After yet another attempt at highway robbery by AT&T and with no sign of a Verizon iPhone any time soon, I took the plunge yesterday and moved back to VZW. Grace got an LG Cosmos and I got a Droid X. Here are my thoughts. I’ve dumped them out in bullet form, in rough order of priority. The quick version: I’m very impressed. I’m beginning to think that maybe Apple has blundered strategically by leaving CDMA users out in the cold. I just don’t see how Android phones could get this good this quickly if there weren’t a ton of people using them. We shall see.

So far the phone is highly recommended. I just wish Motorola sorts out at least the Ugly list real soon.

Enjoy!

The Great

• Boy it’s fast! I wonder how much faster on 2.2?
• It basically works – no crashes, no hangs, no dropped calls (but see bug list)
• Decent processor means even when running stuff in the background little noticeable pauses or slow downs
• Nice large screen (not as hires as a retina but still very nice)
• Regular on screen keyboard way easier to use on larger screen
• App store doesn’t feel like i’m missing all my favorite apps any more (‘cept Netflix!!)
• installed 40 apps on the phone in no time and with very little slow down
• It’s Verizon!

The Good

• Loads of very nice smart improvements over my N-1:
  1. smart power: turn off power after 15 mins of no use but only at night (why not 15 mins of no move too?)
  2. smart vibrate: place the phone face down and it automatically goes to vibrate mode
  3. automail and quick upload of clips & pics is a big time saver
  4. speed dial: hold down a number and it dials (just like regular cell phones)
  5. dial pad autoshow for things like service numbers
• Loud speaker, good for playing music and hearing the phone from another room
• Surprisingly light, it feels less hefty than my N-1
• It’s not as big as the reviews make out
• Great noise cancellation
• Google Voice is just marvelous
• 720p HD video
• Bright flash
• LED flash is actually a very usable flashlight
• Bulge at back may look ugly but gives it a pleasant angle when using on a flat surface
• Cool hdmi output handy for family events and watching stuff like netflix (when it gets here)
• Car dock works like a real car dock
• it goes into a full driving mode and works like a Garmin
• FM Radio
• Swype keyboard as standard
• Deskstand turns phone into a nice alarm clock automatically
• The Motorola widgets are useful (things like speed dial on the desktop)
• Nice soft back
• Fast bootup vs N-1

Niggle List

• I don’t like the real buttons. I know it’s silly but N-1 screen buttons are nicer. Maybe I just got used to them?
• Would be lovely to hook up a bluetooth keyb & mouse, and pump out via the hdmi
• Standard screen protector only covers display area and not the whole front, giving a sharp edge and some glass exposed to keys, scratches, etc.
• Radio doesn’t work unless headphones are plugged in (must be the aerial)
• Google N-1 seems to have a slicker interface, for instance the scrolling app page
• Would love to see a rotate lock switch

The Bad

• Universal inbox now has all your twitter & facebook sH*t in it
• Already some scratching on the back!
• No front camera
• Dial assist puts an ugly icon up top
• It’s 2.1, not 2.2 (froyo)
• No flash player available yet
• Connectors aren’t really made for seamless docking
• You still have to have a gmail account (but you can configure it so you don’t really know)
• Rear camera has the inside a swimming pool signature cellphone pic effect
• Autoupload of pics doesn’t work very well
• No netflix or hulu plus apps yet
• Camera use is unintuitive, still can’t figure out how to take a pic on demand reliably
• We saw some weird contrast issues, for example yelp front page and the wallpaper app scroll buttons

The Ugly

• The only options for picture source in address book are Twitter or Facebook. Drives me crazy when some silly Facebook pic pops up when a buddy calls me.
• When looking for an address the filters (by account) don’t stick between uses. As the address book is now cluttered with all your Twitter & Facebook friends, this is a big deal
• Cancel/ok button wrong way round on account setup, resulting in too many times you press the button that everywhere else means OK but in this case means Cancel. Especially irritating it’s on this screen as you’ve just painstakingly tapped out a password using your keyboard.
• $20 a month for mobile hotspot
• why???
• One email notification icon per inbox! Why not one for the universal box only
• No easy way for me to sync with itunes music and iphoto pics (but we knew that right?)
• Crazy power cord for docking station which takes up 2-3 plugs if you’re using a power strip, it’s the most insane design I’ve ever seen for a power adapter