It’s Droid Day: What We “X”pect From Our Red-Eyed Overlords
“It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here!” I gleefully shouted as I woke up this morning in anticipation of Verizon and Motorola’s big Droid day out in New York. As I crossed my fingers hoping Rob didn’t hop on the wrong train again, I started to question: just what exactly are we expecting to happen today?
Before heading over to AndroidForums.com to discuss this with fellow Motorola Droid X fans in their respective section (as well as with the few guys starting to discuss the Motorola Droid 2 over in their newly created section), I wanted to head straight for Phandroid’s homepage to discuss it with all you great readers.
Droid X
We already have a great deal of information on this device, and we’re almost certain Verizon will talk about it. While their initial invitation didn’t specifically state we’d be seeing the Droid X, you can bet your behind that they’ll be there primarily to show it off the way it deserves to be shown off.
To be a bit more specific, we’re expecting to grab more details about the device’s internals. We know it’ll have a great 8-megapixel camera that can take some stunning photos, and we know it’ll be able to record video in 720p HD (and that you’ll be able to play that video back over HDMI to a high definition display). We also know that it has a 1GHz TI OMAP-based processor and the latest version of NinjaBlur, but there are still a lot more components to a smartphone of this stature and we could very well be surprised with something we haven’t heard before.
Speaking of NinjaBlur, we could hear more about the OS layer itself. Everyone’s calling it a beefier MOTOBLUR with cleaner curves and more features, but the reality is that we haven’t even scratched the surface of what Motorola’s doing with it. It’ll be exciting to see it showed off in more detail when everyone can get a nice extensive look at it during the hands-on portion.
And tying right in with our software expectations, we’re hoping Verizon will be confirming some of the pre-installed applications you’ll be getting. Some of you are fans of some of it, some of you are fans of all or none of it, but it will be nice to know for sure what they’ll be putting onto the device.
Finally, the big thing everyone always wants to hear about at an event like this is availability and price. We know it’ll be here in July, and we could be seeing that July date honored sooner rather than later, but nothing is certain. Pricing has also been kept quiet throughout all of these leaks, so we’ll be sure to keep a special ear out for that one. As it could be priced absolutely anything considering just how ridiculous this device is, you can’t help but wonder if Motorola and Verizon will price their phone similarly to the Droid X’s biggest Android-based competitor: the HTC EVO 4G.
The EVO 4G is very similarly specced to the Droid X: a 4.3-inch screen, HDMI-out, 8-megapixel camera with 720p video recording, and a 1GHz processor (though of the Qualcomm Snapdragon family). The big differentiating factors between the two are build quality, OS layers (Sense vs NinjaBlur) and the fact that the EVO 4G has radios to take advantage of Sprint’s new 4G network. Even with all of that, the HTC EVO 4G was priced relatively cheap given its feature set. $450 would get you the phone direct from Sprint ($500 from HTC, and $600 from other third-party retailers), while $200 would net you the device alongside a two-year contract.
If you need some perspective on how much value you’re being given, I looked at how much it would cost to order the subsidized T-Mobile MyTouch Slide yesterday, and I would’ve been walking out of the store $270 poorer. Similarly, grabbing a Google Nexus one through them would only set me back $179 (granted you don’t mind being locked into an inflexible plan). Hopefully, all of this and more will be confirmed today by Big Red.
Droid 2
It’s also imperative to note that the invitation didn’t rule out the possibility of another phone (which would obviously be the Motorola Droid 2). “Unleashing the next generation of DROID” leaves room for more than one device, so we could see them “officially” unveiling this for the first time (for some reason, they’ve been particularly quiet on the Droid 2’s existence compared to how they’ve treated the Droid X).
Everything we’ve heard about the Droid 2 before the series of leaks has held up true: it’s a Motorola Droid with a better keyboard, double the processor speed, double the memory, and just double the awesome. It’ll sport the same 1GHz TI OMAP processor as the Droid X, it has 512MB of RAM, gets rid of that wonky d-pad that no one seemed to like, and pretty much improves on every other aspect of the original Droid.
While it’s still housing the same 3.7-inch screen, most users have grown to fall in love with that size given the right resolution. The Droid 2 will be all about enabling power users with all of the features they need; concurrently, they’ll be appealing to what we call “the casuals” (or light smartphone users) by giving them a comfortable device to start with and can grow into over time.
On the software front, we’ve seen it running Android 2.1 and NinjaBlur, but that was apparently a placeholder. Other sources say to expect this thing to run vanilla Android just like its predecessor.
Froyo
Both of these devices are expected to run Android 2.1, but there are a couple of partners expecting to be at the event that has us scratching our chin: Adobe and Google will both be on hand to help Verizon and Motorola usher this “new era of DROID” in. I know I’m not the only one to automatically assume that when Adobe and Google get together, we’re in for some Froyo, so we could be in for a nice little treat regarding the latest version of Android (on Verizon’s devices, at least).
Google’s Andy Rubin, Verizon’s John Stratton, Motorola’s Sanjay Jha, and Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen are pretty big names in each of their respective companies (in case you haven’t heard) and the fact that each and every last one of them are converging on this event tells me that we’re going to hear about more than just DROID.
Now, it’s your turn: What are you wanting to hear? What are you expecting to hear? Will you soil your underpants when Sanjay jumps on stage and pulls out that 4.3-inch behemoth? Do you wish you were there so you could personally walk up to Mr. Jha and ask him “is that a Droid X in your pants or are you just incredibly happy to see me?” Sound off below, and when Rob’s safely made it into the meeting place to meet his new makers (yes, it’s possible to change makers), we’ll bring all of the juicy details the moment they happen.
For even more discussion, remember to sign up for an AndroidForums.com account if you haven’t already and get started discussing with fellow DROIDians (new species) at the Motorola Droid X section and the Motorola Droid 2 section.