You can upgrade your Motorola DROID manually with latest version of Android 2.1. So, updating the Motorola phone with Android 2.1 is possible. There is no need to wait for OTA. By following certain steps, you can easily update your smartphone with this new Android based Operating System. The process of updating the handsets with new version of Android based OS is quite simple.

The Mobile Crunch has come up with below instructions which can be used for updating the Motorola DROID with Android 2.1 Operating System. Download the official version of Android OS on your own risk. If you desperately want to install this improved version of Android 2.1 update manually in your mobile phone then you have to follow certain steps. With the help of these steps, you will be able to download latest build of Android 2.1. As per news reports, you need to download update file from Google, rename the file and save it on a microSD card inserted in your smartphone. Now, reboot your Motorola handset in to recovery mode and apply update.zip file.

By updating your stylish Motorola handset with Android 2.1, you will get voice-to-text entry, a 3D gallery layout, live wallpapers, free Yahoo Mail support, an updated Google Maps app, a night mode for Google Maps Navigation” as per the reports circulating around the web. In addition to that, the Motorola Droid comes with Google’s servers.

As per news reports, ‘the Motorola DROID is a CDMA mobile phone equipped with QWERTY keyboard. The fully fledged slider phone comes with high resolution 5 mega pixel camera along with DVD-quality video, image stabilization, real-time color effects, scene modes, location tagging, Dual LED, 4 times digital zoom, cropping, rotating, geo tagging. The feature rich smartphone encompass with Arm® Cortex™ A8 processor 550 mHz plus Android 2.1 OS, Wi-Fi and more.

It’s this simple: If you don’t buy an iPhone, buy a Droid.

It’s the best phone on Verizon, and with Android 2.0, the second best smartphone you can buy, period. It’s flawed, deeply in some ways. But it’s the second best phone around, on the best network around.

Droid is a champion of possibilities: for Motorola, for Verizon, for Android 2.0. It exists to show you what each of them can really do. You can kind of think of it like a Super G1, laying out what it means to be an Android 2.0 phone, with powerful new processors and delicious new displays with sky-high resolutions. If Droid is merely the first in a new wave, we have a lot to be excited about.
The Shiny New OS
The main attraction for Droid is Android 2.0, the remarkably updated mobile OS from Google. It’s so important, it gets its own review. After all, you will start to see it on other phones soon. It’s what makes Droid so great—new navigation app, new contacts/social network syncing, better email management, better browser—but also why Droid still falls short of the iPhone, particularly when it comes to managing music and video. If there’s something you don’t see here, chances are we discussed it in the earlier piece—if you care about the phone, you’re gonna want to read the full software review too.
Design and Build
It didn’t hit me until last weekend why Droid’s design struck such an emotional chord with me. Was it the functionalist, industrial masculinity, expressed perfectly through glass and metal and unapologetic angles, in a powerful phone that’s remarkably streamlined? It’s all of that, yes. But it’s also the fact that aesthetic is rendered black and gold metal accents, which is why it taps into something deep and profoundly affective from my childhood:
It’s practically cheating. I can’t not love the design of this phone.
Oh, That Screen
Droid’s 3.7-inch, 854×480 display with an eye-popping pixel density of 267ppi, is the kind of screen you ache for. An analogy: Do you remember how amazing you thought Nintendo 64 games looked, ten years ago? Have you looked at them lately? Do you remember the sinking feeling you got, realizing just how ugly they are now? That’s how’ll you’ll feel looking at every other phone with the now-standard 480×320 screens we thought were so gorgeous a couple of years ago. They’re lo-fi and lifeless by comparison.

It’s the clarity of the text that captivates. It’s true, there’ve been Windows phones with excellent screens that have the same resolution as Droid, but the font rendering has always been too weak to take advantage of them. Reading ebooks on an iPhone has always given me a headache (so I don’t), but with Droid’s pixel density, I could read on it for hours. It’s that good. The color’s fantastic, too, though not Zune HD OLED level.

Touch response is mostly effective. When there are misfires, like getting no response when you flick your finger to pull out the app menu, it’s hard to tell if it’s the phone or the software—at least until more Android 2.0 phones are out there. But no serious complaints.
Keyboard and Strange Buttons
The keyboard is okay. I liked it a lot more on Day 1 than I do today, and that’s because I never got any faster. The problem is that the key landscape is too flat and homogenous—a necessary sacrifice for Droid’s remarkable skinniness—so there’s simply no way to feel out precisely what key your thumb’s on, meaning I never broke out of having to stare at the keyboard while typing. I found the actual layout to be excellent. Overall, the keyboard works, but you’ll probably never fly on it. I’m faster on the landscape touch keyboard, personally.

The d-pad’s not as dandy as a trackball for getting around, but for navigating around text, it’s better than I expected—despite its puniness, I never pressed the wrong button.

But I hate the four soft touch buttons on the front of the phone. For one, there are no dedicated phone or end call buttons, so if you accidentally call somebody at 4am, you have to figure out how to end the call exclusively via the software interface. For two, the lack of feedback is annoying, especially if you’re holding down the search button trying to activate voice search and it’s not coming up. Did you miss the button? Are you pressing it wrong? Who knows? If Android’s going to rely hard on these four buttons, the way iPhone relies on the home button, they need to be actual physical objects.
This Camera Sucks
The camera is complete garbage. It takes 10 years to start up, 2 to focus, and another 4 to actually take the goddamn picture. And there’s no distinct visual feedback to let you know a photo’s been snapped. And the photos suck. That pumpkin shot, in decent lighting, is as good as it gets. Like I said in the Android 2.0 review, I don’t know if it’s the hardware or the software, but it’s inexcusably bad. (Update: Here’s a couple of more shots from the camera. You can compare the indoors one with the much better Sprint Hero sample shot seen here, since they were taken in the same place.)
Performance
Droid’s brain is a potent ARM Cortex A8 TI OMAP 3430—it’s basically the same as the chips inside of the Palm Pre and iPhone 3GS. Like I said in the Android 2.0 review, while it runs apps and multitasks with gusto, basic things like menus and the desktop stutter way too often. It’s like driving a Ferrari with a door that groans loudly every time you open it.
Battery Life
With moderate to heavy usage—browsing, some navigation, push Gmail, moderate app usage, with the occasional app running in the background—I managed to make it through a full 8-12 hour day before recharging, each day for about a week, though some days were closer than others. Your mileage will vary, depending on how many apps you’ve got running in the background and how much you hit GPS, but my experience was that it was entirely acceptable for a modern smartphone.
Nuts, Bolts and Stability
Verizon’s network is top notch, and being able to actually use the internet on my phone with impunity in New York is revelatory. In both New York and Seattle testing, reception has been excellent, though around Pittsburgh, it was spottier than expected. Voice quality was pretty excellent whenever we didn’t use Google Voice.

While definitely stable enough to use as an everyday phone, we did run into a few bugs: GPS accuracy was wildly off-target on more than one occasion, pinpointing our location hundreds of miles away, and the only way to fix it was to reboot the phone (I assume that’s a software issue, not a hardware one). We also had one complete crash after finishing a phone call that required a reboot. And more apps stopped responding more often than we were used to on previous versions of Android, requiring a force close.
Hello, Moto
These things are true about Droid: The camera’s not great; the keyboard isn’t mindblowing; Android 2.0 lacks the polish and multimedia prowess to completely match the iPhone. What’s also true is that a killer design, Google’s services, Android’s exploding app ecosytem, powerful multitasking, a stunning screen and Verizon’s network still make it the second best phone you can buy right now, after the iPhone.

At the same time, there’s reason to pause. Android is evolving more rapidly than any other smartphone platform, both in terms of the hardware and software. When HTC’s Hero came out, it crushed every other Android phone out there. Just a couple short months later, Droid is on top. In four months, we’ll probably see a new champion. That Droid sets such a high bar for everything after might be the best thing about it.

Motorola Droid

Design
At first glance, the Droid is sort of industrial looking; it features a square, gray design, and a face dominated by its big, 3.7-inch touchscreen. (That’s .2 inches bigger than the iPhone’s touchscreen, if you’re keeping score.) The Droid’s display also offers a resolution of 480 by 854 pixels, which is sharper than the 480 by 320 resolution of the display found on the iPhone 3GS.

When closed, the Droid is very similar in size to the iPhone 3GS. The Droid measures 4.6 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide, while the iPhone 3GS measures 4.5 inches by 2.4 inches. The Droid is slightly thicker than the iPhone 3GS, though, thanks in part to its full QWERTY keyboard, which slides out from beneath the display.
Voice and Data
The Droid runs on Verizon’s CDMA and high-speed EvDO networks. It also includes support for Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth wireless.
Software
The Droid runs the latest version of the Google Android operating system, version 2.0, which adds polish to the somewhat rougher earlier versions of the OS. One of Android’s biggest strengths is the amount of customization it offers — and that’s something that Verizon and Motorola have been hyping while advertising the Droid.

The Android Marketplace still pales in comparison to Apple’s App Store, which offers more than 100,000 apps. But more apps are being added to the Android Marketplace every day, and you’ll find a good selection of titles in there. The Marketplace offers a decent selection of apps for work and play, including a free version of Documents To Go, which allows you to view Microsoft Word and Excel files. (A paid version adds editing privileges, among other features.)

The Droid also is the first phone to feature Google’s new GPS application, called Google Maps Navigation. It’s a full-fledged GPS app, offering spoken turn-by-turn directions. And, unlike the GPS apps for the iPhone, Google’s Android app is free. Verizon will be selling a windshield mount for the Droid, and once the phone is inserted into the mount, it automatically enters a navigation mode.
Messaging
When the Droid was first announced, many outlets reported that Verzion Wireless would charge users an extra $15 per month to use the phone to access an Exchange e-mail account. Verizon, however, says that is not true. Consumers can use the Droid to access various e-mail accounts — including Exchange accounts — as part of the $30-per month data plan. Businesses, however, must pay for the $45-per-month data plan.
Camera
The Droid’s 5-megapixel camera is a big step up from the 3.2-megapixel model found on the iPhone 3GS. The Droid’s shooter includes a dual-LED flash, plus the ability to select from various scene modes, add color effects, and control the white balance. It also captures video at “DVD quality.”
Music and More
The Droid does not include access to Verizon’s suite of V Cast service, but instead offers the music features found on other Android phones. That means you get one-touch access to Amazon’s MP3 store for DRM-free music downloads. You also get a basic music player for organizing and playing back tunes.

So DROID users will be getting pinch-to-zoom in the browser and gallery, and pre-installed Google Goggles, among other features that have not been made official yet.We’re happy to relay the 2.1 upgrade to DROID will start to roll out this week, and we will have more information to share on other device upgrades later this week as well.

With a few stylistic changes including a taller and thinner frame, call and end hardware buttons and coloration differences, the HTC Droid Eris is essentially the HTC Hero on Verizon Wireless.

htc droid eris

The HTC Droid Eris comes loaded with the customized version of Android called “Sense” from HTC that brings many design and functionality improvements to the phone. At the most basic level, there are more homescreens, an improved UI, more widgets and tighter integration with your contacts.

Although the Droid Eris launched in the shadow of the Motorola Droid, only a couple months ago this was THE BEST Android Phone on the market and with only a $99 price when it first launched, the HTC Droid Eris is an incredibly attractive purchase and comes highly recommended.