
    Droid Doesn’t: It’s Not Ready For Prime Time - Wump
http://alsop-louie.com/gadgets/droid-doesnt-its-not-ready-for-prime-time/
======
oomkiller
I've used my droid for a month, and most of the time it has been flawless. It
doesn't have the dialing issue my blackberry tour had. I have only had to
force quit a couple of times, and usually when I was exiting the app anyways.
My only complaint is the keyboard and sometimes the phone comes out of sleep
(setting a lock pattern prevents this) and dials people that I didn't want
them to. Other than that, the phone has been great. Fast as I would expect,
and plenty of apps to keep me busy.

~~~
kyro
I'm sorry, but every time I have checked out a G Phone or the Droid and tried
to scroll through their menus, I am both thoroughly disappointed at how jerky
it is and a bit shocked that for some reason, no other company has been able
to pull off the smooth touch screen scrolling like the iPhone has. It gets me
every time and is a big reason why I wouldn't purchase a Droid, as pathetic as
that reason may be.

~~~
teeja
why "no other company has been able to"

I gonna take a wild guess that it's because Apple folks don't want to hear
Steve Jobs say those magic words.

~~~
gjm11
Huh? Companies other than Apple haven't been able to make scrolling work
nicely because Apple folks don't want to hear Steve Jobs say, er, whatever
magic words you have in mind?

What am I missing here?

[EDITED ~1m after posting to add: Perhaps what you mean is that the reason why
Apple _has_ been able to do it is that everyone there is scared of having Jobs
tell them their user interface isn't good enough. But the previous poster's
question wasn't "how come Apple were able to do this astonishingly difficult
thing?" but "how come other companies haven't bothered to do this apparently
easy thing that would make the user experience so much better?". Jobs's
perfectionism can hardly explain _that_.]

------
furyg3
I think these kinds of harsh reviews are where a video would really come in
handy.

Mostly because it seems like it's almost too horrible to believe. Also (though
fanboys will never truly accept the problems) it's just too easy for them to
respond with 'you're doing it wrong!'

This account does speak to some specific points, but I'd be nice to see some
clear examples that all can see and discuss, instead of just describing
general experiences. Shouldn't be too hard to collect, either, if the phone is
consistently this bad.

------
dejb
Maybe the guy has a defective phone. It doesn't seem that his experiences line
up with anyone else's. My 'underpowered' 192MB HTC Magic certainly doesn't
have these problems. Seems strange of him to assume that this is the
experience that many others are raving about.

~~~
darjen
yeah, it seems like he is out of the norm. I've played with a couple different
droids and loved it. still plan on getting one.

------
humbledrone
If the article's author's Droid behaves in the ways he says it does, it is
clearly defective. I have never, not once, had to "force quit" any built-in
application. The contact list works flawlessly. When I click an application
icon, it starts every time. As a phone, the thing is rock solid.

The only applications that I have had to "force quit" have been a couple buggy
apps from the market, which I subsequently uninstalled. Yes, buggy software is
allowed into the market. That's fine by me; sometimes a buggy beta app is
better than no app at all.

And about the shutter button: why would I want it to launch the camera app? On
my standalone digital camera I sure don't expect the shutter button to turn it
on...

------
jmckib
Just to add my own data point: I've had the Droid for about a month, and I've
never had to force quit the phone, maps, or browser (which I consider the
three most important apps). The scrolling on the menus and desktop sometimes
feels laggy, but is usually good. The camera button either doesn't work, or I
don't know what it's supposed to do (I just use the button on the touch
screen). Besides that, I haven't had any problems. I love the keyboard, and
I've never dropped a call or accidentally dialed a number in my pocket.

------
benatkin
I don't buy the implication that voice has to be glitch-free. First, many
people who buy smartphones are light voice users, and use the web most of the
time. Second, many cell phone users have imperfect voice calling anyways, due
to coverage issues or network glitches. Finally, if a product really shines in
some important areas, there will always be people who are willing to put up
with poor performance in other areas.

~~~
pkulak
Everything is a feature. So, the iPhone can always make or receive a call. And
what does Droid have to make up for that? More pixels? A keyboard that many
people find inferior to the software one? A replaceable battery that no one
will ever replace? Most people would take the bug-free OS.

~~~
nkassis
Is everyone forgetting how many people are complaining about iPhone dropped
calls? Might be AT&T or something else, I'm not seeing as many complaints with
their other phones.

I have an HTC magic, never had issues with the dialer. Rogers in canada is
pretty good, no dropped calls after 4 months of use. Only app that seems to
hang my phone is twidgit. Great app, horrible performance.

~~~
yardie
AT&T isn't an iPhone. I have an iPhone on SFR and it works fine. If the
network is built properly than any phone should be able to use it just fine.

I certainly hope Apple disconnects themself from that deathstar and chain
called AT&T. Because everywhere else (except maybe the UK where O2 had the
exclusive) the iPhone works just fine.

------
GeneralMaximus
I still maintain that Java is _not_ a good choice for a mobile OS. Dalvik
might be the best Java VM ever in the history of personal computing, but it's
still just a VM. It cannot beat native code, especially on a mobile device
like the Droid. I think GCC is smart enough at producing fast, tight machine
code. And then there's LLVM. Why choose Java?

<BEGIN RANT>

I'm sick of people going on about how programmer productivity is more
important than performance. I seriously don't give a fuck about programmer
productivity. I only care about the end product. You have a 600MHz processor
with about 128megs of RAM on your mobile device, and you _still_ can't make it
perform well? There was a time when _desktop computers_ were slower than that,
and programmers optimized the hell out of their software to make it perform
acceptably on the limited hardware. I can't believe that a company like Google
can't make Android perform at least acceptably, if not blazing, fast.

<END RANT>

I consider performance a feature. If it's not fast, I'm not using it. This is
how I choose my desktop software, and this is how I choose my mobile devices.
Currently, I'm looking at some Symbian devices. Symbian might not be the best
mobile OS, but it's extremely responsive even on my mum's ancient Nokia 6600.

EDIT: removed offending "bring on the downvotes" comment.

~~~
gjm11
I largely agree with that, but downvoted you on principle because I always do
that to people who play the "oooo, I'm going to get downvoted, see what a
nonconformist I am" card. (Which I think lowers the signal-to-noise ratio both
of HN's content and, since unfortunately it sometimes works and garners lots
of upvotes, of the rating system.)

~~~
GeneralMaximus
Point noted. I've edited that part out now.

~~~
gjm11
I regret that the HN software doesn't allow me to un-downvote you.

