Web image courtesy of Verizon Wireless

The countdown continues on Verizon's...

Droid Does

...website. It countdown timer has just a bit over 4 days to go as I write this. I'm still debating whether to buy the Motorola Droid or not. The Droid's relatively reasonable $199.99 price is the issue, of course. The problem is whether I'm willing to pay $1,680 (plus incidental fees and taxes) over the course of a mandatory two-year Verizon Wireless contract. So, I'm reading previews and reviews of the Droid as they emerge. Engadget has provided a bunch of previews, photos, and videos of the Droid. So, it is no surprise they have an in-depth review of it too...

Motorola DROID review

Here's a couple of their pros and cons that interested me the most...

- Speed is better than other Android devices but not blindingly fast (con)
- No multi-touch (semi-con)
- Keyboard (based on a photo) does not have dedicated numeric row. Layout looks a bit quirky (cons)
- Navigation pad looks usable. Would have preferred the little trackball that the G1 has (pro)
- Camera performance is so-so (con)
- Video recording is at 720x480 resolution. This is an odd size. It is larger than the more conventional VGA-resolution of 640x480. I didn't note much of the "rubberband" effect seen in the iPhone 3GS and Touch Pro2 videos I made. (pro)
- Standard 3.5mm headphone jack (pro)

Adding up the pros (+1) and cons (-1), I end up with a -0.5 (the no multi-touch semi-con was the tie breaker). And, Android's limitation of only being able to install apps in its limited system memory gives it another con (-1) for me bringing the score down to -1.5.

It is staring to look like I should just continue to look for an unlocked GSM-based Android phone. But, I'll continue to read pre-release reviews until the Droid launches at the end of this week.