First of all, I love it :) - LANjackal from IM

Weight: solidly built, but dense. Smaller than it looks in pictures - LANjackal from IM

Physical Keyboard: I don't know what reviewers were complaining about, this is actually pretty damn good. The only part that's not so great is the optional protective hard shell makes the top row of keys a bit hard to press because it consumes the "overflow" space that your fingers would normally have - LANjackal from IM

On screen keyboard: OK, but there's not much reason to use it - LANjackal from IM

Battery life: hard to say yet - LANjackal from IM

The only major niggle I have with the Droid is that so far I can't figure out how to make it vibrate to notify me of incoming SMS when the handset is locked and the ring volume is silenced. If I don't figure that out I'm gonna miss a LOT of text messages at work, which is not good :/ - LANjackal from IM

All charged up! Despair's (my Droid's Bluetooth name) first night on the town. He's already texted one girl and called another from his Contacts, which is fully integrated with my Facebook account (profile, pics, email addresses, phone numbers). This last part is absolutely amazing. Wish us well, I'll tell you more tomorrow when we embark on a 16h bar crawl (no joke) - LANjackal

WOW. I have never set a custom ringtone this easily in my life. 1)Drag and drop song into phone from Windows Explorer (where it shows up as removable disk). 2)Go to Music App, which automagically finds ALL songs on the phone, regardless of location 3)Select track 4)Select "Set as ringtone". DONE. A-mazing, especially for a Verizon device (walled garden anyone?) - LANjackal

"...especially for a Verizon device (walled garden anyone?)" They would had to have fucked with normal Android functionality. Have you tried, "Ringdroid," I think it's called? -- for editing audio on the handset. Perhaps there's something better now. - Christopher A Carr

Idk about that, don't need audio editing capability - LANjackal from Android

Google Navigation: perfection. Period. Integrates with browser which integrates with calendar so I can nav my way directly to GCal event locations - LANjackal from Android

My buddy BR just picked one up himself. Verdict: fucking awesome - LANjackal from Android

Wi-Fi: works awesome. Using it @ a pool hall now - LANjackal from Android

*WANT*! - Travis Koger

Good hardware, presently. I would flash a fancier ROM. - Christopher A Carr

I'm not going to throw down money until there is a 1 GhZ device. Soon. In 1/2 years, people who have this phone are going to feel silly. - Christopher A Carr

... or we'll just get a new one? Handsets are salable dude. - LANjackal

Speed: (because Chris Carr brought it up). The Droid is plenty fast. Speed is not an issue. - LANjackal

Battery Life: Very good, but I'd bring my charger if I were going out of town for a weekend (I always do that anyway, so I don't consider than an issue) - LANjackal

Browser: Faaaast. I don't miss the pinch multitouch capability reviewers have been bemoaning the lack of, since the high resolution means that 95% of pages are readable as is in the first place, and there's a handy zoom-in/zoom-out icon that pops up at the lower right of the screen - LANjackal

UNPLEASANT SURPRISE: That charging cable that you think is a mini-USB cable? It's NOT. I don't WTF the port on the side of the Droid is, but it won't accept any other cable than the one that shipped with the device. Disappointing, but not a dealbreaker IMO - LANjackal

Fancier ROM idea: If you wanna go for it, sure. However, my phone is one of those device (like my car) that I expect to just WORK, 100% of the time. Don't wanna risk bricking it, but if you wanna do that go right ahead. - LANjackal

Contact management: This is simply the best implementation thereof you will ever come across, not only on phones but on ANY device. Full syncing of Google Contacts and your Facebook friends (all relevant fields, even job titles and pics from Facebook profiles), automatic duplicate entry handling, with search, email ... you name it. This is one thing the Droid beats everything else at. No competition. - LANjackal

Camera: It's not the best, but it'll do. Besides, cameras like those are merciful to those who aren't naturally photogenic like me. - LANjackal

Audio quality: Angelic. I know this sounds like an overstatement, but wait till you hear it. The audio on this device is just stunning. Everything else you've ever heard will sound like static afterwards in comparison - LANjackal

Does it use a regular audio connector, or a custom one like the older Android phones? - Glen Mistletoe from iPod

Regular connector - LANjackal from IM

Visual Voicemail is great, but if you have an active Wi-Fi connection it won't be able to sync. Which it tells you nicely. Perhaps Google Voice fixes that problem. Beginning to wish I had a GV account now. Oh well. Invite, anyone? - LANjackal

I still can't get over the monthly fee for visual voicemail. Sigh. - Glen Mistletoe

That's only if you have a 450min plan. The one I have has VVM rolled in... I think. Billing info isn't very clear on that, I'll see what my first new bill looks like when it comes - LANjackal from IM

VZW has the weird setup where feature prices vary BOTH by plan AND phone. For example, VZ Navigator is free on some phones but paid on others. I *think* Visual Voicemail's included with the data plan when you get a Droid - LANjackal

More on battery life: Charging takes a while (1.5h from 50% to full). Definitely enough for overnight, but people who rely on fast charge times will be in for a surprise. I'm really anal about charging, so I don't find this an issue. Less "responsible" users (read: college girls) whose phones are permanently "about to die" will run into trouble :P - LANjackal

Hmmm, not true mini-USB, slight disappointment. How loud are the ringtones and the call itself? Do you think the phone will feel weird with an extended battery? Do you experience any lag that has been reported in apps? Can't wait to have in hand next week! - manielse (Mark Nielsen)

Lan: You want a GV invite? Think I still have one or tww. How do you like Stanford pounding the shit out of Oregon? Wow. - Christopher A Carr

Why do you say it's not true mini-USB? That contradicts what I've been told by a Googler who's been using the phone since August. - Glen Mistletoe

It may be a smaller USB connector than the "mini" one I'm used to. Phone ringtones are LOUD. So is the call volume. I don't know any phone that doesn't feel weird with an extended battery. - LANjackal from IM

Lag: bear in mind that you're dealing with a mini-computer that happens to be able to make calls, not a phone in the traditional sense. As with a PC, the more apps you run, the more lag you may notice (1 -2s sometimes, "missed" touches). In normal operation with mission critical apps though, there is no lag. I'd STRONGLY suggest Taskiller though, as the OS never seems to really kill anything you ever open on its own, nor is there an exit or "off" option for most apps. Upshot: persistence. Downshot: battery life and some performance - LANjackal from IM

Battery Life Report: During a drinking marathon today filled with heavy use of web browsing, FB app friend adding, taking (and uploading) pics, texting, email checking, calling, hopping on and off free Wi-Fi, etc. the Droid lasted *drumroooooooollllll* 11 HOURS. Terrible for a phone, but pretty good for what's essentially a pocket computer. Word to the wise: the car charging kit? Get it. An extra USB cable for charging at work is a pretty good call too - LANjackal

Correction about the USB connector. It's a micro-B one, NOT a min-B one, which is why the other cable I had wasn't working. So yes, it IS a standard USB cable. Sorry to have mislead anyone - LANjackal

Nice feature: automagical backlighting that turns on and off in response to ambient light (even when going through shadows) - LANjackal

Camera: I take back what I said about it earlier. This is pretty much the BEST party camera ever. Reviewers who complained about the pic quality were simply taking the wrong pics. No one uses smartphones to take pics of flowers idiots. They use 'em to take pics at parties. The important thing is how skin tone and color come out WITHOUT being too revealing (trust me, no one wants to see the zit scars on their own face) and how good the phone is in the dark. The Droid simply SHINES. Any reviewer who says otherwise clearly doesn't have a life and needs to get out more - LANjackal

Battery life: so my buddy BR who got one is complaining about the battery life also. And his phone was almost always dead BEFORE the Droid, so I can only imagine what the situation is like now - LANjackal

Another niggle: No character count for text message composition - LANjackal

UPDATE: OTA update will fix the SMS character count problem (exactly how that passed internal testing, I don't know) - LANjackal

UPDATE on Visual Voicemail: I checked with VZW today and it really does cost $2.99 extra per month. Thanks to Chris' Carr, though, I installed Google Voice, so I chucked VVM. - LANjackal

Bug: Google Navigation may forget to use the speakerphone at times. I think this happens if you attempt to navigate while the phone is in portrait orientation - LANjackal

On the no character count for test messages --- doesn't it show you how many characters you have left when you get close to the 160 allowed? - Kevin Mohr

I read that it does, but so far I haven't sent anything that long so I haven't seen for myself - LANjackal

Worried about the Droid's 11h battery life? 1) Get the car charger 2) Head over to Monoprice.com and get a micro-B USB 2.0 cable for your office for all of *gasp* <$3, shipping included. Then you'll be able to charge at home, in the car, and in the office. - LANjackal

Wait, an extra fee for VVM? That's just as lame as the extra fee for VZW Navigator. - Wirehead

Not if you were on a Premium plan like I was. VZ Navigator's free then. Unfortunately, Premium plans are unavailable for the Droid, so you have to drop down to a Nationwide Select plan and then tack on a data package. This keeps the service affordable, but it means that VVM's not included. Don't really get VZ's thinking behind this one, although they probably reason that anyone who's savvy enough can get Google Voice anyway while the "average" users will lose $36/year to VVM. - LANjackal

Droid lost 3G functionality this morning. How to restore: 1) With Droid still on, remove battery for 15 seconds 2) Replace battery 3) Turn Droid on. 3G should be restored - LANjackal from IM

Guess who got his Droid set up on the office Wi-Fi and VPN today? It took all of 3 minutes, no management approval and just a verbal request to the IT guy. Turns out he got a Droid himself, so he breezed through the setup and handed it back to me. So yeah, if you were worried about joining domain networks and whatnot, don't be - the Droid is ready for work - LANjackal

OK so after a few weeks of use, several bugs have become apparent: - LANjackal

1) This probably applies to all smartphones that can run multiple apps simultaneously, but active task management is a serious necessity if you're a power user. That means manually killing apps/processes that you aren't using to prevent your phone from becoming laggy. I recommend the Task Manager app - LANjackal

2) Switching between Wi-Fi and 3G sometimes isn't seemless. The Droid will sometimes forget it's a 3G device when moving out of Wi-Fi coverage, and similarly not automatically connect to a familiar network when it's within range. - LANjackal

3) The micro-B USB 2.0 port has become really loose over numerous plug-unplug cycles. It's now possible to plug the device in and have nothing happen because the connections aren't being made (This is solved by a little jiggling). To be fair, most USB ports weren't designed for this many plugging cycles, but for a device that needs as much charging as this you'd *hope* the port was a bit sturdier - LANjackal

4) Phone ringtone volume sometimes goes out of whack. Solved by simply re-entering the relevant menu, which seems to "remind" the handset what level it should be at - LANjackal

5) Plugging the phone into an HP docking station before booting the laptop will cause the laptop to fail to boot. I'm not sure whose fault this is. - LANjackal

And now for the good news: - LANjackal

1) Contrary to what the SF Gate guy said in that article I'm too lazy to link to, Google Navigate IS SAFE to use in the boonies. Verizon's 3G coverage is beyond amazing, I traveled through some of the most sparsely populated regions in the country today with no problems. The phone lost the GPS signal a few times (regained within seconds) but never lost 3G coverage - LANjackal