By 
Going for the award of most leaked smartphone in history, we would be remiss if we didn’t post up our own gallery of the Motorola Droid 2 pre-launch. Well, OK, we aren’t quite giving you shots of the phone proper, but feast your eyes on this dummy unit that is one of many showing up at Verizon corporate stores in preparation for next week’s Droid 2 launch. See it in all of your favorite poses, including some Droid 1/Droid 2 comparison shots to give you an idea how the two stack up.
[Thanks to Trident of AndroidForums for sending this in!]
Do people really still want physical keyboards?
looks navy blueish?
No house raiding on Motorola’s part ;)
@cwrig no shit its way better to feel the keyboard instead of a virtual u can type faster with physicall
sickk but its only fair if the D1 buyers get to update to this
why didnt they leave that same charcoal black color instead of blue
@cwrig yes, some of us do real work with our phones. An ssh session is no fun with a virtual keyboard.
ahhhhhh I hate phone makers for doing this all the qwerty phones are released in the US I’m sick and tired of this! LG ally, T-mobile mytouch 3G slide, Now the Motorola Droid 2, Samsung Epic 4G ( though I understand why it is not releasing in the U.K, they could just make a HSDPA+ version). it’s not about faster typing it’s about the ease of typing. People in the U.K are all for touchscreen only and the ones that don’t like that have to follow because they are no good qwerty android phones in the U.K except for the Milestone. The Funny thing is that the U.K currently has a Blackberry Hype so really makers should focus on that and have some market on the hardware keyboard market! It feels more secure to type on hardware then on virtual, I say this as a HTC Desire user… I don’t really like swype. Also my Girl is thinking of getting a Motorola Milestone this Month and now the Droid 2 is released what about bloody Europe. I hate you MOTOROLA
@Steve it’s even less fun when your virtual keyboard doesn’t come with tab or a pipe
my only real regret with the evo D:
as for the keyboard, its personal preference. Kinda like saying oh they still make manual transmission cars these days? of coarse they do people like them
@brian1972 in most of the world the automatics are the rarity. For some reason americans love them. I think it is because we have little driver training and a really lazy culture.
If you don’t like hardware keyboards, don’t buy one.
That’s one of the many lovely things about this not being an iGadget. You have options.
Go look into a different phone if you don’t like hardware keyboards.
Why are people talking about what is better? Physical or touchscreen keyboard? It has both and the touch screen isn’t that bad but physical is better to me. Droid 1
They should let all D1 owners get D2 and just pay for the insurence
why complain about the keyboard when there are so many keyboard-less phones on vzw’s line up… take away the keyboard an you just have a droid incredible or droid x (or a samsung fascinate). If anything you should be commending vzw on having such a wide veriety of phones
ive been preaching holding out for 4g but this phone is looking very tempting coming from the original droid
Why does every new Android phone have to have a different configuration of the back/home/menu/search buttons??? Can’t they just pick one and be done with it?
I hope the phone doesn’t overheat very much like D1 cuz I think that drianed my battery a lot whne it got hot and the keyboard slides up very rough hopefully they fixed that
Still a perty short keyboard like the D1 I was hoping the #s were by themselves but still good
NinjaBlur!
@aabill I have a mt3g and I have to restart my phone every so often because the keyboard won’t pull up! I’m done with virtual keyboards.
Hey is the D2 ganna have the same eye bootloader as the D1
no one has said anything about them getting rid of the chin. the droid 2 added a little extra to polish the phone off, and probably help it slide into the pockets better without it snagging
Why would anyone want a virtual keyboard pop up and hog up most the screen? I do not know.
Never had an issue with the virtual QWERTY on my Evo 4G…although typing does tend to slow a little, but that’s only after I installed “Better Keyboard”…but it’s worth it, my virtual QWERTY is now all black with red keys to match the exterior of my phone…sexy. Look, what it boils down to is personal preference. In my opinion, I like the virtual. They are quick (most android phones with physical keys make you slide it first), very effective (never had my virtual QWERTY freeze my phone in ANY way) and the phones that equip them are usually cheaper. Not to mention the auto correct on the Evo is stellar. The Evo is perfect for my preference cause it only boasts 3 hardware buttons…and 2 of those are contained on the same rocker. My friend has a D1, and respectfully admits he bought it for the physical keyboard…and now regrets it cause he never uses it. Virtual is much more of an “on the fly” thing…..and come to think of it, he says it’s easier to type on my EVO cause my keyboard as a whole, is much bigger than his…haha. He’s so jealous. Get what you like, but if you want ease of access, customization options and a smaller form factor…get a virtual QWERTY.
it really seems like the people designing these things don’t actually use them.
the best device was the xv6600 ..huge screen, full keyboard .. SSH / term serv / VNC …
– put that on 4G and add an 8m camera … sysadmin delight !
that will never happen, so I’m holding out for
Android on HTC Touch pro 2 hardware (with a better camera) would KICK A$$
the htc tp2 tilt screen is actually kinda cool, and the keyboard is the best for those who like to use real words and complete sentences :)
Looks like the same style battery cover on the back. That is my biggest complaint (second is the crappy keyboard) with my D1. The cover comes off at least once a week!
it looks okay i am getting the droid x and i think its going to be better i dont like the physical keyboard but thats just me. it doesn’t look nice not something i want to buy for sure
@mike in nj, stick a few small bits of tape on the inside of the cover where it will touch the battery when the cover is closed. You can experiment with the exact thickness required, but this will make your cover a much better fit and less likely to pop open when you are handling the phone.
@wendy I’m sorry but all those winmo phones suck. I’ve owned 2…one of them being the HTC Pure (a very close relative to the touch pro 2). If it’s not Android, it really can’t compete in this smartphone market…..which is being slowly taken over by Android. iPhone has met it’s match, RIM is slowly losing momentum….and open source will rule the world..haha. jk about the last part, but u can’t go wrong with google, physical keys or not.
HTC Evo 4G, 2.2
@Jo wasn’t Motorola saying they are going to focus on Europe now? I sure hope so!
Which is the best: Droid 2 or Epic 4g?
I bought a D1 partly for the physical keyboard and I hardly ever use it because it sucks so bad. I’d love an android phone with a blackberry keyboard.