SpecEagle
SpecEagle review · Motorola

Motorola Droid A855 (1st gen) review: 2009 Verizon Android savior.

SpecEagle Editorial·Nov 2009·$200
Overall
72/100
Class rank
#4 of 35
Tier
Flagship
Buy?
At the right price
The verdict, up front

Droid A855 (1st gen).

Verizon's 2009 Droid made Android mainstream in the US with iconic "Droid Does" ad campaign.

01Display

76/100

At 76/100 this is one of the strongest display showings among flagship phones of 2009 — 15 points above the cohort average.

TypeCapacitive TFT
Size3.7"
Resolution480 x 854

02Performance

68/100

At 68/100 this is one of the strongest performance showings among flagship phones of 2009 — 22 points above the cohort average.

ChipsetTI OMAP 3430
CPU550 MHz Cortex-A8
RAM256 MB

03Camera

68/100

At 68/100 this is one of the strongest camera showings among flagship phones of 2009 — 13 points above the cohort average.

Main5.0 MP AF + flash

04Battery

70/100

At 70/100 this is one of the strongest battery showings among flagship phones of 2009 — 13 points above the cohort average.

Capacity1,400 mAh (removable)

05Software

76/100

76/100 puts it above the 72-point average for flagship phones of 2009.

What works
  • First major iPhone rival on Verizon.
  • Full slide-out QWERTY.
  • Android 2.0 Eclair launch.
  • Made Android mainstream in US.
What doesn't
  • 550 MHz CPU slow.
  • 256 MB RAM.
  • 165 g heavy.
  • Eclair early bugs.
Cross-shop it against
HTC Desire (original 2010)
$500 · score 74/100

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 35-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .