If you have been a reader of Bro Council for more than a month, you’ll know that we love cell phones. That is why I was so pumped when I was able to get my hands on a Droid X on Verizon this past week to test out at my work.
Now I’ve read a lot about the Android operating system but this is the first time I’ve been able to monkey around with one for more than 5 minutes. Depending on what your purpose is for this phone, it’s either good or cause for concern. Read more for my detailed explanation.
If you were using this phone for personal use then it’s fantastic. The screen is gigantic and despite its overall large size it feels very good in your hand (that’s what she said). It comes with an 8 mega pixel camera and the ability to record in 720p. It also has an HDMI output. Pretty slick. Of course have all of the normal features that you usually get with the Android operating system so I won’t go into them here.
Speaking of the OS, out of the box it was loaded with Android 2.1. The most current version of the OS is 2.2 aka Froyo. This is important and where it gets hairy.
Remember that I was testing this phone out for business purposes. Whadrt is one of the most important factors in every business: Email and scheduling. We’re rocking Exchange 2010 and Exchange in general is amazingly popular amongst businesses.
The blasted corporate sync on Android 2.1 does not work perfectly with Exchange. If you Google it you will find article after article stating the same. The calendar works but some of the features we need are missing. The same with some emailing features that are available in Exchange. There is a feature called Remote Wipe that will allow you to remotely (from the company headquarters) wipe the e-mail off of the phone in case it’s lost or stolen. It’s not available in 2.1. That’s frickin’ huge.
They say the Froyo 2.2 update is coming to the Droid X in early September and it supposedly handles some of these issues, but until it can be tested who wants to take a risk and deploy these things companywide just in case it doesn’t work as advertised? Google really dropped the ball on this one.
This gets me back to the same point I’ve been making the past 2 months about the upcoming Windows Phone 7 by Microsoft. I will guarantee you that it will give you every blasted feature in Exchange on that device. Even if the WP7 phone tanks for personal use, if they can give you the corporate features that businesses need, that thing will take off.
My case is a perfect example. I can’t make a decision based on cool features on a phone. I need the Email and scheduling to work regardless of everything else. That’s why blackberry has been such a huge success. Despite it not having all of the features the iPhone and Android, companies love them because it nailed the corporate e-mail stuff.
To sum it up, if you want it for personal use I’d recommend it. If you want to roll it out for a company, make sure you know what it can and can’t do for your email system so you don’t get screwed.
