Droid vs. iPhone: Them's fightin' words

A fight has broken out over last Friday's boxing-themed preliminary head-to-head comparison of the brand-new Motorola Droid and Apple's iPhone. The post has drawn scores of comments, and more readers continue to weigh in. The overwhelming majority of commenters feel our review gave short shrift to the Droid, though one reader, Robinson, noted, "this is a blog comparison not a formal CR review. So, don't trash what CR still does so well." Our testers continue to evaluate the Droid and our in-depth review will be posted in the coming days. In the meantime, some  thoughts on the issues raised by commenters:

Critics: The Droid's display is clearly better. Commenters are puzzled by why I called the display comparison a tossup even though I acknowledged that the Droid's display is bigger, boasts higher pixel density, and appears sharp and bright. (When comparing two identical Web pages side-by-side, text on the Droid's screen was noticeably sharper.) A key reason for my judgment: I wasn't able to test the Droid's display in the myriad of different lighting conditions, modes, and apps that our testers used to arrive at their scoring of the iPhone 3G S display (available to subscribers), the highest they've awarded to a phone screen. We'll see what our testers have to say about the Droid's display.

Critics: The Droid's camera is the better-equipped. I called this feature for the iPhone 3G S, in large part due to the camera's appealing interface and rich features. In addition to describing the Droid's camera as "well-equipped," I should have also have cited its flash and 16x9 (widescreen) video recording, both missing from the iPhone. Critics:

The iPhone's GPS isn't demonstrably better and costs more. On the first point, our Cars colleagues, who test GPS on all its platforms, demurred in their first impressions of the Google Maps Navigation found on the Droid, as I wrote. Since my post, there's now a full review on the Cars blog, which calls GMN only "adequate," and says the app should not be "the leading reason to purchase" an Android 2.0 phone, such as the Droid. But the review also acknowledges that the free software does "eliminate the need to pay for GPS and traffic services," including the cost of buying the pricey iPhone navigation apps and services. A couple of parting observations about the passion of the comments about this phone:

• They suggest the Droid has quickly emerged as the phone around which iPhone critics have coalesced. It's emerging as the preeminent un-iPhone or even anti-iPhone.
• The comments are further evidence that no community of observers takes a closer and more critical interest in how we test and assess than smart-phone fans. We've experienced that in the past, when we updated the methodology and presentation of our smart-phone Ratings (available to subscribers) in response to the changing nature of these devices.

Even though it sometimes hurts to be hit with repeated jabs, we love to hear about your hands-on experiences with and technological insights on smart phones.—Mike Gikas

Comments

[chazz b]

original iphone user from day one here switched to the new droid today! iphone pixels where burnining into my screen talked to other original iphone users experienced same thing. the navigation system via verizon and google blow away the iphone u have to pay $$ for it via apps, droid shows picture of finally destination in top quality. the speaker system sounds clearer than iphones cheap speaker, u dont have to stretch your thumbs apart to enlarge u just click on the magnify glass.also in my area verizons 3g makes att like dialup.

[JM]

It is truly amaing when people like Diego Martinez & Co. post opinions, based on their very poor knowledge of the subject, as a final verdict on the product: Mr. Martinez states that Droid is not suitable for business because it cannot be synced with Lotus notes.-- I guess Mr Martinez never heard of CompanionLink product that does an awesome job of syncing Lotus Notes with Droid wirelessly via Google email account... or maybe Mr. Martinez is too cheap to spend $39 dollars on a very worthy piece of software...

[Pat]

@ Nicolas Weaver: Ummm, AT&T very much keeps a 5 GB 'softcap' on your iphone data. Try going over 5 GB in a month and see what happens. Or just google it for the love.

Honestly though, who is breaking 5 GB in a month on their mobile phone that isn't tethering(which neither the Droid nor the iPhone currently has available)? I surf the web and do plenty on my 3gs and don't even hit 1 GB. I suppose if I sat on the youtube app day in and out...

[Nicholas Weaver]

One other BIG negative on the droid: "Unlimited" with Verizon on the data is often most decidedly NOT unlimited: they consider unlimited as 5 GB a month!

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/181590/verizon_droid_tethering_will_cost_you.html

The iPhone at least really IS unlimited.

[m]

Yay. This is the kind of coverage I was hoping for - not that weird comsumerist (iphone envy) one.

[Tim Pease]

Even though it sometimes hurts to be hit with repeated jabs, we love to hear about your hands-on experiences with and technological insights on smart phones.—Mike Gikas

Mike, those repeated 'jabs' are going to hurt CR in the long run. You should NOT have posted such a biased review until the Droid has been run through the paces. The readers don't want your opinion, they want the test results. CR should let the readers post the blogs; you testers should stay out of them - it only ruins your credibility.

[Jack C. NYC]

The iPhone is a platform, with maybe 100 apps out of 100,000 that I'd be interested in. Droid is 3-5 years behind in apps and has other problems but I have yet to find a compelling reason to replace my PDA/phone.

Cingular 8525, before that 8125 that has:
- MS PocketPC (very stable)
- Keyboard (better than Droid)
- Touch screen
- Internet access - email, web, chat, text msg
- Digital camera, video
- SD Card (currently own 32Gb)
- Tens of thousands of applications, for 3rd party apps I mostly use, Avantgo, HanDbase, MS voice dial, Chess, Texas Hold'em, Backgammon AND Excel, Word, Powerpoint
- Plays WMV, MP3, etc.

Good: running several apps at once.
Bad: does so drastically reduces battery time.

[Diego Martinez]

I purchased the Droid, expecting a useful business PIM. I quickly learned that it won't sync to Lotus Notes or Outlook (in my opinion the two dominant business apps).
May have a beautiful screen, and lots of free stuff from the Marketplace but as an acceptable business phone - NO!

BTW, when you have many photos it hangs while browsing and forces the Blackberry battery pull.

It's going back.