Is Motorola’s new Droid good enough to vanquish iPhone envy? To find out, Computer World took it on a 3-day trip.

My conclusion: My iPhone lust has been sated. The Droid, which costs about $200 after rebates and a two-year contract with Verizon, is superlative. On the whole, it is as carefully designed, useful and fun to use as an iPhone. At last.

Some quick observations
First, a note about the Droid’s general usability. In a word, it’s excellent. Google’s Android 2.0 platform, on which the Droid is based, feels fully formed and tightly designed.

With one notable exception — getting media onto the device — I never spent more than a few seconds figuring how to do something, which is the hallmark of a well-developed interface. For instance, when the device arrived, I immediately wanted to turn on Wi-Fi because of bad cellular reception in my house. At the Droid’s home screen, I pressed the menu key, then Settings — and there were all the wireless and networking options, just where I expected them.

The Droid’s basic interface consists of four buttons below the screen for backing up to the previous screen, displaying the menu, returning to the home screen and searching the device’s contents. Its home screen resembles the iPhone’s, with icons for all included apps. At the top of the home screen is a Google search box.

A major advantage compared to the iPhone is that the Droid multitasks. For instance, I was able to listen to Pandora while checking e-mail. To switch among running tasks, you press and hold the home button and a dialog appears with icons for the six most recently opened and still-running applications. You just tap on one of those application icons to switch to it.
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Hitting the road
The first test of the Droid on the road was to use its GPS capabilities. Like the iPhone and many BlackBerrys, the Droid comes with Google Maps, which provides static lists of directions. But unlike those competitors, the Droid also comes with Google Navigation (in beta form), which provides spoken turn-by-turn directions.
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Conclusion
Did the Droid put an end to my iPhone envy? Absolutely.

Sure, there are a few things that could stand improvement. Sideloading music should be easier, particularly from a Mac. And I can’t wait for the number of apps in the Android Market to grow.

But it has four significant features that the iPhone can’t match: built-in turn-by-turn GPS, multitasking, a superior display and a keyboard. And, like the iPhone, the Droid is powerful and elegantly intuitive to use. Better still, it’s fun.

At last, my iPhone envy is gone. I will get a Droid. It’s that good.

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