Droid 2: Improvements over Droid

While I’m still waiting for Froyo (Android 2.2) on my Droid, Motorola finally announced the release of it’s Droid 2.  As Engadget reports the Droid 2 will ship with Froyo, Flash Player 10.1, mobile hotspot  and a revised QWERTY keyboard configuration, and will be ready for purchase at Verizon stores starting Thursday.

Are the improvements enough to tempt me to upgrade?  Let’s talk this through…

Since the Droid will eventually get the Froyo update, the hardware is what we really need to look at.  The obvious upgrades reported and noted are greater RAM (512MB vs. 256MB), faster processor (1GHz vs. 550Mhz), much greater internal storage (8GB vs. 256MB!), and improved power efficiency (49% increase in battery life ).  Of lessor note, the Droid 2 also is 802.11n compatible. All significant upgrades necessary for the ever increasingly data intensive world of ours.  The screen size, overall size, and weight are all virtually the same.   Other than what’s under the hood, the new keyboard is worth elaborating. Check out the Droid before and after…

Before: Original Droid

After: Droid 2 - larger and raised keys, sans Dpad

The Droid 2 does away with the D-pad and includes directional keys as part of the keyboard in effort to improve the usability with larger keys.  More importantly, the keys are now raised further reducing the frustrating mistypes reviewers were griping about.  While I don’t use the d-pad much, it is useful for navigation and selecting buttons and links too small on sites and apps to accurately press on the touchscreen.  I would imagine you lose a little convenience having to use the direction keys instead.   For games, you would also lose playability without the D-pad (especially with Nesriod, GameBoid, etc).

One other notable observation from the looking at the new Droid 2 is how they’ve extended the face plate below the screen.  Curiously, instead of being flush with the screen, it is slightly raised or humped.  This design change perhaps makes the unit less clean looking or sexy, but I believe this will prove to be significant improvement in usability.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally pressed one of the four touchscreen function buttons – especially when I’m showing videos, pictures, or websites to friends and either I or they inadvertently press the back button with the slight touch of a thumb or palm while passing or holding it.  Which brings up another noticeable change – the back button is no longer on the left corner but moved over between the home and search buttons leaving the menu button closest to the edge.   This further reduces the chances of accidentally backing out of an app.

Here are the things you can’t tell from pictures that I’m looking to see if they’ve improved (and if not, here’s my wishlist)…

Headphone Jack

The original Droid had a faulty headphone jack where the connection between the headset and jack seemed to get loose over time resulting in annoying crackle static noise with even the slightest touch.  Even more annoying is having the headset pop out way too easily!  I have to consciously slide my Droid in my pocket with special care so I don’t disconnect whenever I’m going for a walk and want to listen to music, a podcast or while on a call.  (BTW, I returned my first Droid after just two weeks after experiencing this problem.  The second one lasted longer but, yep, now has the same problem as the first.)

Camera

I haven’t read anything new here.   The megapixels are the same – which is fine.  5MP is plenty.   Photographers know that its not about the resolution, but the quality of the lens that matters.  But did they improve the camera overall?  I’ve said before that my 3 year old Nokia N95  takes better pictures and functions much better than my Droid as a camera.   Not only the lens and light sensor is so much better, but once  you focus on a subject the delay is minimal to none in reaction to snapping the picture.  My gut feeling is they didn’t improve the camera or it would have been noted.

Screen

It’s the same 3.7 inch 854×480 resolution screen but the Droid 2 is noted as FWVGA (Full Wide Video Graphics Array) vs. Droid’s WVGA.   FWIW, I don’t think this matter much.  The Droid’s screen is tough to see in bright light.  For those that live in San Francisco, this might be fine.  But I still like to use my Droid in the event of a sunny day!  I’m doubtful, but it remains to be seen if they’ve responded to this common gripe.

Overall, perhaps you can’t ask for too much more for $199 (with 2 year contract on Verizon) which was similar pricing to the original Droid when it launch.   But for me, as long as I can run the apps I want on my Droid without major issues, I can’t justify the cost of upgrade from Droid to Droid 2.  The hardware changes aren’t significant enough. A solid phone made better nonetheless.

You can actually buy the Droid 2 at Amazon.com
for $149 with 2 year activation. I bought my original Droid there for the same price less than a year ago! Now the original Droid you can basically get free.