Motorola Droid X2 Review

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Motorola Droid X2 Review

Mobile

Tuesday, 14 June 2011 20:05

The Droid X2 is very similar to the original Droid X. It has an improved higher resolution display and dual-core processor but now lacks the dedicated camera button. Motorola ships the Droid X2 with version 2.2.2 of the Android OS. The default GUI has some subtle updates that make it a little cleaner and richer looking but it performs similar to the previous of the Droid X. Battery life is about the same but was never great to begin with. It’s requires a daily charge at least.

Aesthetically Motorola darkened the color of the soft touch paint on the back panel and the Droid X2 has an improved unified look. Mechanically, the battery cover seems to fit better and the micro USB port is more snug. We miss the dedicated camera button of the original Droid X.

In everyday use the Droid X2 feels a lot like the original Droid X. Yes, it's dual core but unless you're running multiple apps, games or jumping back and forth you won't notice much of a difference. The most noticeable change is the screen. It's qHD with 960x540 resolution. Colors are brighter and cleaner. Pictures look more vibrant. Gaming is more fun with the richer display combined with the Haptic feedback. Need For Speed Shift, bundled with the phone, looks and performs great as well as obligatory favorites such as Angry Birds. We like to see improvements in the speed to launch apps using optimized flash memory for games and for the camera and video apps so you don’t miss the action. Response time overall can be improved on a number of fronts.

Using the Droid X2 to browse the web is acceptable at 3G speeds. 4G would be nice but until battery technology and OS optimization can keep pace the hit on battery life is hard to live with. Just ask anybody with an HTC Thunderbolt.

We probably should mention it works just fine as a speaking device. Yes that’s what cell phones were originally designed to do. It’s funny how it’s become all about the apps but we probably communicate more with pics and text than anything else these days. So yes, call quality is good, Bluetooth synch is easy and the Droid X is a excellent quality phone.

We really enjoyed using Google Music on the Droid X. We also used apps to access our own media server. However, setting up Google’s offering was much simpler. It’s just one example of what’s happening in the cloud. Apple’s recent iCloud announcement is going to put even more focus on cloud based services and we expect Android developers to work toward a similar offering for Droid owners. Currently it’s still a bit cumbersome to use Verizon’s media software to synch pics and videos taken on the Droid to the PC.

If you’re in the market for a phone this summer the Droid X2 is a quality 3G choice and we’re eager to see how the Gingerbread OS will better utilize dual core technology and improve the overall experience. If you can wait until the fall, even better, as we’ve got big expectations for the Droid Bionic scheduled to be released before the holidays.

Visit Motorola for more information.

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