Motorola’s Droid 2 vs. the Original Droid - millertencephad

Ladies and gentlemen, the next generation of Droid has entered the building. Well, almost.

Verizon officially took the wraps off its Motorola Droid 2 Tuesday morning. The Droid 2 is a bluff successor to the original Motorola Droid, which debuted last November. It launches this Thursday, August 12, with presales beginning on the 11th.

So what's actually changed from the original Droid to the rising Droid 2? A the right way amount, actually. Check out this comparison chart for a side-by-side glance at the two phones' specs and features, and read along for some more specifics. (Click effigy to soar upwards.)

In basic appearances, the top bevel on Motorola's Droid 2 has a silver gray finish and

extends all the way to the bottom of the phone, whereas the seminal Droid's bevel square was black and leftist a twenty-five percent-of-an-inch disruption at the bottom. The Droid 2 also has a blueish tint to its bet on side, compared to its predecessor's solid negroid look. (You can get a closer look at the Droid 2's design at Verizon's 360-degree demo page.) Oh yea — and then on that point's that limited-edition, super-geeked-out R2-D2 variation of the Droid 2, overly. That's pretty damn chilly.

The just about significant differences, nevertheless, aren't about looks; they'rhenium about functionality. The Droid 2 has a altogether redesigned keyboard with larger, raised keys and no spatial relation domiciliation. IT also boasts a 1GHz central processor and 512MB of RAM, openhanded information technology considerably more index than its older brother's 550MHz chip/256MB RAM combination.

In terms of storage, the Droid 2 packs a estimable 8GB of internal space. The original Motorola Droid, as those of us who have it know every too well, is modest to a relatively puny 256MB internally.

The Droid 2 ships with Humanoid 2.2 already preloaded with support for Adobe brick Flash. The first Droid, interim, is in the midst of receiving its Humanoid 2.2 upgrade right now, and information technology looks equal it may atomic number 4 another few weeks before Flash bulb support is enabled.

Even within Froyo, the 2 phones have noticeably different flavors. The Droid 2 has the same customized interface American Samoa Motorola's Droid X. It's essentially a toned-down version of Motoblur: It's less cluttered and intrusive, but the grassroots features — the social network widgets and special sailing bar — are inactive present. The Motorola Droid, in counterpoint, runs an unmodified version of the banal Android operating system.

All told of the Droid 2 prelaunch give-and-take, one affair we didn't hear such about was battery life history. According to Motorola, this is an area where the Droid has been dramatically improved. Motorola quotes an estimated talk meter of 9.6 hours with the new Droid 2, compared to 6.4 hours with the earlier model. In understudy, the Droid 2 is listed at 13.1 days; the first Droid gets 11.3.

At last, the Droid 2 — suchlike the Droid X — includes support for Wisconsin-Fi hot spot functionality. This feature can constitute activated for an extra $20 a month. The original Droid, due to apparent firmware limitations, does not bear this option (though it rear still be tethered via USB, with the right configuration).

So there you have information technology: the tale of two Droids — two very different phones with a Lot of similarities. Let's good Leslie Townes Hope this story doesn't end in sib rivalry.

Jn Raffaello Santi is a PCWorld contributing editor and the source of the Mechanical man Power blog. He's happening some Twitter and Facebook; come say hello.