Can you believe the Motorola DROID is over three-years old? Since its introduction, we have seen four versions of the handset. Each one has been improvement over the previous model and the Droid 4 is no exception.
The Droid 4 is the first to rock 4G LTE and the first with a laser-etched, 5-row keyboard. Under the hood, the handset sings along with a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of internal storage. There’s also an 8-megapixel, rear, HD camera, a front-facing camera for video chat and a 4-inch qHD display.



If you think of the Droid 4 as a Razr with a keyboard, you’ll get a good idea of what that handset is like. The Droid 4 sheds the boxy look of earlier Droids and adopts a spiffy, round-edged style. The Droid 4 also has an excellent-slide out QWERTY keyboard that makes typing out a tweet an absolute dream. You can see the bigger and better keyboard of the Droid 4 next to the Droid 2 in the image to the left.
The handset has a solid feel and is weighted perfectly for one hand usage. It also has a textured backing that keeps the phone from slipping through your fingers. The Droid wont win the title as the thinnest Android handset on the Market as it’s about as thick as the Droid 3. That’s the tradeoff if you want a dedicated keyboard, though. If you fancy yourself a smartphone photographer, you’ll be happy to learn the Droid 4 has an 8-megapixel rear shooter that takes decent-quality pictures.


On the software side of things, the Droid 4 is similar to the Razr which is terrific if you like the look and feel of Motorola’s latest Android implementation. The Droid 4 also has MotoCast, a remote media app, and SmartAction, an app that lets you create time-saving shortcuts. On the enterprise side, it supports government-grade encryption and includes a Citrix client for remote desktop access. The Droid 4 ships with Android 2.3.5, but it’s slated to get Ice Cream Sandwich in the upcoming months.
The question you all want to know, though, is should I buy the Droid 4. And the answer is “it depends.” If you are married to the idea of a QWERTY keyboard, then don’t hesitate to get the Droid 4. You’ll be happy with its snappy performance and the keyboard is one of the best we have seen on a non-BlackBerry handset. If you like a thin phone and don’t mind a virtual keyboard, then you may be better off with a Razr or even a Razr Maxx. The Maxx is a bit thicker than the Razr, but it has exceptional battery life even on 4G LTE.
If you want more details on the Droid 4, you can check out our earlier hands-on video below. You can also check back next week when we will have a full review.


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