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Motorola Droid X: Thoroughly Reviewed
by Brian Klug on 7/20/2010 4:27:00 PM
Posted in smartphones , Motorola Droid X , OMAP
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Conclusions

It’s hard to argue that the new Motorola Droid X hasn’t captured the Android performance and flagship crown once again. Eight months after the original Motorola Droid, Motorola has launched a worthy successor. Further into the summer, we'll see a true followuup to the original Droid - the Droid 2. It will pack an improved hardware keyboard, the same size and form factor as the first Droid, and probably the same SoC as the X.


Motorola Droid X. Image Courtesy of Sarah Trainor.

The X brings a lot more than just a bigger screen and the Blur interface - after the iPhone 4, it's the second phone on the market with a 45nm SoC. TI's OMAP 3630 is the new Snapdragon. You get the same real world performance as a 1GHz Snapdragon, but with much better GPU performance. Unfortunately for TI the latter only really matters in 3D games, which are still at their infancy on smartphones.There's still some occasional choppiness scrolling through menus, but that seems to be an Android thing
 
The battery life offered by Motorola's design (both hardware and software) and the OMAP 3630 is just great. Despite its size the Droid X lastest the longest on a single charge of any Android phone we've tested thus far. While the iPhone 4 lasts longer for browsing, the X is our new champion for talk time weighing in at just under 9 hours. We're only a generation or two away from all smartphones having better-than-notebook battery life for all of our major tasks.
 
If you're on Verizon and prefer the larger screen, the Droid X takes our pick for the best Android phone on the market today. All we really need is a good Nexus One successor for those users who want something a bit smaller, and maybe an entirely new form factor for the ultimate smallest in devices.
 
From a higher vantagepoint, the Droid X isn't going to change your opinion on Android. If you love the OS then you'll be very happy with the device. While we would definitely appreciate Froyo on the X today, we're starting to get really excited about Android 3.0 (Gingerbread) due out by the end of the year. 
 
There are also OMAP 4 and Tegra 2 to keep in mind. While the 3630 is the cream of the crop today, in less than 12 months it'll move down to mainstream and we'll be pining for the next wave of dual-core Cortex A9 smartphones. We wouldn't recommend waiting another year if you need a new phone, but just plan on wanting to upgrade really bad next year.
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screen comparison photo by czesiu on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
great review!

higher res version for this please:)
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/3826/DROIDX-Anand...
czesiu
RE: screen comparison photo by Brian Klug on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
I'm actually going to dump all the screen comparison photos I've got (there are quite a few) into a gallery, then you can peruse at native resolution. Should be up in a little bit ;)

-Brian
Brian Klug
What's up Anand? by hatter_india on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Fantastic review but I expect no less from AnandTech. But there are a couple of bloopers:

1- OMAP 3630 is third mobile chip to use 45nm process. First is of course A4. But second is Samsung's Hummingbird, a chip that the korean company designed with help of Intrinsity. This chip is found in Galaxy S or its variants. Samsung is the same company that also tweaked A4, which incidentally is fabbed by Samsung. Too many coincidences ;-)

2- A comparison to PowerVR SGX 540 found on Galaxy S would have been interesting as according to Samsung SGX 540 is almost three times more powerful than SGX535.

3- Droid X should have also been compared with Galaxy S or any of its variants like Captivate, Vibrant etc
hatter_india
RE: What's up Anand? by hatter_india on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
This line: Samsung is the same company that also tweaked A4, which incidentally is fabbed by Samsung

Should read: Intrinsity is the same company that also tweaked A4, which incidentally is fabbed by Samsung
hatter_india
How about a Galaxy S? by Goty on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Does AT have any plans to review any of the Galaxy S phones? I just picked up a Captivate on Sunday and I'd love to see how it stacks up. I just ran the Neocore benchmark and got around 55 FPS, which speaks well of the GPU, but I'd like to see results from the other tests you guys do.
Goty
RE: How about a Galaxy S? by Brian Klug on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Hey Goty,

We definitely have plans to do reviews of all of the Galaxy S phones we can get our hands on. I'm working on getting them as soon as possible ;)

I'm also pretty excited to explore that SoC and compare.

-Brian
Brian Klug
Excellent Review! by Ram21 on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Really enjoyed this review. Keep up the great work! Being as thorough as you guys are really helps to make good decisions on purchases.
Ram21
as a pc by SonicIce on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
lol how long before we can attach an external mouse and keyboard to a phone to use it as a pc and play 3d games online with it
SonicIce
RE: as a pc by strikeback03 on Tuesday, July 27, 2010
How about this?

http://www.androidcentral.com/dell-streak-logitech...
strikeback03
the gold standard by ltfields on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Guys, another gold standard review. I may not be able to pick up an X because I'm still under contract with another carrier, but the reviews are riveting. Keep up the excellent work!
ltfields
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