Be still my heart! For ten glorious days, I was thrilled to play with review a Motorola Droid 2 from Verizon Wireless. Every single member of the family tried this baby out. Some of the features included the following:
- Android 2.2 technology
- Adobe Flash Player 10.1 (which is something sadly lacking on my current smartphone)
- Full multi-touch 3.7 inch brilliant display - with colors way sharper and more vibrant than my normal phone
- A massive slide-out keyboard
- 5 megapixel camera with zoom and many other features you would find on a standard camera, including the option of video recording
- And plenty of other things which I didn’t try, like the wireless hotspot capability (one of the perks of my current phone!), speech-to-text input, a virtual keyboard, and global capabilities…for that mission trip I haven’t yet had the opportunity to take.
And then there are the apps. Oh. My. Goodness. There are thousands of apps for the Droid, many of which are free, which you know is my favorite price. There are so many apps that that’s what Droid owners talk about when they get together. “Have you seen this cool app?” I say that because I have three Droid owners in my family, although I’m not one of them. My dad is excited about the Gesture app, which allows him to draw a letter of the alphabet with his finger, and all the contacts with that letter magically appear on his screen. It sure beats scrolling!
One of my husband’s favorite apps is Ringdroid, (here’s a YouTube video about it) which allows him to use any MP3 song as his ringtone. Not only that, but it lets him choose which portion of the song he wants, simply by dragging his finger across the screen. Amazing!
Zachary, my eight-year-old, was enamored of the brilliant graphics. His favorite app was “Need for Speed Shift,” a racing game that kept him quite occupied in waiting rooms. My girls enjoyed the Fruit Pirate app, similar to the very popular (but not free) Fruit Ninja app, and I have to admit that it was not only a lot of fun but also highly addictive. My husband, a recent Blackberry convert who now owns the Droid Pro, learned a few things, too. 
And let’s not forget the Key Ring app, which allows you to use the phone instead of all those loyalty cards that keep ending up in the bottom of my purse. How about the Price Scanner app that allows you to scan the bar code of an item, and it will show you the price of that item at local stores? That’s a great help when you’re at Wal-Mart, trying to use their price match guarantee!
We didn’t just play games on the phone. There’s so much that it will do. I checked multiple email accounts, surfed the web, took pictures, uploaded them to Facebook, managed my Twitter account, moderated blog comments, searched with my KJV Bible app, marveled at the crystal clear phone calls, and checked out app after app. There’s a Kindle app that will allow you to read Amazon Kindle books! How cool is that?! And the built-in GPS with voice-activated, turn-by-turn driving directions is included with Droid 2, whereas with my phone, that’s something I would have to pay extra to access. And how about the Skype mobile app, which allows you to make video calls with your phone as opposed to being tethered to your computer to use it?
The cost of the Droid 2 if you’re buying it without a contract is close to $600. Ouch! But with a contract, the price is still, um, quite pricey, especially with today’s economy. So…can a frugal zealot like me really promote a $199 phone? I suppose it depends on how you look at it. For instance, my dad just bought this exact phone, the Droid 2. Yes, the initial investment was pricey, but he and Mom decided to forego their $70+ internet bill each month, and surf exclusively on the phone, which offers unlimited internet. So even though there’s a $30 monthly data plan, it’s still a savings of over $40 a month for them. Plus, Dad got in on Verizon’s “Smartphones Talk Free” promo in January, which gives him a 24-month free phone line, which is a potential savings of $240.
Add to that the fact that he can read e-books on his phone (a savings of $139 instead of buying a Kindle), and he has already rigged up a mount for the phone on his motorcycle so he can use the turn-by-turn GPS feature (instead of buying a GPS at close to $100), and you can see that this one device will definitely save him more than it cost. He’s also planning to Skype my brother in Texas, who has a first generation Droid. What fun! Not only that, but the teens at church are blown away that my dad, who is a grandpa many times over, is hip enough to have a Droid 2.
The bottom line is, the Droid 2 is an amazing piece of equipment. I felt incredibly productive since there was so much at my fingertips. But if you’re undisciplined, I can see the possibility to be distracted with all the fun apps that are out there. Will I get a Droid? Well, I’m not eligible for another phone yet (I gave my credit to my daughter, whose flip phone had broken in half.) But when I am eligible, maybe…just maybe…I can get the Droid 2.
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