By There’s something about Verizon and their upcoming phones that just can’t keep themselves under wraps. It’s been a few days since the Motorola Shadow was revealed over the weekend, and we’ve already gotten our first shot of the device in the wild yesterday. Not even a day after the Shadow was caught working out in a gym, the original leakster chimed in with his own “in the wild” shot.
Posted by a forum member over at Howard Forums, we were able to get a pretty clear side-shot of the device lying flat on its back and a few more details found their way onto the table, too. For starters, he claims that the device is not heavier than the original Motorola Droid (which is to be expected considering it won’t have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard).
He also clarified some initial specs for us. It’ll indeed be housing an OMAP 3630 processor by way of Texus Instruments, it sports a 4.1-inch screen, boasts 8GB of internal storage with a supplemental 8GB MMC card to create 16GB of “shipped” storage, an 8-megapixel camera, and an HDMI-out port (presumably micro). Drooling, yet?
In related news, our Motorola Shadow forums over at AndroidForums.com are now open! Stop over to get some discussions going amongst fellow Verizon and Motorola fans who can’t wait for this phone any more than you can.
[via BGR]
Dealbreakers for moi:
Motoblur (must be plain vanilla Android)
Any processor slower than 1Ghz Snapdragon
If those criteria are met, I am interested.
Why would you buy this if you can have the EVO 4G? Cheaper, much network, and a better phone.
Nice phone, especially with the 4.1″ screen. Wondering if my Incredible should suddenly break around the time this comes out…
No, not drooling. Is HDMI out really that big of a deal? I have no interest in plugging my phone into my TV.
MOTOBLUR and no slide out keyboard make this a too little, too late for Motorola. I personally know 5 people that would be interested if this had the slide-out keyboard. They intentionally didn’t buy the Incredible because of the lack of hard keyboard. Motorola missed a golden opportunity to fill a void and instead got on the bandwagon.
MOTOBLUR is an absolute disaster of a UI, seemingly designed for kids. This one will be an also-ran.
Looks like that picture was taken using a Moto Droid and its LED flash! Mine always has that tinted haze if I use the flash.
@Ratnok
EVO 4G has Sense UI, some like Vanilla Android (myself included) like what is on the Nexus one and Moto Droid (although for some reason the Moto Droids is neutered). Vanilla Android allows for easier updates because they don’t have to retool the entire Sense UI (or Motoblur) everytime Google comes out with a new update.
@webby Seriously? Do some research before posting. I’ve programmed a 16MHz Freescale to do certain functions faster than they can be done on a 2GHz Intel processor. And the Freescale processor can run off of a AA battery for several days. Look at the end result. MHz and GHz arn’t everything, efficiency is. Performance being equal I would prefer it to run at 10MHz Think of the battery life.
@DJ this phone was shown running MOTOBLUR.
Hopefully you will be able to turn off Blur.
I think the TI OMAP running at 7xx MHz will be sufficient. There is more to a good processor than its freq rating. TI OMAP @ 720 will likely be better than Qualcomm @ 1000 IMHO. Especially when it gets overclocked.
I have reservations about any Android without a trackball, D-Pad or other such means of navigation. There are just so many web sites and apps that require fine-tuned control from time to time, and touch-only can wreck that.
Sweet, both the USB and HDMI ports are on the side. I see a landscape dock with full sized HDMI port in this phone’s future!
If they dont put Motoblur on it, it’ll be a nice phone and i would consider buying it for sure. Nice big screen and no physical keyboard. Been using a LG Dare for nigh on two years now so im really used to and enjoy using full touch screen phones.
hdmi out + flash = good for me.
When I visit my luddite parents it would be nice to be able to connect to their TV and watch videos off the web without having to lug around a laptop. Plus just being able to show a giant slide show of the grand-kids would be great.
I’m not sure this feature would make me go out and get a new phone, but it seems a heck of a lot more useful than the front-facing camera some people are excited about. I can see myself using that once or twice and the novelty wearing off (sort of like video chat on my laptop). The only time I can see myself really wanting to video chat is when I’m on a business trip and my kids want to see dad. Of course in this case I would have my laptop and an internet connection.
fake.
Although I won’t buy it because I am still happy with my Droid, the deal breaker for me would be motoblur. Even if you an turn it off it may delay operating system updates.
Motoblur is getting trashed way to much here.
I’ve used the cliq and cliq xt since they came out. Even though i don’t use any of the blur widgets the functionality of the OS is one of the best versions of android I’ve run. Better than plain vanilla and better than Sense. I’ve run tons of different roms on my old G1 and still play with it today. Point is motoblur is an awesome version of android. don’t knock it if you’ve never even given it a shot.
the only downfall is the lack of updated software. still sitting at 1.5, if moto gets out this 2.1 update than blur phones will be top notch.
Does this phone taper towards the bottom? As seen in the previous gym photo?
I will still take the Incredible over this. A 3.7″ screen is plenty enough for me and I don’t want the over sized phone in my pocket. I can live with a phone being heavier (what is a fraction of an ounce anyways), but not being bigger. Just is too much to get in and out of the pocket. I will stick to the incredible when I can upgrade next week. No need for me to wait for this.
If it has blur, count me out. If it required signed roms, count me out.
Earth to Motorola: We want phones running android and getting updates fast, not some shiny for the kids crap.
@B-ron: 2.2 is already out for nexus One and you want it to run 2.1, are you bad at math or what?
@B-ron…in no way is blur better than sense. For 12 year old its perfect, but do you think 12 year olds are gonna want a 4inch cell phone.
i’m %100 sure it’s TEXAS instruments… like the state, cause their in my backyard, not TEXUS like some word you made up lol
some of you guys are crazy. It’s called personal preference. I said and quote, “the functionality of the OS is one of the best versions of android I’VE run.” Me, 1 consumer, decided that blur is better than sense. Obviously you disagree with me and that’s perfectly okay. Like i said I dont run the blur widgets which is almost half of the OS but i love blur and have zero problems with it being slow, laggy or unresponsive.
as far as the 2.2 update, 1 device (and a leaked rom at that) has it out of what 30+ devices that are on the market. The droid just got 2.1. Everyone is updating to 2.1 not 2.2.
i still don’t understand the need for some people to demand things from companies. Motorola is marketing phones to social networking site. It’s a brilliant idea. If you aren’t on sites like facebook, twitter and myspace. don’t buy a phone from motorola with blur. The droid is a top of the line phone, plain vanilla android. go buy that.
Blur looks stupid and clunky. Sense is nice, but I prefer quick updates and stock. Some are now saying 4.3″. I will likely get this for the FroYo. Also, the OMAP3630, like the 3430 in the Droid, has a dedicated 434MHz GPU.
the keyboard is a deal breaker. a HUGE deal breaker. I am sad. Truly a good android device with a keyboard, and Motorla blows it. I think they are just screwing with us now.
This won’t be a phone for pockets. I mean common sense people, after 4-5 inches of screen, folks its just not practical. Phany pa
cks will be back in style after this one.
Personally I like MotoBlur. I like how I can see unread updates with happenings and news widgets. Much better than Sense from a social media perspective. I agree though that having a vanilla OS with no overlay is better for getting updates quicker. I really wanted the slide out keyboard and hate the one on the BackFlip. Maybe I might just look for a cheap used Milestone to buy (I’m in Australia)???
In regards to the specs, there is more memory built in in the Shadow, does this mean even if it doesn’t have FroYo will I be able to install more apps on the device?
The Droid Shadow is not running Motoblur. It is 4.3″ display, HDMI out with 1080p capability for newer TV’s and is running a 1 GHz snapdagon processor. Could be released as early as Fathers Day. And for all u people who need hardware keyboard, its time to move on.. I have Moto Droid and I thought i needed hardware keyboard also, but if you use the virtual keyboard for a week or so you get used to it and it works great!
Rob, where did you get your data from? I dont have a problem with it…..I just hope it’s true. I won’t leave Verizon for any one phone, but I’d REALLY like something as close to that HTC EVO as I can get from Verizon.
To Summarize
Who cares if it comes with MotoBlur? Most people interested in this phone will be putting a custom rom on anyway. Snapdragon is overrated, and people cling to the name. TI’s OMAP processors are great as well. Similarly, it’s not all about clock speed. Remember when people kept shooting for the biggest and best processoron desktop PC’s? It didn’t mean anything until you added the right RAM, HD, etc..
Maybe people would buy this over the Evo because a) they’re already on Verzion.. b) don’t have good Sprint coverage.. c) this list could go on and on.
For those harping about the lack of physical keyboard, wait for the Droid 2. It’s going to be a refresh of the original Droid. The Shadow is meant to be a competitor to the Evo, Incredible, etc.