Motorola Droid X2 Review - A Droid X with Tegra 2
by Brian Klug on July 7, 2011 8:31 AM ESTBattery Life
I’ve saved it for last, but battery life on the X2 is very close to where it was with the X. Both share the exact same battery as I mentioned earlier, and the X2 manages to include a dual core SoC and higher resolution screen, all the while gaining battery life in all three categories. Motorola continues to dominate our call test charts with now four devices at the very top - I’d like to know what their special sauce is.
Again due to the WiFi hotspot service not being provisioned on the device Motorola sent us we were unable to test actual WiFi hotspot battery life.
Conclusions and Final Thoughts
We’re almost exactly one year after the launch of the original Droid X, and now dual core smartphones with higher resolution screens are the norm. With those two critiera as the bar for success, the X2 does pass. That said, it’s hard to get super excited about the X2 on a carrier where every flagship device seems to have 4G LTE connectivity.
The product launched online with minimal fanfare, and then quietly showed up in stores later - it just didn’t excite the Verizon Android fanbase as much as the original X launch did. Moreover, I find the X2 refresh a bit too safe, with no major outward physical differences to distinguish the X2 from its predecessor other than a subtle color change and a line of red text. No, that excitement seems to be building up to a fever pitch for the Bionic.
Lack of excitement aside, the X2 does however play an important role in Verizon’s smartphone lineup. Namely, it’s a device for customers who don’t want 4G LTE connectivity and the (admittedly) poor battery life (and current $50-$100 price premium) that comes with it. If you aren’t in an area slated to get LTE this year, waiting for the Bionic (which boils down to essentially being an X2 with larger display, newer motoblur, and LTE) doesn’t really make all that much sense, and in that circumstance the X2 seems like a better purchase. Likewise, if you’re an X owner and already have a dock, case, extra battery, and are looking for much faster hardware to upgrade to (or perhaps have recently broken a Droid X), the X2 is an easy shoe-in. I guess it all boils down to each individual situation.
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NeoteriX - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
Again, the N8 is an unfair comparison, it's not even the same class of camera phone. Just like the other examples I cited, the Sony C-902, Nokia N82... these are cameras that happen to also be phones. The problem is that these are not apples to apples comparisons.The sensor on the N8 is 1/1.83″ -- by way of comparison, the Canon S95, a real point and shoot camera with very well-respected low light performance relative to its peers has only a slightly larger sensor of 1/1.7" Not to mention it has carl zeiss branded optics and a xenon flash (like the other examples I cited)
The iPhone 4 uses a mobile camera sensor of 1/3.2" and so does the HTC sensation.
Now I'm all for big sensors in cameraphones--the better the image quality the better, as the best camera is ultimately the one you take with you. And the N8 shows that you can shove real point and shoot sensors into a phone, but let's face the reality -- the market of phones with REAL camera sensors and optics is a very, very, very small niche market (they cost $$$ to put in those sensors) and doesn't reflect the mass market of advanced smartphones.
Again, the iPhone 4 represents the best candidate of this balance, and I'm really hoping others HTC, Motorola, etc. step up their game here, but I don't plan on owning an Apple device in the near future.
munky - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
It's a valid comparison, the N8 is a smartphone like all the others you mentioned, in the same form factor. I'm not comparing something the size of a DSLR to something that fits in your pocket.Yes, it has a bigger sensor, just like the S95 has a bigger sensor than average pocket cameras - does that mean the S95 is not qualified to be the gold standard of pocket cameras? Doing so is just a refusal to acknowledge a superior product in favor of the lowest common denominator.
NeoteriX - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
I agree, but I think the distinguishing factor is that the S95 performs better than anything in its class by any dimension.The large sensor camera phones are still a "niche" in the sense that you have to singularly want exceptional photographic performance to buy one of these phones -- and in return, you have to make several compromises as to the user interface, CPU performance/technology, software ecosystem, etc. The phones are geared towards an audience willing to deal with that.
However, if you look at the other major powers in the phone OS ecosystems (iOS, Win7, Android, WebOS?), none incorporate the large sensor into any phone, much less the kind of flagship phone that you would expect them to pull all the stops out for.
Believe me when I say I would go out and immediately buy the first Android phone with all the furnishings -- dualcore CPU, etc. that *also* included a large sensor and quality glass.
Exodite - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
That's a bit of a red herring considering that the vast majority of these so-called 'camera phones' aren't lacking in other desirable features.Indeed, a good camera is becoming something of a hallmark of high-end smartphones in general, HTC being the exception to the rule.
As for the cost you mentioned before, the N8 - undeniably the best-equipped smartphone today when the camera is concerned - is a mid-range phone.
Brian Klug - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
I'm a huge optics nerd (it's what I studied in college at least) so I always try and find out everything I can about the cameras in here. Usually that ends up being very little because it either isn't documented, or there's no information in the place I look.For the sensor type, it's easy enough to just run dmesg and scan through there. HTC lately has been initializing the camera and leaving the part number right there. I searched through on the X2 and couldn't find any camera sensor part numbers even in the sections where they're clearly starting to init the camera. It's unfortunate, because otherwise we could get a better feel for what sensors are usually very good and which ones usually aren't.
It's interesting that Apple did such a good job marketing backside illumination with the iPhone 4, when essentially every sensor at or over 8 MP needs to be backside illuminated (and thinned) due to skew effects. That said their camera is indeed very good.
-Brian
jamyryals - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
Love the video review format. My favorite smart phone reviewer on the net, keep it up Brian.munky - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
Why do the graphs always compare the usual Samsung and Motorolla phones, the old practically irrelevant iphone 3gs, Nexus One and Dell Streak, but not more variety of modern phones, like the Nokia N8, for example? Instead of grouping tablets and phones in the same graphs, separate the two categories so that each one has a better selection of relevant entries.Exodite - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
Regarding Motorala and their use of FWVGA over WVGA, they're not the only Android handset manufacturer who went that route as Sony-Ericsson also uses FWVGA on the X10/arc/neo/play.BryanC - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - link
I might consider buying this phone if not for the terrible pentile screen door effect, which is simply unacceptable in today's day and age.The iPhone4 has 960x640x3 subpixels in 5.65in2 area. The Droid X2 has 960x540x2 subpixels in 7.90in2 area. The iPhone has 2.5X the subpixel density of the Droid X2! And it's immediately obvious when you look at the displays - the iPhone4 display is so detailed the image looks printed on, it's in a completely different class.
Too bad.
JayQ330 - Thursday, September 1, 2011 - link
what does that have to do with any of this? oh i see, wipe your chin there's still some iphone honey left.