It’s finally arrived. The space Droid with the ominous, glowing red eye has come to conquer the denizens of Earth. Or, so it seems from the fantastic ad campaigns. With xenophobe meteors plummeting to the Earth and perplexed, onlooking people tiptoeing toward the crash site, to be greeted by the metallic, grating voice of “D-R-O-I-D,” it’s hard not to be excited about the Droid’s premiere, even if you know nothing about the phone, and, more so, what it could mean for the iPhone. Even without the cinema-like grandeur, the pared down, bare-bones offense Motorola devised, complete with “iDon’t customize. iDon’t have a real keyboard. iDon’t allow for open development” hits a clever bulls-eye on Apple’s shortcomings. Man, it really sucks to be an earthling right now. A wholesome, nonthreatening fruit at that.

Other phones within this nascent group of “smartphones” haven’t premiered with the same awaited gusto, the same collective hushed breaths, as the Droid. The Droid even resembles the iPhone – with their chic black exteriors and penchant for minimalism, both the Droid and the iPhone from the get-go seem in a class of their own. But, hold the outcry. The two are very different.

Upon first, superficial viewing, the Droid is not as slick and suave as the iPhone. With its heavier body (it’s noticeably heavier to the hand for those accustomed to iPhones), sharply cut angles, and deep matte black finish, it’s a phone metrosexual men and woodsmen could both feel at home using. The iPhone is definitely more keen on the feminine aura, with its sleek, curvaceous lines and glossy finish, lined in chrome for a sassy kick. The two phones actually remind me of car trends over the past two decades: the more modern the car, the more curving lines it develops, forging a correlation between futuristic and those difficult, rounded geometries. The iPhone certainly has that futuristic feel to it, all showy and ostentatious; meanwhile, the Droid is more a throwback to the 80′s aesthetic. Like the cars of that decade, the boxy stodginess of the Droid almost seems dated, cumbersome. But, while the iPhone flaunts its bling bling, its paparazzi nature, the Droid is a monk in robes, a pragmatist, an ode to functionalism. Undeniably, they are both elegant in their own right.

When you turn on the Droid, though, your eyes suddenly open to the beauty within. The screen, mark my words, is absolutely fantastic, besting the iPhone in both pixel density and size (3.7″ and 265 ppi for Droid, 3.5″ and 185 ppi for the iPhone). It’s more matte and defined than the iPhone’s – after casting glances back and forth, the iPhone screen now looks a bit fuzzy after tinkering with the Droid. The standard Droid contains a 16 GB microSD card, but is expandable up to 32 GB, allowing it to match the highest-capacity iPhone 3GS (which does not have expandable memory). The phone is ever-so-slightly thicker than the iPhone, at 13.7 mm (vs. 12 mm for the iPhone 3GS). It also packs a slide-out physical keyboard, which many customers may prefer (I, personally, prefer the virtual keyboard – it saves space and they’re surprisingly easy to use, despite what others may claim).

My elation over the amazing screen continued when I checked out the general interface. The pull-down screens are a nice touch to differentiate from the iPhone’s setup, and the whole getup is intuitive with a very responsive touchscreen like the iPhone’s. Browser navigation is also noticeably faster on the Droid. I could never understand the reasoning behind using black backgrounds with white font, as many of the setting tabs and information screens on the Droid use. Aside from it being momentarily hip-looking, it just leads to eye fatigue. I also couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed in the app icons for the Droid – they look almost dated, miniaturized and scrunched. The resemblance to a PC platform is definitely apparent in contrast to the iPhone’s chipper, hip, young groove that’s inherent to Apple. For those looking for less flash, less cutesy animations, this may be an asset, because if there’s one thing the iPhone fell short on, it was mass appeal.

The iPhone upon each of its releases was a huge success. Huge, just absolutely massive. It was futuristic and beautiful in one intuitive and flashy little package that appealed to the materialistic techie in all of us. But, it wasn’t exactly an accessible phone to older generations, or people who wanted a phone with the same perks that didn’t blatantly scream Apple. After all, the Rubicon study pointed out the main iPhone user demographic is largely young professionals in their 20s and 30s. With the Droid, you have a less flashy, more practical package that will certainly appeal to those other people, and still deliver the goods. In favor of the Droid, too, is that the price is at par with the iPhone’s current selling price – with 8 more gigs to spare (the Droid’s 16 gig phone is priced the same as the iPhone 8 gig).  This is assuming, of course, that you’re just starting a plan. My mother-in-law recently purchased a Droid on an existing Verizon plan for a scant, drool-inducing $99.99.

Considering my mother-in-law is a part of that aforementioned demographic, I found her personal, laymen experience with the Droid to be an invaluable critique. Granted she had never used a smartphone before, she couldn’t even figure out how to turn on the Droid; it turns out the foreign symbols on the opening screen threw her off, unlike the “Slide to Unlock” phrase clearly dictated on the iPhone. I admit the opening screen is a bit jazzier than the iPhone’s, but I think her initial confusion over symbols could easily parallel her initial experience with cellphones. It’s just a matter of learning a new set of pictorial tools.

Her big problem with the Droid? The manual. The Droid doesn’t come with a manual – or, at least, it doesn’t come with a proper one detailing all the ins and outs of your phone. The phone arrives (or crashes down in a meteorite, your pick), and all you see when you open the box is an ornate, glossy Quick Start Guide going over the basic details – how to make a phone call, what are apps, how to access this and that, etc. For some people, my mother-in-law included, having a full manual is of utmost importance – some people simply prefer reading through the material over just winging it. It’s true that the Droid and other smartphones can generally get away without an in-depth manual because the assumption is most users are capable of learning by using. However, after playing around with the Droid I was almost tempted to download the user guide from the Motorola site – the Droid’s interface is complex and convoluted compared to the iPhone and even I – young-blooded youth that I am – had initial troubles navigating the many hills and troughs of the Droid (for one, I’m still unclear if you have to slide out the keyboard to turn on the screen. I can’t figure out another way, but there must be one, right?). All I can say is, trust me, those people unable to intuitively figure out a gadget just by using it will need the manual. Apparently, when my mother-in-law tried to download the manual in the first week of the Droid’s release, the Motorola site was so backlogged and slow, sometimes didn’t even load, that she couldn’t get her hands on a manual until last week. While I cannot personally attest to this claim, I don’t doubt there are hordes of people desperately seeking more information on their intricate, robotic, Droid systems. Didn’t expect that horde of humans coming, did you Droid?

But, on to using the Droid. The first thing I wanted to experiment with was the keyboard. In their iDon’t marketing campaign, one of Motorola’s biggest complaints regards the iPhone’s lack of a physical keyboard. Okay, that’s a legitimate claim – the iPhone sure doesn’t have a physical keyboard. But, this has to be the most hackneyed and unfounded of complaints for the iPhone. I know people who’ve switched from Blackberries to iPhones with nary a hitch, and after adjusting to the virtual keyboard, they found that depressing a key on a physical keyboard actually took more of a concerted effort than to just tap, tap, tap with increasing speed. The Droid’s physical keyboard is okay in a pinch – if you just have to use a physical keyboard – but the keys are too miniaturized, overly compartmentalized into a small space. Those with large fingers beware – trying to push down on those tiny, individual keys will take some getting used to (I have small fingers and I had problems). At least the four-pad navigator to the right of the keyboard is useful in navigating browser windows, and looks super cool, like an exposed security scanner circuit.

The virtual keyboard, in contrast, is an absolute breeze. From the landscape mode, I will tiptoe over the line of loyalty and admit I prefer it to the iPhone landscape keyboard – the Droid’s keys are better spaced despite actually being closer together, and I like the pared down minimalist look to the keyboard, with its typewriter letters and slate gray palette. The iPhone keyboard looks hokey almost, by comparison. But, they both work well and are on equal planes. Lukas Mathis of Ignore the Code wrote extensively on the Droid keyboard, if you’re interested in further reading.

Other claims from the iDon’t marketing campaign fail to impress me, as well. The flaunting of allowing open development and customization are particular yawn-inducers because, who, aside from the absolute tech geeks who actually know what this jargon means, will care? Seriously. Same with the “iDon’t run widgets.” Who even uses widgets? Frankly, I need to be reminded: what is a widget? As for the Droid’s ability to run simultaneous apps, they needed a boost because the iPhone App Store just kills with sheer volume and availability. Besides, the iPhone uses push notification – maybe not the greatest, but it works well enough when an app wants our attention – which already drains the iPhone battery like hell. I shudder to think how quickly running simultaneous apps will drain the Droid’s battery life, no matter how much longer it’s touted to last.

Despite these almost frivolous claims, the Droid does have some amazing qualities that push it past the iPhone’s established glory. First off, the camera. Boy, is this a great camera. With 5-megapixels, your pictures will be far clearer than on the iPhone, and the factory equipment included for the Droid’s camera is vastly superior. You can adjust color schemes, white output, contrast and more, and hey, there’s even a flash. A flash! Good thing “iDon’t take pictures in the dark” really holds true. Also, switching from camera to video use is as easy as moving a little slider icon up one centimeter. Done. You may easily access each gallery by switching back and forth between camera and video mode. And, just like the iPhone, you may share photos (MMS, email), upload images, and use images as wallpapers.

At first, I was deterred by the camera interface. The awful, pebbled gray palette for the camera’s background is not exactly pleasing to the eyes, and reminded me of the very first Diablo Game, with its pixelated dungeon labyrinths and medieval setting. The image quality when viewed through the Droid’s screen was just plain awful, possibly more awful to look at than the iPhone, but once imported to a computer, of course, the image quality spoke for itself. As for the camera, itself, it was annoyingly slow to cooperate – I found myself pushing some buttons repeatedly before they’d fire, and when accessing the camera, this odd, clunky noise is heard, like an old camera booting up. Not a necessary sound, and not enjoyable to hear. However, the many options and features, and the fantastic image quality more than make up for these deficits. It definitely leaves the iPhone in the dust with its, what, no factory options other than just point and shoot? No wonder the iPhone has so many photo apps.

I had to try out some games next. I was just aching to see how they’d pan out, considering the Android store has a mere estimated 10,000 to the more than 100,000 available on iTunes. Frankly, though, numbers won’t win this game. If the Droid’s touch interface proves to be just as sensitive as the iPhone’s, then this coupled with its faster processing speed and higher resolution screen could spell greater gaming platform. <cue Twilight Zone music>. For a fair analysis, I tried out Labyrinth Lite on the Droid, since I recently played and reviewed Wooden Labyrinth 3D for the iPhone. Though the screenshot come out fine, while on the Droid, the image/playing field was oddly stretched, despite the better resolution on the Droid (maybe it was ported over without translation from the iTunes store? Doubtful, with the Android software). But, despite the odd, strange stretching of the image, the game was thoroughly enjoyable, just as enjoyable as the iPhone game. Dare I say the sounds were even a bit better on the Droid – the metal ball clacking against the wooden sides are so lifelike, I may as well have been playing the actual board.

The best feature, by far, on the Droid, is the Maps. After feeling both the slick, red flush of elation and the droopy demeanor of disappointment, I had to save the best for last. Wow. Just wow. Google mobile maps is a thing of pure beauty. The best aspect is its built-in GPS navigation. For the iPhone, users have to purchase a GPS navigation app, the truly good ones (TOM TOM) costing upwards of $100.00. They’re mighty expensive if they’re going to work. Not only is the Droid’s GPS Navigator built-in, it offers nice perks, like voice command directions, interactive touch map directions (touch a destination on the map), and the Droid will even voice direct you (albeit, with old-school digitized voice a la Dragon Naturally Speaking). Another feature is the option for filter views like layer terrains (yes, you can use street view with Droid – in 3D with directions, no less), restaurants, traffic, and more. It’s just superior to the iPhone Maps in every way possible.

With all this said, It does take awhile to get adjusted to the Droid – this coming from someone accustomed to an iPhone. The iPhone – I’ll give Apple some kudos here – is just so damn easy to understand. It’s incredibly intuitive. The Droid, by comparison, can seem daunting, like a jumble of information and settings panels. For those wishing to know how to operate their Droid without a manual, don’t bother with the phone tutorial. It’s barely two paragraphs long and won’t help you a bit. It’s laughably brief.  Also, the black background with white writing may aggravate some users after awhile, and there’s no option to change this feature. The Droid’s heft, despite its comparable size to the iPhone, is slightly unwieldy and cumbersome, and I wince at thinking of carrying this phone with me when I jog, or in the pockets of my snug sweaters, where its sharp corners may dig into my sides.

But, these are minor quibbles, and for a phone that opened with 100,000 units sold in its first weekend, I’d say it’s about time another phone made the iPhone sweat. Let’s face it, Verizon provides better service than AT&T, and the biggest grumble iPhone users have had over the years is the unwavering contract with AT&T. Apple is going to have to kick itself, and its mantras into shape, now that a new smartphone has cast a menacing red eye of offense. Yes, the Droid has broken through our atmosphere and landed with a bang, forever altering our biosphere.