Droid Review Part Deux

As I specifically mentioned it in my Christmas letter, I thought I would reread my review of the HTC Incredible vs. Iphone and decided to provide an update.  You are welcome iphonies.

I recently helped my MIL program her Iphone and nostalgia washed over me in remembrance of a different era... and I realized that pleasurable usability is Apples piece de resistance.  Other notes:

Droid offers....

• Turn-by-turn directions from the maps app--no fee, no extra app, no programming, just straight up gps, garmin-like directions (the new update includes a google-earth style tilt)
• Flash (no fight with adobe here)
• A lot more free apps (Angry Birds free version has at least 10 levels--since I am there now) 
• Open home--you can design the phone to look however you want it to look without doing anything that will violate your contract
• Haptic feedback
• Better stock ringtones and alarm tones 
• VERIZON (rarely, I mean rarely dropped calls)
• No accidental calls (aka butt calls)
• Micro SD allows you to pick your own storage amount

There are some other things that are better but Iphone 4 + new operating system might have caught up in the last 6 months so I don't want to assume but just in case:

• Facebook app allows you to scroll the photos across the bottom and you can see the status updates above without being bogged down by a bunch of lame photos
• Quick access to my settings from the menu at any time
• Notifications at the top of the screen that you can pull down at any time
• 8 megapixel camera complete with pretty solid flash camera

Iphone still reigns in:

• Touch navigation.  Droid is good, but iphone has that dialed in but good
• Overall design and curviness
• WAY better accessories in general--cases for the droid you can count on one hand--you can't even count the varieties of screen protectors for the iphone on one hand
• Better paid apps (like lets create pottery for crying out loud)
• When you navigate back to the home screen it closes the app (that might have changed somewhat, please chime in) whereas the Droid can have five hundred apps open that you didn't realize were draining your battery.  App killer is hit and miss, you just have to back out of everything a million times.
• Text messages that show up on the face of your phone.  This is my holy grail on the droid--can't figure out how to do this and I really need that to occur
• Full synchronization with Itunes, essential for keeping a low effort updated music library

In summary:

If you travel and work like I do and need it to be reliable for professional productivity including long conference calls, go with a droid

If you want a really fun phone to blog, email,  play games with your friends on the go and accessorize, go with the Iphone.  

I hear a new rumor everyday that iphone is going verizon but I have been hearing that for two years to no avail.  That is NOT happening, sorry to say, so for now, you still have to decide.