I like the Android platform a great deal. I find it relatively easy to use and quite powerful. The ability to run a number of applications in the background makes a tremendous difference in usability of the device. This continues to be one of the main shortcomings of the Apple iPhone. Add to that the tremendous integration of the device with Google’s various applications and you have a winning combination. Or so I thought.

During my initial encounter with the Droid last week during I found it to be exceptionally laggy. I had been about to purchase one when I walked out of the store instead. One of the comments on the post suggested that the device was slow because of the type of applications running in the background. Perhaps, he suggested, if I rebooted the phone I would have had a different experience. I decided to check it out for myself. A friend had just picked up one of the devices, and I had a chance to play with it for a while. Turns out the commentator was right. The lag was not nearly as noticeable on a “clean” device compared to the one I had seen in the store. As a result, I decided to pick one up and try it out for a while. Here is the e-mail exchange with Elana

“Got a droid”

“Do you like it?”

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“Why unfortunately?”

“Because I can justify having two devicesin my own mind but three? That’s a little bit too much.”

Well, a day later I decided that it was going back. One could argue that a day isn’t enough time to really be able to make the determination. Maybe so, but it was enough to make it clear to me that this device can’t replace either my iPhone or my Blackberry.

Here’s the good–

The screen on the Droid is gorgeous. It really makes the iPhone’s screen look blah. The integration with Google’s applications is phenomenal and since I use Google’s applications for just about everything it only makes sense to have a device that integrates as fully as possible. The droid does this– and the iPhone, I suspect, never will. It is fast. While there is still a slight lag at times, overall the Droid is peppy. The video camera is fantastic!!! It takes GREAT video.

That was the good. Here was the bad. The slide out keyboard stinks. The keyboard itself isn’t very good, and the location of the 5-way pad on the right is annoying. Worse than that, the whole “need to rotate the phone and slide out the keyboard to use” thing is obnoxious. I know some people like it, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why. It just isn’t convenient to have to slide out the keyboard what I want to use it, and it makes one-handed operation of the device a challenge. Yes, the device also has a soft keyboard that works in either portrait or landscape, but I have not found it to be as usable as the iPhone’s — at least not for me. Others swear by it. In addition, the physical keyboard makes the device a little bit thicker and heavier than the iPhone. That means that if I went with the Droid, I would have the added size and weight of the physical keyboard but never use it.

The biggest issue of all for me however was the interface. I’ve recently become a bit bored with the iPhone’s interface. It is simplistic and one-dimensional. The fact you have to select an application and then, if you want to use another application, go out of the application, find the next application and then go into the new one can be cumbersome. The amount of “tap, tap, tapping” that’s required, or more accurately “tap, swipe, tap,swipe, tap, tapping” that’s required is a pain. As it turns out, however, it is also a whole lot easier.

I like the Android interface but when I went back to the iPhone, I found that it was just so much more intuitive. On the iPhone I don’t have to think about what I am doing, and when I’m on the go that’s a huge plus. Yes, the iPhone’s interface is getting a little long in the tooth — but quite frankly, it’s still the best thing going, at least for me.