Hey all -
So this is my first post - but I've been a lurker for a while so I thought I'd share my initial thoughts about my Droid 3 which I received yesterday. I upgraded from the OG Droid. I'll divide this up by category.
Physical Characteristics
Overall, I find the phone very pleasing from a physical / industrial design perspective. Like the Droid 1 it has a nice weight to it - not so heavy its noticeable but it feels high quality in the hand. The back of the phone / battery cover has a nice soft touch "rubberized" type feel to it. I really love the trim on the phone. Rather than flat black (Droid 1) or blue (Droid 2) it is what I would call gunmetal - a dark shiny metal. It looks really slick, without being garish like silver chrome would be. The screen is surrounded by a fairly standard iPhone style piano black bezel, but it is done well. There are 4 soft buttons on the front, a power button on top, a volume rocker on the right, and micro USB and HDMI on the left. The sliding mechanism is solid. The size, to me, is perfect. While the OG Droid was a bit small, some of the newer slate devices are too big to be pocketable in my mind. This seems to split the difference perfectly. The only negative I've found is the battery cover is a SERIOUS pain to remove.
Performance
I'm coming from an OG Droid so keep that in mind, but this thing is fast. It boots fast, apps load instantly, scrolling is smooth, transitions are smooth, no lag to speak of. I don't game much on my phone, but I tried Pocket Legends and it ran like butter. As this was my main reason for upgrading (even with Cyanogenmod, my OG Droid is a slow dog), I am extremely pleased with the phone in this regard. Some may complain about the 512 RAM - and I agree, more would be nice - but at this price point I think 512 is good (see "Value for Money" below).
Input
This was why I bought this phone, sight unseen. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but a physical keyboard is a MUST for me. And on Verizon, that made this phone basically my only option. I am happy to say I'm not disappointed. The physical keyboard is similar to the Droid 1, but much improved. It is spaced better, has dedicated number keys, has a bit more "rounding" to the keys, and is a bit clickier. The soft keyboard is improved as well. Motorola has included Swype on this phone, which, combined with the larger screen, makes the virtual keyboard more usable, even for me. I still won't be doing a whole lot with it, but it's usable now for doing something quick like entering a google search.
Blur
The Blur implementation here is relatively unobtrusive. The blue color scheme is pleasing enough, though some of the icons and such look plain compared to the Gingerbread icons. I prefer some of the stock apps (the News & Weather app is a notable loss). I don't notice any performance issues. I did not like the layout of the Blur launcher, so I installer LauncherPro. In the end - I don't see that Blur adds much, though it doesn't seem to detract much either. I'd prefer a straight Google device, but Blur doesn't seem to be a dealbreaker here.
Bloatware
Pretty standard stuff. A bunch of VCast nonsense. Verizon's online backup tool (beware - the phone defaulted to backing up contacts to Verizon as opposed to Google - stupid). Blockbuster. A few games. Overall, a bunch of stuff I WISH wasn't there, but nothing terribly obtrusive or that impacts performance. Mainly it just clutters the app drawer.
Call Quality
Have used it only a few times but it seems very good, par for the course for Motorola.
Screen Quality
Probably the most meh feature of the phone. It's a nice enough display, but as we all knew, it's Pentile. The grid and "graininess" is there, and it's noticeable with certain UI elements and with certain text. There are advantages to Pentile too, mainly in the battery life department, but I'm not sure how much battery it really saves. Is there enough of an advantage to outweigh the significant loss of visual quality? I'm thinking probably not, but an expert would have to say. Ultimately though, unless you're looking for it, it's not very noticeable in actual use. The display is large, gets very bright, and is eminently serviceable. Again, given the price point and other advantages of the phone, I'm not complaining.
"Missing Features"
Difficulties with rooting / locked bootloader is the big one. I don't know if Motorola will keep it's promise to unlock things or not - but if you are a serious customizer I don't need to tell you this isn't the best choice. If you're a normal user who can wait for it to be rooted down the road, it's just fine.
The other "missing feature" is 4G. As I understand it though, 4G radios are large. A phone with both 4G AND a keyboard would be a total brick. That, I think, is why VZW hasn't released one. I don't think it's a big loss. I live in a 4G area, but frankly, I think the technology needs to mature, especially in terms of battery life. I'm happy to wait out 4G for a year or two and get a really GOOD 4G phone once the technology is better.
Value for Money
I think there's a LOT of value here. The phone lists for $199 on contract. I got it for $150 due to a discount through my employer. This is not a high end price point, but it's a pretty high end phone. You get a large display, a great selection of input methods, and dual core. To the extent corners have been cut, it's the 512 RAM, the lack of 4G, and the Pentile display (though unfortunately the latter is becoming popular even on high end phones). All in all, I think the phone presents an excellent value for the money. If it was priced at $299, I think there'd be more room to complain, but as it is, you get what you pay for and then some in my book.
Recommendation
If you are on Verizon, and want a modern Android phone with a keyboard, this is your only option. Fortunately, I think it's a really good option. Actually, I'd go so far as to say this is about the best physical keyboard Android device out there right now on ANY carrier. If you don't care about the keyboard, there's really no reason to go for this phone. There are plenty of phones without keyboards, so you may as well save the weight and thickness.
So this is my first post - but I've been a lurker for a while so I thought I'd share my initial thoughts about my Droid 3 which I received yesterday. I upgraded from the OG Droid. I'll divide this up by category.
Physical Characteristics
Overall, I find the phone very pleasing from a physical / industrial design perspective. Like the Droid 1 it has a nice weight to it - not so heavy its noticeable but it feels high quality in the hand. The back of the phone / battery cover has a nice soft touch "rubberized" type feel to it. I really love the trim on the phone. Rather than flat black (Droid 1) or blue (Droid 2) it is what I would call gunmetal - a dark shiny metal. It looks really slick, without being garish like silver chrome would be. The screen is surrounded by a fairly standard iPhone style piano black bezel, but it is done well. There are 4 soft buttons on the front, a power button on top, a volume rocker on the right, and micro USB and HDMI on the left. The sliding mechanism is solid. The size, to me, is perfect. While the OG Droid was a bit small, some of the newer slate devices are too big to be pocketable in my mind. This seems to split the difference perfectly. The only negative I've found is the battery cover is a SERIOUS pain to remove.
Performance
I'm coming from an OG Droid so keep that in mind, but this thing is fast. It boots fast, apps load instantly, scrolling is smooth, transitions are smooth, no lag to speak of. I don't game much on my phone, but I tried Pocket Legends and it ran like butter. As this was my main reason for upgrading (even with Cyanogenmod, my OG Droid is a slow dog), I am extremely pleased with the phone in this regard. Some may complain about the 512 RAM - and I agree, more would be nice - but at this price point I think 512 is good (see "Value for Money" below).
Input
This was why I bought this phone, sight unseen. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but a physical keyboard is a MUST for me. And on Verizon, that made this phone basically my only option. I am happy to say I'm not disappointed. The physical keyboard is similar to the Droid 1, but much improved. It is spaced better, has dedicated number keys, has a bit more "rounding" to the keys, and is a bit clickier. The soft keyboard is improved as well. Motorola has included Swype on this phone, which, combined with the larger screen, makes the virtual keyboard more usable, even for me. I still won't be doing a whole lot with it, but it's usable now for doing something quick like entering a google search.
Blur
The Blur implementation here is relatively unobtrusive. The blue color scheme is pleasing enough, though some of the icons and such look plain compared to the Gingerbread icons. I prefer some of the stock apps (the News & Weather app is a notable loss). I don't notice any performance issues. I did not like the layout of the Blur launcher, so I installer LauncherPro. In the end - I don't see that Blur adds much, though it doesn't seem to detract much either. I'd prefer a straight Google device, but Blur doesn't seem to be a dealbreaker here.
Bloatware
Pretty standard stuff. A bunch of VCast nonsense. Verizon's online backup tool (beware - the phone defaulted to backing up contacts to Verizon as opposed to Google - stupid). Blockbuster. A few games. Overall, a bunch of stuff I WISH wasn't there, but nothing terribly obtrusive or that impacts performance. Mainly it just clutters the app drawer.
Call Quality
Have used it only a few times but it seems very good, par for the course for Motorola.
Screen Quality
Probably the most meh feature of the phone. It's a nice enough display, but as we all knew, it's Pentile. The grid and "graininess" is there, and it's noticeable with certain UI elements and with certain text. There are advantages to Pentile too, mainly in the battery life department, but I'm not sure how much battery it really saves. Is there enough of an advantage to outweigh the significant loss of visual quality? I'm thinking probably not, but an expert would have to say. Ultimately though, unless you're looking for it, it's not very noticeable in actual use. The display is large, gets very bright, and is eminently serviceable. Again, given the price point and other advantages of the phone, I'm not complaining.
"Missing Features"
Difficulties with rooting / locked bootloader is the big one. I don't know if Motorola will keep it's promise to unlock things or not - but if you are a serious customizer I don't need to tell you this isn't the best choice. If you're a normal user who can wait for it to be rooted down the road, it's just fine.
The other "missing feature" is 4G. As I understand it though, 4G radios are large. A phone with both 4G AND a keyboard would be a total brick. That, I think, is why VZW hasn't released one. I don't think it's a big loss. I live in a 4G area, but frankly, I think the technology needs to mature, especially in terms of battery life. I'm happy to wait out 4G for a year or two and get a really GOOD 4G phone once the technology is better.
Value for Money
I think there's a LOT of value here. The phone lists for $199 on contract. I got it for $150 due to a discount through my employer. This is not a high end price point, but it's a pretty high end phone. You get a large display, a great selection of input methods, and dual core. To the extent corners have been cut, it's the 512 RAM, the lack of 4G, and the Pentile display (though unfortunately the latter is becoming popular even on high end phones). All in all, I think the phone presents an excellent value for the money. If it was priced at $299, I think there'd be more room to complain, but as it is, you get what you pay for and then some in my book.
Recommendation
If you are on Verizon, and want a modern Android phone with a keyboard, this is your only option. Fortunately, I think it's a really good option. Actually, I'd go so far as to say this is about the best physical keyboard Android device out there right now on ANY carrier. If you don't care about the keyboard, there's really no reason to go for this phone. There are plenty of phones without keyboards, so you may as well save the weight and thickness.
