Motorola Droid X: The Next Generation of Does

The Droid X isn't the first smartphone on the market to offer a 1GHz processor, and it won't be the last. Because of this, a minimum of a 1GHz processor is a becoming a must for any high-end device. Thanks to the Droid X's TI OMAP 1GHz processor with Dedicated GPU, the phone feels speedy and responsive.

The Droid X's 4.3-inch touchscreen is gorgeous and roomy and supports multitouch. The screen is pretty reflective, so it isn't always easy to view under direct sunlight. In addition, the screen tends to show a lot of fingerprints, but they didn't appear to affect the responsiveness of the phone at all. The phone's accelerometer is pretty quick to respond when rotating the handset as well.

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We're beginning to see more and more smartphones that have high-resolution cameras built in. Although we're not quite to the point where cameras built into phones can compete with standalone cameras in terms of image quality, we are seeing more and more high resolution camera phones that can take pictures at 8 megapixels. For a smartphone, the still images and video captured with the Droid X's 8 megapixel camera were pretty impressive. The images weren't perfect (a standalone camera will still do a better job), and there was noise and grain in many of the images and video, but overall, we were impressed with the quality in comparison to many of the other on-board cameras we've used to date.

In terms of call quality, the Droid X offered clear conversations and did not suffer from any dropped calls. We found the earpiece and the speakerphone to be adequately loud and everyone we spoke with said calls came through loud and clear.

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We've heard a fair amount of chatter concerning a feature known as eFuse on the Droid X. As we've discussed in previous reviews of HTC handsets such as the HTC Touch Pro2, although HTC doesn't encourage custom ROMs, it doesn't go out of its way to block them, either. Motorola is taking a very different approach to custom ROMs than HTC. With the Droid X, Motorola has made it difficult to run custom ROMs thanks to the eFuse feature. According to a statement from Motorola sent to Engadget, the eFuse technology is designed to ensure that a device only runs on updated and tested versions of the software. "If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed." In other words, eFuse won't brick your phone if you try to use an unapproved bootloader, but it will shut down the phone.

The Droid X also offers 3G Mobile Hotspot capabilities with the option to share with up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices. Although the Hotspot feature is definitely cool and useful, keep in mind it will cost you an additional $20 per month. In our tests, the hotspot feature was very easy to set up and we had no problems connecting our laptop to the hotspot. Here's a look at the average speeds we enjoyed while surfing the Web from the Droid X and from our laptop using the Droid X as a mobile hotspot:

Overall, we were pleased with the download speeds we enjoyed while surfing the Web on the Droid X. While surfing from our laptop using the Droid X as the hotspot, we enjoyed average upload speeds of 204.8 Kbps.

Motorola says you should expect up to 8 hours of usage time and up to 220 hours (just over 9 days) of standby time from the Droid X's user replaceable battery. During our tests, we were generally able to get a day’s worth of use from the phone while making calls, surfing the Web, and performing other tasks. As with any phone, your experience is likely to vary depending on how aggressively you use the phone’s capabilities.