Motorola Droid Review: I Love Google Voice!

Ever since the iPhone was announced, I wanted one. I desperately wanted one. The problem I had, and still have, is the horrible coverage in the area I need it most — the area where I work.

AT&T’s network shortcomings, despite what a heftier Luke Wilson will tell you, is well documented. I was told by an AT&T rep that I would be lucky to receive a text message in the area I work, and certainly have major trouble with phone calls. Not good. It’s a map issue.

I stuck with Verizon and their map, which gave me 3G Broadband in the same area that AT&T could not guarantee text messages. I also was stuck with the Blackberry Storm. The multiple, daily urges to toss the Storm into the Arkansas River was too much to bear. I purchased the Motorola Droid two months ago and cannot be happier.

I am in Sales and spend most of my days on the road going from appointment-to-appointment.  I have a lot of clients who are very needy.  It is not uncommon to receive 50 calls in a day in addition to a full day of appointments.  It’s tough.  I had a very successful sales year and I attribute much of the success to the Droid.

The apps I use most often on the Droid is Google Voice, Google Maps, Google Calendar, and GMail.   I live outside of my sales territory, so prior to activating Google Voice I was using a long distance cell phone number with my clients.   With Google Voice, I was able to pick a local phone number for my clients to call — for free! This makes a big difference on how my clients and prospects perceive me.  A local phone number is very beneficial.

The Droid has perfect integration with Google Voice. I am notified almost instantly after a message is left.  A few seconds later the message is transcribed into text. Perfect! This saves me a ton of time not having to dial into voice mail and then finding scratch paper to write down the message. A quick read and a press of the button and I’m returning the call.  Then another press of the button to the Calendar to view my next appointment and one more press of the button for step-by-step navigation to their front door.  Awesome!

Another great feature of Google Voice is that it saves all of my messages like email, so it’s easily accessible.  You can also add contact info on-the-fly and add notes to each individual message.  When you add the contact info it updates to your GMail contacts, as well as your contacts on your phone.  Beautiful!  And of course, GMail then syncs with Google Calendar, which in turn syncs with Google Maps for step-by-step navigation.  And all of this syncs with the Droid instantaneously.  It has streamlined and organized my day.  I love it!

The Droid has yet to fail me. I would do a “battery pull” with the Blackberry Storm at least ten times a day to get the phone working again.  I haven’t pulled the battery once with the Droid.  It just works.  Droid does, or something.

My iPhone envy has not completely diminished, though.  It’s too bad the iPhone is still exclusive to the AT&T network.  It’s also too bad Google Voice is not compatible with the iPhone.  I’ve read conflicting reports of who banned the Google Voice app from the iPhone, either Apple or AT&T.  Either way, a phone without Google Voice is a deal killer for me.  Perhaps the best compromise is to purchase an iPod Touch.

I will continue writing about my experience with the Motorola Droid and Android in the near future.  I have discovered a ton of great apps that I’ll share, most of which are free.  It’s a wonderful phone that has made my life better!  I say this with confidence.