The original DROID was arguably the first nail in the death coffin of Apple’s control of the smartphone market. That’s of course not to say Apple is going anywhere. It does say that with the advent of the original Verizon DROID, balance began to return to the market. With the DROID 4, Motorola has improved on one of its most recognizable devices. Adding such things as LTE and 1080p HD video recording to the equation, the LTE equipped DROID 4 is set to keep pace with the other big names in the industry such as the Samsung Galaxy S II line and of course HTC’s venerable line of AnDROID devices.
Design & Features
Put all four generations of the DROID’s together and you begin to see the subtle changes between the phones. By far the DROID 4 is the most drastic in design change, but even with that, the phone still keeps true to the original DROID. For the main part, cosmetic wise, the device has been slimmed and he edges are rounded. There is still an industrial feel to the phone, but that has been greatly toned down since the DROID 3. Overall the phone takes design cues from the DROID RAZR, and that’s not a bad thing since we like the DROID RAZR. Overall dimensions read 0.5 inches thick, 5-inches high, 2.8-inches width and 0.39 pounds. While not the most impressive of the Droid line-up, consumers are scrambling to find out where to buy the Motorola Droid 4 thanks to its nice feature set, fast, powerful processor, and high performance PC like edge-lit slide out keyboard.
Moving along to the specs you find 2G, 3G and 4G radios. CDMA comes to us via the 800 / 1900 bands while GSM (for world roaming capabilities) are on the 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 bands while LTE is reserved to mono-band 700MHz.
The 4-inch screen is pretty much unchanged and said screen sports Gorilla Glass, 540 x 960 pixels on a qHD display. The chipset is a dual-core TI OMAP4 1.2GHz processor with PowerVR GPU for gaming and multimedia. 1GB of RAM comes standard with 16GB of internal memory and an expansion slot for microSD cards up to 32GB in size. The primary 8 megapixel camera sports an LED flash and 1080p video recording at 30fps while the front facing 1.3 megapixel camera can do 720p recording. AnDROID 2.3 Gingerbread comes standard.
Other features include A-GPS, accelerometer, proximity sensor, compass, microUSB 2.0 port, Bluetooth 4.0 with LE_EDR, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, full slide out QWERTY keyboard and a 1785mAh battery.
Performance
This device not only looks good but it performs well. From you turn on the phone you can tell that the 1.2GHz dual-core processor really pulls its weight. We lighted up the screen with a couple of titles such as Asphalt and noticed smooth rendering as well, giving gaming buffs a good reason to seek out where to purchase the Motorola Droid 4.
The camera works great. Not the best we have tested, but still good nonetheless and the 1080p video recording is a nice touch. The front facing camera is decent. It can take medium quality self-portraits, but where it really shines is its ability to stream 720p video over Skype or some other video calling service.
Battery life is much better than the average AnDROID pack as we were able to register a full days charge on moderate usage with LTE on. That speaks volumes. That said, you should be able to carry this phone to the office and back without a charger in tow.
Our only major complaint is Motorola’s lack of an HDMI port. The device does come with DLNA so it’s not a total loss but not every TV supports DLNA so the HDMI would be a nice touch.
Conclusion
When it comes down to it, there is not much we can say about the DROID 4 other then it is a worthy upgrade. Should you upgrade? If you have a non-LTE device and are due for an upgrade, this would be among our top three on Verizon’s network. Personally, the keyboard is a nice touch and should lend some adoptability by corporate customers. But overall, the DROID 4 is a solid AnDROID phone and is worthy of the name. Thankfully with a price tag of only $200 on contract, it is well in reach of most customers, unlike the $300 DROID RAZR Maxx or other “premium” Verizon LTE devices. Thankfully Motorola has kept this fourth device in the line motoBLUR free. Learn more about why you should consider buying the Motorola Droid 4 in the following spec sheet on the device.