I may not be a good person to ask because I haven't owned another smartphone (well, a Treo, but I won't count that). I used an iPhone briefly a year ago, trying to navigate in an unknown city while someone else drove.

I think the DroidX is great, personally. Big screen, interface is fine, nice standard stuff on it (Nav is really nice). Syncs with Gmail (since the OS is Google written I think) so I just synced my normal email account (yahoo) with my seldom/never used gmail account. Phone syncs with gmail automatically.

Great camera/camcorder, very sharp image, but neither are good in the dark (camera's flash is way too bright and camcorder just records blackness). On the other hand the Flashlight app is excellent - 2 LEDs is pretty bright when navigating a dark house without bothering anyone or the crawlspace where I feed the cats at work.

It's larger than others but I don't mind. Big enough virtual keyboard, esp when landscape orientation, but I usually use it holding it upright.

Battery life is reasonable - you can turn GPS, bluetooth, wifi (it can be a wifi hotspot, but you can't use phone at that time, and data is limited I think), and airplane mode on/off without doing anything (no special apps, it's a preloaded button thing). Leave them all on (and the super duper GPS on) and the battery drains in about a day. I let FB/Twitter sync all the time, don't use Nav all the time, and was using the camcorder in the car with the powercord disconnected (inadvertently), and I charge it a couple hours in the evening each day. I just plug it in to hear the phone say "Droid" lol. Without camcorder I can go a couple days without charging.

Although I was in IT for about 10 years, and I supported Linux systems for 5 of them, I've been totally disconnected from the industry for about 3 years. I have absolutely no clue (and no interest in learning) about the OS. Therefore, at a pretty broad level, I don't know what the limitations are of the phone.

I would love to have it become my powercontrol / head unit on the bike. That would be cool.

cdr