Motorola Droid X: Thoroughly Reviewed
by Brian Klug on July 20, 2010 4:27 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Motorola Droid X
- OMAP
- Mobile
Camera
The X, like the EVO and Incredible, packs an 8 megapixel Omnivision camera SoC, most likely the OmniVision OV8810 (same as the EVO and Incredible) with 1.4 µm square pixels. This sensor has a reported sensitivity of 650 mV/lux-sec, and is likewise backside illuminated. For comparison, the iPhone 4’s 5 megapixel OV5650 SoC has a sensitivity of 1300 mV/lux-sec and pixel sizes 1.75 µm square.
OV8810 - The Sensor in X, Incredible, and EVO 4G
Sensitivity in this case refers to just how much voltage a pixel creates per 1 lux-sec (one lux of light for one second) of exposure. Thus, more voltage is better and results in higher SNR, and less noise on the image.
If you recall back to our iPhone 4 piece, I talked a lot about why backside illumination is relevant as pixel sizes continue to shrink. Quantum efficiency (sensitivity) is one critical reason, but the other is quantum blurring negatively affecting image contrast (MTF). If you’re interested, you can read more here.
Camera Interface
Details of the camera SoC aside, the X foregoes the typical Android camera interface and instead brings its own. It’s different than the one used on the original Droid, and not like HTC’s interface.
On the right are some quick access buttons for scenes, effects, flash, and switching to video. Press menu, and you’ll get picture modes, tags, and settings. Confused yet as to what the difference between scenes, effects, and modes are?
Scenes allows you to set some quick shooting scenarios that the camera will hopefully adjust for. There’s auto, portrait, landcape, sport, night portrait, sunset, macro, and steady shot. I left the camera on auto for all of the test shots. Effects lets you apply filters to the images, such as black and white, negative, sepia, solarize, red green or blue tint, or normal if you’re feeling generic. Flash as expected comes with auto, on, and off modes.
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Camera Settings
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In the top left, you can tap on a tag symbol and toggle GPS assisted location tagging, or custom tags. Hit up settings, and you can change the picture resolution between full 8 MP, 6 MP widescreen, 5 MP medium, and small 3 or 2 MP presets. There also are settings for ISO equivalent sensitivity and exposure. The camera also promises face detection for autofocus, more on that later. The volume buttons control digital zoom.
I mentioned earlier that the X got an OTA update about midway through my time with it. One of the things it addressed was a camera complaint I had begun documenting but is obviously irrelevant now. Before the OTA update, the image preview was higher resolution, but white balance and other color correction effects didn’t show up in the live preview. In effect, the snapped photo was often an entirely different temperature, and looked entirely different. Since the update, Motorola has made the live preview accurately reflect the color temperature of the captured photo, at the cost of a sizable chunk of resolution.
It’s hard to describe how the preview looks now, but it’s no longer of native resolution on the screen, instead appearing slightly blurry and of lower resolution. Viewing the captured photo shows the native quality, but the preview and live view aren’t how the used to be. I took side by side photos of the same subject with an EVO, but even there it's difficult to really see how much the preview differs - either way, it's there. It just doesn't look as good.
Camera launch is between 3-4 seconds now, another of the things the OTA update addressed. It’s relatively speedy but not instantaneous, though none of the smartphone camera launches are. Motorola again uses a colored, two-position dedicated button for shutter control.
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TareX - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
Why are all the Samsung Galaxy S phones missing from your charts and comparisons? I wanted to see how Hummingbird compared and how the Super AMOLED fared against their Droid X counterparts...strikeback03 - Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - link
Maybe because the first US version launched a day before the review went up, and they weren't sent a review sample.enealDC - Thursday, July 22, 2010 - link
Great job!Juniper Research - Friday, July 23, 2010 - link
Very interesting article... we have this week published a new report on smartphones and a free whitepaper is available to download here... http://www.juniperresearch.com/reports/next_genera...John Levett
Marketing Executive at Juniper Research
Homefries - Saturday, July 24, 2010 - link
First off, great review Brian.However, while you did a very thorough comparison of the Droid X to other Android devices, you barely mentioned the real competitor the Droid X has to stand up against: the iPhone 4.
Readers want to know if the Droid X is the best phone on the market - the whole market - not just the market subset dedicated to Android devices.
Like the majority of the tech media, your review furthers the notion readers belong exclusively to either the iOS camp or the Andriod camp. This is simply not true. Informed readers, like the ones that peruse Anandtech, want to buy one smartphone, regardless of any marketing slants, that is the best.
Your review of the Droid X should have helped us answer the question, "Should I buy the Droid X or the iPhone 4?" But, it did not.
strikeback03 - Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - link
Well, I think the conclusion in the iPhone article and some earlier Android articles applies, there is no "best" for everyone. Some people love Apple and the Apple way of life, some people won't touch it. As the iPhone is currently limited to AT&T, that is going to deter a lot of people. How large a pocket/bag you plan on carrying the phone in might make size differences more important to some than others. So while I am not one of the readers calling for no subjective opinions (it is interesting that FroYo feels significantly faster/different) I think it is still up to each buyer to decide what is most important to them.Electrofreak - Saturday, July 24, 2010 - link
Brian and Anand, are you sure you're using the correct information regarding the SoC in the Droid X? I believe it is a OMAP 3640, not a 3630, as the maximum recommended clock speed of the 3630 is described in numerous places across the net as being 720 MHz, while the max clock speed of the 3640 is described as 1 GHz. In addition, the max recommended clock speed of the 3430 in the Droid was 600 MHz, not 800.The information I cite above is widely available across the web... if you've got inside information the rest of us don't have, by all means let us know. But as someone who has written articles of my own on ARM SoCs and follows ARM industry news closely, I suspect that your data may not be 100% correct.
Regardless, I do have to thank you for writing some of the most informative hardware articles on the net. I appreciate it!
Electrofreak - Saturday, July 24, 2010 - link
...and I just found this: http://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/mobile_momentum/archive...So, per TI's blog it is the 3630... now we just need an explanation of the other info on the web that describes the 3630 as maxing out at 720 MHz.
Brian Klug - Monday, July 26, 2010 - link
Yeah, TI's documentation is a bit outdated. Anand tackled the SoC part, but the 3630 is indeed a 1 GHz part, it isn't the 3640 guaranteed. There was a lot of confusion online about it, but Anand got the official word. ;)I agree, back when I did my other OMAP 3 piece it was 720 MHz.
-Brian
Electrofreak - Saturday, July 24, 2010 - link
Looking forward to that Hummingbird review Brian. I hope you're able to dig up some info that I wasn't able to when I wrote my article (http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=17125) back in April.