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Verizon Droid 4 Review
Our friends over at Verizon have sent us the Verizon Droid 4 for us to review. Yes, it is the only “Droid” smartphone that has a slide out keyboard and it is the thinnest 4G LTE smartphone with a slide-out keyboard. It was unveiled at CES 2012, after many months of it being leaked out. It combines the best of both worlds, a touch screen and a physical keyboard. Ah but, does it live up to all of they hype? We will answer that in our full review, so now let’s dive into the full review of the Verizon Droid 4!
Design
The Verizon Droid 4 has a nice design. It comes in at only half of an inch thick, so it is really not that bad. On the top of your device you will find the power/sleep button and headphone jack. Your volume rocker can be found on the right hand side. The left hand side is home to your mini HDMI port and the micro USB port. On the back of the device you with the Verizon logo, 4G LTE logo, Motorola logo, speaker,and the 8 mega-pixel HD camera with LED flash. If you take the back cover off you will find the micro SD card slot and your Verizon 4G LTE SIM Card slot. There is no removable battery on this device but, it is in there somewhere. Towards the right hand bottom corner on the inside, you will find some pins. I am assuming that Verizon will be releasing an extend battery for this device and that is where it will be plugged in. We will let you know if Verizon or Motorola does come out with a such an accessory. To open the back cover you do need a special key and some strength. The back door itself feels very breakable, so do not handle it too much. On the front of the device right above the screen you will find the Motorola logo, a earpiece, and a VGA front facing camera. Under the screen you will find the 4 classic Android buttons (menu, home, back and search) and the Verizon Logo. Sliding out from the left hand side of the device is your laser cut full QWERTY keyboard. We will get into that later. Around the devices edges you will find a nice silver finish, while the rest of the phone is a blackish grey. The back of the phone has some grip to it, this way it won’t fall out of your hand when you are using the device.
Keyboard
Now, the full QWERTY keyboard is what the Droid 4 is famous for. It is the thinnest 4G LTE phone on the market that has a slide-out keyboard. This is by far the best slide-out keyboard smartphone on the market, it make’s the QWERTY keyboard on the Verizon Samsung Stratosphere, look pretty bad. This slide function of the keyboard if very smooth, and it does click when it is fully out. And it won’t get pushed back in by accident, you have to use some force to make it go back in and this adds more durability to the device itself. Now, once the keyboard is out the screen will automatically turn to horizontal mode. If you tape one button it will immediately start searching through your contacts, the web, and more. Keep in mind that you are on Verizon 4G LTE so it will not take long at all to see those results you have been waiting for. The keys themselves are both slightly raised and back light. Making them very easy to use and to see at night. They Android buttons are not in key format, but worry not as they are just a few steps away at the side of the screen. However, since they are capacitive touch buttons they do not turn when the keyboard slide’s out. This is something I would have liked to seen on this device, so hopefully with the Droid 5 we will see it. Congrats to Verizon and Motorola for a great job with the keyboard on this guy.
Hardware
Now, Motorola did not just make the keyboard good on the Droid 4 they also gave it some other nice features. For starters it has a 1.2GHz Dual-Core Processor, 1GB of RAM, and Verizon 4G LTE speeds. So it is appropriate to say that this device is very fast. There is zero lag time when swiping between screens or opening the keyboard. As with any device everyone once in a while it may take a little while longer, but for the most part the Droid 4 does very well. The display is where Motorola could have done much better. It has a 4.0 inch qHD display with a resolution of 960 X 540. This is also known as a PenTile display, but it also has a scratch and scrape resistant glass on it. The screen does not perform very well, the colors are not rich and the contrast of the display could be better. However, the viewing angles are very good. It has a 8GB of internals storage and it does have a micro SD card slot that holds up to a 32GB micro SD card. On the back you have an 8 megapixel HD camera with LED flash. It does record video in full 1080pHD quality. On the front you have a VGA front-facing camera.
Network
The Droid 4 runs on Verizon’s insanely fast 4G LTE network. Call quality on the Droid 4 was great and there was almost no static. Both us and the person on the other end, had no issues hearing one another. In our area were we tested this device we had anywhere from 3-5 bars of service. Please keep in mind that Verizon’s 4G LTE service in your area may vary. If no 4G LTE is available it will connect to Verizon’s 3G Network. We did run speediest on the Droid 4 via the “SPEEDTEST.NET” application. You can see our results from the test below.
- Ping 75ms, Download 16.52Mbps, Upload 11.82Mbps
- Ping 101ms, Download 9.42Mbps, Upload 5.04Mbps
- Ping 139ms, Download 20.75Mbps, Upload 8.29Mbps
- Ping 72ms, Download 12.23Mbps, Upload 3.98Mbps
- Ping 68ms, Download 7.96Mbps, Upload 4.56Mbps
Our speed test were very good with Verizon’s 4G LTE Network. Our lowest download speed was 7.96Mbps, while our highest was an awesome 20.75Mbps. Our lowest upload speed was 3.98Mbps, while our highest was a good 11.82Mbps. Keep in mind that your data connection varies on how strong Verizon’s 4G LTE Network is in your area. The Verizon Droid 4′s Networks is great!
Operating System
The Verizon Droid 4 By Motorola is currently running Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a Motorola User Interface. However both Verizon and Motorola have said that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be coming to the Droid 4 and it’s close relatives the Droid RAZR and Droid RAZR MAXX. No date has been given but, I’m assuming it will be sometime in the near future. In terms of pre-loaded apps on this device, there are a bunch of them. They are Amazon Kindle, Verizon Apps, Blockbuster, Google App Suite, YouTube, Device Setup, Emergency Alerts, Flash Player Settings, GoToMeeting, Help Center, Guided Tours, Let’s Gold 2, Madden NFL 12, Android Market, Mobile Hotspot, MOG Music, MOTOACTV, MOTOPRINT, Music, My Accounts, My Verizon Mobile Netflix, NFL Mobile, QuickOffice, Slacker, Slingbox, Smart Actions, Verizon Video,VZNavigator, VCast Tones, and more. Overall, the app selection is very similar to that of the Droid RAZR and Droid RAZR MAXX. The operating system and applications run very fast on the Droid 4. This thanks to it’s 1.2GHz Dual-Core Processor and 1GB of RAM.
Bottom Line
The Verizon Droid 4 By Motorola is a great phone! It is by far the best slider on the market. It runs on Verizon’s insanely fast 4G LTE Network. It has speed by itself as well with a 1.2GHz Dual-Core processor and 1GB of RAM. It features an 8 megapixel HD camera with LED flash on the back. The slide-out keyboard come sin very handy, is says to use, is backlight, and much more! The only bad part is that the screen is not the best out there, but it does get the job done a good amount of the time. If you’re looking at a new phone and you are on Verizon be sure to check out and consider the Droid 4. The Verizon Droid 4 by Motorola retails for $199.99 with a 2-year contract. Without a contract the Droid 4 will cost you $549.99. Currently at the time of this review if you buy the Verizon Droid 4 online you can get it for $99.99 with a 2-year contract. You Can Get The Verizon Droid 4 By Motorola, By Clicking Here. At the time of this review Verizon is offering an awesome deal, “Twice The Data. For The Same Price”. You Can Get More Info On This Deal, By Clicking Here. We would like to thank Verizon for providing us with a copy of the “Verizon Droid 4 By Motorola”.
Copyright 2010-2012 All Rights Reserved. NJTechReviews LLC
