Customer Reviews

Motorola DROID X2 Android Phone (Verizon Wireless)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I got my Droid x2 on May 20th. I came from a Droid X, and previously a Droid 1. Even though this phone is not running Gingerbread yet, the Menus, and interface are much improved over the original Droid X. The Screen can be described as richer. It has more contrast, and the colors are better. The Camera is Much faster, and I feel takes much nicer pictures than the X. One major advantage for me is that it fits in my Car Dock, and my cases. How many times have you changed phones only to have to buy all new accessories. If you are just moving to a Droid phone, this is the fastest phone on the market now. I see people crying that it is not 4g.. I have never felt there was anything I could not download fast enough. My 3G Streams video,loads games, you name it. If I have something big to download, the phone is great on WiFi.. and the DX2 is even faster there. The Battery seems to be about the same even with the much faster Processor.
Like the Ad says the Droid does.. and the Droid X2 does twice as fast.

I'm coming from an iPhone 3G, for what that is worth to you. The first thing that I notice operating the phone is the unfathomable ease with which it was set up. I have everything done through Google, my contacts, calendars, mail, everything. After telling the phone my email and password, everything was instantly integrated. As I use my phone on a professional basis, I have many contacts. I remember in the past taking forever to finally getting everything into new phones, this took seconds. It is a feature I'm not soon to forget.

Briefly, very nice 4.3 inch screen. Impressive camera, although the coloring in videos can be a bit shaky, shifting in hues. It is fast, due to it's dual core processor, which can only get better when Gingerbread is unleashed which is more geared towards using the additional processing power. It has 8GB internal memory, and a very easily accessible micro SD. It comes with an 8GB card, but I have 10GB of music, so I purchased a 16GB. Coming from iTunes, I simply highlighted my playlist and dragged it into the folder. iTunes did not like doing large amounts of songs, so I had to break it up into blocks of a few hundred songs at a time. Then I used an app simply called "Cover Art downloader", which was free, and it automatically downloaded all the cover art. So setting up my phone was nice and easy.

As far as customizing goes, widgets are incredible. Once I turn on my phone, I have numerous pieces of data right on the home screen. I get my schedule, the weather, and if you want social networking up dates streaming here too, and news feeds. I don't have to go into any piece of software, they are all just here. this is an awesome feature of Android, I love it. You also have choice as to how you use the phone, you can use the stock email client, or download gmail's own app. You can use their music app, which is basic and fine for me, or get something that is more suited to your tastes. Instead of going on about the pros of Android, I'll keep the rest of the review to the hardware itself.

The battery is weak, only 1500 mAh is silly. I plan on purchasing the OEM 1880 shortly. It barely makes it through the day.

One thing I was very impressed with is the accessory bundle I got from Verizon. I got a dock, a car adapter, and various cables. The part that I very much am impressed by is that when it plugs into the dock or the car adapter, it behaves differently. When in the car, it "knows" you want it to behave like a GPS, so the interface alters. I must say that it works better than my stand alone Garmin Nuvi when using the FREE google navigation. The X2 has upgraded components, something about a digital compass. When in the dock, it allows you to make it act like an alarm clock (which is what I need it for) or a digital photo frame. These are nice little things that not all droid phones come with, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Not all is perfect, as my wife says, the phone does too much. Some aspects will feel like an incredible freedom in being albe to do whatever you want, other aspects simply feel unrefined. For example, the volume rocker does nothing without the screen being unlocked. That part is annoying. Things like that and controls from the microphone button on headphones needs further refinements. I got used to it quick.

I know this phone gets criticized for not having a front facing camera and no 4G. Personally, these do not matter to me. I barely ever use skype on my computer, why do I need it on my phone? And it is likely that no phone coming out in 2011 will be 4G SOC (system on a chip). 4G is being achieved with an additional chip. To save the technical jargin for someone who understands it better, it will not be energy efficient and smoothly operating until the 2nd gen 4G phones come out. So neither of the big criticisms I've seen about this phone amount to much to me.

Now for the really bad part updated after a month of use and TWO REPLACEMENT PHONES. The software is buggy. It is very buggy. Poor screen zeroing (makes for jerky use, locked screen, etc), random reboots (very annoying), and incompatibility with common apps. From what I can tell in the forums, those who root their phones and update themselves to 2.3 have eliminated these problems (for the most part). Essentially, Motorolla let this out with an immature batch of software/firmware. Wait until this receives an update, because otherwise it is a great phone.

Update #2. Things went from bad to worse with this phone as it was updated to Gingerbread. It is especially problematic when working with Motorola docks. The rate of reboots has increased, not decreased. The docks no longer work propperly, which is terrible when using the car dock as it likes to reboot while giving you directions. the last thing I want to do at 65 MPH is adjust my phone. There is something massively wrong here, and as much as I like so much about the phone, I can not reccomend anyone purchasing this.

Update #3. Another software update. Another set of problems, but there were improvements. I have noticed better battery life, still at 40-50% at the end of the day. It is no longer hot enough to fry an egg on after using it in the car dock with the navigation system. They have definitely added some stability to the docking situation, but I still have near daily reboots. What I have come to realize is that part of the problem with the phone is that it uses 80-90% of it's RAM just by being on. I honestly do not think that this phone will ever live up to it's potential. When it works, it's great, but the screen locking up as a blank screen and reboots have truly hobbled it. I had a computer running windows XP with 256GB of RAM, why is Android taking 400? There is no reason why 512 is insufficient, but that seems to be the case. Unless you get the phone for free, there are numerous better options.

I recently got a droid X1 after having it a week I found out the X2 was coming out, so i quickly returned my X and a few days later got the droid X2. Having both phones, there is not a difference hardly in the looks, your accesories from X and any cases will fit the X2. The main difference in appearance is the X2 on back and they removed the red camera button(now you only can use the touch screen, no biggie.). The changes were mainly in the power and picture. X2 is now running a dual core processor the first for verizon phones instead of single core. The scrren is a qhd with higher resolution for better pics and videos. My favorite is the mirror mode, so while your on amazon you might as well buy the motorola hdmi cord and playback 1080p videos on your flat screen or play games like your phone is the controller. SWEET! All in all, if you own the droid X already you may not justify the upgrade, however if you loved your X1, you will also love the droid x2. If you are like me and like to protect your phone I might add that the X2 did away with the car dock manual option, so if you use a case it will probally not fit in the motorola car dock unless you remove it each time to put the phone in car dock mode, contacted motorola about this and they said only way is dont use a case so it fits in dock to trigger mode, other than that the phone is excellent for surfing and pic clarity. NO front facing camera or 4G, but really who wants the front camera, so everyone wont bother me with skyping, and until 2012 or 2013 the 4g wont be everywhere unless you are in a big city. Hope this helps and happy phone hunting!

If you are torn between wanting a new phone that is 4G compatible and one that is a 3G only phone, don't jump at the latest and greatest (4G)...yet. I am of the opinion that 4G will one day be a great data highway, but for now it is not available in enough areas to impress me to want to look at 4G phones. Many 4G phone owners have complained about how the search for available 4G networks has become a great drain on battery life. This is Motorola's first dual-processor phone, and I can tell you it is responsive enough to put a smile on your face.

I've owned and used a lot of Motorola phones and have found them all to be credible performers, but none have been as impressive as the new Droid X2. I recently upgraded from the original Droid with the slide-out keyboard and am a former BlackBerry user. The Droid was a solid and reliable phone, but can't even come close to the performance of the X2. When it came time for me to upgrade to a new phone I considered the Samsung Charge, the HTC Incredible 2 and the Droid X2. All three are great phones, but for me, the overall performance and features of the X2 were enough to make me select it as the winner. I don't need a phone with dual-facing cameras (like the Incredible 2) and I am not concerned with 4G connectivity that the Charge offers.

Physically, it's a large phone, but not what I consider bulky. It's actually thinner and lighter than my old Droid. What you get with a phone of this size is a lot of screen area and on this phone the display is sharper and brighter than anything I had seen previously. I went to a party last night and kept it in the front pocket of a pair of dress pants and it didn't feel uncomfortable or distracting. Without a protective cover it is a surprisingly light phone with a low profile.

As a media professional, the last couple of years has forced me to rely on my smartphones as a multimedia tool, mainly for the ability to take pictures and video. My old Droid made beautiful pictures in bright sun and moderate daylight, but was horrible at night and with flash. At last night's party I asked someone to use my X2 to snap a group picture of me with my high school pals in dim lighting. From about 12 feet away, the flash produced enough light to make an acceptable picture and no blur. The new software allows you to select your focus zones and the 8MP camera will give you the ability to make larger prints, or to zoom in with better picture quality. It's not the number of pixels that make a good picture, but the imaging chip and I have to say this chip is an improvement over previous models. By the way, I share content with a newspaper and they were very pleased with the quality my old Droid gave them at 3MP. They will be totally impressed with what the X2 will give them at 8MP.

When I first got the phone, it took some getting used to. Icons were slightly different and kind of small. I continually got odd messages that the Verizon software was not responding and needed to be force closed. This glitch went away the very next day with a complete over-the-air (OTA) firmware update, version 1.3.232. This might mean virtually nothing to most people, but it did solve a number of minor glitches and it also gave the icons a makeover that made them easier to read.

Another really great improvement for me was the on-screen keyboard. Huge improvement. With the Droid, I was constantly making typographical errors because I kept hitting keys I didn't want. My fingers are an average size (I wear a size 11 ring), but it was the keyboard on the old Droid; the keys were cramped. With the X2 you get a much roomier keyboard and better haptic (vibration) feedback with keystrokes. Another significant improvement is correcting typos. When you are typing in windows, you will see a little blue circle around where your cursor is. Pressing down on that area opens up a magnified window off to the side that will allow you to move the cursor to a more precise position. This was a problematic issue with the smaller Droid, where I always had trouble getting the cursor to where I really wanted it.

Two other areas people seem to be concerned about are call quality and battery life. I have been able to hear pretty well without having to strain as I have in past phones. My daughter told me she thought she could hear my voice clearly on her Samsung Haven. As far as battery life goes, it's like any other smartphone; you have to manage it. I do not keep all of the communication services running. Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS remain off until I need them. With regular use I've been able to use the phone all day without having to charge it. The charging port is the same as my old Droid, so I now have an extra wall charger for traveling.

I was, at first, disappointed that the X2 came with an 8GB microSD card, compared to the 16GB card that came with the original Droid, but then I remembered that there are 8GB of internal storage and whatever you place in to the memory slot in the battery compartment. I placed my 16GB card from my Droid in to the new X2 for a whopping 24GB of total memory.

So here is a comprehensive assessment of the new Droid X2:

PROS:
* Thin and lightweight
* Much improved display
* Seamless integration with Google's cloud network
* Fast and responsive-performs well doing most tasks
* Improved "Gingerbread" Android operating system (OS)
* Larger, more responsive keyboard with improved text editing features
* The incorporation of Swype text input, as opposed to traditional "tapping"
* Better management of social media services
* Excellent picture quality, acceptable flash pictures
* Ability to choose focus zones allows for more creative composition
* Ability to create metadata within photo app, including face tagging
* FM radio app (must use cabled headphones)
* 8GB of internal memory; external memory slot can take up to 32GB microSD storage
* Shoots 720p HD video
* Micro HDMI port allows for connection to HD TV sets
* Can be used as a true 3G wireless hotspot
* Connects to Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n networks for faster wireless connections
* Comes with Skype Mobile
* Standard installation includes many useful apps
* Extended battery available

CONS:
* Larger size may prove to be bulky for *some* people
* Add a protective cover (recommended) and it will become slightly more bulky
* Phone can get warm near the battery compartment under normal use
* Does not come with micro HDMI cable or adaptor
* Standard installation also includes a couple game demos and other software others may not want
* Battery life may be a concern when full services are utilized, especially GPS and WiFi
* Large ringtone selection still yields annoying sounds

This phone receives five stars based on all of its great features, impressive performance, and the fact that it stacks up favorably with the iPhone 4. At this time I am not concerned about 4G connectivity.

The good:
This phone is simply amazing when it comes to games, music, and applications. Everything runs smoothly without any crashes, and I've found a total of 1 program that runs slowly (which says that the program wasn't coded correctly). The screen is simply phenomenal, and movies look great on it. HDMI mirroring works very well, and can actually "mirror" everything shown on the phone screen (as the name says)... instead of simply displaying media on a tv. The form factor is nice; it's a huge phone, but very thin... which surprisingly enough adds up to being very comfortable to slip into a pocket. This phone has Gorilla Glass: this is impressive stuff, which will REALLY help protect your phone. HOWEVER... you should still get a screen protector. Gorilla glass is strong, but not unbreakable or unscratchable...just break and scratch resistant (ie... water resistant on a watch is not water proof, as I found out...)

The simply-informational:
This phone is VERY similar to the Droid X, with a few updates. From my perspective, you don't need to fix things that aren't broken... so I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. Anyways, the differences are slight but important: 26% more pixels in the X2, dual cores, updated interface, and the lack of a physical camera button. The form factor is exactly the same, as is the battery, the camera, the keys, etc. What you should take away from this is that it's not a significant jump from the X to the X2, so it's not really worth it to upgrade if you want to see a huge difference in your new phone. However, if you're coming from a "feature phone" or something like that, the Droid X2 will blow your mind. Some possible deal-breakers for some people are the lack of 4G, and the lack of a front facing camera... but I wouldn't be using either of those features anyway, so they're not important for me. If you need them, you might want to wait for the Droid Bionic, which is coming out fairly soon.

The bad:
The only real drawback I've found with this phone is how hungry it is for batteries. I had wifi, gps, and background data off; screen brightness as far down as possible; and not vibrating (for anything, including games or notifications). With all of these things, I was expecting a whole day of use, or at least 12 hours or so... but I'm getting 6-7 hours of continuous use on games and applications (8 if the cpu isn't working hard). I ordered several replacement batteries because I was charging my phone from 5% about 2 times/ day and again at night. For typical usage, 3 batteries total are a safe bet and you'll probably finish the day with close to 50% charge on the third battery. Fortunately, the battery isn't hard to replace, so you can up and running again within ~3 minutes of the phone dying (including the startup).
One note about the extended battery: if you get it, you can't use the car dock OR the standard cases OR the media dock. Plus, it only adds about 20% power.

The annoying (this is going to sound a bit whiny... you have been warned):
First, the phone is quiet in general, including playing media, talking (both your voice and the other person's voice). The vibrator function feels "gentle", especially for text messages, and it doesn't repeat the notification in a few minutes. It's easy to miss texts if you're sitting just right... but if you're thinking about it, you feel it buzz just fine. EDIT: A brilliant commenter (JonnyK) suggested using a progam called SMS Popup. This app works very well, and completely gets rid of this problem.

Second, the speaker for media playback is on the back. This means if I want to see the screen and listen to music I can either blast music so I can hear it (which I don't want to do), or I can...hmmm... put in headphones (which aren't as comfortable)

Third, Verizon sells the phone with an 8 GB card. Realistically, if you plan to put music or movies on the phone, you're going to want at least a 16 GB card... but it's easy enough to upgrade. I ended up getting a 32 gb card so I could put most of my media collection on it... and so I don't have the hassle of upgrading when it's full.

Fourth, I can't take my SD card out without removing the battery. Every other phone I've had, I could simply pull open a cover, remove the card, and stick it back when I had put stuff on it. This is the least annoying in day to day life, but it does get annoying really quickly when you have take the card back and forth between your pc and your phone multiple times.

Fifth, when you put the phone into a dock, it automatically puts it into car dock mode, which is a pain to use. It's not user-friendly, and applications don't play as well together inside the dock program (ie... you're using google maps, you launch a song, and you can't get back to the maps program without undocking it)

The overall:
Get the phone. It's not perfect, but it's still pretty amazing.

This is my first Android phone, and I'm coming over from a Blackberry Curve, so obviously I'm going to be impressed with any Android phone. But ...

I closely compared the HTC Incredible 2 & the Motorola Droid X2 and these are my findings:
* The Incredible 2 has a slightly more intuitive user interface (not important to me).
* The battery life on the Incredible 2 was HORRIBLE even when using the advanced app killer.
* The screen resolution is slightly better on the X2 (moderately important).
* The microphone and speaker aren't great on the Incredible 2. Call clarity is much better on the X2 ... for both the caller and receiver (very important ... it is a phone, after all).
* The reception is much better on the X2. If you live on the fringe of a service area, don't even consider the Incredible 2. It won't work well ... calls will constantly be dropped and streamed music quality will be intolerable, at best.

In summary ... I love my phone. And now that my sister has traded her HTC Incredible 2 for a Motorola Droid X2, so does she.

Much good: excellent screen color and sharpness, easy to read text after up-sizing fonts, all apps I tried open quickly, 'type and search by voice' works well, lots of fun for music and video, fits nicely in back pocket of a suit (not too heavy). Internet speed varies but is usually good in my experience. I like the build quality and even the bump on the back, which makes it easy to grab and hard to drop. The unexpected and fatal flaw to me is you cannot edit text in work emails (outlook at the office) that you receive. When responding to (or forwarding) an email, this means that instead of simply copying the received text and then modifying it (say, addressing issues point by point), you must type (re-type?) everything from scratch. This peculiar shortcoming was confirmed by the Verizon Store tech rep as well as various other doubters. Coming from a Blackberry, this is an impossible step down in functionality. So, I'll be moving on to something capable of handling this basic function, perhaps a Droid Charge. If corporate email is not a major concern, however, this is an excellent smart phone.

This is my first smartphone and so far, so good. I have had it for a week. The only problem that I have had is one time I had to pull the battery after the phone died. It hasn't happened again. As a new smartphone user, I have the interface to be very intuitive and haven't had any problems finding what I need or using the phones features. I was surprised at how easy it was.

The first couple of days, the battery life was horrible. I turned it off and charged for three hours (per motorola webite) and the change was nothing short of miraculous. It was a duh moment. Should have checked directions when I got the phone, not 2 days later. I've added an app killer and juice defender, which also helped.

I text a lot and was concerned about the lack of a hard querty keyboard. However, I've adjusted pretty quickly to the touchscreen. The words to choose from that pop up across the top are very helpful. Both my sons have smartphones and they don't have that feature. It is a big help to me.

I can't compare this phone to other smartphones, but I am very pleased with my purchase.

I've had this phone for about a week and absolutely love this thing. The X2 puts my iPhone and HTC Surround (Windows Phone 7) to shame. I switched to Verizon from A&T as I am going to be moving soon and Verizon has way better coverage there. Amazingly I do not, however, get better reception at home right now with Verizon. Although, it seems like I get consistently good coverage anywhere else I go. The Android operating system allows me so much freedom when compared to iPhone and WP7. The dual core processor keeps things moving at a lightning fast pace, and the ability to view flash content is a godsend. The limitations of my previous phones were such an annoyance, but those days are gone, and I don't plan on going back. The screen is huge at 4.3", which makes watching videos and browsing the web a pleasure. The vast number of home screens and profiles makes it easy to organize and find apps. The 8 megapixel camera takes very high quality pictures for a cell phone, however, the lack of a front-facing camera is kind of annoying as my fiancée's Motorola Atrix has this feature. Call quality is a definite improvement over my previous phones with the iPhone being the worst. I also have not experienced the freezes and odd bugs that plagued my WP7. The build quality is every bit as good as the iPhone. I did, however, purchase an Otterbox case, because I do not plan on replacing this phone anytime in the near future. If you're looking for a case for the X2 the Otterbox is a good if slightly bulky option. I upgraded to Gingerbread the day I got the X2 which fixed some initial gripes I had with the operating system. Since the download it has been smooth sailing. There are always things which can be improved upon in future generations such as a front-facing camera and 4g capability. As it stands, i am happy to finally have a phone that gives me the closet to a desktop computer experience as you can have on a cell phone. I am a happy convert to Android and will remain so until someone else dethrones them, as they are clearly at the top of the cell phone market right now.

At the time of writng this, I have had the X2 for about 2 weeks. My previous experience was a Treo 700p, a corporate Blackberry, and my immediate prior phone was some Motorola flip phone that I hated.

I've found the X2 to be reliable and fast. Easy to set up, and an excellent out of box experience. The only negative on this is I wish I had had a more detailed explanation of some of the bundled apps that came with the phone. I've had to do far more exploring than I like to do to get beyond basic functionality. The level of bundled app and background support may be fine for young people, but as a middle-aged man, I don't have all of the basic knowledge that a 20 year old might have. That part was a bit stressful for me.

A list of the features I like is Excellent screen display, fast for showing videos no chopiness or stuttering, the camera is pretty good for a phone camera. It works well as a 3g phone and with wifi (more on that later), and though I've not tried it it can act as a bluetooth internet hub for up to 5 BT devices.

It works well with all my email accounts and displays a little envelope in the upper left corner when an unread message appears. You just touch the little enveope icon and drag it down, and you have instant access to your unread email messages from all your email accounts. It also has a mini HDMI connector so if you download a movie or game you can connect it to your TV. (I haven't tried this out yet, I can't seem to find an appropriate cable.)

Excellent sound as a music player and as a telephone. It also has a built it FM radio controlled by a software app, both the radio and the app work pretty well. The built in PDA type apps are better than the Palm and Blackberry built ins. But even if I didn't like them on the X2, I could still download OTHER apps that I might like better. The X2 provides all the positive features of the Palm devices with none of th negative

The things I don't like are the lack of enough supporting background info for an old guy like me. and while you can use a bluetooth head set with it, there is no provision for connecting a wired telephone headset (you know, that teeny little mini plug that the wired earpieces use). My experience with bluetooth has been spotty so I would like to have the option of using a wired headset when I need to.

I NEED a password keeper type application like what is built into my corporate Balckberry, so I tried to find one in the Verizon Store and the Android market, Again, I had to figure out the download process. Apparently, as a default setting the phone won't download an app until it is connexcted to Wifi, even though you can download on a 3G network after changing the setting. So I thought it was broken, it turns out I had to change the default setting to download on 3G. Now that I understand this, I'll probably wait and do my downloads when I'm on wifi, but it was frustrating. Once I had that figured out the download & installation was fast and easy.

I also downloaded the Sony, KOBO, and Barnes & Noble ebook reader apps. It came with a Kindle reader built in. An excellent display for ebook reading. But the apps themselves are kind of basic, and I'd like to be able to auto scroll the text the way my Palm based MobiPocket software allowed. I haven't used the Kindle app yet. Also, I haven't been able to figure out how to side load an ebook from Calibre on my PC to the X2 yet.

One last thing, I downloaded the HBO Go App for HBO subscribers onto the phone and that is slick! I can watch any HBO program on my phone! I didn't think I'd care about that, but I really like it. No stuttering, no unexplained pauses, a very good viewing experience. The X2 is a very good platform for this sort of thing.

Videos eat up a lot of power from the battery, but I can read during the day, and use it like a phone and PDA and still have plenty of power at the end of the day. Battery life isn't any worse than my Treo, but not as good as my Blackberry.

When my Blackberry contract is up, I will likely abandon BB for something else. I have seen the future and BB isn't in it for me.