Motorola Droid 2 Review: Rebooting the Droid
by Brian Klug on September 19, 2010 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Droid
- Motorola Droid 2
- Android
- Mobile
Speakerphone Comparison
We’ve been testing speakerphones regularly on devices, specifically volume numerically using a decibel meter and audio quality subjectively. The Droid 2 is sufficiently loud at maximum volume on speakerphone.
I was surprised, but there’s actually a bit of distortion and saturation at maximum volume. Taking it down one notch results in much better sound quality and no distortion. Nothing rattles around at maximum volume, it just sounds like there's definitely some saturation.
As was the case with the old Droid, the speaker is on the back of the device under the silver (previously gold) grating. Thankfully there’s a raised portion which creates a small channel for that sound to come out the sides. It’s still quite loud even face up as we’ve shown. Handset voice quality is par for CDMA 1x voice.
Camera
About the only unchanged thing on the new Droid 2 is the camera, which inexplicably is the same 5 MP resolution as its predecessor. I wasn’t hugely impressed with the shots that camera produced on the first Droid, nor its interface, but the Droid 2 seems to have mitigated some of it in the software. What has changed on paper is video recording quality—we’re up to 30 FPS from 24 for that SD DVD quality 720 x 480 video. Again, 720p capture is missing because the Droid 2 has an OMAP3620 versus the OMAP3630 in the Droid X.
The first gallery is our bench, which is becoming difficult to ensure stays the same due to changing weather and lighting—which is the reason we've added those controlled lightbox tests.
I noted in the BlackBerry Torch review that I’m going to do more controlled testing with uniform testing in a lightbox, in addition to bench photos. I’ve done the same with the Droid 2, and if you looked, you’ve already seen the shots it produces. Many of you asked for a DSLR pic in the box as well, I've added shots from my D80.
The Droid 2 by default still produces pics that are a bit undersaturated, but not nearly as much as its predecessor. Where it does shine though is using the flash—it’s hard to argue that the Droid 2 doesn’t have the most uniformly lit photo of the bunch.
The Droid X included an interesting and occasionally awesome camera software stack. Essentially everything from that camera application is also ported to the Droid 2.
The only things that are missing are the microphone noise canceling options, and 720P video. Everything else—including the awesome panorama mode—is there. Camera capture is roughly the same speed as it is on the Droid X.
Video Capture
Finally we've got our video tests. The Droid 2 captures video in H.264 video and AAC audio at an average bitrate of 550 kBps in our video. As I mentioned before, it's difficult to control light at the test location. Video capture on the Droid 2 actually is pretty good, and 30 FPS versus the original Droid's 24 makes a visible difference. This section is starting to get a bit unwieldy large, eventually we'll craft a nice switcher for easy comparison.
Motorola Droid 2
BlackBerry Torch 9800
Motorola Droid X
HTC EVO 4G
Nexus One
iPhone 4
HTC Droid Incredible
Motorola Droid
Nokia N900
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Brian Klug - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
Thanks for calling me out on that, I totally suspected I had forgotten something important. Can't believe I did that. /facepalm-Brian
stlc8tr - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
"The Droid 2 has pulled a complete 180 from the original Droid’s travesty of a keyboard. I’d say the device has gone from having one of the industry’s worst smartphone keyboards to arguably one of the best, if not the best. "Really? Have you tried the Touch Pro2 keyboard? Good travel. Nice offset. Numbers row. Good spacing between keys. It's nearly perfect. That is by far the best keyboard that I've ever used.
http://www.mobileguerilla.com/images/htc-touch-pro...
Brian Klug - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
I had a Touch Pro and Touch Pro 2 for a long time. I have to agree - HTC has dominated the landscape keyboard landscape for a while, but on Android platform it's hard to beat the Droid 2 right now.Until we get the landscape HTC device that we've seen spy shots of. I don't think it has a codename yet, but it has that Touch Pro 2 keyboard.
I think we definitely agree.
-Brian
wyvernknight - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
I think the blur animation that you're talking about when you open and close the app drawer is simply a stock Android 2.2 animation and not a Motoblur add-on.hansel2099 - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
muy buen celularlunarx3dfx - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
This is very disappointing. Your reviews are always very informative and for the most part all inclusive, but I've noticed in the last few reviews the Palm Pre has been absent. Now, I know that most would say, well it's Palm, and they are pretty much dead. However, unlike the Nexus One, which is included in all these reviews, I'm sure there were more Pre's sold than the Nexus One meaning that there are probably a few consumers out there that would like to see how it stacks compared to a new phone that they might be considering. It's just a suggestion.Also, for those who might be wondering, my overclocked to 1 GHz Palm Pre scored as follows:
Browsermark: 24492
Sunspider: 11228
I'd like to point out that those scores are still pretty high up on the list.
Brian Klug - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
Hey lunarx3dfx, I've got a Palm Pre Plus here that we got in for review, so I haven't really been able to include benchmarks from those suites until now. It'll show up in the new benchmarks though. On stock clocks I get 22298 ms on sunspider and 12936 on browsermark. Those 1 GHz speeds are actually pretty impressive.-Brian
ol1bit - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
I think it's awesome that you are reviewing Smart Phones now. After all, they are truning more and more into computers.I've been into computers since the TSR-80 Color computer, and can't believe how far things have advances. http://oldcomputers.net/coco.html
Anyway Thank You!
AnnonymousCoward - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
Brian, I commend you for this engineering review and attention to detail. You made some great observations, like the ridiculous waste of space when text messaging.The inability to delete the stupid verizon and google bookmarks is inexcusable. Not mentioned is also the inability to delete or even just hide the garbage apps that come by default, including Blockbuster and Amazon MP3. So much for "Droid Does". Droid Doesn't let you delete the preinstalled crap. Besides rooting of course.
I noticed in a Verizon store using the X with the 2 side-by-side that the 2 has noticeably worse scrolling performance in the app list.
As for that 1cm of empty space to the right of the keyboard, they should have used that to make the keyboard even bigger! It was wasted, in order to have the phone dip down 2mm near the edge, which really doesn't accomplish anything.
A huge gripe I have is how syncing with facebook causes your entire contact list to be overtaken. The only remedy seems to be not not add facebook as an account, and give yourself a link to facebook.com on your desktop.
I am disappointed with the ever-present touch screen lag. Clicking and scrolling anything has a lagged effect from your input. Unfortunately, many people lack lag sensitivity, so we end up with displays and phones that exhibit an acceptable amount of lag to a few designers or testers, which is unacceptable to guys like me.
evilspoons - Sunday, September 19, 2010 - link
I find it amusing how you're talking about the Droid 1 as if it's a dinosaur from the land of ancient, forgotten technology... yet it's still a year newer than the Blackberry I use all the time (Nov 2009 vs Aug 2008). Hmmm. Maybe it's time to upgrade.Only one of the local wireless carriers has the Droid 1 (sold as the Milestone because Droid is licensed to Verizon from Lucasfilm) and we just got it recently. The only recent-ish Android phone my current provider (Rogers) has is the Xperia X10. Ugh.
It's really just an iPhone 4 or a 6-12 month out-of-date handset for us up in the Great White North.