look up the price of the online shop, and compare with and without shipping. Brilliant.

GPS map program: I'm in the Target parking lot. I need to find the Gymnastics Studio in town. I use the voice activated browser to locate the address, I click the map and Droid asks: would you like to open the Maps App? Well yes I would, thank you. It opens and I click to get directions from WHERE I AM at that moment. Who needs a separate GPS thing-a-ma-bopper?

I've also ask Droid to become my Timer/Alarm Clock, Calculator, and Calendar. It was happy to oblige.

Social Media: Of course. The phone is all set up when you first turn it on directing you to log into your gmail account or create one, plus Facebook is ready to activate, and Twitter is easy and free to download the app of your choosing. I don't use text messages a lot but the set up is easy and clear.

My Least Favorite Things About the Droid

At first the soft keys at the bottom of the phone were diving me nuts. They are so sensitive, when you have turned on the camera if you barely move your thumb over the 'back' key, it turns the camera off. I'm getting better about how I hold the phone for different functions and that problem is getting better.

I was ALL about the slide out keyboard of the Droid. However I find I'm using the on screen keyboard way more than the pull out keyboard.

How Much Does It Cost?

The Droid is on sale right now when you renew or start a contract with Verizon. You get 2 for the price of one! $199 for two Motorola Droid phones. One for you and one for your kid (who will take your phone anyway...) I think it's a fabulous price. $100 for a phone that's really a walkabout laptop. Yay!

Overall— When my Verizon account expires this month, I am all about purchasing either the Droid or the little sister Eris.

This test drive has been brought to you by Verizon. Carissa was given a Motorola Droid to use and enjoy for 4 weeks.

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Jyl Johnson Pattee

An active part of the Mom It Forward team, Jyl primarily writes about parenting, social good, and all things travel related. In a past life, Jyl was an award-winning copywriter and designer of corporate training programs for Fortune 100 companies. Offline, Jyl is married to @TroyPattee; a mom to two teen boys and a beagle named #Hashtag; loves large amounts of cheese, dancing, and traveling; and lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Topping her bucket list is the goal to visit 50 countries by the time she's 50.