Motorola Droid 4 Review : Introduction

Its been two long years for Motorola, when the Droid family came to existence with Android, it all began from Motorola Droid. And now, we have the Droid 4 on our hands. Motorola Droid 4 is a complete change when we compare it to there older predecessors. It larger and its better, but thats natural. Once a mighty class the Motorola Droid because of its uber awesome QWERTY keypads slider design which resurrected Motorola, it has now fallen.  But, this one changes the game for Motorola.

Those of you who are hardcore fans of the Moto Droid Family knows what its like to have a an Android with a qwerty keypad or a Droid simply. Verizon and Motorola’s patnership over the family is remarkable, with an unexpected dip with the launch of the Droid 3. Droid 3 was launched with a fair dual core processor, but with no LTE and not so good camera. The changeover with the new UX user interface was a bit too sluggish and did not feel right. But do we have a better and faster Droid device here with the Motorola Droid 4. Yes we have, if you don’t care about a massive fone, then your in for a treat.

Motorola Droid 4 Review : Hardware

The display is gorgeous on the Motorola Droid 4. The 540 x 960 display on 4 inch screen space is massive with 275 pixels per inch. Its definitely not near the Galaxy Nexus , but its definitely better then the Droid RAZR’s display which has a pixel density of 256. At this close range you wont notice the difference unless you’re holding these devices up next to one another, but the difference is there.

The Device is slightly larger and bigger then the Motrola Droid 3 because of the amount of the plastic used over the device to make it more stylish. The curves looks better on the Droid rather then the old boxy designs of the previous three Droids. The Keypad are a lot better and are said to run better then ever. It won’t become harsh for you to type even after years of using the Motorola Droid 4 as it did with the Motorola Droid 3, which too was said to have a nice keypad.  Here there’s a new amount of space and a sensor-activated light surrounding the keys.

The processor is the same as on the Motorola Droid RAZR which is the Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 dual-core 1.2GHz SoC. This chip will get you where you need to go and do stuff. It will allow you to play essentially any game you’re wanting for on the Android Market without a hitch. Consider these Quadrant Advanced results – Total 2747, CPU: 6957, Memory: 2586, I/O: 3046, 2D: 283, 3D: 862, and note the comparatively powerful results when you consider the rest of the Android devices released with this same OMAP processor very recently – looking quite similar. Motorola Droid 4 performance is good, and you won’t complain ever about the phone that its lagging.

Motorola Droid 4 Review : Software

The Motorola Droid 4 contains regular suite of Motorola, Google,Android and Verizon apps completed with webtop. Motorola device within the last year are all developed to give you a desktop like feel when connected to your webtop or HDMI screens with a USB connected mouse and keyboard.  Alternatively you can use the DROID 4 as a trackpad to control your cursor on the display.

Motorola devices are connected to well based cloud entertainment and back up storages like my images, my videos and my music. You can even backup your contacts and data to the cloud based services. This and the rest of the cloud suite on the DROID 4 are connected via MotoCast, a service which connects all of your Motorola devices via an interface you download for your desktop machine at MyMotoCast.com.  Another prominent feature is the MOTOACTV which acts as your fitness device and health manager during your workouts. It stores your diet plans too.

Rest is all Android, It do looks like ICS but sadly its still GingerBread, 2.3.6 to be exact. The scroll in the app drawer is changed from horizontal to vertical which gives it a ICS touch. The Motorola video and image centre is also good with flip over transitions.

Motorola Droid 4 Review : Camera

A snapshot from the Droid 4

The Camera is 8 Mega Pixel descent performer not too good but not bad at all. You can be content with the camera unless and until you have used the iPhone 4S and Nokia N8′s camera which are the best in class. The Camera offer sweep panorama, exposure, ISO, Colour settings and much more. The front camera is descent and video calls are a breeze.

Motorola Droid 4 Review : Battery

The battery on this beast is a full 1785 mAh placing it right beside the original DROID RAZR in battery rating and capturing just about as much time in the wild as well. When you’re using this device for watching video you’ll get a few hours out of it – enough time for about a full movie and a half. If you’re using it heavily throughout the day with Web, Gaming, lots of calling, you’ll get something like 6-8 hours. If you’re using it lightly, for email and web browsing exclusively that is, you’ll be getting 10 hours or more no problem. One charge a night should be good for most users.

Motorola Droid 4 Review : Wrap

The Motorola Droid 4 is the bulkiest smartphone available on the Verizon Wireless network. The Build is nice and you will fell good using the phone. The only thing is that its plastic, we were hoping Kevlar like in the Motorola Droid RAZR. If your in love with Qwerty phones, go and buy it hands down.

This device certainly deserves to have a spot amongst the high-end line of Android devices at its release, but will be forgettable within a few months at the dawn of the quad-core smartphone and the start of the Ice Cream Sandwich having Androids being released in bulk closer to the middle of the year. You’ve got the option of grabbing the Galaxy Nexus from Samsung on Verizon right now as well if you want the newest Android software – DROID 4 is still stuck on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread – but that would require you to leave your beloved Motorola and go Samsung’s way, a very different beast indeed.