Verizon gets Android in a big way with the Motorola Droid
After a few weeks of watching those catchy television commercials poking fun at the iPhone and then morphing into a futuristic Transformer-style ending, we now know what all the fuss was about. This morning, Verizon officially took the wraps off what it hopes is the biggest weapon against the iPhone, the Motorola Droid.
Running on the just-announced Android 2.0 (Eclair) architecture, the new slim slider features the usual bevy of specs and features we have come to expect in the newest smartphones. This couldn’t come at a better time for Motorola, who has lost significant marketshare from its RAZR heyday in the early part of this decade to companies such as Apple, HTC, and Samsung.
Full specs and details follow past the break, plus a picture with two extremely happy Verizon execs.
For many people, the slide-out hardware keyboard will be a big draw of the Droid, while for others it will be the included Google Maps Navigation, which only just recently was rumored and will make its first appearance in Android 2.0.
While the new software tweaks are welcome, it all comes down to what is under the hood powering those goodies, and the Droid seems to deliver there. For starters, we have the following hardware specs:
- 550 MHz processor (unclear if it is a Cortex A8 or ARM11)
- 3.7″ 854×480 touchscreen with haptic feedback
- Proximity and ambient sensors
- 5.0MP camera with dual-LED flash
- 802.11bg & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
- EVDO Rev. A
- Standalone and A-GPS
- 1400 mAh Li-Ion battery (385 minutes of continuous usage time)
The Droid is expected to be available from Verizon on November 6th, at a price of $199 on a new 2-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.
[DroidDoes mini-site]
