Verizon Wireless Motorola Droid 3 Review

I’ve been a HUGE fan of Motorola since the dawn of time.  I’m putting that out there because I’ve owned or used as a function of the work I do almost every Motorola cellular device geared toward a consumer. (brick phone anyone?)

Motorola has some terrific hardware in their cellular devices, and it should be no surprise to any of you in the know as they invented the cell phone on April 3rd, 1973.  A research exec named Martin Cooper was the employee that did the dirty work

The Verizon Wireless Motorola Droid 3 is almost perfect.  The Motorola Droid 1 and 2 were neat, but I always had an issue with the fact that it didn’t have a line of number keys at the top.  It was a major drawback as all my passwords have numbers and letters and it became complicated to login in to anything useful using the Motorola Droid 1 and 2.  This is a problem of the past!  They did it! They added a full line of numbers and that makes this phone an almost perfect combination of touch screen and hardware keyboard.  I love it.

I have to say ALMOST perfect because there is two things missing… 4G LTE and No MicroSD Card.  The card is I’m sorry just plain cheap, with phones like the Thunderbolt coming with 32GB cards, I would hope to see at least a 16GB card in the box, and 4G is a basic staple if you are a Verizon Wireless user because at this point you are used to bragging about your 4G LTE download speeds and making fun of your friends with the slow 4G from T-Mobile, AT&T or Sprint (if they can even get coverage).

Let us get down to brass tacks: Hardware.

• 4-inch qHD (960×540) Pentile display
• Five-row physical QWERTY keyboard
• Global radio (GSM and CDMA)
• WiFi 802.11b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 1GHz dual-core TI OMAP4430 processor
• PowerVR SGX540 GPU
• 512MB RAM / 16GB ROM
• NO included SD card
• 1540mAh battery
• 8MP rear camera w/ 1080p video / VGA front-facing camera
• Android 2.3 with MOTOBLUR (OK, “Motorola Applications layer”)
• microUSB port
• microHDMI port
• Dimensions: 4.90″ x 2.50″ x 0.50″
• Weight: 169g (6oz)

Notable changes here are the addition of the number row on the keyboard, a front facing camera for video conferencing (although without 4G LTE it’s going to be choppy unless you are on WiFi), Android 2.3 (Gingerbread),  Global Radio (GSM slot for a SIM Card), PowerVR SGX540 GPU and one of the new Dual-Core TI OMAP4430 Processors clocked at 1GHz.

All in all the Verizon Wireless Motorola Droid 3 is a really great phone.  While it does lack the 4G LTE radio, and does not come with a MicroSD card it really packs a lot of rich features and functionality.  It is by far the best phone on the market with a hardware keyboard.

[review title="Pros and Cons" pros="Motoblur, Very Comfy Keyboard, Performance, Global Radio, Gingerbread, Sleek Look, New Forward Facing Camera" cons="Quite a bit of bloatware which doesn't uninstall, No 4G LTE, No MicroSD Card included."  score=85 verdict="All in all the Verizon Wireless Motorola Droid 3 is a really great phone.  While it does lack the 4G LTE radio, and does not come with a MicroSD card it really packs a lot of rich features and functionality.  It is by far the best phone on the market with a hardware keyboard."]