Droid 4 Available February 10th for $199
by Jason Inofuentes on February 7, 2012 10:33 AM EST
It feels like we first saw images of the Droid 4 just a few days after our review went live. And so seven months later, looks like Verizon customers will finally have a chance to get their hands on the latest iteration of the Android phone that started it all (on Verizon, at least). Officially announced at CES (peep our hands-on here and here), the Droid 4 continues Motorola's recent history of marginally iterating with each new model. So, while the screen size (4.0"), resolution (qHD) and chipset (TI OMAP 4430) remain the same, the clock speed (1.2GHz), RAM (1GB) and form factor have been reworked.
The design mirrors the look of the Droid RAZR, including the sealed battery (now up to 6.8 Whr), and svelte design. Ironically, the phone is a hair thicker than the Droid 3 it replaces (13.1 mm vs. 12.9 mm), and some of that added thickness is a result of the inclusion of an LTE radio. There aren't a whole lot of QWERTY LTE phones, and the Droid 4 bests Samsung's Stratosphere 4G in thinness by nearly a millimeter. The 4.0" screen is TFT-LCD with PenTile RGBW at 960x540, likely the same one as the Droid 3.
Like all phones not called the Galaxy Nexus, the Droid 4 will ship with Gingerbread (skinned with not-Blur), and an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade will be incoming at a later date. Positioning the device at $199 gives buyers the option of the super-thin RAZR or the QWERTY inclusive Droid 4, with the cutting-edge Galaxy Nexus or the RAZR MAXX with its huge battery. Stay tuned, Droid 5 rumors should be trickling in any minute now.
Source: Verizon
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moltentofu - Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - link
Iphone 4.I know I know, mentioning apple is the Godwins law of tech blogs.
But seriously the "Motorola Droid Razr Maxx" sounds idiotic. Full disclosure: I really like the vanilla droid series.
Also, I once tried to buy an Acer laptop and gave up. I've owned Clevos so it's not a brand thing. Fix your stupid complicated product names people! And have less products!
Pessimism - Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - link
An 8 month old phone released as new, with a year-old operating system. I thought Google buying Motorola meant timely releases, apparently not. With Android phones having the lifespan of an average lap dance, they really need to step up their game if they want to appear innovative.moltentofu - Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - link
Eh, the announcement of purchase was in Aug last year. I'm really not going to worry much if Google wasn't able to get it together in 6 months or less to fully integrate with another multibillion dollar company, scrap a product probably already half way through its development cycle and create an even more kickass one out of thin air.Give them a calendar year before getting all, I don't know, pessimistic :P
JasonInofuentes - Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - link
The deal hasn't even been made, it's still under government review.Pessimism - Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - link
I can only dream QQJasonInofuentes - Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - link
This is the grand challenge for device manufacturers right now, particularly in the cycle driven US. Technologic innovations occur at a fixed pace. Look at Intel's Tick-Tock cycle, as an example. The roadmap for innovations is laid out by the engineers working on them. In 2011, the big innovations were thin construction, LTE, dual-core and qHD or HD screens. These innovations were commercially available at different times and while it would have been nice for all of them to coalesce into one device per manufacturer, that would have also have been a bit boring.The unfortunately result of our desire to not be bored and the slow pace of innovation, though, is that manufacturers must iterate gradually. So, as higher resolution screens are made available you stick them into phones. As dual-core chipsets ship out of the fabs you stick them in. LTE chips? Stick'em in there. New battery tech and super thin construction methods? Do it!
What's really irritating is that this could work more like the GPU space. Iterate a halo phone with all the bells and whistles first! Then over the weeks and months release a stratified line-up that includes phones missing a bell or whistle or two so that when all is said and done you have several phones at several price points that meet all your market desires. The every phone is a halo phone approach just means that it'll never pay to buy a phone within the first few months of it's release? It's price will drop by 30-50% before the ink's dry on your contract.
ol1bit - Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - link
My HTC Rezound is a great phone, I held out with my original Droid for quiet a while, and gave up on the Droid 4, when I got the Rezound for $149. Now I have a slight regret. I have 3 scratches on the surface of my Rezound. Just 2 months old. My original Droid 2+ years not a single scratch on the Gorilla Glass! Same pockets, same treatment!All glass is NOT made the same. I'll bet the keyboard is kewl as well.
JasonInofuentes - Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - link
Check with the retailer you bought the Rezound through. A lot of these places are really quite interested in making your experience a satisfying one, so they may be willing to work with you. It never hurts to try.Jason
kyhwana - Thursday, February 9, 2012 - link
When's the Milestone coming out? (Which is the "international"/non-verizon version)Will it have an unlocked bootloader?
For anand, will you be posting any announcements about the Milestone?
bones-of-ny - Friday, February 10, 2012 - link
I could have sworn that a release date for the Droid 5 was actually going to be a direct manifest of the 4's arrival!