[Update: See the author's response to commenters in his follow-up post: "Droid vs. iPhone: Them's fightin' words'" —Ed.]
The Motorola Droid, available today from Verizon for $200 after rebates, is the latest in series of phones, including the Blackberry Storm, T-Mobile G1, and Palm Pre, to be floated as a potential threat to Apple’s iPhone, the undefeated champion of the smart-phone world. Other media who’ve weighed in on the showdown include Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
I liked what I saw when I put a press sample of the Droid through its paces. (See the Droid review here.) Now, as our testers complete their extensive tests on the Droid, here’s my 10-round preliminary take on how the new Verizon smart phone fares against the iPhone 3G S, which remains—at least for now—the highest-rated smart phone in our Ratings (available to subscribers).
Ding ding:
Round 1. Touch screen. Advantage: iPhone. Both phones have highly responsive touch screens. But the iPhone's is multitouch for all functions, allowing you to zoom in and out of photos and Web pages by pinching or spreading your fingers. The Droid has such multitouch functionality only when running certain applications, according to Engadget.
Round 2. Interface. Advantage: Droid. A tough call, since both phones have a terrific icon-based interface that makes finding and launching their many features a snap. However the Droid, which employs the latest 2.0 version of Google’s Android operating system, allows a higher degree of personalization via widgets and other tools, and you put all of your e-mails from different accounts (except Gmail) under one view.
Round 3. Display. Tossup. The Droid’s 3.7-in. display is the largest we’ve seen on any phone, and appears to be very sharp and bright, with higher pixel density (240 dpi) than the iPhone (163 dpi). But the iPhone’s display is the best of any phone we’ve tested to date.
Round 4. Keyboard. Advantage: Droid. Both phones have responsive virtual keyboards, though the iPhone’s seems noticeably better. But the Droid adds a real QWERTY keyboard, one that’s responsive, well-spaced, and backlit for dark environments.
Round 5. Searches. Advantage: iPhone. Both phone's search features are very similar. Just start typing a term, and they scour you contacts, music, and documents for that term. But iPhone digs deeper, searching your calendars and e-mails as well.
Round 6. Speed. Tossup. I found the Droid and the iPhone 3GS to be equally, and impressively, fast when switching apps and when downloading Web pages—provided there’s a strong 3G or Wi-Fi signal, of course. They also respond quickly if you need to abort a mistake, such as launching the wrong application.
Round 7. Choice of apps. Advantage: iPhone. Not even close. Apple's App store currently stocks 100,000 apps, while the latecoming Android Marketplace has a mere 10,000.
Round 8. Phone network. Advantage: Droid. Sorry iPhone, no contest. Verizon has consistently trumped other carriers, including AT&T, in our surveys.
Round 9. Camera. Advantage: iPhone. Droid's 5-megapixel camera is well-equipped, and makes it easy to share your pics via Facebook, e-mail, SMS, Picasa, or Bluetooth data. But iPhone's 3.2-megapixel camera is more fun, with its tap-to-focus and macro (closeup) features, and its on-phone video editing.
Round 10. Auto Navigation. Advantage: iPhone. The Droid’s the first phone to offer the “free” beta version of Google Maps Navigation, but early feedback from our Cars colleagues suggests it’s an underwhelming performer.
The final count in rounds? Five to the iPhone 3G S, three to the Droid, two rounds a tossup. The bottom line? Neither phone scored a knockout, but the Droid may indeed be the most promising contender yet to Apple’s smart phone.
The bout will have to be decided on points—as in the Overall Score our ringside judges test engineers will tally for the Droid in our labs. We’ll compare that score to the stellar one for the iPhone 3G S, and render a decision soon. —Mike Gikas
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