Gadgetory

hi I'm Bonnie tosh senior editor at cnet com and today we've got a very special first look at the motorola droid for Verizon Wireless we just got this in and I'm just as excited as you are to check out verizon's first android phone so let's jump right to it let's talk about the design first for what it offers I'm really amazed at how thin the smartphone is it's about the same size of the iphone 3gs a little bit blocky ER and a little thicker but it's also got a slide-out qwerty keyboard so you really have to appreciate it's only about a couple hundredths of an inch thicker than the iphone the keyboard is pretty decent it's got a d-pad here on the right side so you can navigate around pages and select items the buttons are a little flat and small but it works for me since I have smaller hands but I think uses with larger thumbs might have some issues but like anything else with time you get used to it I think plus it's a physical keyboard I'm one of those people that have to have a physical keyboard and can't go all touchscreen so this is great you do get virtual keyboards though in both portrait and landscape mode so if you're just punching out some quick replies or text messages you can easily use those without having to open the phone I think the real attention grabber of the droid is the display though it measures 3.7 inches which is bigger than the iphones and even the HTC touch pro tues and it's absolutely vibrant and gorgeous with a 480 x 854 pixel resolution capacitive touchscreen with a built-in accelerometer so it'll change orientation when you rotate the phone you can double tap on the screen now to zoom in and out of web pages but it's not like the iPhone or pre where you can use the pinch gesture to zoom still very sharp and responsive and like other android phones you can customize three home pains with different widgets and shortcuts for easy access to your favorite apps some other highlights of the design include a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack on the top on the right there's a dedicated camera capture Kia while the 5 megapixel camera is located on the back with a dual LED flash last but not least there's a microSD cards left behind the battery cover door and verizon and motorola are being very generous by including a 16 gigabyte card with the phone that's just a quick overview of the design let's look at some of the features now the motorola droid is the first smartphone running Android to point out this is the latest version of Google's Android operating system bring some great features for example you now get native microsoft exchange support for Outlook email and calendar in addition to your gmail and pop3 and IMAP accounts the droid also now has dedicated facebook app and it will put pull in all your contacts from there as well as Gmail in exchange and combine them in your address book so if you've pull up a friend's contact card you'll be able to see his or her facebook status different email addresses i am handles photos etc the droids web browser also has some improvements their support for visual of bookmarks as well as the multi-tap assuming that i mentioned earlier doesn't have flash light support but it does have a plug-in that will support adobe flash 10 player whenever that's available you can connect via Wi-Fi or a verizon evdo rev a network and you can open multiple windows which is always great another new feature is Google Maps Navigation this app is still in beta but it will provide voice guided directions for free as well as satellite views so you don't have to pay a monthly subscription fee for a location-based service like verizon VZ navigator and in fact breezy navigator isn't even offered as an option on the jordan since i just got this phone i haven't been able to test out the app but i'll definitely cover it in my review so you can check it for that top of that you get the usual Android functions that we've seen on previous devices such as Google marketplace which has about 12,000 apps now support for amazon mp3 store and a dedicated you to app in the time that I've had it and seeing demos of the device has been really impressed by the speed of the device and the design of the phone is really remarkable the only thing I would have liked seen as may be some changes to music player maybe world roaming capabilities but um can't and I'll be doing more in-depth coverage and analysis of the motorola droid which you can check out in our full review but i do have to say that the joy definitely looks very promising and i think it will do well for verizon the motorola droid will be available november 64 9999 within your contract I'm Banita this has been your first look at the motorola