Anyone have a chance to play with it before it's release July 15th? Read some reviews and thinking about getting rid of the BB Tour for it. Only downside is no world capabilities, which I tend to use alot.

Also, just slightly smaller than the iPad.

I've had one for about 2 weeks now. The large display is excellent, call quality is good, and it's easy to use. It feels lighter than one would expect although it's a drop bulky in terms of pocketability.

My take thusfar is that, for users who want an incredible multimedia experience, this is a worthy contender.

I haven't had time yet to write a complete review but I hope to do so in the next few days.

For some people, like me, that's a good thing.

Thanks for the review. Been with BB's for the past quite a few years. Looking for a bit of change. Still wish it has world capabilities. Look forward to your report. Oh, how'd you get one early?

lol . Yes the phone is huge.

Verizon invited me to the main launch event and handed them out.

Nice, my store has them, but wont activate until Thurs. Any other thoughts before then, esp of why I may NOT want it, would be appreciated.

Only reasons not to get it:

1) Motorola is very, very slow in getting updates to its phones - the Cliq on T-Mobile is still running Android 1.6. Even the Droid X runs an older version of Android at its launch. They have said they'll have "Froyo" on it as soon as they can, but that could easily slip to the end of the year.

2) It is BIG. Big is fine if you want a BIG phone, but you really do need to keep in mind that this is not really a shirt pocket kind of phone.

3) CDMA only - which means it'll be pretty much useless for anything other than WiFi data abroad where GSM is king. Yes - you can buy a second phone for travel. That said - The Verizon 3G network is fantastic.

At the rate Android phones are coming out, the Droid X will be considered outdated by September. Of course, that doesn't bother everyone, but keep in mind that Verizon will have LTE (4G) sooner or later.

How big a customer do you have to be to get that kind of treatment? Or are you a journalist?

The biggest negative for me is that it is NOT a world phone. I do have my unlocked blackberry's, but still would be nice to have it in one. I am too concerned about the update, hopefully its sooner than later. Ill have a look on Thurs. if it's too big, I ll wait. My rep also said there was another BB coming out this month for them, but couldnt give me any other details.

I've heard that lots of Android phones have been stuck on old releases, but I didn't get the impression that this was specifically a Verizon problem. In any case, it's an interesting problem for the industry as more consumers buy smartphones- upgrades to "regular" cell phones are rarely needed. Maybe they're hoping you'll just renew your contract and buy the phone du jour.

It is indeed a major problem, but Motorola has been one of the slowest to update. Also, the Droid X is very well locked down, so this could mean that the "homegrown" updates won't become available for it either.

For the majority of my day, I'm the chief analyst at Basex, a research firm/think tank focusing on knowledge economy issues and challenges such as the problem of Information Overload.

Then there's my slash career as a journalist, which includes serving as technology editor at Business Traveler magazine and Executive Road Warrior magazine.

I bought my Droid within a month of release, and rooted it within my first month of use (it currently runs the 550 MHz processor at 1250 MHz, with never a single stability, heat, or battery usage issue). The Milestone boot loader is still not cracked, but you can root & use modded ROMs nonetheless. The Droid X is supposed to be even harder to crack than the Milestone, but I'll make the following prediction - within a month of release, there will be at least 2 or 3 hyped up ROMs you can run on your rooted Droid X. There is a pretty big, very nerdy, very dedicated community of Droid hackers and fanatics out there.