Friday, October 28, 2011

18 Months Later and My DroidX is Still Relevant

Hello. My name is Brian Davis and I used to own a Blackberry. It wasn't that long ago when owning a Blackberry meant your were important, had a purpose in your company,  and could manage your email better than anyone else when not in front of a computer.

The most recent smart phones offered by Apple, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung running either Apple's iOS or Google's Android OS all have better features and capabilities than the most recent Blackberry on the market. Android has greatly improved notifications of emails in Gmail and coprorate mail, and 3rd party email apps have even improved upon that in some cases. Apple is making strides in improving email notifications, but we all know having a smart phone is no longer about how well you can manage your email. It's about how cool your phone is. What can it do? How many apps can it hold? Can it detect metal, tell you how to find the closest CVS, take high res pictures and video, VPN to your office, or even act as a remote control for your DirecTV box or computer, or make your voice sound funny? I don't know about you, but mine can do all of that and way more.

I traded in my Blackberry Storm 1 about 18 months ago for a DroidX. It was the coolest thing since sliced bread. It has a 4.3" touch screen, gobs of RAM, and included a 16GB micro SD card. My phone is still faster than most other phones I run into even today. It has helped me out at customer sites while performing technical consulting. For example, how do I view a file in Linux (I am not a Linux expert)? Google it and less than 2 seconds later I have a command staring back at me on my screen. Using only my phone I can control the mouse on my home computer. I can also use it as a DirecTV remote. The Google Maps application has saved me from getting lost and also, got me out of areas I shouldn't have been after dark. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. I have killed countless little green pigs with some very pissed off birds.

Of course, to be fair, just about anyone with a powerful smart phone can run most of these apps, but not everyone. Even with Android on different platforms there are still some differences. Even with my 3G connection and an EVO on some of Sprint's 4G networks, my phone was faster. I could pull up pages and render images faster than the EVO. To me, that says alot, not only about the hardware, but about the network, too. To be fair to the EVO, it is a great phone, but not all 4G connections are created equal.

So here I am 18 months after I bought my DroidX and in a time when a phone is considered ancient after 12 months, and a historic relic after 24 months, mine is still very relevant. It's like the cool muscle car that never goes out of style and can still whoop some ass even against the new comers. The latest 4G phones coming out showing that they are battery hogs on the 4G connection. Look at the reviews and you will see most barely last a day when on 4G all day. I know some software updates have come out to help some of those models, but not all. All of the smart phones I have owned never lasted more than 36 hours on a single charge and on heavy use days barely 16 hours. The Droid Bionic is the best 4G phone on battery life I am aware of. It gets rave reviews in that category.

When I am finally ready to update my phone, my current choice would still be an Android phone. I would probably pick a Droid Bionic from Verizon. Motorola is bringing back the Razr brand with the Droid Razr next month. With no list of specs on the phone it's kind of hard to make a decision on that one. Maybe we will see another commercial where someone buries a Droid Razr in the body of a car by throwing it. I loved those commercials.

Anyway, the bottom line here is, be cognizant of the phone you buy. It could be a dud (Blackberry Storm) or a stud (DroidX). Only time will tell.

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