Shadowex3

HTC makes good droid phones, although I've got a more midrange Samsung Intercept (think Moment 2.0) myself.

The stock google apps are really quite good for most things and integrate extremely well with the OS and their full-computer counterparts, which is to be expected since android itself comes from them as well.

So far I've installed:

Barcode Scanner for QR codes (those square ones that you see online)
Shopsavvy (regular barcode scanner) for checking retail prices
Meebo for messaging since it supports damn near EVERYTHING
Astrid for task management
Bump for transferring contact info easier
Rock player for media
GPS Status for exactly that, and since it makes a kickass compass
Launcherpro as a replacement for the standard launcher/home UI
I tried Opera 5 Mini and liked the tabs but it messes with scanning QR codes for apps and the standard browser really functions quite well since it's chrome based.
And I'm a heartbeat away from buying Tasker for... well... anything.

Most of those are self explanatory but Astrid and Launcherpro really stand out and deserve some more discussion. Astrid is one of the best task managers I've ever used, it supports everything from tags (which for once are handled sanely) to random or scheduled reminders and several levels of priority. Supposedly it's a "Getting Things Done" compatible program but I never got into that stuff and use it primarily as a simple To Do list. It's functional enough to deal with homework assignments from multiple classes, but it also works simply enough to make a simple and easy grocery list.

Launcherpro is a replacement for your "launcher" and home screens. At it's most basic level it lets you have as many screens as you want and allows you to tap the home key when ON a homepage to display all of them (zoomed out) while replacing the drag-me-out application list with a multifunction reprogrammable shortcut bar that you can also scroll through like a wheel. I use mine to launch meebo, go to messages, get to my apps, and haven't finished exploring the rest of the shortcuts and features yet. It's got some restricted for-pay features but even the free version is more than good enough imho.

I also mentioned the only for-pay-only Tasker. This one might be a bit out of your scope of interest and use but basically its an app that lets you say to your phone "When X happens do Y" where X can be just about anything you can define that the phone can recognize, you can basically use it to do pretty much anything as Lifehacker has pointed out in several articles now.

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