More Details on Motorola Droid Surface [Updated]
Earlier this week, Verizon began an advertising campaign for the forthcoming Motorola Droid, pitting the smartphone against Apple's iPhone. At the time, Boy Genius Report offered a brief report of its hands-on impressions of the device, calling it "the Android device to beat, and easily the most impressive."
Detailed specs on the Droid, however, were unavailable until product pages for the device apparently appeared prematurely on Motorola's site yesterday. According to the pages, the Droid offers the following notable features:
- 3.7-inch, 854 x 480 touch screen with a pixel density of 267 pixels per inch (ppi), compared to the 3.5-inch, 480 x 320 screen at 163 ppi on the iPhone 3GS.
- Overall device dimensions of 2.4 x 4.5 x 0.5 in, only marginally thicker than the iPhone's 2.4 x 4.5 x 0.48 in. The Droid weighs in at 6 ounces, slightly heftier than the iPhone 3GS at 4.8 ounces.
- 5-megapixel digital camera with image stabilization, autofocus, and dual LED flash, compared to the 3-megapixel autofocus camera found on the iPhone 3GS.
- WebKit-based browser compatible with HTML5 and with support for Flash 10 planned for 2010.
- 16 GB microSD card included, with support for up to 32 GB cards.
Boy Genius Report has also promised a full preview of the Droid for sometime today.
Update: Boy Genius Report has posted its Droid preview, which is full of details regarding the user experience. Overall, BGR is very impressed with the device.
The Motorola CLIQ was a pretty big disappointment for me personally, but oh man does the Droid make up for it. Sure, there's a little hype sprinkled in because this is the first Android 2.0 device I've had the pleasure of using, but once you move past the initial "wow" factor, the Droid really delivers.
BGR hesitates to pit the Droid directly against the iPhone, noting that the only true competitor for the iPhone is the next iPhone, but the Droid will certainly stand out in a growing smartphone segment with room for a number of significant players.So will the Motorola Droid be successful? Absolutely, we think. It will eat in to BlackBerry sales, Windows Mobile sales, and positively murder any lingering Palm Pre sales. It's that good. Did you notice how Verizon still hasn't announced the BlackBerry Storm2?
We really enjoyed using the Motorola Droid and think you're going to love it. It's not as straight forward as an iPhone and a little more involved than a BlackBerry, but if you're up for the challenge, so is the Droid.
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How they keep putting more and more stuff into the same size package is beyond me! I wish my the iphone had a flash...hopefully Apple will put that into next summer's version along with a 5MP camera.
Obviously, the linchpin here is the OS. All the hardware in the world can't make up for a crappy OS that's hard to use. Then there's the app store (or lack thereof). With the Apple's App Store just crossing 100k apps, everyone else has A LOT of catching up to do!
does Apple have the patent on the on-screen keyboard? Why are people still using plastic keys? What's the advantage?
I'd prefer real keys...but this layout does not appeal to me. IMO, the Pre has a far better keyboard setup than this.
Also if it stays CDMA only it will be VERY limited in which countries can use it. Less use = less app developers = less apps.
Android phones are on the come up!
Someone figured out that you don't compete with the iPhone by being "cheaper" or "similar." You compete by being much better.
That doesn't make this an iPhone 'killer.' But I suspect it will be an iPhone 'competitor,' which is something a lot of other phones haven't even been able to achieve.
EDIT: And when I say "much better" I'm just talking about the hardware they've mentioned here. I'd say that software is 75% of the equation, so we'll have to wait and see on that.
i hope next year's update is significant compared to this year's.
FINALLY.
Someone figured out that you don't compete with the iPhone by being "cheaper" or "similar." You compete by being much better.
That doesn't make this an iPhone 'killer.' But I suspect it will be an iPhone 'competitor,' which is something a lot of other phones haven't even been able to achieve.
They said the same thing about the Palm Pre and since this phone is directly attacking the iphone in ads, it will make the inevitable comparisons all the more harsher. When this phone doesn't measure up to the iphone in a few months it will fade into oblivion just like the other iphone killers until another one comes out.
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