I waited. The small screen strained my eyes. The CPU strained under the countless mods I had installed, and the paint wore off the little buttons. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. The battery’s life began to end, barely lasting a work day. Then, just in time, it happened: my two year contract expired.

My Palm Treo 700wx, the phone and contract my ex-employer picked out for me and then shackled me to, was finally ready for retirement. It was a pretty typical smartphone for the day: stock Windows Mobile 5 (which I modded to 6 and then 6.1), full querty keyboard, and a small selection of common apps. But now the shackles were off. As of September 2009, I was free.

But I didn’t rush out and buy a new phone. No… I knew better. Two years of imprisonment makes you crazy like a fox. I went on waiting.

Until a week ago, when I sprung from bed at half past six, threw on my clothes and drove to the nearest Verizon store. I sat in my still freezing car, waiting for the big red “open” sign to light up. And when it finally did, I burst in exclaiming “I want a DROID!” No, I didn’t want a free donut. I didn’t want their overpriced car chargers or car mounts. I knew what I wanted: an Android phone.

An hour later I was $269.00 poorer (I got $30.00 off because I was a switching Alltel customer) minus a $100 rebate.

But I was also infinitely happier.

To put things in context, the difference between a two year old smartphone and a modern iPhone or Droid is not an apples-to-apples comparison. It’s an entirely different mobile experience. As a full disclaimer, my old Palm has been my only first-hand exposure to the smartphone world. I have limited experience with iPhone, and so I’m unable to make any direct comparisons. That said, here is my review of Verizon’s Droid:

Physically, the Droid is a good sized phone. Although it fits comfortably in my hand, I do find my fingers getting tired with prolonged texting from the weight. The screen is big and extremely sharp. The Droid’s picture sharpness is universally praised amongst reviewers, and I’m no exception. I do fret about dropping it because of the size (and hence vulnerability) of the screen. I bought a nice protective cover for it, but I’m still paranoid; all I can do is hope it endures.

The phone has the standard volume controls, a physical power switch on the top, and a “camera” button on the side for quick camera access. I was a bit disappointed there is no dedicated voice command button, but it’s probably possible to rebind the camera button to activate voice recognition. It’s particularly a shame because the voice recognition is so outstanding. It gives you the standard “call Jim Smith” and “run Calculator” type commands. But it also gives you the ability to run very accurate Google searches with your voice, perfect for finding a phone number or Google Map directions while driving (more on that later).

The 5 megapixel camera works very well and takes good pictures for a phone. It has a flash for nighttime photos, but the few dark pictures I’ve taken with it aren’t anything write home about. It also boasts a hardware keyboard, which saves you lots of precious screen space while using applications like Google Talk or texting. I’m not entirely impressed with the quality of the hardware keyboard, but am reserving judgment until I have time to retrain my fingers and break it in a bit. Until then, it also has a nice on-screen keyboard. The touch screen is very responsive and easy to use.

The phone also has a standard size audio jack, which is great for listening to podcasts over the G3 connection. The Pandora application is also excellent, and gives me high quality streaming radio. That said, I’m eagerly awaiting a Rhapsody application, so I can stream MP3’s on demand with my unlimited subscription. It is rumored to be in the works for early 2010. The handset and speaker project as decent sound quality as one can expect from a phone.

Out of the box, the Droid, with its Android OS, is truly a Google phone. Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Voice come pre-installed with excellent intuitive interfaces. The Webkit browser (same as Mac Safari) renders very sharp and accurate, is responsive, and allows for multiple window browsing. The Browser and Gmail include nice PDF viewers with smooth zooming and scrolling. Using Dropbox’s online interface, I can view all my clients’ files from my phone. Gmail pushes email for instant new email notification. Google Calendar has a nice looking app which syncs all your online calendars and gives appointment reminders.

I was also very pleased to discover that Google Voice calling has been built natively into the phone. You can force every call to go out through Google Voice, or have it prompt you prior to sending each call, with the calling appearing and behaving like any other outgoing call. Adding my Google Voice account’s “out” number to my “Friends & Family list” basically gives me unlimited free outbound calling. And with Google’s acquisition of Gizmo5, free inbound isn’t far off…

The Youtube integration is also very slick. I can take a quick video of my kids playing in the yard, and with two clicks it uploads to YouTube over my wifi or G3 connection. Same goes for pictures using Picasa.

Google Maps has its own snappy application, complete with Google Latitude to identify your exact location using the integrated GPS. The app also comes with a new feature called Google Navigation. This is basically Google Maps with voice guidance like a TomTom, but free and in your phone. Until my wife and I were able to navigate perfectly around an area of Detroit we’d never visited before while we Christmas shopped, she was less than impressed with my new phone. After that, she was a believer.

And there of course other features. The barcode scanner lets you price compare while shopping. The Amazon application is great for reading user reviews or shopping while waiting for a hearing. And the desktop is extremely customizable, including “iGoogle” like widgets. And then there are all the apps and features I undoubtedly have yet to discover.

I’d be amiss if I failed to mention that all this software is running on a Linux kernel, as it shows with its stability. I’ve never had the whole phone lock up. I’ve had single applications fail on a couple occasions, but was able to simply force quit the app without disturbing anything else running in the background. Maybe I’m just lucky, but stability hasn’t been an issue.
There are some software weak points. Adobe Flash is still missing, and there is no official Adobe PDF Viewer (though the included previewer is decent). There is a noticeable lack of high quality games (as if I had time to play them anyway but, it’s the principle of it!) Overall, the Android marketplace, while containing a significant number of applications, is not huge. And the applications that are there are still young and push out frequent updates.

But ironically, these applications are where I predict the Droid will shine in the long run. The Android OS is extremely developer friendly. That doesn’t just mean people can develop applications, but it means they can develop applications that integrate natively into the phone’s Android OS. Remember how I described Google Voice as being indistinguishable from the phone’s native calling interface once enabled? Other developers can accomplish similar feats using Android’s open platform. Once enabled, these modular applications become as much part of the phone as any native application, allowing unparalleled customization. For that reason, I believe the Droid (and other Android phones) will become increasingly powerful – and hence increasingly popular – over the coming months, as bigger and better applications are developed.

And that is why I waited after my old phone’s contract expired. Rather than rush out and buy an iPhone, I knew I wanted an Android. Thus far, it’s looking as though my patience is going to pay off. At least I hope so; I have to live with this decision for another two long years.

Wm. Paul Slough is a Michigan bankruptcy lawyer who practices virtually.