Even with a large touchscreen and a sliding keypad, the Motorola Droid
is almost as slim as the iPhone, and the fastest Android device around
When the T-Mobile HTC G1 launched last year, it did turn a few heads but it was nowhere near the iPhone and definitely not the ‘Google Phone’ that everyone hoped it would be. But one year later, the search giant’s Android operating system has got a lot more takers and it is now ready to take Apple on. The weapon of choice? Motorola’s upcoming ‘Droid’ or ‘Sholes’ handset, which Google itself has been directly involved in making. The name’s a bit of a giveaway, eh?
Right on the heels of this morning’s long showcase of the upcoming version 2.0 of Google Android, Boy Genius Report has got its hands on this gizmo, which they are calling the ‘most impressive phone we’ve used since the iPhone’. High praise indeed, and here are some of the reasons why:
1. Google’s involvement: The point that stands out the most is where BGR reports that Google itself had a very large role in the making of the Motorola Droid. “Something to the point of almost dictating every move Motorola made when designing and making the phone,” the site says.
2. Fastest Android phone: Running on Android 2.0, it’s no surprise then that this is the fastest Android phone yet (it uses the same 600MHz processor as the Palm Pre). This is the Android device to beat, according to the reviewer.
3. Thinnest Qwerty slider: Apart from the huge capacitive display (which is the best that BGR has used on an Android handset), the phone comes with a Qwerty keypad. Yet, it still manages to keep a slim profile, being only slightly thicker than the iPhone 3GS. “Thinnest Qwerty slider we’ve seen,” says BGR.
4. Sturdy build: While the Qwerty keypad has easy-to-use soft-touch rubberised keys, the whole phone feels quite sturdy overall, unlike the ‘plasticy’ G1.
5. Multimedia dock: A desktop cradle/charger, which the phone ships with, turns it into a multimedia docking station.
Read the above and take a look at BGR’s image gallery (a few of which are posted below), and you will not be wrong in coming out with the kind of hype that the iPhone promised at its launch. This seems to be mobile computing at its finest, and this is only boosted by the fact that ‘Google itself has a direct hand in it’.
The ‘Google Phone’ lives?