How would you change Motorola's Droid?

The anti-iPhone. The phone that "does." The first Motorola device that we've seen in years that's downright awe-inspiring. Naturally, we're referring to the Droid. VZW spent all kinds of money to hype up this Android 2.0 handset as the phone to get if AT&T's 3G coverage was just too weak for your liking, and it seems to have been at least decently effective. We know the phone had its fair share of quirks right off the bat, but we're happy to say that most of those nuisances were taken care of via firmware update. Still, we know geeks, and those suckers are never happy. If you were in charge of redesigning this thing, what aspects would you tweak? Is the slide-out QWERTY up to snuff? Is the display crisp enough? Are the transitions snappy enough? Do you wish it was impossible to turn off the "Droid" sound emission each time you received an email? Dish out your hot fury below.

[jamesrcoffie Posted Dec 21st 2009 9:05PM]

i will seperate it into software and hardware
software
1. a compact qwerty keyboard in portrait mode(except when typing web pages
why? even though the portrait mode keyboard does a pretty good job for as cramped as it is, its to mistake prone

2. multi touch in the browser, and the gallery(its on the european version of the phone i think, but not on the us version?)

3. gesture in browser( like being able to swipe your finger across the screen to the left to go foward and to the right to go backward

4. i would like to be able to sync my yahoo mail account

hardware

1. i would move the d pad to the left so playing games feels more natural( like nes and gen emulators or bejewelled when keyboard is open)

2. THE PHYSICAL KEYBOARD i would use the extra real estate on the lip where the verizon branding is so it can be more spaced out and make they keyboard more like the EnV touch minus the extra row cause the shape of the buttons and the space in between make it great for text messaging and its about the same size length wise

3. i would make the screen slide 1/4 of an inch further so fingers dont feel cramped when using # keys and qwerty

4. add a tilt mechanism

[Ray Posted Dec 22nd 2009 5:01AM]

make it faster than the iphone and make the keyboard actually acceptable. my motorola rival has a terrific keyboard. i'm fine with the phone being a little thicker to do this.

[madweezel Posted Dec 22nd 2009 12:35PM]

I'de Move the Dpad to the left side, and raise the keys slightly, tactile feed back would be awesome too. I also would change the volume (tactile slider would be neat) and camera keys. Also add a second external facing sd card slot.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 23rd 2009 3:54AM]

Ditch the keyboard. Ditch VZW, Sprint maybe.

[debo602 Posted Dec 24th 2009 9:39AM]

horrendous keyboard. went with eris because of it.

[johnkzin Posted Dec 25th 2009 3:55PM]

a) 5 row keyboard with dedicated number row
b) more comfortable/ergonomic keyboard
c) 4.3" 800x480 multi-touch screen
d) mulit-touch software enabled
e) quadband GSM
f) T-Mobile USA 3G (and Euro and Asian 3G; bonus for ALSO having AT&T 3G)
g) as much battery as you can cram in it
h) pipe-dream: dual SIM card

[elementaryteacher Posted Dec 26th 2009 6:42PM]

I love the keyboard, after using the LG eNV2. It's a little flatter, but I hate raised BB keyboard.

The speaker is "tinny" and could use an improvement. Songs that sound fine on external speakers, have a "cheap" sound on Droid speaker.

As far as apps and services, I'm really pissed that the only reliable place to buy legal copies of MP4 tv shows and movies to play on mobile seems to be iTunes, which I loathe for a whole host of reasons, and will not let me sync video to my Droid. I hope Amazon will expand MP3 service to include videos. I don't want to stream, because that doesn't work for airplane trips or places with lousy 3G (camping). Also, an eReader app that works with BN or Kindle ebooks would be nice.

[elementaryteacher Posted Dec 26th 2009 6:45PM]

Oh, and loose the "lip" at right. Big waste of space.

[MacWins10 Posted Jan 2nd 2010 1:37AM]

Replace Android with Mobile OSX and lose that POS keyboard.

[kioshi Posted Jan 10th 2010 3:35AM]

Hmmm should I get an Iphone 3GS or a Droid? Carriers are not a problem here in Brazil, you can switch at will and even keep the same number. I know the iPhone quite a bit but have no idea how the Android OS fares compared to Apple's OS. The physical keyboard is a plus to me, but still, I don't know Android's advantages and flaws compared to Iphone's OS. Thanks for any answers in advance :)

[Yamazakikun Posted Jan 21st 2010 8:33PM]

UMTS -- 850/1700/1900 for north and south of the border, 900/2100 for the rest of the world. GSM -- at least 900 because the UK still has crap 3G coverage outside the M25, but you may as well have all four bands.

Also, double the battery capacity. And official frikkin' multitouch support, for frak's sake.

[icor611 Posted Jan 27th 2010 12:53AM]

Came over from the storm and have never regretted it. I hardly ever use the slide out kb. Got used to the other one on my ipod. I love the apps. I would like it to be like the Motoroi but hey that's another day! I was so sick of the storm that I have no complaints. Would be nice if it didn't auto dial numbers sometimes!

[adlerrot Posted Jan 30th 2010 12:31AM]

the touch screen is to sensitive. It needs a forward button do when you hit the back button too many times. yes I know you can hold down the home screen and go back to the last program and reopen. Blue-tooth needs fixed so you do not have to have a earphone with 2 profiles. I just sold y touch pro2 and kept the droid. It is a great phone

[geolemon Posted Feb 1st 2010 8:44AM]

Well, that's a Nexus One then...
And you can enable multi-touch on it (not sure about the Droid) with a hack.

[micanuck Posted Feb 6th 2010 6:23PM]

add optical trackpad, better keyboard... yeah i've stated the obvious, but it's only by repetitively being bashed for their stupid keyboard and d-pad that Moto will get the message... ;)