Motorola Droid Smartphone and Android 2.0 Get Hands-on Treatment

From DailyTech: One of the most popular smartphones on the market today is the iPhone from Apple. As such a popular device, the iPhone is naturally the target for many manufacturers when new devices that hit the market. While overseas the iPhone is going to more than one provider within a country, the iPhone is still stuck with AT&T in America.

Verizon wireless recently unveiled a new teaser campaign for its Droid handset which will be running Android 2.0 operating system and targets the iPhone directly.

Boy Genus Report (BGR) now has a hands-on with the Motorola Droid and posted up a few early details of the device. The handset runs Android 2.0 and is described as only slightly thicker than the iPhone 3GS. The Droid is the thinnest QWERTY slider that the publication has seen. The handset runs the TI OMAP3430 processor making it the fastest Android device BGR has ever used.

The capacitive display gets lots of kudos and is called the best screen ever seen on an Android device and a fantastic screen overall. The keyboard is described as very usable and the device has a desktop cradle/charger that turns it into a multimedia station. Perhaps the biggest thing that BGR reports about the Droid is that it is the most impressive handset it has used since the iPhone. Perhaps we finally have a viable threat to the iPhone coming to the market deserving the title “iPhone killer”.

BGR also goes into great detail about Android 2.0. The caveat is that both the Droid and the version of Android 2.0 are not final. Highlights include built-in Exchange compatibility, layers included in maps, UI makeover for the browser, YouTube widget, integrated haptics feedback capability, and a new app for use in your car allowing voice commands presumably while driving. A whole slew of new features have been added that should make Android 2.0 much better than previous versions.

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