Motorola DROID X Review

Introduction:

The Android army continues to grow with the introduction of the Motorola DROID X (MB810) by Verizon Wireless. When the original Motorola DROID A855 came out last year, we were impressed by the device’s features and build quality, as it was unique and clearly was the phone to beat. Since then, we’ve seen Verizon release other Android phones, such as the Motorola DEVOUR A555, LG Ally VS740, and the HTC Droid Incredible ADR6300, with each one targeted to a slightly different audience. Since its release three months ago, the HTC Droid Incredible has been the premier smartphone on Verizon, sporting a 3.7” WVGA AMOLD display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 8GB internal storage and an 8MP autofocus camera. Unfortunately, Samsung hasn’t been able to keep up with demand for its AMOLED display, which has caused a shortage, thus delaying the shipping of orders for the HTC Droid Incredible by several weeks. Because of this, many people are looking for an alternative. The timing could not have been better for Motorola. Enter the DROID X. Not only does it have a large 4.3” TFT WVGA display, 1GHz OMAP 3630 processor, 8MP autofocus camera, and 8GB of internal memory, but it’s also the first Verizon smartphone to record 720p videos and come with a HDMI output for connecting to an HDTV.

Included in the retail package is the Motorola DROID X MB810 smartphone with a 16GB Class 4 microSDHC memory card preinstalled, 1540mAh battery, wall charger with detachable microUSB cable, and user guides.

Design:

Since the Motorola DROID X comes endowed with a 4.3” display, the phone can’t help looking big, measuring 5.02”H x 2.57”W, but Motorola has taken steps to make it as thin as possible, just 0.39” thick, except for the hump at the top that houses the camera, which is about 0.60” thick. Some may not like this, but the alternative would have been to make the entire phone thicker, so we’d rather have the rest of the phone thin. The overall construction of the Motorola DROID X MB810 feels solid, as it is built from metal and covered with a soft-touch coating, similarly to the original Motorola DROID A855, though it is coming in at 0.5 oz less weight (5.47oz total). The DROID X balances well in the hand, neither top heavy nor bottom heavy, but when placed in your pants pocket, you’ll know it’s there, mostly due to its size.



You can compare the Motorola DROID X MB810 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The large 4.3” TFT display with 480x854 resolution and 16M color support is what truly makes the Motorola DROID X stand out. When placed next to the HTC Droid Incredible and the original Motorola DROID, you can clearly see the difference in the screen size. Since the display on the DROID X is TFT, you don’t get as good black levels as with AMOLED, but images still look amazing and text is clear and sharp.


Instead of using capacitive buttons, the Motorola DROID X has four physical buttons located under the display for the Menu, Home, Back, and Search. We liked that they are physical and require an actual press to get a response, as the front capacitive buttons on the HTC Droid Incredible and Motorola DROID can easily be touched by mistake while holding the phone. On the left side of the DROID X is the microUSB port and micro HDMI (type D) video connector, while on the top is the power/lock button and 3.5mm headset jack, and on the right are the volume rocker and shiny red camera key. The back houses the external speaker, 8MP camera with flash, and the battery compartment, which has to be opened to access the microSDHC memory card slot. We should also point out that the Motorola DROID X comes with 3 microphones: one under the display that is used for picking up your voice when talking on the phone, one on the top that is used for noise cancellation while on calls, and one on the back for directional sound when recording videos.

Interface:

Along with the announcement of the Motorola DROID X MB810, both Google and Motorola made it clear that the device would be updated to Android 2.2 (Froyo) by late summer. Until then, you’ll be using Android 2.1 on the DROID X. We can understand that they wanted to get the device out ASAP to compete with the iPhone 4 and HTC EVO 4G, but it still would have been nice if Froyo was included with the DROID X at launch. Be that as it may, Android 2.1 is still a joy to use on the DROID X and is quite snappy, thanks to the 1GHz processor.

Included on the Motorola DROID X are a total of 7 home screens that you can move between quite fluidly just by sliding you finger across the screen. There are also red dot icons that appear on the bottom of the screen that can be used to jump quickly between any of the home screens. For example, you can go from the far-right screen to the far-left screen in just one tap. There has been some debate if the Motorola DROID X is using MOTOBLUR, or some form thereof. It is quite clear that the DROID X does not contain the full fledged MOTOBLUR interface, like the Motorola DEVOUR, but the DROID X does have some elements (or features) of MOTOBLUR that are infused into the Android OS. Because of this, the DROID X does have some extra Motorola widgets, better social networking integration, and its own messaging program.



Phonebook and Organizer:

All of your contacts, including those from your Google and Facebook accounts, are displayed together alphabetically in one concise list. You also have the choice of just showing contacts from certain groups (Facebook, Google, phone, etc.) as well as creating new groups. Within the app there are two other panes you can swipe between, one showing your contact’s history (including text messages, emails, phone calls, and Facebook inbox), and the other showing status updates. When you select one of your contacts, you are then presented with more detailed info on them, such as their phone numbers, email address, and all their current Facebook updates. Naturally, you can enter new contacts via the Motorola DROID X directly with all of their information. For added convenience, people that you call frequently can be added to your Favorites list, and you can even assign their phone number to one of 8 speed dial locations.




The included calendar on the Motorola DROID X is stock Android 2.1 and syncs directly to your Google account. It does support syncing to multiple Google accounts, but not to Facebook, like we saw with the HTC Droid Incredible, which was added to it as part of the Sense UI. There aren’t any task or note apps installed on the DROID X, but the Android Market has several to choose from. There is, however, a sticky note widget that can be used only on the home screen. The included clock app is also very basic and only provides you an alarm clock and countdown timer.



Separate from the standard Google Voice Search, the Motorola DROID X comes with a Voice Command program from Nuance. It offers several commands, from “send message” to “check battery”, but most importantly you can use it via a Bluetooth headset to call numbers stored in your contacts list, such as simply saying “call home”. We are glad to see that Motorola has included this, as it is still missing in Android by default.

Messaging and Social Networking:

Going into the My Accounts screen allows you to add email accounts (POP and IMAP), corporate sync (Exchange), Facebook, Google (multiple), MySpace, Photobucket, Picasa, Skype, Twitter, Visual Voice Mail, and Yahoo! Mail. After your accounts are set up, you can then go into the Messaging app, which will show all you accounts there, including text messages, which can be viewed all together in the Universal Inbox, or separately by clicking on the account name. On the homescreens you can add the Messages widget, which will show new text and email messages, as well as the Social Networking widget that is fed with status updates from all your friends, and Social Status widget to update your own status. Of course you can also download the standard Facebook app from the Android Market, as some may prefer using that instead. There is also a News widget that can pull information from Digg, Fox Sports, MSNBC, Reuters, Travel Channel, and USA Today, but you can also enter in a custom RSS feed or webpage to gather information from.





For sending a message, you can naturally use any of your saved email accounts, GMail, or SMS/MMS. Using the on-screen QWERTY keyboard on the Motorola DROID X is a pleasure. Due to the 4.3” screen, the on-screen keys are large and easy to use, even with big hands. It can be used in portrait mode, but is best when used in landscape mode. The standard keyboard has word prediction and supports multitouch, which means you can press the shift key and a letter at the same time to make it capitalized. There is also the option to change to the Swype keyboard. If you’re not familiar with Swype, you simply move your finger across the screen, connecting the letters to form your words, instead of having to press each letter separately. It can take beginners a few minutes to become accustomed to it, but there is an included tutorial that will train you on the different features of Swype. But if you’d rather speak instead of type, Android 2.1 comes with voice dictation. Just press the little microphone icon on the keyboard and speak each sentence. We found that the voice dictation works surprising well, with almost every word being correctly recognized.



Connectivity:

The Motorola DROID X MB810 is a dual-band CDMA (800/1900 MHz) handset with high speed data connectivity available through 3G EVDO Rev A or Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n. Bluetooth 2.1+EDR is supported with profiles for headset, hands-free, stereo, audio/visual remote control, dial up networking, human interface device, object push for vcard, messaging access, and phone book access.

The web browser on the Motorola DROID X is Webkit based and displays web sites nearly identical to the original Motorola DROID. The main advantage with the DROID X is naturally the larger screen size, allowing pages to be bigger and easier to see. Multitouch pinch-to-zoom is supported, as well as double-tap zooming. Up to 8 web windows can be active at once, and the Bookmarks are now shown in a 3D scrolling effect from side to side, though it can be changed to a standard list view. Overall, there were no surprises with the browser on the DROID X as it is fast and works quite well, though it would have been nice if Flash Lite was include with it. But instead we’ll have to wait for the Android 2.2 Froyo update that will include Flash 10.1. If there is an embedded YouTube video in a page, you can click on it, and it will open up and play in a separate player. We loaded the same pages on the HTC Droid Incredible and on the original Motorola DROID, and the small web text on those was sharper and clearer.

Camera and Multimedia:

It seems like each new smartphone is in a race to include a higher megapixel camera than the one before it. The Motorola DROID X is now the second Verizon device to come with an 8MP autofocus camera, after the HTC Droid Incredible. The camera app takes about 2 seconds to open on the DROID X, which is one second faster than the HTC Droid Incredible. The screen shows an outline of a white box in the center, which is where the camera will focus by default, but you can drag it around the screen to change where the focus-point is. You then press halfway down on the red shutter button for it to focus on whatever is in the square (turning it from white to green), which takes about a second, and then press the button the rest of the way to snap the image. Images taken outside in bright sunlight were properly exposed and have pretty accurate color representation and saturation. The photos are on the softer side but still pack an enormous amount of detail, making them look stunning. As a comparison, images that were taken outside by the HTC Droid Incredible are sharper, but lack the accurate colors and tonal balance that is present on the DROID X. So between the two, we prefer the outside images produced by the Motorola DROID X more. While indoors, the DROID X produces accurate colors when using the flash (which also does a decent job at illuminating the scene), while the Droid Incredible has more of a green hue. There are also a bunch of different settings for the camera on the Motorola DROID X, including 8 scene modes, 8 color effects, 6 picture resolutions, review time, face detection, and ISO, as well as being able to take 360 degree panorama images, self portraits, and multi-shots.




Videos on the Motorola DROID X can be recorded in up to 1280x720 pixels at 24fps, as well as 720x480p at 30fps, 640x480, and QVGA. There are also five different scenes: everyday – for capturing audio from all directions, outdoors – for reducing wind noise, narrative – for commenting on the scene, subject – that records audio from the front of the camera, and concert - for capturing music. There are also the different color effects, video modes (normal, message, slow motion, fast motion), and the ability to turn the LED light on and off. We recorded two videos while outside. Both were at the highest resolution (720p), but one was using the everyday scene and the other was using the outdoors scene. The playback of both videos on the phone looked quite good, but when viewed on a 24” PC monitor, the quality was just not there, as the videos were grainy and not as smooth as it would have been at 30fps. Though we did notice that the outdoor mode did successfully help reduce wind noise. At this point, the DROID X does take the highest resolution videos of any Verizon phone, but the quality just isn’t near what you would get using a dedicated HD camcorder. We can see it being used for YouTube posts and taking impulsive videos to playback on your HDTV via the HDMI, but we doubt anyone would use it to record their wedding or vacation videos.

Motorola DROID X MB810 sample video at 1280x720 pixels resolution. - everyday scene
Motorola DROID X MB810 sample video at 1280x720 pixels resolution. - outdoors scene

Motorola has taken the liberty of replacing the standard Android 2.1 3D Gallery app with one of their own. It has categories for camera, tags, folders, all phones, all videos, and copy protected. When the DROID X is in portrait mode, it shows images in a grid view, but when turning it to landscape, it changes to a 3D scroll effect, similar to what we saw with the web browser bookmarks. Tapping on any image brings it up to full screen, where you can pinch-to-zoom. For playback of our own ripped videos, the DROID X supports H.263 and H.264 encoded MP4 videos, WMV, and DivX encoded AVI. Our test videos in 720x306 at 1500kbps looked excellent on the large display, and played smoothly without any dropped frames.



One area where Motorola should have done some tinkering was with the Music Player. Though we can’t complain too much, as the stock Android 2.1 player does provide basically everything you need, by listing your music by artists, albums, songs, and playlists. There is also handful of equalizer settings, though you really can’t hear any difference unless you are using a headset. Music playback through the rear speaker was loud, but it sounded ‘thin’ and not as full as music played by the HTC Droid Incredible and Motorola DROID. But once you connect a headset, it solves the problem. Furthermore, when a wired headset is connected, you can access the FM Radio, where it can auto scan for station, or you can tune them in manually and set presets. Our local FM stations came in clear on the Motorola DROID X with better reception than the HTC Droid Incredible. There is also the option to play the FM stations through the phone’s rear speaker, but you still have to keep the headset connected, as it uses the wires for the antenna.


The Motorola DROID X is the first smartphone on Verizon to come with an HDMI port, though it requires a Micro HDMI Type D cable (not included), and supports 480p, 576p, and 720p output resolutions. You can use it for viewing pictures and videos from your phone to your HDTV, but copy protected videos, such as those from the VCast app or new Blockbuster app cannot be played through it. Furthermore, we were pretty let down by the Blockbuster app, as the prices are $3.99 for a 24 hour rental, and can go from $10-$18 to purchase. In addition, the app does not support streaming and has to download the full movie via Wi-Fi first. At this point we can only hope Netflix is working on something better. The Media Share app and DLNA feature work hand-in-hand, allowing you to connect the Motorola DROID X via Wi-Fi to other DLNA supported PCs, HDTVs, network drives, video game consoles, and other phones. With it, you can share and stream pictures, videos, music and other files to and from the connected devices.



Software:

Naturally you can download and install apps from the Android Market, but there are quite a few apps already on the Motorola DROID X, including Google Talk, GMail, Google Maps 4 with Navigation, QuickOffice for viewing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Acrobat files, Skype Mobile, City ID, File Viewer, Blockbuster and VCast Video. The DROID X is also one of the first Android smartphones to support Verizon’s 3G Mobile Hotspot app, which will allow you to connect up to 5 devices to it via Wi-Fi, which intern get connected to Verizon’s data network through the phone. This service costs $20 per month, but is limited to 2GB of data. This feature was originally $40 a month and came with 5GB of data when introduced on the Palm Pre Plus, but was later changed to free to help the Pre Plus sell.




The Motorola DROID X is one fast device that comes equipped with a Texas Instruments OMAP 3630 1GHz processor and a dedicated SFX530 GPU. Add to that the 512MB RAM, 8GB internal storage, and 16GB microSDHC card (up to 32GB supported). We ran the Quadrant benchmark program, which tests the CPU, memory, I/O, 2D and 3D graphics, and got a score of 1263 on the DROID X, while the HTC Droid Incredible got a significantly lower score of 523, and the Motorola DROID was even less at 347.

Performance:

When it comes to phone’s call quality, it is hard to beat the Motorola DROID X MB810. Voices on our end were exceptionally clear and natural sounding, being able to hear low to high tones through the earpiece speaker without any distortion, even with the volume turned all the way up. People that we called said we also sounded very clear on their end, more so than when using the HTC Droid Incredible or Motorola DROID, which we can assume is due to the noise cancelling mic. Signal reception was equally good, as we didn’t drop any calls and had 3-4 bars showing in high coverage areas and averaged -87dB of signal strength.

The 1540mAh battery included with the Motorola DROID X is rated to provide up to 8 hours of talk time or 9.5 days of standby time on a full charge. During our testing, we were able to get up to an amazing 9 hours and 30 minutes of talk time on a full charge, which completely blows away the Motorola DROID at 7hr 30min talk time (1400mAh battery), and crushes the HTC Droid Incredible at a measly 5hr 30min talk time (1300mAh battery). Furthermore, the larger battery on the Motorola DROID X was able to provide it up to 30 hours of mixed usage on a full charge(which includes some talk, text, email, web, app usage, and standby), compared to just about 24 hours on the Motorola DROID, and 20 hours on the HTC Droid Incredible. Clearly, having a higher capacity battery on the Motorola DROID X is sure to come in handy.

Conclusion:

So is the Motorola DROID X really that eXtreme? When compared to other Verizon devices, it does have a lot to offer, from the large 4.3” WVGA display, excellent call quality, ample storage room, fast processor, 8MP camera, and HDMI output. But with the HTC EVO 4G from Sprint and Apple iPhone 4 for AT&T on the loose, the smartphone race is running neck-and-neck. If you’re in the market for a high-end smartphone, the Motorola DROID X does deserve your attention.

Software version of the reviewed unit: 1.13.604

Motorola DROID X Video Review: