Motorola DRoiD 4

The slide-out QWERTY sporting Motorola Droid 4 is one of the fastest product sequels I’ve seen in quite some time. The Android smartphone hit the shelves at Verizon Wireless only six months after its predecessor, Motorola Droid 3 arrived, thus making me curious about the changes it has brought with it.

Speaking about changes in the newcomer, they are actually quite a few. The Droid 4 has seen a healthy bump in its CPU speed and RAM memory, compared to the third installment in the lineup. The handset also features LTE connectivity on board, along with revised exterior design and Android UI. The latter bring it right in line with the Droid RAZR lineup.

As you probably know, Motorola Droid 4 is a LTE/CDMA device, which is why you won’t find it in the usual review section of GSMArena.com. As the only dual-core and LTE featuring, hardware QWERTY handset currently on sale in the United States, the Droid 4 deserves plenty of attention. So go ahead and enjoy this short version of our trademark reviews. As always, I’ll get things cracking by taking a look at the smartphone’s key features.

Key features (at a glance)

• Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU; PowerVR SGX540 GPU; TI OMAP 4430 chipset
• 4″ TFT capacitive touchscreen with qHD (540 x 960 pixels) resolution; 275 ppi pixel density
• 1GB RAM; 16GB built-in storage; microSD card slot
• 8MP autofocus camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording, 1.3MP front-facing unit
• Superb LTE network connectivity
• Possibly the best slide-out QWERTY keyboard in the business
• Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread with Motorola’s proprietary UI; ICS update planned
• Solid build quality and pocket friendly measures

The list get completed with the usual full connectivity set and Motorola’s exclusive software tricks. A closer look at the above highlights will tell you that, in more than one way, the Motorola Droid 4 is actually a Droid RAZR with a QWERTY keyboard – not a bad thing as I came to like both versions of the RAZR.

Below are some of the Droid 4′s features, which I did not fancy that much.

Main disadvantages

• The 4″ TFT display features older PenTile technology and has poor contrast and viewing angles
• The non user replaceable 1785mAh battery offers less than a solid performance
• No dedicated camera button
• The device comes with absurd amount of preinstalled, non-removable proprietary Verizon apps

Believe it or not, the Motorola Droid 4 is currently the only dual-core and LTE packing, Android smartphone with a hardware QWERTY on sale in the United States. This means that the Moto has practically no competition to face. Regarding this one – I am sure that neither Motorola, nor Verizon Wireless have anything against such state of affairs.