Source: Motorola
Let me just start off by saying that until I received this Droid 3 review unit I had sworn off Motorola Smart Phones since I had a horrible experience with a Motorola Q9m Windows Smart Phone. In this review we will see if Motorola has greatly stepped up their game and is once again making great smart phones. Keep reading to find out about the Droid 3.
Source: Motorola
The Droid 3 is the newest in the Motorola Droid Lineup. This is a candybar style side slider that is 4.90in x 2.50in x 0.50in. The phone weighs in at approx 6.5 oz. In the smart phone world this is a rather heavy phone but the weight is due in part, to the phone being a slider. This is a 3G phone running a 1GHz dual-core processor running Android 2.3.4. The screen is a 4in qHD covered in that ever impressive and strong Gorilla Glass from Corning. The sides of the phone are covered in a metal bezel and the back is a rubberized plastic. the phone feels well built in your hands and there is no feeling like the phone could easily slide out of your hands.
Lets talk a little more about that 4in qHD screen. The screen is a capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 540 x 960. The screen is responsive to even the lightest of touches. Video’s were crisp and clear with no color banding which would be expected with a qHD screen. Details and colors were very vivid in pictures viewed on the phone. (your video and picture experience may vary depending on the quality of movies and pictures you are watching on your phone.)
Speaking of pictures the Droid 3 has a 8MP rear facing camera and a 0.3MP VGA front facing camera. The Droid 3 is also capable of 1020p video recording at 30fps. The camera is auto focus, but also has touch to focus and facial detection. Don’t plan on using the front camera for more than video chat due to it’s low MP’s. One thing that has changed with the Droid 3 from previous models is the removal of the dedicated camera button on the side of the phone.
The Droid is powered by a 1GHz dual-core TI OMAP4430 processor that is blazing fast for a cell phone. Once you have turned off the animations that Motorola has thrown into the device there is nothing that resembles lag what-so-ever. (The animations in question were placed into the programming so after pressing a button or opening some apps, the camera for one, a loading animation would appear and made it look like the phone was actually being slowed down by your request).
Memory for the Droid 3 is 16GB of internal storage with the ability to add up to a 32GB microSD card, bringing the total memory this phone is capable of up to 48GB. (Be advised your usable internal storage may very depending on apps and pre-configuration of your device). Some of your initial memory is taken up by the pre-installed VZW apps that come on all of their phones.
The Slider is a nice touch to the phone for people who still long for the physical keyboard but still like touchscreen devices. The 5 row layout that is new for the Droid 3 is a nice improvement over the 4 row of the Droid 2. This phone has a dedicated row for number buttons making it a lot easier to type in account numbers of passwords. They keys are firm and easy to press. All the keys are also back-lit making it a breeze to text in a dimly lit room. The slider itself does not have any play in it. At no point during my testing did the slider feel like there was any play in the mechanism at all. When fully open the slider does click into place to keep it from accidentally sliding closed.
Other features of this phone include USB 2.0 with mass storage mode and USB charging, Bluetooth 2.1, 3.5mm headphone jack, mini HDMI out, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, GPS, World phone capable, music and video capable, YouTube player included.
If you’re in the market for a new 3G Android smart phone from Verizon and must have a keyboard then the Droid 3 may be just the phone you are looking for. If you’re looking for a low weight all touch phone than Verizon has other phones that will fit your needs. Keep checking back for more reviews from us for new and recently released products from VZW.
The Droid 3 is available now on Verizon Wireless for 199.99 with a new 2 year agreement.
SOURCES: VERIZON, PHONE ARENA
