The Motorola Droid 4 is Verizon's latest QWERTY Android slider. We've always had a soft spot for the Droid line with its good performance, impressive build and good QWERTY keyboard. The fourth Droid has the best keyboard yet, and it's our favorite keyboard among all smartphones. It's roomy, tactile and has superb backlighting. It's a texter's dream. The keyboard has a 5 row layout with a dedicated number row, arrow quadrant and a generously large space bar. The only thing missing are dedicated Android shortcut keys.
The phone is no slouch in other areas, and it has the same specs as other recent Motorola high end Android phones on Verizon Wireless. You get a 1.2GHz dual core TI processor with a gig of RAM and 16 gigs of internal storage. There's a front video chat camera and a rear 8 megapixel camera capable of shooting 1080p video. The phone has WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, a GPS that works with Google Maps and VZ Navigator, and a special treat: 4G LTE. While the Droid 3 was a world phone with 3G, this is the first QWERTY Moto Droid with LTE 4G, and it's hard not to love Verizon's 4G speeds.
The display is less enticing: it's a 4" qHD 960 x 540 pixel LCD of just average quality but above average brightness. If you've seen the Droid Bionic's display, you've all but seen the Droid 4's, which is simply a brighter version. It's reasonably sharp and clear but it has just average color saturation and contrast. It's viewable outdoors thanks to the super bright panel. We can understand why Moto didn't go with 720p (1280 x 720) resolution given the small (by today's big phone standards) display and more affordable $199 with contract price point.
Software and OS
The Droid 4 runs Android OS 2.3.6 Gingerbread, and Verizon promises an upgrade to OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. That leaves the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as your only choice if you're dying to have ICS now. It comes with the usual Motorola software like MotoPrint, MotoActive, MotoCast and social networking software that integrates with Gallery. Business apps include GoToMeeting and the full version of QuickOffice (read, write and edit MS Office docs). Verizon's usual boatload of bundled software is here too: their data counter widget, VZ Navigator, Verizon Video (a pay-for streaming video service), V Cast Tones, VideoSurf, Slacker, Slingbox, MOG Music, Let's Golf 2, Madden NFL 12 (demo), Blockbuster and Amazon Kindle. Honestly, we wouldn't mind if Verizon cut back on the number of apps, since one can download the non-Verizon apps from the Market for free. The phone has the full suite of Google Android apps including the Google Search widget.
The Droid 4 runs Android OS 2.3.6 Gingerbread, and Verizon promises an upgrade to OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. That leaves the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as your only choice if you're dying to have ICS now. It comes with the usual Motorola software like MotoPrint, MotoActive, MotoCast and social networking software that integrates with Gallery. Business apps include GoToMeeting and the full version of QuickOffice (read, write and edit MS Office docs). Verizon's usual boatload of bundled software is here too: their data counter widget, VZ Navigator, Verizon Video (a pay-for streaming video service), V Cast Tones, VideoSurf, Slacker, Slingbox, MOG Music, Let's Golf 2, Madden NFL 12 (demo), Blockbuster and Amazon Kindle. Honestly, we wouldn't mind if Verizon cut back on the number of apps, since one can download the non-Verizon apps from the Market for free. The phone has the full suite of Google Android apps including the Google Search widget.
