Motorola and Verizon Wireless are reportedly about to release the Droid 4, less than five months after the launch of its predecessor.
The rumor comes from Droid Life, which posted some convincing leaked product shots and a chart that compares the Droid 4 with the Droid 3 and Droid Razr.
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Should this report prove accurate, the Droid 4 will look a lot like the Droid Razr, but with a slide-out keyboard tacked on. It’ll include a slightly faster processor than the Droid 3 (1.2 GHz dual-core instead of 1 GHz dual-core), a bigger battery, an HD front-facing camera and support for Verizon’s 4G LTE network. The Droid Razr’s “Smart Actions,” which improve battery life by turning certain features on and off automatically, are also along for the ride in the Droid 4, and so is support for Motorola’s Webtop docks.
Other specs that are the same as the Droid 3 include a 4-inch qHD display and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera. Both phones run Android 2.3, according to Droid Life’s leaked spec sheet.
If not for the 4G LTE support, Verizon wouldn’t have much justification for selling a Droid 4 this holiday season. The reported spec boosts over the Droid 3 are minor, and the software experience should be pretty similar. But Verizon is really pushing 4G in its high-end smartphones, and the carrier probably doesn’t want to go through the holidays without a flagship phone that has a hardware keyboard.
Will Droid 3 buyers squeal with rage if the Droid 4 launches on December 8, as rumored? Sure, but better Android phones are always right around the corner, and when the Droid 3 launched this summer, it was no secret that 4G phones were on the way. That’s just the way it goes.
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