After a few weeks of life with the Motorola DroidX, I fully expected some of the common "gotchas" to creep in and my first impressions of glee to be replaced with a bit of regret.
After all, I was in love with my first Motorola Droid, which really was the first cell phone that had everything I wanted in a phone and a portable computer. It was small, it was powerful and had a great hidden, slide-out keyboard.
So the new DroidX was following up a huge hit, especially when you consider nearly at the same time Verizon was introducing the Droid2, the follow-up to the Droid, with a better processor and keyboard.
(While I was in the Verizon store buying my DroidX a few days before the release of the Droid2, I kept observing the salespeople pushing the original Droid to customers fully realizing the new model was coming in 48 hours, and I really wanted to tackle the buyers on the way out.)
So after a long week with my X, I can offer these real-world comparisons between the Droid and the X.
The good: The thing is FAST. Compared to my Droid, the X is blazing fast. It is responsive and quick. The keyboard, which I expected to hate based on my experience with the Samsung Omnia, turns out to be glorious. I love it. It's big and fits my fingers and is simple to type on.
The screen and sound? Fantastic. If you want to watch a video or something on YouTube you are going to have a fantastic experience.
And the photos and video are amazing. The 8 megapixel camera lives up to the hype and delivers.
Now comes the bad stuff. First is the battery — the Achilles heel of all cell phones, but this one is rotten. If you use the phone and browser a lot, expect to plug it in mid-day. You won't last a whole day on one charge. With moderate use, I am normally at 10 percent left by midnight. With heavy use, I am dead by 4 p.m.
The second is the dock. Why would a phone use a dock? Well, the original Droid had a lovely $25 dock that turned your phone into a great alarm clock, clock radio and bedside assistant. It was one of my favorite devices because it also charged your phone, ready for the next morning.
Well, the DroidX dock is $50, mostly because it has a high-def HDMI port because, Lord knows, I want my alarm clock to output in high-def. (The good news is the dock now comes with a normal length power cord, unlike the original.)
All in all, I love my new phone other than it is huge. I called it right when I said it was like talking on a Pop-Tart.
James Derk is owner of CyberDads, a computer repair firm, and a tech columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim@cyberdads.com