Archive for July 14th, 2011
Droid 3 first impressions
I upgraded from the original Droid to the Droid 3. My options were an iPhone 4, Droid 3, Incredible 2, Bionic, or stay with my current phone. iPhone 4 is right out; the more I use the work ones, the more I loathe them. Arden got an Incredible 2, which is a tiny thing, but no keyboard is a killer for me. The Bionic also doesn’t have a keyboard, but I was willing to entertain it for the 4G – but it’s like, the size of an iPad. My original Droid is in great shape, but the lack of OS updates is really pissing me off.
Since I had the Droid backing up everything to Google, I had an easy time setting up the Droid 3 – even my wireless network settings and ringtones came over. Once all the apps downloaded OTA, I went through and set them up – too bad so many of the apps don’t back up to Google in any way.
The screen is nice, and the dual cores really help for games (no more lag in Angry Birds!). It’s slightly larger in all ways than the original Droid, but the five row keyboard makes it worth it. It does not come with a micro SD card, which is lame; it also comes with a HUGE FUCKING CARRIER DECK of bloatware you can’t uninstall. The social media shit Motorola wedges in is worthless and uninstallable, as well. Look! Flickr integration that never works! Kickass!
The GPS is far more responsive than the original, and the camera quality is amazing – easily on par with the iPhone 4. Call quality is marginally better than the Droid – talk about faint praise, though. It’s really a portable computer with some phone functions strapped on, so you know, get used to it.
The dead spot in the middle of my building is now small enough that I could probably walk through it and not drop a call, where it used to be about 80′ long.
Overall, nice upgrade from the Droid. Now to find a use for my original Droid! Time-lapse wifi-enabled camera, maybe.
