Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The mysterious Droid 2 might launch as soon as August 12.

Just last week, we saw that the original Droid had been listed as an end-of-life device by Verizon, meaning that no more Droids will be shipping from Motorola and support for the device will slowly taper off.
While this news was slightly sad for the Droid faithful, it also meant one very exciting fact: The Droid's next-gen replacement must be waiting in the wings. So we're not too surprised to see that sources are saying the Droid 2 will be launching on August 12, about three weeks from today.

Here's what we know about the Droid 2 based on previously leaked photos and video:

* It will retain the original Droid's excellent physical keyboard, although the keyboard buttons will apparently be slightly more raised.
* Couldn't figure out what to do with that gold D-pad? No worries -- it's gone in this iteration.
* That weird ledge between the screen and keyboard layers of hardware is gone, so you'll have a nice, smooth device in your pocket or purse.
* The device will feature a Wi-Fi tethering app, just like the Droid X and EVO 4G.
* You'll also have a 750MHz OMAP processor, a 5MP camera and an updated version of Motoblur.
Reports also suggest there might be a special Star Wars edition of the Droid 2 that features a white R2-D2 on the back. As you may have noticed from watching various Droid commercials, "Droid" is actually a licensed term owned by Lucasfilms.
We're waiting to hear back from a few Verizon folks; if they have some confirmation or comment for us, we'll update this post.

In the meantime, let us know what you think in the comments. Will the Droid 2 perform as strongly as its predecessor, given the glut of Android-powered "superphones" now on the market? Or do you think the iPhone clones have an edge on this smaller, slightly less flashy device?

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