funkyfresh mobile
Motorola Droid 3 Review
- Details
- Category: Mobile
- Published: Tuesday, 02 August 2011 17:35
The Droid 3 is a full featured Android phone that includes a full QWERTY keyboard. It’s built like a tank with quality glass, a metal bezel and good buttons. But you’ll notice the heft as it’s the heaviest phone in the Droid series. This is a phone that would be a good step up from a feature phone such as the LG EnV3 which was so popular a couple of years ago.
When we first started testing the Droid 3 we were annoyed by the density of the phone. However, having the full QWERTY keyboard along with a row of numbers at the top is ultra convenient and makes for a lot less typos, faster response times and overall more complete business communications on the go. The keyboard has a good feel to it and we found ourselves sliding it open more often than not. It’s interesting to note that even with the full keyboard the Droid 3 is just barely thicker than an iPhone.
The Droid 3 exhibited a little better performance compared to the Droid X and we were able to get a signal in some spots that the other Droids struggled with. It also seemed a bit more responsive and stable. Setting up corporate email and various accounts was improved and overall it’s a fairly consistent experience. The Gingerbread OS is more refined and user friendly.
When you don’t have your “real” camera with you the smartphone is the next best thing. For some people it’s the only thing. That’s why we’re so disappointed and surprised frankly that Motorola would neglect the user experience here. The specs are okay but it’s too slow. Startup time and snapping pics is so poky that it’s almost unusable. You’ll miss every Kodak moment. The camera experience is actually better on old feature phones like the aforementioned LG EnV3. When using the camera the Droid 3 doesn’t feel very smart at all.
So, it really boils down to the keyboard and how important that is. We know lots of consumers are using their phones exclusively for text and social media . Text a friend, snap a pic, post to Facebook…repeat. The Droid 3 may be very appealing to this group in spite of the poor camera performance.
Visit Motorola for more information and all the specs.
