Motorola Droid X Review Part 2

Motorola Droid X Review Part 2

Multimedia Capabilities

Verizon has partnered with Blockbuster to supply video content, but in the past we have found the registration process unnecessarily awkward. The version on our test phone required an update, but when we clicked to update, we got a “There are no matches in Android Market…” message. The disconnect is likely a result of the pre-production software the test phone was loaded with. You’ll be better off sideloading content.

Since the Droid X is a 3G phone, YouTube videos default to low quality versions, forcing you to click through to get the high-quality editions.

At the Samsung Galaxy S announcement event, we got to compare Droid X’s screen with the iPhone 4’s, EVO’s and the Fascination’s. In the dark room, the iPhone’s highly touted 960 x 640 Retina display definitely had the cleaner, crisper look, especially for text. The Fascination the brightest and most vibrant images, with deep, plasma-like contrast. However, unless you did the same squinting side-by-side comparison, you’d be hard pressed to see any significant difference between them, until…

…you get outside. The Droid X’s screen metaphorically melts in the sun, images nearly bleach out, rendering especially the camera viewscreen almost useless. We didn’t get the Samsung Fascination out in the daylight, but it was easy to see how its native AMOLED brightness could stand up better to sunshine than the Droid X; the iPhone 4’s screen maintained higher visibility than the Droid X.

Sound Quality

Motorola phones have a well-deserved reputation for full-throated, landline-like sound quality at both ends of calls, and the Droid X upholds that superior sonic tradition. However, we had to boost volume to the maximum to overcome ambient Manhattan traffic, and it still wasn’t quite enough.

Phone Functionality

The bulging camera at the top of the Droid X poses a pocket problem. The Droid X is top heavy, so if placed top-up in a breast pocket, as you’d instinctively do, it topples over in a wide pocket or just awkwardly leans forward. Plus, when you lift the phone out of the pocket, you’re likely to grab – and thereby smudge – the camera lens. Obviously, the solution is the slip the phone in a breast pocket top down, which, for the OCD among us, induces psychosomatic twitching.

Also, the physical control buttons below the screen are uncomfortably small.

For actual voice calling, you get a phone icon at the bottom of all the home screens, plus the option to create calling favorites, with photos from Facebook as icons, on the first right-swipe home screen. Contact entries give you all the calling, emailing and social media dope (assuming you tell the phone which social media outlets you belong to), complete with latest Facebook updates.

Likely because our test phone was loaded with pre-production software, we couldn’t get the built-in mobile hotspot to work.