Motorola Droid :: Instinct - Pre -iPhone3GS - Storm 2 - Droid

I am an iphone 3GS user who for the most part have enjoyed the iphone in the less than one year that I have owned it. The iphone (not so much Apple) is a GREAT product which can be summed up using three words, "It just works"! However due to a recent move, I no longer have 3Gs service thus making the iphone more of a paper weight than a utility and productivity tool. I would not consider myself an iPhone fanboy because I was more attracted to the phone and the fact that"it just works" than I was to Apple as a company or the 100,000 apps that's often bragged about. A more fitting term would be that I am a fanboy of products that work.

I could no longer live without 3G service so I made the decision to switch to Verizon. I visited my local Best Buy store and was upfront with the lady by telling her that my intentions were to get the Droid which was due out in one week. I asked if I should wait a week or buy a phone only to bring it back one week later for the Droid? She said either way was fine with her so i bought the Storm 2 but did not port over my number. I figured I would have a chance to use features of both phones simultaneously and if I found myself having iphone withdrawals, my the service would still be active. While there I also pre-ordered the Droid. Since I knew I wasn't going to keep the Storm 2,I took no interest in the phone for the first two days. On the third day I decided to play around with the phone a bit and to my surprise, I actually liked it! Other than the antiquated browser, the Storm 2 is a great phone! In my opinion, it is more sophisticated than the iphone and more "adult like", if that makes sense.

Anyway, while waiting out my time for the Droid I continued to use the Storm 2 and to my surprise it continued to grow on me. I also continued to monitor the Androidforums and there seemed to be more problems with the Droid than raves. Thinking I could live with the fast but useless browser, I re-considered my plan to return the Storm 2 and the release date of the Droid came and went. I hadn't played around with the browser much so yesterday i decided to put the Storm 2 browser to the test by visiting a handful of my favorite websites. Needless to say, the experience was painful and regardless of how great a phone may be, it doesn't compensate for a lousy browser. At that moment I decided to get off the fence and return the Storm 2 for the Droid!

As soon as I got home with the Droid I decided to test out all the things that are most IMPORTANT TO ME....not the critics...not the fanboys....not the naysayers...but TO ME! I tried out a handful of my favorite websites and they all opened quickly, rendered nicely, and the navigation was flawless. Without reservation I can say i prefer this browser over iPhone's Safari which by the way is also a great browser.

Next test, apps! I am not a big fan of apps but they do come in handy from time to time so I visited the Android Market Place to see if I could find all the apps I currently use regularly on the iPhone.

Here are the apps I found and they all work:
LastFM
Pandora
Tip Calc
CIDR Calc
Barcode Scanner
Keeper
Live Football Scores
Movies
USA Today
Voice Recorder
Accuweather
A Online Radio

I also found Advanced Task Killer that even kills itself!!! LOL

A few apps I didn't find:
Yelp
USAA
ifitness (Does anyone know of a good workout app?)

Form Factor - No Problem!
Weight - No Problem!
Pinch & Zoom - Who cares!
Keyboard - No Problem!
You Tube - No Problem!
Battery Life -Problem!

Maybe because I was never blown away by the iPhone my transition to another phone has been easier than others. The Storm 2 made me forget about the iPhone and the Droid has made me forget about them both. Someone said the ultimate test to determine whether someone is an iPhone fanboy is by answering this question...."If the iPhone came to Verizon would you own one". For me the answer is absolutely No. Sure, "it just works" and that is a lot more than what can be said about most other phones (new or old) but the Droid "just works" and then some!

I am not naive as I read about the issues others have experienced but those issues are not on my deal breaker list. I have no problem waiting until Dec 11th for an OTA update. One thing I don't like is when people say, "this phone is new so of course there are going to be issues and those issues will be fixed"! There are NO guarantees people! For all who buy into this falacy, go check out the Palm Pre forum...those folks are still waiting and i was one who bought the phone on launch date and returned it less than three weeks later. Yep one can say I dodged that bullet. I also seen situations where waiting pays off. Go check out the now old Samsung Instinct forum. All those folks who waited ended up with a decent phone after multiple updates. Again, I was one who purchased that phone on its release date and jumped shipped after about 25 days. Again, there are no GUARANTEES and we all take a risk by buying a phone on release date and keeping it for 30+ days. Again I have to go back to the iPhone.....I have owned two and NEVER had one problem whatsoever. Again "it just works"! Most problems people have with iPhones are feature specific and not workmanship, etc. Of course there are many cases to the contrary but those cases are not the norm. With that said, i have an iPhone for sale if anyone wants to get in on early bidding!