The Droid X from Motorola and Verizon has finally been released and there could never be an even more perfect timing. Now that Apple has its iPhone 4 antenna problems and some consumers are not really happy about the situation, I think it’s the best timing for a competitive product launch. And who better to compete than this mammoth of a phone called the Droid X.
This phone is ‘ginormous’ with a 4.3-inch touch-screen display and weighing in at 155g (5.47 oz). It has dimensions of 
2.6 x 5.0 x 0.4 (in.). The Droid X might not be too lenient on you if you have small hands but it packs all the goodies
in the bag to make it worthwhile.It is equipped with an 8.0 megapixel camera with 4X digital zoom that captures 720p HD video at 24fps. It has 3 microphones in which two are for noise cancellation. Besides the 8GB internal memory, it comes shipped with a 16GB microSD which is expandable to up to 32GB giving you a total of 40GB.
Even thought the Android 2.1 is the preinstalled OS on this device, the manufactures announced an update to Android 2.2 (Froyo) for the device. This is not surprising considering the hardware can handle it; the phone’s processor is a 1.0GHz TI OMAP3630 which is comparable to the Snapdragon processor used in some other ‘heavy duty’ smartphones.
The Droid X seems a likely candidate in outselling the iPhone 4 this year but can they handle the challenge? Apple’s iPhone 4 sales have been record breaking since launch and they show no signs of slowing down thanks to their large, devoted fan base. They have sold about 1.7 million units of the iPhone 4 already and their only challenge seems to be the Achilles’ heel in their antenna. The Droid is already sold out in major stores in the US as at the time this was written and new shipments don’t arrive till the 23rd of July.
Before one starts drooling for an unlocked version of the phone, it should be pointed out that it is a CDMA phone. This implies that it will not work on your regular GSM networks. Bummer. This was what killed it for me because the Droid X has everything I have always looked out for in a phone. The one thing users might not really like about the phone is the Motorola software atop the Android. Unlike the HTC Sense which is arguably a magical experience on the HTC HD2 running Windows Mobile 6.5, the Motorola counterpart looks pretty but doesn’t really deliver (for instance, why would I want to add all my twitter followers to my contacts list?!)
For customers who have already purchased the iPhone and are having problems with reception, Apple is giving away free cases for the phone that is supposed to alleviate the problem. They claim to have gone back to the drawing board to see where the problem is from and that for people who purchase the phone on or before September 30th, they get a free casing.
Bottom-line, the Droid X is a big phone for people who want to consume data and probably do some work on the go. It is fast, has a decent battery life and does really good photos and videos. If I owned an iPhone 4 and was currently pissed and looking for a replacement, I’d let my case rest with Steve Jobs and just reach out for this awesome alternative.