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I spy with my little eye another leaked shot of one of Motorola’s upcoming Droids. While we can’t learn a whole lot from this blurry peak at the Droid 2’s activation screen, we can again confirm that it is going to look strikingly similar — if not identical — to the original Droid. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, I suppose.
[via Droid-Life]
Except for the keyboard. Fix that.
Must refrain *gasp* from pointing out Droids weaknesses *gasp* in response to last sentence in this article *gasp*
*puts on his kevlar and waits for the angry Droid owners to attack* lol
actually if you guys saw the earlier leaked pics of the droid 2 you will see that Motorola seems to have redon the keyboard. from the pics it looks like there is more room now and the keys are slightly domed, which should make them easier to use.
With the inteligent auto complete is anyone still using their droid keyboads? I am actually typing faster on screen with the small keys than I am on the keyboard. Granted I’m not breaking any world records on speed, but definately faster than the keyboard on my droid or my old Windows Mobile Phone or T9 on a regular phone. I’m thinking about dumping the extra weight for an incredible as it is…
Angry droid owner here lol. But seriously, it is a well designed phone aside from the keyboard. Given the images of a new keyboard have already leaked, im glad to see conformation that no other design cues are changing. I personally like the droid’s screen size and aspect ratio. I don’t want a 4+” monster in my pocket, the droid is already borderline too big IMO so anything, even only 1/10th an inch bigger cross that line into to big territory in my mind. Apple did this with the iPhone. They had a winning design and stuck with it for 3 generations. iPhone 4 looks different, dare i say, Droid-ier. Stick with a wining design Moto! Fix problems, not things people still like!
Is anyone guessing a potential release timeframe on this? The original came out in early Nov ’09. Would it be safe to think this would hit even before a full calendar year was completed on the original?
I have a Droid, and mine has the domed keys. I love it and I use the keyboard all the time.
I now realize that I’m in a decided minority and just lucked out on my keyboard. Weird.
I hope they do keep the design of the original Droid. I love mine, but some keyboard improvements would be nice. Seriously though, I think the whole keyboard complaints have gone too far. The keyboard on the phone is completely usable, and this is coming from someone with large hands and fingers. I went from the LG EnV (great keyboard) to the Droid (definitely mediocre), but I now type faster on my Droid than I did on my EnV. Learn to use it, quit complaining about it.
Anyway, to move on from that rant, any word on when we might be seeing this thing/what its specs are going to be like?
Looks like the corners are more rounded…
Maybe they’ll have a stock home screen that’s not incredibly sluggish… That blows my mind that they ever released such a slow UI. I’ve used a lot of stock android devices and I don’t know why the Droid’s is so choppy. Hopefully fixed in this new Droid. Looks sharp and really like the big vibrant screen.
Alright so this is the very first droid 2 screenshot right? Not counting the keyboard one
Don’t want a keyboard? Use one of the other Androids, some games need that keyboard. ;)
Why did they move the “back” touch button to where the “home” key is on the current droid?? That’s gonna take some getting used to :(
Can someone find a picture of one of these fabled Droid 1s with raised keys? I hear they exist, but I’ve never seen one.
I’m waiting to hear the specs, but I want this to be my new phone.
@Daniel, for cheap fix for the laggy stock home, download the free Launcher Pro home replacement from the market. Even at stock 550MHz, Launcher Pro is so fast and smooth you’ll think you have a new phone.
By the way, complain to Google and not Motorola about the stock home.
As for the Droid’s keyboard, I don’t understand why so many people hate it. The Droid is the first phone I’ve had with a keyboard and I love it (including the d-pad). I use it anytime I need to type more than two words.
Including myself, I know eight people with Droids. Not a single one complains about the keyboard.
if only this ends up running with t mobile 3g bands what i would do for a t mobile droid since in canada in my opinion the only decent carrier here is wind mobile
Official Slogan: “Droid 2… Look, we added a number!”
@rarrk
…for all intents and purposes let’s all assume that the original Droid’s keyboard is “broke”.
Its the droid’s sexier younger sister. Slightly rounded corners, shiny silver shell, and bigger screen? wow!
if it runs vanilla on a “snapdragon fast” processor then i am totally sold and will no longer be jealous of tmo for getting the galaxy S.
Its truly raining Androids, What hope for the iPhone now ?
That phone looks very similar to the droid prototype (sholes). I think it is actualy the sholes. Picture of the sholes: http://v2lab.com/theory/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Moto-Sholes.jpg
Tochi the new iPhone is turning some heads….so they do have hope. However I do believe That I would pick the evo over the new iPhone if both were on Verizon. But really Droids got such a big leg in the cellphone war I don’t think anyone will stand much of a chance against the Almighty droids to come and come….and come.
Ah, they moved the back key. GOOD. I was always hitting that by accident while typing on the virtual keyboard, since it was so close to where your thumb is when you are using the on screen keyboard.
-Brad
@Daniel:
Root and install Froyo (2.2) runs like a raped date!! WOW is it fast!
@Brad – good point. i do that too.
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I don’t really care about the design or keyboard. As long as it comes with a 1ghz snapdragon, I’ll be happy.
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Droid is a little laggy, especially with like 10 homescreen widgets running. Even with an automated task killer, I still only have about 40mb of memory free at any given time.
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Give me more speed and more RAM please.
So many complain about the keyboard, but those who do never gave it a chance. Granted, first time experiences with it are not pleasant for anyone. But after I got sick of the poor ability to select and navigate around a body of text with the virtual keyboard I gave the keyboard a chance again. Within a week of regular use I have ZERO complaints about the physical keyboard and by far prefer it in every day use. Those who hate it need to get past first impressions, give it a full week of use, and realize that it’s not bad at all once you get a feel for it.
@ Cpt Mike Beard
if i remember correctly the droid2 is supposed to run at around 750mhz, however using a slightly faster processor type than the snapdragon making it atleast equal in power.
i have been using motorola cliq and cliq xt…. but recently it’s giving me so much problems lately like freezing up on me every time i kill the applications and when i get off from wifi radio signal disappears etc… so many problems… so i don’t really trust motorola blur anymore i wonder if this will have the same problem since i already try using two devices that has moto blur in it… for some reason i have really really bad luck with motorola i don’t think i’m going to be able to buy their products again…. i go for samsung galaxy s… now that’s a beauty
Droid 2, hope Moto still shys away from that Snapdragon crap, keep using OMAPs, give us a treat and give us the new 1Ghz+ OMAP, especially when that OMAP in the Xtreme(Shadow) is “only” 720Mhz.
WE deserve a rebate or something for the droid owners cause of how much we paid for the dam thing only to have a 5 new ones to come out within 6 months. I paid 500 for my droid and now its 200 or cheaper.