Moto Droid 2 at last confirmed by Verizon

After a near-constant string of leaks, Verizon today finally confirmed the existence of the Motorola Droid 2. The sequel to the best-selling Android phone ever is based on the same roots as the Droid X and has its 1GHz processor and customized Blur UI but in a QWERTY slider design familiar to original Droid owners. The phone still breaks ground as the first outside of Google to ship with Android 2.2 out of the box, giving it Flash 10.1 support, and has the X's 3G Mobile Hotspot sharing as well as DLNA media streaming.

The handset still revolves around a 3.7-inch, 854x480 display and a five-megapixel camera but has a wider, more comfortable keyboard. Motorola has also addressed room for apps by building 8GB of internal memory and using an 8GB microSDHC card to match the earlier Droid's capacity.

A rumored R2-D2 edition is real and will have a special look to match the Star Wars droid. Motorola is loading up special content tied to the movies.

Verizon will start taking pre-orders tomorrow, August 11, and will start selling the phone quickly on August 12 for $200, albeit after a $100 mail-in rebate and a contract. Mobile Hotspot costs $20 extra and is capped at 2GB. The R2-D2 version comes in September, but any special pricing isn't yet known.

Although lower-key than the lineup-heavy Droid X launch, the Droid 2 may ultimately be Verizon's most important device of the year and its best competition against the iPhone 4. Until it was phased out this week, the original Droid dominated Android use to where it was a third of the Google-run devices worldwide. Its success has been instrumental to Verizon, as it was considered an also-ran between the launch of the iPhone at AT&T and the Droid's November 2009 debut.

By Electronista Staff