By The Motorola DROID 3 was made available last Thursday and folks have had an entire weekend to play with it. Over at AndroidForums.com, tons of first impressions have already popped up. The usual Motorola quirks, pros and cons were mentioned – call quality, build quality and battery life are all top notch. The camera is very usable and, according to most, the display is just as bad as it is on their other recent dual-core devices.
As for MOTOBLUR and its affects on speed in other phones, users actually profess that this device is very speedy and responsive thanks to the dual-core OMAP4 processor inside. One of our users has posted a very short review of it on his blog, giving his quick thoughts alongside previous DROID phones. You can check that out here. We’re working on grabbing a review unit of our own, but be sure to traverse the massive thread at AndroidForums.com in the meantime.
Can’t wait for this device to come to Europe!
Short of looking at the display with a magnifying glass, I don’t see any problems with it. What little pixelation may or may not be there is hardly noticeable. If you’re tyrying to see problems, you probably will. You can say that about anything though. Will most users see any issues? I highly doubt it.
It’s easy to not even know there’s Blur on the phone at all. I simply ignored the built-in apps and widgets and used the tried and true set I had on my Droid1. The only exception being the Messenger app replacing the stand-alone combined inbox. I liked the one on the Droid1 better, but I can live with this one.
Pre-installed apps: yeah there are quite a few, but set your default app drawer folder to “Downloaded Apps” and you’ll never see them. They don’t take up much space, and there’s plenty to spare.
External speaker isn’t great, but that’s to be expected. Some sacrifices in part quality need to be made to keep costs reasonable. Speaker is plenty good enough for hands free calling, though, just not for music.
Keyboard is a major improvement over the original. The bigger size and lack of the useless D-Pad squishing everything to the left makes it much easier to use. The number row is a godsend. It really speeds things up.
And speaking of speed, the thing screams.
I’ve seen some complaints about battery, but haven’t seen any issues myself. Of course, I also went into task manager and tagged all the ones I don’t want backgrounded to be killed when the screen is off, so that helps.
Call quality is very good.
Overall, it’s a very nice phone.
What apps do you recommend adding to the stock ones right out of the gate? What do you have for a task manager and how can you get it to keep the things from starting without me asking them to start?
It automatically comes with a stock task manager
So, I hear you liek mudkipz
This is a nice phone….
I wonder if moto will make a regular LCD version of this phone like HTC and samsung did. I couldn’t stand RGBG pentile screens (I can see the subpixels for some reason), so I probably won’t be able to stand RGBW as well.
Also, random fact: The original droid/milestone’s screen has more subpixels than the droid3/milestone3’s screen. gotta love the misleading screen resolutions pentile screens pump out.
On the Verizon site someone posted that this phone doesn’t sync with Outlook?
Mine syncs with my corporate exchange.
I heard that the Droid 3 doesn’t sync with Outlook too…or any other Window apps. Hear it comes with Blockbuster app, etc. also heard that if you’re in business it’s not a good phone to have; just good for practical use.
Julisa, I use this phone extensively for business and it is great business phone. I travel out of the US almost twice a month, and the global aspect is wonderful.
None of the new phones will sync directly with Outlook, but they so sync with Exchange Server if you work in the corporate world. Not even the new Windowsphone 7 phones will sync directly with Outlook. That is no fault of the phone or MOTO, that is a fault of everything being in the “cloud”
I work for a major hotel corporation doing inspection all over the world, and this phone is ideal.
It’s different for everyone, but I can easily see pixelation in pentile displays. The difference between the Fascinate and Charge in terms of pixeation is huge to my eyes and the Charge screen is bigger.
Agreed that this is a much better device than anyone seemed to expect it to be. Like the previous poster, I am able to see the pixels if I put my nose on the phone, but not from a foot away. I keep hearing that the display is much better outdoors than most screens but I haven’t thought to look yet (since Friday).
I love this keyboard and I consider it the best phone keyboard I’ve ever used by a significant margin. I’m still probably going to spring for a Bionic next month, but not because of any dissatisfaction with the D3. I just love big screens.
I ordered by Droid3 earlier today! I’ve owned a Droid1 and Droid2, so I’m looking forward to this upgrade.
I couldnt wait to get mine…finally came yesterday and never made it past the first screen where u have to accept the terms….on phone with tech for over an our doing all kinds of stuff and nothing….a lemon….so waiting for another one to come tomorrow…I sure hope this isnt an indication of whats to come….:(
Pros: Keyboard is amazing and this thing is FAST.
Cons: Screen and Speakers are worse than Droid 1 and the Camera is a disaster.
Mugs,
I have the droid 1 and the droid 2 and now the droid 3. My camera works far and again better than either of the other droids did. I do miss the hardware button, but my images come out average to better than average. My Tbolt takes far better pictures than this camera does, but I do use the HD camcorder a lot for work purposes and it works pretty darn good. My HTC Trophy on the other hand takes the worst pictures of any smartphone I have ever or will ever own.
The flash on mine makes every single picture blue, without the flash it’s a grainy mess. The HD video does record very well though.
I got my phone last week, but wanted to wait a while until I posted anything at all so I could check it out first.
I have had all of the Droid phones, and I have to say that aside from a few little trivial complaints, this is the best one yet. I think the screen is very bright and clear, although it is washed out as usual in direct sunlight. the Keyboard is far and again the best slider keyboard I have ever experienced (right up there with the Epic 4g). The dual core processor is very fast and responsive, and I have had no problems as so far. Battery life is on par with most smartphones that I have owned or tested. As for “bloatware”, that is just part of life. Aside from rooting the phone (which I have done one time, and really didnt care for it), there is no way to get rid of some of the applications that I wont use (Blockbuster being the biggest waste of space).
As for the comments regarding no being able to sync with outlook, there are NO new phones that will sync directly with Outlook, not even the new windows phones that are designed by Microsoft. They will sync with most companies exchange server (including my companies). As for comments that this is not a business phone, that is simply NOT the case. The built in go to meeting is a dream come true for me (I use it at least three times a week). The phone does have remote wipe including SD card wipe that can be controlled from my Exchange server, just in case I lose it.
I carry three phones with me at all times (I know it is a pain in the rear). I have a HTC Trophy, an HTC Thunderbolt, and my Droid 3. I travel a lot internationally so I needed two “global” phones on Verizon. Of all of my phones I have to say that my Thunderbolt is my favorite (I have NOT had the problems that anyone else has with the unit), but this Droid 3 is almost as great as my Tbolt. I get slightly better battery life (although the first three days my battery life was subpar), but after several discharge cycles the battery is average. I am a power user, and I am NOT a fan of extended batteries, although of my coworkers has the extended battery for the droid 3 and I couldnt even tell it was an extended battery.
All in all if you are looking for a great global phone, that is android based, you will NOT be dissapointed with this phone. I hated and I mean HATED my droid X, and I had lost all faith in Moto after getting that phone. This is a good attempt at making me more confident.
I ran my outlook file thru Gmail, exported as CSV and have everything in here, including my calendar. What do you know about bluetooth? I used to turn on my headset and it synched, now I have to turn on the phone and synch from the phone..