Motorola Droid 3 Cell Phone Review

The Hardware

As shown in Figure 3, the front of the Droid 3 has the speaker in the center near the top of the phone. To the right is a notification light and the front-facing camera.

The Droid 3 features a 4-inch (960 x 540) qHD display. Although not as detailed as the iPhone’s Retina display or the Samsung’s Super AMOLED, this display is crisp and clear and doesn’t disappoint in any way. It performs better in bright sunlight than displays of previous Droids like the original Droid and the Droid X.

In the black area of the screen on the bottom of Figure 3 you can see the four main Android icons: Menu, Home, Back, and Search. These icons are lighted when the phone is in use in a low-light situation. At the bottom is a lip which is part of the slide-out keyboard.

Figure 3: The front of the Droid 3

The left side of the Droid 3 is shown in Figure 4, where you can see a Micro USB connector for charging and a Mini HDMI connector. The HDMI connection works in a mirror mode, so you can see everything that is on the phone on an HDTV or larger display.

Figure 4: The left side of the Droid 3

Figure 5 shows the Volume control which is the only mechanism on the right side of the Droid 3.

Figure 5: The right side of the Droid 3

The top of the Droid 3, as shown in Figure 6, features the on-off switch and a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Figure 6: The top of the Droid 3

The keyboard itself is shown in Figure 7. It is a five-row QWERTY keyboard with a dedicated number row on the top. This is extremely useful; so much so that after you use it for a while, you may never want to go back to a keyboard without it. The Droid 3 also has dedicated arrow keys which are excellent for navigating the cursor when making text corrections. Another nice feature is that the keys are backlit. They light automatically when the room lights are dim.

Figure 7: The Droid 3 keyboard

The slider mechanism on the keyboard is a bit tight. Although that makes it a little more difficult to open, it does contribute to the solid feel of the phone. There is no wiggling or shifting when the keyboard is in use.

The keys themselves are a good size and are easy to press. The onscreen keyboard is also excellent, making this a good phone for those who do a lot of text entry. The onscreen keyboard supports SWYPE for those who like its ease of use.