Motorola Droid X: Thoroughly Reviewed
by Brian Klug on July 20, 2010 4:27 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Motorola Droid X
- OMAP
- Mobile
Still Captures
What’s particularly interesting about the X is that it contains a bonafide mechanical shutter system that actually actuates. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s there. In what testing I’ve done, the shutter actually seems to activate of the time in low light situations than in bright light outdoors, which is a bit paradoxical to me. If you look close in the video, you can actually see the lens assembly go in and out for focusing, which is pretty normal.
Stills themselves aren’t amazing on the Droid X, but a definite step up from the camera on the Motorola Droid. If you’re making that jump, the difference will be a welcome improvement in camera quality.
You can compare all of the shots we’ve taken at 7 different locations in the gallery below. I’ve updated the results with an example shot from a Nikon D80 DSLR as well for comparison as something of a baseline. We’ve now got photos from the Droid X, EVO 4G, HTC Incredible, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, KIN ONE, KIN TWO (which has the competing 8 megapixel Sony IMX046 SoC), Motorola Droid, N900, and Nexus One. Location 7 and 4 are the most interesting, in my estimation.
The shots really speak for themselves. The EVO 4G and Incredible tend to oversaturate and over-sharpen, and the iPhone 4 does have some over-saturation of its own.
What I found particularly interesting about the X’s shooting modes for stills was in picture modes. The X will let you shoot stills very quickly at the expense of quality - they’re captured at 1 megapixel - in multi-shot mode. You don’t get to dictate when the exposures take place, 6 photos are just captured in rapid succession.
Next, there’s a self portrait mode that uses face detection to take your photo whenever it sees a face. Remember face detection I hit on earlier? This is an interesting application for it. Unfortunately, it refuses to detect my face and take the photo about 80% of the time. I even used my notebook’s built in webcam to monitor what was going on and if my face was in the frame. Even perfectly centered, most of the time inexplicably no dice. It even pops up a “no faces detected” box after 30 seconds. Apparently I’m a vampire or somesuch living undead.
But what I found really intriguing was the included auto stitch panorama mode. This is one of the most interesting applications I’ve seen for the compass; location aware image stitching. That’s right, you go into this mode, and can stitch together six images. That’s been done before, sure, but in the bottom left, you get an augmented reality preview showing how far you need to rotate to the next position before a photo is automatically captured. Repeat the process, and the software stitches the images back together automatically.
Panorama - Stitched entirely on the X
There’s just something so right about this process - I shouldn’t have to manually overlay bits of the previous image if the smartphone already has a good enough compass to know what direction we’re pointed, so do it in software! The X does precisely that.
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jeffjcom - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
Monoprice cables are Mini not Micro.MrPete123 - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
A little bit off topic but....I haven't seen any mention of Android 2.2 and battery life. Do we know if executing code significantly faster allows the CPU to sleep more often, saving power? Or perhaps there's other power saving alterations in 2.2?bplewis24 - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
I'm interested in this as well. Maybe update the Nexus One review with this info?Brandon
stlc8tr - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
"It’s interesting that Motorola is sticking to FWVGA - this is admittedly exactly 16:9 aspect ratio"Well, I guess it depends on how digits of precision you're using. 854x480 is actually 16:8.992974. :-)
soydios - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
Whichever author wrote that, you are not being too picky about the short 3-foot length of the included USB cable. 6 feet or bust. I'd say that the majority of us like to have the phone on the nightstand or desk while it's charging, not on the floor next to the power socket.Piano Man - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 - link
Now this is what I call a smartphone review. I'm glad that these smartphones are getting full review treatment like they were computer systems. Since I got my Moto Droid at work 7 months ago, I think about 25-30 more have followed suit. I really thing these phones are gonna become our primary all-in-one electronic system sooner than we think. Glad they're getting the review they deserve. Please keep it up for the future biggie's (Samsung Galaxy, and the new OMAP processors).jleach1 - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
"droid x lastest longest on a single charge"not sure if this was an accent -=D
dumpsterj - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
man i want this phone lol. I was gonna wait to see how windows phone 7 works out cuz i love zune . However it seems verizon is pissing all over microsoft lately with the kin and i wonder if vz will even get the damn phones.VashHT - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
Anyone else notice there evo benchmarks a lot better in this article than in the official evo review? It seems like the updates might have actually helped it out, it went from being slower to the incredible to faster in this review (in browsing tests I mean), you guys should update your evo review with the patches,i think they fixed the few little flaws the evo had when it first came out.One43637 - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
Great to hear Brian. I just picked up a Vibrant after owning a G1 for the duration. Phone is great, and I was pleasantly surprised how unobtrusive TouchWiz 3.0 is. Phone does not feel cheap at all, just because it has a plastic back.Can't wait to read your review and Froyo!