DROID PRO by MOTOROLA (Verizon Wireless)

Who should get this phone? Business users who want an Android 2.2 cell phone that also sports a full tactile QWERTY keyboard.

What cell phone compares to this model? Although running completely different mobile OS’, the DROID Pro is similar to a BlackBerry Bold. Both are business-minded cell phones that sport full QWERTY tactile keyboards.

Why should I get this phone? You want an Android 2.2 smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard that you can use for both work and play.

In a nutshell: The DROID Pro by Motorola is a worthy companion for globe trotting business travelers who want a fairly compact Android 2.2 with a full tactile QWERTY keyboard.

The Motorola DROID Pro is a globe-trotting business phone.

Above the keyboard are the standard Android navigation keys (Menu, Home, Back, and Search). Other than that the only other buttons you’ll find on the cell phone are a calendar-launch button on the right side, power button and 3.5mm headset jack on top, and volume keys and microUSB port on the left side. On the back of the phone is a 5-megapixel camera with flash. The sides of the cell phone are lined with gunmetal; while the removable back cover is a black plastic . This helps gives the cell phone a professional look without being too heavy. Overall, the DROID Pro feels comfortable and solid in the hand.

The cell phone sports a 3.1-inch TFT touchscreen. Out of the box, the screen isn’t very bright, but you can change that . Even then, although the display isn’t the sharpest or most vibrant we’ve seen to date.

Testing the DROID Pro by Motorola 

• Making Calls: During calls we could hear callers loud and without distortion, while callers said they had no problem hearing us clearly. Regardless of how close you hold the smartphone to your face, the “End Call” button never seems to get “accidentally” hit. Additionally, the voice dialer worked well in our tests. It had no problem recognizing contacts as we said them. 

• Volume Adjustment: You can use the side buttons to adjust the volume, but we rarely needed to use them.  

• Speakerphone: Call quality is just as clear when using this feature. We didn’t cut each other off when speaking simultaneously.

• Operating System: The smartphone comes loaded with the Android 2.2 OS and a 1GHz processor. The cell phone has 2GBs of on-board memory and comes with a 2GB microSD card, so there’s enough room to store files and some music and pictures out-of-the-box. It also supports multitasking and multiple screens with the ability to organize apps just about any way you want. Overall, the user interface is fairly straightforward and icon friendly. Additionally, the new OS isn’t a huge departure from those found on previous models, it’s just much easier to use. Keeping in mind that this is a business-centric cell phone it comes loaded with QuickOffice for viewing and editing business documents on the go. There’s also VPN support, which worked well in our tests.

The tactile QWERTY keyboard is quite usable.

• E-Mail: We were able to easily set-up and access both corporate e-mail and web-based e-mail accounts such as Yahoo!, AOL, and Gmail. When it came to using a Microsoft Exchange-based e-mail solution, we really appreciated how well the cell phone handled global addresses. We had no problem setting up at least 5 e-mail accounts successfully, but you can have up to 10 e-mail accounts on the phone and that shouldn’t be an issue. E-mail is always running in the background so you never miss a message. We do have one quibble, text in the e-mail only appears in black and white so if you’re someone who relies on messages that include multiple colors of text, this may be a concern.

• Web Navigation: Although, we did wish the screen was a bit larger, surfing the web on the Motorola DROID Pro was a fluid experience and we appreciate that it supports Adobe Flash Player 10. You can also zoom and scroll around web pages with ease.   

• Social Media: You can also stay connected with all your friends and coworkers by setting up accounts in the Social Networking app found in the Applications menu. There are options for Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and Skype Mobile.

Photo taken at the camera's highest setting.

• Camera Features: The DROID Pro sports a 5-megapixel camera with a flash on the back of the cell phone. It lacks a tiny mirror for framing self-portraits. 

• Shutter Speed: We found the shutter speed on the DROID Pro to be a bit slow, so it’s not ideal for capturing action shots.

• Picture Quality: We found colors to be true and details sharp when looking at pictures on the phone. However, when snapping pictures indoors without a lot of light images tended to look a bit grainy. 

• Photo Settings: You can control the flash, select a scene mode (automatic, portrait, landscape, sport, night portrait, sunset, macro, and steady shot), effects (normal, black and white, negative, sepia, solarize, red tint, green tint, and blue tint), choose single shot, panorama assist, self portrait or multishot, and add geo tags.

• Video Features: You can record video with this Android cell phone. Quality was acceptable.

• Music Features: Playback of music through the DROID Pro’s speaker is solid; songs sounded loud, but not distorted or too tinny. Music also sounded great through the included headphones.

• Formats Supported: We were able to play MP3, unprotected AAC (Apple’s audio format), and unprotected WMA (Microsoft’s audio format) music files.

• Features: Repeat, Shuffle, and Playlists (you can even create playlists on the cell phone). There’s also a visualization feature that makes graphics that change to the music playing. You can also save tunes stored in your cell phone as a ringtone.

• Connectivity: The cell phone works with Verizon’s 3G networks, but you can do a lot on this cell phone over a WiFi connection. It’s also a world phone and has a slot for a SIM card so it can be used around the globe. 

• Bluetooth: The DROID Pro worked seamlessly with the Motorola T505 and callers didn’t know we were using a Bluetooth connection. We were also able to connect the DROID Pro with a MacBook Pro and transfer contacts, pictures, and music to other Bluetooth-enabled devices.

• WiFi: It has 802.11n WiFi (that’s pretty secure) and we were able to log onto available WiFi networks to surf the Web or send/receive e-mail. It just takes moments to set up. The only thing you need is the WiFi network you want to use and password if needed. Additionally, we were able to use this cell phone as a wireless modem and share the data connection with up to three other WiFi-enabled devices. We’re happy to report this didn’t put a huge strain on battery life.

• Battery Life: We found battery life on the DROID Pro to be on par with similar devices. We were able to go about a day before needing to recharge the cell phone, when we had the cell phone’s screen to the brightest level and used it to check e-mail, surf the web, and take a few pictures. If you adjust the screen brightness you can get another day or so of battery life. Since it’s a world phone it’s nice to see that included in the box are three international adapters.

Overall, the DROID Pro by Motorola is a solid option for business users who travel the globe and need to stay connected to work. Although, the overall design is a bit different than other Android 2.2 cell phones currently available the DROID Pro is quite pocketable.

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