The Droid X has been one of this summer’s most hotly anticipated devices. While the release date is today (happy B-day X!), we’ve had a ton of previously available information to sift through . Many respectable blogs received demo units over a month ago, the device was accidentally sent out early to a few hundred customers, and there’s even been a nationwide scavenger hunt where 21 lucky people happened to be standing right next to where VZW was standing. So, pretty much everyone else in the world has this phone except me and the stray cat across the street.

Anyway, I’m not going to let a few minor details like “holding it” or “using it” get in the way of conveying my impressions to you readers. After some info scrounging, I think I’ve come up with enough to throw an article together. Shall we dive in?

Overall design

From what I can tell looking at other reviews and augmenting them further in my imagination, the X is a gorgeous looking device. The form factor is boxy yet sleek, invoking an impression of a calculator from the year 4147. Overall, the device has a thickness of…..um, a box of Tic Tacs, but there’s a tapered “bump” at the top where the camera is housed. According to Motorola, this helps give the X an aerodynamic drag coefficient that’s HALF of the iPhone’s.

The build quality of the phone appears to be solid. In my mind, I don’t hear or feel the device creaking when typing on the screen. The buttons look to be glued on tight, and most of the ports (in pictures) seem well aligned with the casing.

I’ve included additional information in the following infographic.

The weight of the phone is listed at 5.4 ounces, which is roughly equivalent to a partially filled coffee cup. If fractions are not your forte, remember that TWO X’s = ONE full cup. If that’s still not good enough and you have the time and materials, you can fashion a crude (5 oz) replica out of clay to get a better “hands on feel”.

Screen

The first thing you’ll notice when looking online at pictures of the Droid X is the massive screen. This gorgeous TFT capacitive touchscreen comes in at 4.3 inches and has a resolution of 854 x 480, SAME as the original Droid. One could argue that I can’t judge the screen without seeing it in person, but they’d be wrong. All I need is our little friend mathematics…

Invoking the transitive property of equality (if A=B and B=C, then A=C) we can conclude that the X’s screen (being identical in resolution) looks just as nice as the original Droid’s. See? I paid attention in class.

Call Quality

We often forget the phone part of a smartphone, but voice clarity is paramount for communication. The call quality on the X should be pretty good, if only because Motorola has been making phones for 57 fucking years and should have figured it out by now. I mean all you make are phones, how could you possibly mess that aspect up?

Battery

The battery fueling the X is a monstrous 1540 mAh, which means you’ll probably get anywhere between a minute and week of power, depending on usage of course. In case you’re wondering, an ampere-hour or amp-hour (symbol Ah , A·h, A h) is a unit of electric charge, with sub-units milliampere-hour (mAh) and milliampere second (mAs). One ampere-hour is equal to 3,600 coulombs (ampere-seconds), the electric charge transferred by a steady current of one ampere for one hour. The ampere-hour is frequently used in measurements of electrochemical systems such as electroplating and electrical batteries. The commonly seen milliampere-hour (mAh or mA·h) is one-thousandth of an ampere-hour (i.e., 3.6 coulombs).

Camera

Motorola has done a great job of “staying in the megapixel race”, and the X is no slouch in that department. The camera weighs in at a hefty 8 Mpx, features a dual flash, and is even capable of shooting 720P video, albeit it at 24 frames per second.

But what type of performance can we expect in the real world? I have no idea, since I’ve never touched the device. Instead, I conjured up some fictitious review devices in my imagination. I figured the ultimate test would be to to pit the Droid’s camera against Apple’s latest offering.

The comparison shots on the right practically sell themselves. We can see that the photo quality of the X easily surpasses the iPhone in a number of key areas. The grey “pops” out with a far more life-like vibrancy, the pixel noise is practically non-existent, and the focus seems to be slightly sharper. Great job Moto!

Software

The phone ships with operating system version 2.1, which is what most Android phones are running these days. Pick up (or borrow a friend’s) your/their Android device. What do you think? If it’s slow and buggy, then the X is slow and buggy. If it’s fast and “buttery smooth”, then the X too will be fast and buttery smooth.

Many phones (including the X) will be upgrading to 2.2 in the near future. At that time you may rinse and repeat the above exercise.

Final thoughts

The Droid X, from what I’ve read and been told, is a really solid device. I think it’ll make a great addition to Verizon’s Android line up, probably because their marketing people think it’ll make a great addition. I can’t wait to get some actual hands on time with the X, possibly by playing with one at a house party or peering over a shoulder while in line at Starbucks. If I discover anything new, I’ll be sure to report back!