Android 2.01: First Look

The great minds at Google and Verizon have released their highly anticipated update to the Android operating system version 2.  Version 2.01 is largely a bug fix update with a few extras that have gotten some mixed reviews. Overall, its been a positive update and it would appear that Google and Verizon are going to keep pushing updates to further refine what has become a very successful phone and operating system.  For a complete listing of all the fixes you can click here.

Camera Screen (click for full size)

Probably the most important fix of course is the camera focusing issue that has plagued many users of the Motorola Droid.  While perhaps not the most important update, its certainly been the most talked about problem hindering the perfect operation of an otherwise good performing phone.  The other two major issues that I’ve read about since the release of this phone are the lack of Bluetooth voice dialing and the lack of multi-touch in most of the apps.  To my knowledge, neither of these were addressed in this update.  I would suspect that the Bluetooth issue is probably the most important update they could make going forward as many U.S. States have hands-free laws on the books now.  To not have the ability to voice dial from a Bluetooth headset is a pretty obvious flaw.  The multi-touch issue continues to boggle my mind as the phone is clearly capable of doing it.  There are at least two applications that have implemented multi-touch functionality including a browser offering that allows pinch zooming.  The European version of the Droid has multi-touch out of the box so clearly it was a conscious decision my Motorola, Google and/or Verizon to leave it out of the U.S. offering.  I can’t imagine that it will be too long before something is offered in this realm either from the open source community or from Google themselves.  Time will tell.

New Lock Screen (click for full size)

The first and most obvious thing that I noticed after the update was pushed to my phone was the new “Swipe to Unlock” mechanism on the lock screen.  Now instead of a sweeping arc in either direction to unlock or to turn off sound you have two separate horizontal “buttons” that you swipe.  Presumably, this was a measure to eliminate accidentally ignoring calls when your phone is ringing.  I know that sometimes when you are in a hurry to swipe to answer your phone you could accidentally swipe in the wrong direction effectively disconnecting the call.  Although this personally didn’t happen to me I can see the logic.  I have mixed feelings about this change as I had just gotten used to the old control.  I dont think I’m a big fan of the swipe action being initiated from the edge of the screen as the screen seems to be less sensitive at its edges.  Without some kind of sensitivity control for the screen (something I think that is needed by the way) this could be problematic.  I’ve noticed that sometimes I have to swipe the screen a couple times to get the thing to unlock or to answer a call.  Its not a dealbreaker for me but still I think I liked the old style better personally.

Once I had the phone unlocked and scrolled through a couple screens it was very apparent that the menus and events screens were much more responsive.  This was most clear with the events pull down which on the old firmware was jittery at best.  It is now very smooth and I find that I dont “miss” as often when trying to grab the tab with my finger.  In fact, everything seemed a bit snappier.  Now I’m not sure if that was just wishful thinking but the feel was smoother and seemed quicker.  Its really tough to judge though since the phone performed so well previously.

To me however, the single greatest thing about this update is the battery life improvements.  I’ve only had the phone for about a month but I can tell you that generally, I can expect to walk out of my house in the morning and by the time I come home from work I’m sitting at around half on my battery meter.  If I really use my phone a ton while at work then I could be into the yellow status of the battery.  Normally though I think its fair to say that I can get a days worth of usage out of the battery.  Plugging in before I go to bed is a must.  Since the update however there has been a dramatic increase in the life of my battery.  I left the house yesterday and used my phone in a moderate to heavy manner throughout the day.  When I arrived home my battery was at around two thirds life.  To make matters more interesting, I did not charge my phone over night and the phone lasted all day.  When I got into my car to drive home the warning message finally came on and said that I was at 15% battery and I needed to charge.  So, I dont know what others are seeing with regards to battery life but I’m reporting that it is much improved over what I’ve grown accustom to.

Outside of those very obvious items there isn’t too much to report.  I’ve read on some forums that people were getting better call quality however I dont notice much of a difference personally.  I thought the call quality was very good before and to me there hasn’t been a significant improvement.  Overall I think the enhancements are a great thing for this phone despite my grumblings about the new lock mechanism.  I’m happy to see that Google and Verizon have made what appears to be a solid commitment to keeping Android version 2 up to date and continually improve upon it.  I think its in everyone’s best interest that this phone succeed.  I’m not concerned at all about the Droid being an iPhone killer but I do think that having a solid phone on Verizon and on this competing platform is a good thing for the consumer.  I’ve played with and watched others with their iPhones and personally I think its a great phone.  I just dont care for the network it happens to live on.  I also thank Apple for creating the new smartphone genre if you will.  Without the iPhone I doubt all of us Droid owners would even be discussing these things.  There is nothing to take away from either phone here, they are both wonderful.  I absolutely love my Droid and I look forward to the next iterations of this phone and Android.  It can only get better from here.