Motorola DROID 2 Global Android Phone, Sapphire (Verizon Wireless)

Highly Recommended February 18, 2011

Reviewer:  G. Argov 

After my Droid 1 got water damaged nearly two months ago, I was in the market for a new smartphone. After thoroughly researching this phone as well as its competitors, I went with the Droid 2 Global and am very happy with it so far. Its large and vibrant touchscreen, fast processor, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and extensive Google integration make it very convenient to use, although the phone's size/weight, and Android's steeper learning curve might make this phone less appealing to some prospective buyers.

LOOK AND FEEL
The phone is big and heavy, and you will notice that immediately when picking it up. I personally don't mind this, but think some people, especially women, might find that this phone might not fit in their pockets (since clothing for women usually are designed with smaller pockets). My girlfriend, for example, uses a smaller Android phone since she thought the Droid 2 was heavier and bulkier than she liked.

CALL QUALITY
I notice that the volume of calls is lower than that of my previous Droid, both holding the phone up to my ear as well as putting it on speaker. The phone's speaker is loud enough when I play music, but the in-call volume is noticeably quieter than I'd like. This might be inconvenient for some, but feel this is a small price to pay for an otherwise outstanding phone.

PHYSICAL KEYBOARD
The physical keyboard on this phone is pretty good. It's definitely much better than that of the original Droid since the keys are slightly elevated (whereas the original Droid had very flat keys). My one gripe with the keyboard is the new 'Alt Lock' button. While to lock Alt (to activate the secondary functions of keys, such as inserting numbers) you previously had to press Alt twice, on the Droid 2's keyboard the Alt Lock button is another way to lock Alt (although you can still press Alt twice to lock it). Only problem is that due to its location, I frequently find myself pressing it inadvertently which interferes with composing text. Now that I'm more used to my phone it's not as much of a problem as it used to be, but it still becomes annoying at times. Overall, I am pleased with the physical keyboard and frequently use it to compose texts, emails, and even documents.

There are many smartphone alternatives that are thinner than the Droid 2 because they lack a physical keyboard, but I personally am not a huge fan of touchscreen keyboards. Even with the option of using Swype, which is regarded by many to be superior than a traditional touchscreen keyboard since you can compose words without lifting your finger, I prefer the phone's physical keyboard to its touchscreen one since it allows me to type faster and more accurately.

DISPLAY
The Droid 2 has a bright, high-resolution display. This is not only great for watching videos, but for reading since text is very crisp. I use the Google Books and Kindle applications on the phone and read e-books on my commute without a problem, and also frequently play videos that look gorgeous on the screen. Since the display is so good, it draws a lot of power, and you might want to lower the brightness to save battery. Even on a dimmer setting, it still is a very bright and crisp display.

CAMERA
The Droid packs a 5 Megapixel camera, as well as video-recording at roughly DVD-quality. The camera is much faster to auto-focus and snap pictures than my Droid 1 (running Android 2.2) was. Pictures come out pretty good, especially with adequate light. The camera's images come out noisy (grainy) in low light, but that is to be expected with a cell phone camera, which employs a relatively small image sensor. While this won't replace your point and shoot, the pictures are good enough. The Droid 2's video recording is very good, both in terms of the video and the recorded audio.

BATTERY LIFE
The battery life of this phone is noticeably shorter than of my Droid 1 - which had quite a dismal battery life itself. This is largely because the phone has a powerful 1.2 GHz processor, a large high-resolution touchscreen, and features multitasking (which allows programs to run in the background). If you want improved battery life you can turn off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS when they're not in use, dim the display, and run less widgets, but even taking these energy-saving measures can only do so much. I highly recommend you buy a spare battery if you purchase this phone - the relatively cheap price you pay for a spare is worth it!

USER INTERFACE
Unlike the original Droid, the Droid 2 features MotoBlur...Motorola's custom User Interface that really makes the phone shine. It offers a very polished design and unique customization options that make the phone aesthetically pleasing. Unfortunately, a lot of options are buried within menus or sub-menus that take some probing to uncover, making this phone a little less simple to use out of the box than some might like. I recommend if you do ultimately purchase this phone, you take the time to learn its features! Once you do, you can extensively personalize it, place widgets on your homescreens, and do many other neat things.

Due to the speedy 1.2 GHz processor, the phone's performance is generally good - although programs do become unresponsive, or the phone freezes, more often than I'd like. I think this is more of a flaw with the Android OS in general, and not a flaw of this phone in particular. For the most part, I find the phone's day-to-day operation is smooth.

FLASH SUPPORT
This is highly touted as a strength of Android - and a weakness of Apple - but I don't find this to be all too important in my day-to-day use. I definitely like the option to be able to play Flash movies, but have noticed that Flash loads pretty slowly on a 3G connection (although it's decent on Wi-Fi), and that some Flash sites still won't properly load as they are not optimized for mobile devices. While I rarely play Flash videos for the aforementioned reasons, it is convenient to have the ability to play Flash if and when I do need it.

BLOATWARE
To my disappointment, this phone comes loaded with bloatware. There isn't an easy way to remove it unless you 'root' (hack) your phone and use a program like Titanium Backup. A simple Google search can provide websites with easy to follow, step-by-step directions on how to go about doing this, but you should not do this unless you understand the process since it entails the potential to mess up important system files. Most people will probably just cope with having bloatware on their system, which is annoying, but doesn't noticeably slow down performance.

COMPARED TO DROID 2 NON-GLOBAL EDITION
The Droid 2 Global has a slightly faster processor (1.2 GHz vs. 1 GHz), but the main advantage is the phone's global capabilities. If you travel internationally, having the option to use your current cell phone abroad is very convenient. While I still haven't firsthand experimented with its global capabilities, I bought this phone over the non-global edition specifically for this ability.

COMPARED TO IPHONE
When I was deciding on a phone, the Verizon iPhone's release was imminent. While a year ago that might have swayed my decision, this time it didn't, since I was already familiar with the strengths of the Android OS. Yes, there's a steeper learning curve, but it's worth it for the customization and extensive Google integration (great voice search, turn-by-turn navigation, etc). Since the iPhone is now officially available from Verizon, the decision on whether to buy an Android or iOS device is more difficult for some, especially since both operating systems have their strengths and weaknesses.

Some of the biggest reasons people might be drawn to the iPhone now that cell network isn't an issue for VZW customers is its relative ease of use and better media integration. As of the time of this review, there still isn't a media sync option as convenient as iTunes, aside perhaps for DoubleTwist. In my opinion, iTunes is a much easier way to transfer media to the phone than dragging and dropping or using iTunes alternatives, for most people at least. While I don't buy MP3s online, others have also pointed to the iTunes store offering much more selection than Amazon's MP3 store. If rumors of a cloud-based Google music alternative materialize, maybe this will become a moot point, but as of now, an iPhone might be more convenient for a lot of users.

NO SIMULTANEOUS VOICE AND DATA
This is a shortcoming of the Verizon network, not a flaw of this phone in particular. If you're not on a Wi-Fi network, and are using cell phone data, you cannot talk and surf the web at the same time (I believe AT&T recently had a commercial highlighting this flaw). While this is a shortcoming of the Verizon network and not of this phone in particular, it is worth noting that in some situations, this proves to be a major inconvenience.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I love my Droid 2 - even more than my Droid 1 - but honestly think that the steep learning curve for Android phones in general might prove to be a bit of a challenge to first-time smartphone buyers. While the Android 2.2 user interface is more polished and refined than previous versions of the OS, many options and settings are still buried deep within submenus that might be frustrating to figure out or uncover. I think the iPhone is a better alternative for smartphone 'newbies' since it is far more intuitive.

If you are willing to take the time to really explore this phone's features, you will find this phone is a very powerful device that offers a good physical keyboard, increased customization options compared to the iPhone, and extensive Google integration (i.e. turn-by-turn navigation, voice search). I am very impressed by the Droid 2 Global's abilities, and highly recommend it.

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EDIT 06/02/11

I am still loving my Droid 2...it serves me very well, and I'm still recommending it to all of my friends. That being said, there are five things my Droid 2 has done to me in the half-year I've owned it that have given me some grief that I'd like to warn you about. I am running both Lookout Mobile and WaveSecure, so I don't think it's malware, but the phone being buggy at inopportune times. Since these were largely isolated incidents, I still think the phone offers great overall performance, but I would like to bring these to your attention regardless.
(1) Video files got corrupted. I went to two separate performances, one in April, and one in May, where I recorded a handful of videos. The video capture on the Droid is great, and the audio quality really is fantastic which is why I made it a point to record parts of the shows. Unfortunately, out of the roughly 10 videos I captured at the April concert - making sure each clip recorded for 30 seconds or more, according to the display - my phone was unable to play/transfer less than half the videos. Even worse, some of the videos that it did manage to capture were severely truncated. This was not human error - I was watching the phone's display very closely, and it was recording for 30+ seconds in each clip. I thought it was a one-time glitch on the part of my phone, but the fact it happened again just a few weeks later was very upsetting. I have recorded other videos in between those two shows with no problem, so it's not a shortcoming of the phone's overall performance - but in two situations where I carefully tried recording video, and ensured that video was being captured, I was let down. If I have any more problems like that I will update the review to reflect that.
(2) Random resets. I don't know what has happened to cause this, but the phone has at times randomly reset or turned itself off. The battery was charged, and I have several spare batteries which leads me to believe it's not a problem with a particular battery, but with the phone itself. I possibly wouldn't even have noticed if this didn't happen at times that I was waiting for important phone calls. This has happened rarely, but needless to say, it has been a major inconvenience when it has occurred.
(3) Incorrect text messages. I have been both confused and disappointed to receive/send text messages from/to different people than the phone displays. Just this morning, for example, I received a text message from my sister - in the notification bar it showed a new text from my sister, and when I opened the text messaging program it showed as being sent from her (including her number). A few minutes later though, that same text showed as having been sent by my girlfriend. Several times I receive a text from one person, then I exit and re-enter the messaging app only to see a different person then being displayed as having sent the text. What's worse, I have sent messages to people - with completely different names and phone numbers, so really unlikely it was human error on my part - that the phone displays as having been sent to someone else, or actually sent to someone else. My Droid 1 did this occasionally as well, but so rarely that it's not a real shortcoming of the phone pr se, but it still upsets me that it even happened once, let alone several times.
(4) Screen glitch during calls. There have been a handful of times where my phone is ringing and I want to answer, but the screen is completely black. Sometimes I can just slide my phone open and that will wake up the screen, but sometimes no matter what I do or what buttons I press, I can't accept the call because the screen is completely black. I have had this happen when the phone displays the contact info of the incoming call before going black, and also when the screen goes black immediately, and only after the caller hangs up can I see who it was in 'Recent Calls'. I know that many touchscreen phones have a proximity sensor that will turn the screen off when you hold the phone close to your ear (to save battery), but that was not what happened here.
(5) Audio jack interruptions. This has happened with various wired headsets and headphones. While the phone normally operates fine, sometimes it will act up when I have something plugged into the audio jack. I've had both phone calls and music either abruptly stop or start mysteriously, just from what I suspect was a slight nudge on the headphone jack. For example, I am walking in the street listening to music, holding the phone in my hand and looking at the display - so there is no chance that I am accidentally pressing something on the display itself (as if it were, say, in my pocket). I think it gets triggered if there is the slightest nudge on the part of the headphone wire that connects to the phone, because this has never happened without something plugged into the jack. This happens very rarely, and I've listened to music through headphones while the phone was even in my pocket with nothing happening. It happens so rarely that I can't definitively conclude what is causing it, but it has happened more than just a few times. And no, I didn't press a button to receive/end a call on the headset itself - this happens even with earbuds/headphones that have no controls on the wire itself.

On a last note, with recent media coverage regarding cell phones and radiation (the WHO now considers mobile phones 'possibly carcinogenic'), it's a little disappointing to see the Motorola Droid 2 emits one of the highest radiation dosages of popular cell phones. Whether you are or are not scared of the possible link between cell phones and cancer is your choice, but it is still a little surprising to see just how much is emitting - compare, say, the Droid 2's 1.58 W/kg level to Verizon's Samsung Fascinate at 0.57 W/kg. If you are concerned, make sure to use speaker phone, Bluetooth, or a wired headset!

Again, I must repeat that overall, I've been in love with the phone. It is buggy at times - at some very inopportune times, unfortunately - but it has also solidly performed many other times. I am extremely cautious with my phone, and therefore think the problems described above were glitches, and not the result of human error. I've talked with other Android (including Droid 2 Global) users who have also complained of similar glitches, so I think it's safe to say there might be some bugs with the OS in general. The glitches were so rare or infrequent that I still would - and do - recommend this phone because its pros outweigh its cons.

Some Great Capabilities But Temperamental January 28, 2011

Reviewer:  Robert I. Hedges 

The Motorola Droid 2 with Verizon service has some very strong features, but within a month the negatives overcame the positives and I returned mine. I liked the Droid 2 because of its international capabilities, traits that are hard to come by with most Verizon phones. The deal breaker for me was the physical keyboard that makes texts and emails so much easier to compose that typing on a touchscreen. The keyboard is very nice, although I found it an annoyance to have to use the alternate key to type numbers (one of the few places my old LG phone excels.) The fact that the keyboard has dedicated keys for commonly used symbols (@ and period in particular) was also much appreciated for composing emails. I found the display bright and very sharp, and Internet sites and video look great on it. The removable SD card is great (and can store a lot,) but accessing it involves removing the back cover, taking out the battery, and prying the card out of a fairly inaccessible slot. I found the camera to be quite good, though I never used any video features. I liked the navigation and GPS functionality, and really liked the ability to say a destination and have the navigation program find a list of possibilities for you to choose from. The directions it gave were always spot on, and the moving map worked beautifully, better than many standalone GPS navigation systems I have seen. All in all I thought this was a very promising package that would adequately meet my needs.

Unfortunately the phone also has several detractions. The interface is often quite cumbersome, and a matter as simple as designating a specific ringtone to a specific contact is exceptionally difficult, as are many other functions that we have taken for granted on even the most basic of cellphones for the last ten years. You would have thought something so basic would have been obvious to the geniuses behind the operating system. Another issue concerns battery life, or more specifically the lack thereof. If you carefully manage your battery use you can get a decent work day out of it, but if you do anything remotely processing-intensive (which is probably why you wanted this phone in the first place,) the battery dwindles at an absolutely alarming rate. An extended-life battery is available at an extra charge, but apparently makes an already fairly heavy phone even clunkier (as a disclaimer, I have never personally seen the extended-life battery installed; I am just taking the word of the Verizon salesman.) The phone also has difficulty intuiting whether to display in portrait or landscape mode, which is a mere annoyance but one that should and could be improved in a phone in this price range.

All that pales next to the problems I experienced using this phone for what a phone needs to do best: communicating. I could never get my email program to work correctly on this phone. Sometimes I would get emails, but emails I sent were only rarely (twice in 27 days of use to be specific) able to be found in the sent folder (or anywhere else for that matter.) The interface also makes it fairly easy to inadvertently delete an email when you are reading in landscape format. With these communications gaffes I grew more annoyed, but after about two weeks of service the internal speaker in the earpiece of my first Droid 2 failed making me unable to hear what anyone was saying on the other end. I returned to the Verizon store where I bought it and exchanged it for another identical unit. The email and functionality issues were identical to the first phone, but I was starting to get used to the eccentricities of the phone and I planned on keeping it.

Until today.

Today my second Droid 2 failed in an identical way to the first one; the internal speaker failed so that conversations could not be heard. For me that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I returned my second Droid 2 in less than a month and told Verizon to take it back, reactivate my old LG phone, and nullify my new two year service agreement, which they did.

If this phone works like it is supposed to there are quite a few things to like about it. (I am giving it two stars solely for its potential.) Unfortunately in my experience it is trouble-prone and not very user-friendly, and for those reasons I can't recommend it. I really wanted to like this phone: I like Verizon's service and have been a longtime customer, but I wasn't prepared to live another 23 months with this phone given the issues experienced in the first month of ownership. I will replace my LG at some point in the future, but for now it reliably does what I need a phone to do most: let me talk and text to people I need to converse with.

Extremely handy gadget January 5, 2011

Reviewer:  Keshav Prasad  (Boston, MA, USA) -

Pros: Keyboard, Screen, Accepts SIMs when unlocked

Cons: OEM Mail app lasted 2 days, needs reboot to hear call sometimes.

I like this phone. I've had it a month now, bught it the day it came out.
Pluses:
1. Keyboard is just right, actual keys are soft rubber, beautifully spaced. Has dedicated @ , period and comma keys.
2. Lovely large screen, great for movies and youtube.
3. Voice-activated Google navigation is very good.
4. Unlocked the phone and used a borrowed SIM on vacation the last 2 weeks. Works well. Sim wasn't GPRS enabled, but I could access my phone contacts and all the downloaded app games worked.
5. The included 8GB card is a solid accessory, lots of room.
6. Browser is very fast, supports flash. Very cool!
7. Decent camera and camcorder, work well. Well above DVD quality camcorder movies.
8. Music and movie players exceeded expectations.

So-Sos:
1. Used judiciously, the battery lasts me 8 hours, as compared to my Blackberry which lasts 3-4 days.

Minuses:
1. The included e-mail and social networking synching application died mysteriously, twice. Has not worked since. Does not synch. Even the yahoo synching application stopped synching on Day 3. Terrible. I now use the browser to pull mail.
2. Portrait-landscape-Portrait is slow. Accelerometer sluggish.
3. Sometimes I cannot hear a call and need to reboot the phone. This has happened twice.

Overall, a very good phone!

Friday the thirteenth my lucky Day - Droid 2 Global May 13, 2011

Reviewer:  Steven  (Boston, Ma) -

Review: May 13
I have owned the Droid 2 for awhile and am just now getting around to writing a review. So I guess that means I have put the phone through some thouorgh tests and use, get to know your phone! I bought it most for its communications capibilities.

The Droid 2 Global is my first smart phone, maybe it should be called a hand held computer that can make phone calls. These are my views and evaluation of the mentioned smartphone.

I have found this phone to have a excellent operating system and many capabilities not phone related, so this evaluation will first start in the area of phone use: The voice command is excellent, the first thing I do with my new Droid in the morning is talk to it - I say: "check status" it comes back and tells me what: the signal strength is, missed calls, any messages, and time and date, these are a few of the status messages. If there are any missed calls all I need to do is say "check missed calls" and am brought to missed calls list, and have the option to delete any recent calls quite easily and/or call back. To to switch to received/outgoing calls is quite easy, just touch the missed calls bar and change. I have found the dialer very user friendly with the easy option to go to recent calls list, contacts, or favorites. Also on the dialer screen there is a option for voice command connection. What I really like about the contacts (phone book) is it can be used similar to a palm with a area for addresses, and I am able to add as many phone numbers as I care to for any given contact - with the option to customize the phone number name that is recognized by voice command. It just keeps getting better - there is the option of being able to link an email to the contact entry, never had problems checking email(AOL) or sending. For those that like talk to text this phone has that option. I will try and not be a bore with a lot more phone stuff, but there is one thing that is worth mentioning: all calls for that contact can be viewed with just a swipe to the right, the list will tell if a given call was missed, received, outgoing, or text.

The capabilities of the Driod smart phone are to numerous, forgive me if I leave anything out. This evaluation is mostly what I personally use the most; I will try and not be too long winded, so I will just list a few of the other things I like and the overall operation experience. To start I like the option to be able to populate my home screen with icons/widgets that are used the most by me. To list a few: the GPS map, Navigator, browser, voice command, voice mail, email, and the calculator, misic & games. Most of the options listed are self-explanatory, but there are two the need further recognition: I find the map to be very handy, the gps always telling me where I am. The navigator is equally handy with the voice actions of where I want to go, for example; I want to go to the post office the navigator will ask me which one from a give a list, once I select the correct one, a route is mapped out, and the navigator also tells me when to turn. Honorable mention: the browser is quit good, the search engine is run by google.

The battery life for the droid seems to be a issue for the droid so I will give it attention of one paragraph: First it seems the phone uses a lot of juice with all the radios in operation - putting the phone in airport mode will disable all wireless communication - good for: meetings/airport/do not disturb. One of the best options from the "setting" menu is "battery manager" which I use quite often. This piece of electronic equipment is a smart phone and runs appls in the background just like a micro computer; at firt I was just like anyone else and when the battery ran low quicker then expected I got irritated. So where am I going with this? The battery manager shows battery use in % of "voice calls", "display", "Android OS", etc... After checking the "battery manager" a few times a day I changed my thinking on the battery life being a problem. This phone being used as a phone could last more then one day with proper care - I charge my phones at night even if is at 50%? I have found that if the % of battery used for display or other things is double what it is for "phone use" maybe a extended battery needs to be consider. My mind set was changed: if my "hand held computer" (smartphone) only lasts 4 to 6 hours would I grumble? Personally if my laptops battery lasted 4 to 6 hours I would jump up and down for joy.

The last part of evaluation is the overall operation of the Driod 2 Global. It is hard for a person to focus on that it is a phone that does other things. It has a excellent operating system and does act a lot like a microcomputer: when turned on it boots up, can connect to the web, runs applications in the background, games can be played on it, and then there is email, lets not forget it is a phone. At first use, the screen saver blanking out the screen more then I wanted it to, this was a little irritating, but once "settings" was accessed I change the screen saver to two minutes - my personal preference. This is my first smart phone and having a phone sleep is new. A handy option is: that it will automatically put the phone in sleep mode when put in a pocket or its case, when set - a good idea. Most times when I take my droid out of the case it wakes up, and all I have to do is unlock it. Otherwise to wake it up, my personal preference is slide out the keyboard, other folk may have there own preference. Over all this is a great phone with a excellent OS which is updated periodically I have observed. The only thing that it has done unexpectedly: without warning it went into sleep mode and the screen blanked out, all I did was slide the keyboard out and it came right back to what I was doing. I will have to admit that sometimes I have had to swipe a button/icon more than once with my finger, but I can live with that. The Droid 2 has never frozen up on me, but my guess is if it does freeze it can be woke up by just slide out the keyboard and then sliding back in, the buttons should work again.

Maybe there is a Zen lesson to be learned here. It is said that: Zen lessons are not about cause and effect. They are about what you knew all along; about learning by forgetting what you thought you had learned. Confused? Ok consider getting a new smart phone and all you have to compare it to is a laptop or a apple ipad, we may think it works just like that other one. Then a person may think their smart phone is rebooting when it is not(sleep mode), or it is freezing up because there lap top froze in a similar manner. There is a saying: "empty your cup" do not bring any of your judgments from other phones/computers here, and learn the capabilities of the droid like it is the first.

Pros: Dialer/contacts, Voice command, settings/battery manager.
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Cons: some bluetooth do not work for all phone options, smarter bluetooth needed. A2ADP pairing seem to be a good choice.
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Update 13 June: ---
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Here it is one month later and am reporting some of the many capabilities of this phone in more detail. First I will discuss the battery: I am now using a appl called battery guard this will kill any applications running in the background, and you are able to decide which should be killed from a long list. Look in market place or widgets for Motorola or android - to get these put your finger on any blank space on any of the 7 home screens. This has given me up to 70% more battery life.

A little bit more about the battery for those folk that are to busy to read between the lines when it comes to battery use. Most people like the idea that a smart phone can multi-task, the droid 2 is no different. I find that it will run yourtube, play music, run the GPS, and I can search; all are running at the same time like. I am like most by just hitting home for a new appl - this does not kill the previous one(s) used, so for me to figure out which are draining the battery the most I do not bother), I just run "battery guard." On the average my battery will be down to 30-40% after 13 to 23 hours use - this depends on the amount of use. One day the battery was down to 15% after 6 hours of use. (I forced this)

I have been using voice command/actions pretty regular and think the this is truly a smart phone: for voice action I can say "send message to Eddie - this is a test" and the phone brings up the text message screen with all the info already for review, all I most times need to do is send. This phone also knows the difference between a voice search vs. a voice email. I am thinking about investing in the new Droid CommandOne blue tooth, and truly use voice hands free for answering and sending text as well as making and sending calls.

I agree with others when they say get to know your phone!!!

--- Update 11 Nov 11 --- Android 2.3 updates - version need some work

In summary the updates to the 2.2 Android now 2.3.3 in some respects hurts more then it helps.

Pros - makes the submenu's easier to get to for those that do not take the time to get to know there phones, and has some good enhancements to the home pages and appl menu.
· Does not freeze up anymore for any use, text camera, phone use, BUT
· For the appl menu enhanced to view only downloads, only recent used, and all appl's.
· For the home menu's icons are enhanced and sharper images.
· Under settings a lot of the submenus are combined for easier access and less levels to go down through.
· In the contacts the names and orgs are slit apart for easier clearity.

Cons - going into cardock mode when unlocked some times, having never used cardock mode is irritating.
· The battery manager used to be very good, now it is combined with data and is next to useless. We can no longer see the percent of power used and to try and read how long it has been since the last charge is very hard to read. suggest that % of battery used put on new same line as minutes since last charge.
· Does not freeze up anymore for any use; BUT it does do a soft reboot a good percent of the time when being unlocked at any given time, for example; once the phone is unlocked from sleep try to access any appl and the phone gets confused and repoots. What can really be iritating is accept a call and the 2.3 gets confused and reboots so you miss the call.
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--- Update 30 Nov 11 --- Android 2.3 updates

The new version no longer gets confused and reboots when unlocking from Sleep. It now spines display 360 degrees and bring display where it should be. This is a big improvement and shows google is listening to users.
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Great computer, mediocre phone January 8, 2011

Reviewer:  AndyW  (Colorado Springs, CO) -

I've got no complaints about the "smart" part of this smartphone - very fast, nice screen, really good keyboard, froyo is a nice system. It's a decent size - still pretty much fits in a pocket. Battery life hasn't been a problem, although I'm not doing any streaming or a lot of browsing on it. I did turn off the auto-lock, which was annoying, and that hasn't hurt battery life much, if at all. The camera is pretty good, and the flash works well (and makes for a great flashlight, with the right app).

The bad thing is that this thing is a crappy phone. I miss a lot of calls - in places where I've never had a problem before. Just getting to the dialer and making a call is clunky. Everything requires multiple clicks. The ringer isn't loud enough. Voice quality isn't terrible, but it's not great - it seems better on speakerphone.

I don't quite regret getting it, because it's a very cool computer and I do as much messaging as I do calling, but it makes me nervous that I can't depend on calls getting through.