Hasta La Gadget!

From now on, Motorola will be the only company that makes Droid-branded phones for Verizon says CNET. But of course that won’t stop half the world from calling their Samsung and HTC Android phones Droids. Sigh.

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If you’re anxiously anticipating the release of Motorola’s common hero smartphone Moto X and like the idea of confirming specifications before the device itself is revealed in full, today is your lucky day. What we’ve seen today in the reveal of three new Motorola smartphones with DROID branding for Verizon is the re-appearance of a few features that’d previously been tipped for the Moto X. They’ll carry ever-so-slightly different user interfaces, but will they keep the same Android-deep features?

Gesture to Launch Camera

As we saw in a leaked video earlier this month and as indicated by Motorola’s own Dennis Woodside back in May, Moto X will be able to detect when you take it out of your pocket, then will be able to activate its built-in camera with a flick of your wrist.

“The [Moto X] knows when it is in my pocket, it knows when I take it out of my pocket. I might want to do something, I might want to take a picture, so it fires up the camera.” Dennis Woodside for Motorola

Today Verizon’s new DROID line hints at a similar bit of functionality. They suggest that you’ll be able to “quickly launch the 10-megapixel camera with a simple gesture”, just the same. This indicates that there are two possibilities, the first being Google adding this flick feature to Android itself, therefor moving it to their Nexus line not too far into the future. The second possibility is that this feature will be Motorola’s own, and will only appear on Motorola smartphone (until hacking can commence.)

Camera Interface

This morning we saw a leak of what was called a Moto X camera interface. There we saw what very well could appear on a Nexus device and not look out of place in the least. Many of these same images appeared on-screen at this week’s Verizon event introducing the phones, shown as Motorola’s new UI for cameras on all devices.

It’s shown again on Verizon’s purchase page for the DROID MINI in short. They’ve also reminded us there that the device “helps you take better photos in low-light environments” – that kind of power comes from the device’s processor, but it’s very possible the same claims will be made of the Moto X.

Always On Voice Commands

Back in June of 2013, Qualcomm (with LG) revealed that they’d be bringing on “Always On Voice Commands” in their next-generation processing architecture. We’ve heard from Qualcomm earlier in the year that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 brought this ability natively, then we heard about Android’s Open Mic.

It was leaked as part of the hands-on video shown earlier this month of the Moto X, and here once again we’re seeing the exact same user interface appearing on the new DROID lineup.

“When Droid Mini is on, it’s ready. Command this smartphone without touching it, even when it’s asleep. Use voice commands to get directions or open a Mobile Hotspot.” – Verizon

So don’t expect that bit of functionality to be limited to Moto X, not by any measure. Instead we may very well see not one whole heck of a lot of Motorola-centric software appearing on the Moto X when it’s formally revealed on August 1st at all. Not unless Google has something up their sleeves for reveal tomorrow morning!

And don’t forget that fancy super-minimal notifications screen while the device is sleeping, either.

“The low-power notification system displays alerts so you can avoid constantly waking your phone.” – Verizon

We’re to understand that Motorola has formulated a way to only light up a portion of the display to show these notes, saving energy as they do so. Stay tuned!

Moto X Android software features confirmed by DROID lineup is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Motorola released a trio of devices today at a special press event for its line of Verizon phones in New York City. The company showed off phones that in many ways resembled their Droid devices of the past, and these keep the Droid branding, too. They’re looking mostly like successors to Razr devices, but with tweaks that could signal what we’ll see now that Google is more directly taking the reins at the company.

The new Droids likely represent the last vestiges of Motorola’s pre- Google acquisition product pipeline, which Google has said repeatedly needed to be worked through before it could get to the devices Google was planning to build with its new hardware division. But it’s not all “out with the old” – there are a few new noteworthy tricks up Motorola’s sleeve with these Droids, and these could be signs of what’s next for the company as Google’s in-house Android device maker.

Chief among those is the Motorola X8 Mobile Computing System, a new 8-core system-on-a-chip that Motorola is customizing based on a Qualcomm processor, instead of just using a standard design. Consider these Motorola Droids both a closing and an opening act, then, ejecting all the dross that’s left over from the company’s previous life, and bringing in the kernel of the new.

The Droid is being promoted with the pomp and circumstance of a flagship line of devices, but it’s key that this is a Verizon event – this is likely a commitment made to Verizon by Motorola long before Google got involved. Don’t expect the Droids to come anywhere close to playing in the same ballpark with Samsung’s Galaxy devices, or maybe even the HTC One. But these Droid devices are definitely worth watching if only for the X8 eight-core mobile SoC, and the features that come with them.

The X8 chip allows touchless control for hands-free operation, an active display that selectively lights up to display just notifications and other features previously leaked in a Moto X demo. The Kevlar involved is also something that the Droids share in common with the Moto X, but I don’t think we’ll see the X as just a rebranded Droid when it’s unveiled next week. For one, they share the Moto X’s patriotic place of manufacturing origin, but without any further details there’s little else to draw on for comparison.

Motorola once had brand leverage through trade names like “Droid” and “Razr” (the latter of which has been notably dropped here) but in recent years those brands haven’t meant much next to more successful rivals like Samsung. X is the future of the brand, and we’ll likely see differences between those devices and the past highlighted over potential similarities

Verizon has this week delivered a full set of DROID devices, including the DROID Ultra, DROID MAXX, and DROID mini as successors to the DROID RAZR HD line on the market since last year. The smallest of these is the DROID mini, of course, working with an August 20th release date and a 720p LCD display.

This device works with the same computing power of its larger relatives, that being a 1.7 GHz Dual Core processor with Quad–Core Graphics paired with Motorola’s x8 mobile computing system – which we’ll certainly be detailing at length later today. For now you’ll be interested to know that this device works with the same hardcore body as the rest of the DROID line, kevlar back and all.

Inside will be 2GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and Motorola’s ever-so-slightly modified bit of Google’s mobile operating system. We’ll see soon how this compares to the Moto X, a device that’ll be working with a rather unique look at Android, Google style.

This device will be appearing alongside the DROID Ultra and DROID MAXX later this month at a cool $99 USD with a two-year contract while the larger devices will add a hundred bucks for each level. You’ll find red accents through the series while the main color utilized here will be straight up textured black.

DROID MINI official as successor to RAZR M for Verizon is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As if we didn’t already have enough Motorola phones to wait for, Verizon showed off a trio of new Motorola DROID smartphones at a (surprisingly cozy) event in New York City.

The flagship of the three is the DROID Ultra, which Motorola’s Rick Osterloh refers to as the thinnest 4G LTE smartphone out there with its and 7.18mm thick chassis. Motorola’s fascination with Kevlar is still in effect on the device’s rear (though the finish is glossy as opposed to matte like it usually is), and a 5-inch 720p display occupies most of the space on the device’s front.

Motorola is continuing the Maxx line of power-conscious devices — it’s functionally the same phone as the Ultra except it’s a little fatter at 8.5mm, a features a sealed battery capable of up to 48 hours of continued usage. Last (and certainly not least) is the DROID Mini, a slightly smaller take on the Ultra formula that’s eschews that giant 5-inch screen for a more manageable 4.3-inch 720p screen.

Putting industrial design aside though, perhaps the most interesting thing tucked away inside these new DROIDs is what Motorola calls its X8 mobile computing system — it’s a eight-core system that encompasses the dual-core CPU and uses additional cores to allocate computing power to graphics processing, language processing, and the like. The X8 system also enables touchless control for the device so users can make phone calls and ask for directions hands-free, and active display, which lights up just a portion of the screen to display notifications . Sound familiar? It should — those features were also prominently highlighted in a leaked Rogers demo video for the Moto X.

If those monikers seem to be missing a little something, you’d be right — that RAZR label that graced the nearly all the Motorola devices released on Verizon in the past year is gone. It’s DROID all the way now, and I have to wonder if Motorola is retiring one of its most famous mobile brands because it’s looking to reinvent itself with another release later this summer. Speaking of the summer, all three devices will officially go on sale on August 20: the Mini, Ultra, and Maxx will cost $99, $199, and $299 respectively with a 2-year contract.

We’re still waiting on confirmation from Motorola and Verizon on specs, but the representatives on have said they’re just not talking about them today. That is, for lack of a better term, pretty damned stupid. Overall Motorola is being very cagey about the hardware details, and about specifics around the X8 and its origins (though it seems to be based on a Qualcomm MSM8960 Pro), which is an odd way to launch a product.

Hands On (the TL;DR version)

I got plenty of hands on time with the new Droids and wrote about them at length, but here’s a truncated version in case you need some more meat.

Meet The Mini

First up is the Droid Mini, the smallest of the bunch. I was a bit of a sucker for the RAZR M, Motorola’s original pint-sized Droid — the package was quite handsome with its nearly edge-to-edge display and its tiny frame, but was it was no top-tier device when it came to performance. Motorola thankfully didn’t repeat its earlier mistake, as the Mini seems awfully snappy. Colors on the 4.3-inch OLED display running at 720p were bright without being lurid, and it’s a nice, dense little thing to hold on to. It’s not perfect though — the glossy Kevlar finish that Motorola ran with feels a little off-putting and picks up fingerprints like crazy, a trait it sadly shares with its flagship brother.

The Underwhelming Ultra?

Speaking of the flagship, Motorola apparently focused on making it very thin, and they succeeded — it’s a scant 7.11mm thick, and sports a 5-inch 720p OLED screen. Fortunately, the Ultra has some nice heft to it, which helps give the whole package a more premium feel compared to other top-tier smartphones (I’m looking at you Galaxy S4).

To be quite honest, the Ultra is the hardest of the three to write about. Motorola seemed to make the Ultra the foundation that the other two Droids work off of — the Mini is the more pocketable Ultra, and the Maxx is the Ultra with a much better battery — and because of that the Ultra wound up being the least interesting of the three.

And then there’s the Maxx

The most impressive device I mucked around with today was the DROID Maxx, for perhaps obvious reasons. Back in the day, the Maxx was always the chunky, more utilitarian version of whatever slim smartphone Motorola was touting at the time. Now it’s gotten to the point where it’s just not much larger than any other hot-selling smartphone out there. It’s great that the Ultra is so slim, but the Maxx is so much less of a lump than it used to be that it’s actually a little surprising.

Let’s put that in perspective a bit — my iPhone 5 usually lives inside a very slim case (this one, if you care), and it fits in my pocket as well as you would expect. The Maxx, with its ridiculous 3,300mAh battery, is just about as thick as that iPhone.

Yes, it may seem like a minor thing to get worked up over, but think about it. Companies like HTC and Samsung and Sony like to push the envelope in terms of raw computing power and graphical performance, and one could argue that they’re just trying to give some consumers what they want. But where’s the value in that for the companies who make the devices? It’s mostly in marketing. You get to crow about having the world’s [insert superlative here] phone for a few months until someone else one-ups you. But batteries are different — if smartphone companies started duking it out on battery life instead of screaming clock speeds all the time, we’d finally start getting phones that can keep up with all the seriously crazy things we ask of them.