The
Motorola Droid Pro is a model that runs Google's Android OS but has a design
reminiscent of BlackBerrys.
It
is one of a recent group of smartphones from Verizon Wireless catering to a
more business-oriented market than their predecessors, sporting the ability to
work overseas.
It
has a contract-free price tag of $480, dropping to $180 with a two-year service
contract, though other retailers may offer it for even less.
BUILD
& DESIGN
While
many current Android devices are thinly veiled attempts to mimic the iPhone,
the Droid Pro clearly has another target: the segment of business users that
are mostly addicted to the BlackBerry and it's constant email access.
I'm
not a BlackBerry user myself, but I am a member of the demographic that must
have a keyboard, preferably in a one-piece design like this. So I came into
this review curious about the Droid Pro, both because of it's slightly unusual
design, and because it seemed to have the qualities I look for in a smartphone:
a great spec sheet, simple design, and -- hopefully -- a solid operating
system.
Screen
A
key difference between the Droid Pro and its rivals is that while QWERTY-bar
phones often include a relatively small
screen with a landscape orientation, the Pro has a larger portrait-oriented
screen. This makes it a little longer than it's relatives within the class, but
considering everything that is packed into this device, the Droid Pro is
actually surprisingly compact.
Compared
directly to my usual phone, a Samsung Jack, the Droid Pro is about a third of
an inch taller -- and that's it. They're the same width, and roughly the same
thickness, though the Droid Pro is actually a tiny bit thinner over most of the
casing, with a small bulge along the top rear. Even granted that my Jack is
cheaper and is a year old, I was pleasantly surprised by the size.
Despite
it's compact footprint, it squeezes in a 3.1 inch, half-VGA screen -- not the
largest or highest resolution on an Android-based device, but roughly
comparable to the first three generations of iPhones.
Keyboard
Given
the device's size constraints, I had been half expecting the keyboard to be
cramped. So it was another pleasant surprise that it was, in fact, every bit as
usable as the better thumb keyboards I've tried out.
Good
key travel, key separation, and feel. The number keys are spread out along the
top row, instead of being placed in a conventional grid formation. The good
news, though is that this is made up for by a large and very usable on-screen
keypad available from the phone dialer application. Or, you can just speak the
number that you want to call -- but we'll get to that later.
Other
Buttons & Controls
One
of the ways the Droid Pro saves space is by not having a directional pad or
directional control of any kind, which is a departure for most QWERTY-bar style
phones. At first, I didn't think that I was going to be happy about that
omission. Now, after having gotten to use it a bit, I'm not nearly as put out
as I expected to be. Yes, there's some situations where it would be nice to
have a physical directional control -- particularly navigating cramped web page
elements, or relocating a cursor for text entry. But for the most part I've
gotten along quite well using touchscreen gestures for scrolling and practicing
accurate fingertip clicking.
My
biggest complaint about the Droid Pro's design lies in the four navigation
buttons right above the keyboard. Because they're part of the screen, and
therefore touch sensitive, it's fairly easy to accidentally "push"
them if your finger brushes the screen accidentally. Since the center two
buttons -- those most likely to be hit accidentally -- both take you back out
of the application you're using, it can be very annoying to have to go back and
re-start what you were doing. Since you can't vary the sensitivity of these
buttons -- and they really do have a hair trigger -- the only real cure for
this is time and practice, to get used to having them there and not letting
your fingers stray.
With
the memory card tucked under the battery cover, the only open ports are the
Micro-USB plug on the lower left hand side, and the 3.5 mm audio jack on top.
It's nice to have a standard audio plug again, though I wouldn't object to
having all the plugs on the bottom, so that I could have a nice car dock for
the thing, but that's rather a nitpick.
Overall,
the build quality feels good, the design is sleek and very usable, and it packs
all it's features into a very reasonable size and weight.
