Two OMAP 3430 Phones: Nokia N900 and Motorola Droid
by Brian Klug on June 10, 2010 9:29 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- N900
- Maemo
- Motorola Droid
- Droid
- MeeGo
- Android
- Mobile
Motorola Droid - Impressively Thin
For Motorola, the Droid was a “Hail Mary” launch of a phone. Before launch, many had written off the handset maker as an abject failure. It was important for Motorola to go big - with the largest carrier, the latest Android software, and the most impressive spec sheet - or go home and wait for the company to be sold off in pieces. Given that this nightmare scenario never played out for Motorola, it’s fair to call the hardware a definite success.
At first glance, the Droid is strikingly utilitarian - it’s an unabashedly square, no nonsense, masculine style. At front is the glass-topped 3.7” 854x480, 265ppi screen, (which we’ll talk more about later), and around it is a narrow, seamless bezel. At its bottom are the four capacitive android buttons common to Android phones. There’s a small detent at the bottom where the slider meets the base packing the keyboard. Quite possibly, this is possibly Motorola’s subtle riff on the G1’s much maligned “chin.” Just a few millimeters off center on that chin lies the microphone. What’s interesting is that at right is the Verizon name and swoosh, instead of somewhere around the screen where it would’ve shaven precious space away from the screen. This is definitely a nod in the right direction, guys, it’s phone first - carrier second.
The Droid is thin - impressively thin for packing a hardware keyboard. But what’s most impressive is that it manages to stay thin and contemporary without feeling cheap and flimsy. In fact, most of the phone is metal, and you can feel it in the Motorola Droid’s heft - you won’t forget it’s in your pocket. Just tapping on the exterior, there’s very little if any flexing anywhere. The slider refuses to rotate or wobble when the keyboard is exposed, and there isn’t flexing or plastic squeaking as you get it open. The travel mechanism has a notable start and stop detent, keeping the phone open or shut with a reassuringly snug - but not impossibly stiff - snap. There’s no spring assist to the slider, so you have to push to open and close the keyboard, but that’s hardly a negative. What’s also superb is that there’s no clearance between the keyboard and screen assembly when closed, I couldn’t even get a fingernail inside.
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tarunactivity - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
a notable omission:The FM receiver on the N900 requires Bluetooth to be switched on. So if you want FM, you need to plugin your earphones + enable bluetooth.
Kind of counter productive , if you ask me,and surely a waste of power.
Brian Klug - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Ahh, you're totally right. I think I glossed over that because I already had Bluetooth on, but it makes sense now since the FM radio is on that same piece of silicon.I wonder how much of a difference it makes on battery - had it disabled for those other tests of course.
-Brian Klug
asdasd246246 - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
I'm sure the Nokia has sweet hardware, but it's still all plastic..Plastic screen that will scratch the first 10 minutes you own it, and a friend has a similar model without a keyboard, and the plasticness is so horrible I shudder.. -_-
legoman666 - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
I've had the N900 since last November. No screen protector, no case. Not 1 scratch. So speak for yourself, maybe you ought to put your phone in a separate pocket as your keys.legoman666 - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
back: http://imgur.com/tf6RE.jpgfront: http://imgur.com/XDsyI.jpg
akse - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
The case is somewhat plastic yeah.. but it hasn't really bothered me so much. I have only a few tiny tiny scratches on the screen, you can only spot them by mirroring a clean screen against bright light.At the back I have a few bigger scratches because the phone fell on concrete..
Calin - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
I have a 1200-series Nokia phone, which I keep in the same pocket as the keys, and the display is in a serviceable condition after more than two years of abusearnavvdesai - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
Actually, the Symbian OS- Nokia's No.1 Smartphone OS is more open with entire OS(including the core APIs) being Open Source. Symbian is more open than Android.Talcite - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
That's only true for symbian^3 and newer OSes. Only the Nokia N8 is currently shipping S^3 I believe.You should also mention that the Maemo 5 OS has many binary packages to get all the cellular hardware and PowerVR GPU working.
Anyways, it definitely has more support for the FOSS community than android though as far as I know. You're free to flash your own ROMs without needing to root it and you don't need to do weird stuff with java VMs. Just a simple recompile for ARM and support for Qt I think.
teohhanhui - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Nokia N8 is still far from "currently shipping"...