Motorola's DROID, Tested and Burned In

I'd love to have one of these but Sprint has the only decent service in my area so far and they know it. They treat people like little children here and basically do what they want to because they are the only game in town. If there ever IS a viable alternative, I'll drop them like the scurvy dogs they are.

This phone looks like it's gonna be a hit.

Tough to believe this review is entirely impartial while it's surrounded on multiple sides by paid advertising for the device, including spots where there normally aren't ads. Motorola's really putting a big push behind this, aren't they?

I'm not surprised. Verizon's decision to pass on the Iphone, while smart at the time, has robbed the consumer of a great partnership.

About time they delivered their Iphone killer, lol.

Jeremy,

Your question is fair. The ad campaign that Verizon actually had running here that day is now done but I can see your concern with respect to objectivity. That's a natural concern but it's honestly not much different than a commercial you might hear on the radio, see on TV or read in a magazine or newspaper. Granted, we're offering product evaluations here and it's more a kin to reading something like say Car and Driver and seeing a Ford ad on the pages of the magazine. The fact of the matter is, advertising pays the bills here. It keeps the lights on and keeps people employed doing the work they do.

That said, HotHardware.com has been on the internet for 10 years+ now. It's safe to say we wouldn't be in business very long if we allowed advertising dollars to affect our objectivity in any product evaluation. If you take time to read Jen's article, you'll see where she points out the high points and low points of the product. Ultimately she was impressed. Beyond that, you'll have to be the judge as to whether you think our evaluation here was fair and unbiased.

I can assure you though, we're keenly focused on ensuring proper "separation of church and state", as they say in the industry.

Thanks,

Dave Altavilla

Editor In Chief

Try to find somewhere they didn't advertise, I read they even placed an ad on google.com.

eunoia:

Try to find somewhere they didn't advertise, I read they even placed an ad on google.com.

They did. Everyone seemed to be up in arms about it.

Look's like a cool phone. I still wanna wait a bit longer and let the phone field calm down some before I decide on a new phone. Been without one since my AT&T contract ran out a few months ago. I honestly don't miss having a phone one bit.

I think the interesting thing to note is if this phone or any other new Verizon phones take off will Verizon's great network begin to suffer? I mean AT&T's network really wasn't that bad before iPhone. Verizon has the best network because they lock down their phones or chage you extra for everything keeping the network safe.

     I will be upgrading all 3 users on my family share Verizon account as upgrades become available to a Droid I am thinking. I have also thought of flipping to Sprint for a palm, but I like the droid better. There also does not seem to be much price difference when you have 3 phones on sprint. It is 10 bucks a phone basically on Verizon, where Sprint the first 2 phones are discounted heavily, then the third phone is full price which makes no sense (and is more expensive). Either way I refuse to use At&t because of some past experiences and of course there wonderful coverage.

     One more thing I of course like this phone in all aspects, hopefully prices will drop to (the first available upgrade is in December, but the other 2 are in April and May), so the price should drop. I also from what I understand see one other very positive point the I-phone does not update from what I understand they force you to upgrade to a new phone. While as hardware functionality may wear out with a android phone it is open source. So updates and changes software wise will be by default. That will even be true if Verizon and Google/Motorola don't want it done. I think it will be jail broken before it is ever implemented from there side.               

I consider that a major positive because I am a Mischievous bastage.