Verizon's Droid X is Official

By  |  Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 11:29 am

At an event in New York City–which I watched via Webcast from here in San Francisco–Verizon Wireless just announced the Droid X, its latest Motorola Android smartphone. I’ve given up trying to determine if any particular Android phone is the most impressive one to day–the honor changes every few weeks–but the X is clearly among the top ones so far in terms of sheer specs. It’s got a 1-GHz TI CPI, a big 4.3″ LCD display with 854-by-480 resolution in a thin case, 512MB of RAM, both 8GB of fixed storage and a 16GB MicroSD card, HDMI out, an 8MP camera that does 720p video, Android 2.1 (2.2 will come along late in the summer), and the ability to act as a wireless hotspot for up to five devices.

[NOTE/UPDATE: Verizon made a big deal out of the X supporting Flash–Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen was in New York for the unveiling–but it’s not shipping with Flash. Instead, it’s “Flash ready,” which is a total misnomer: Flash requires Android 2.2, which the X doesn’t yet have. But this phone will run Flash. Eventually.]

The X will go for $199.99 after a $100 rebate with a two-year contract, and Verizon customers whose contracts are up in 2010 can get it for that price. Data plans cost $29.99 for “unlimited” access; the Wi-Fi hotspot feature is $20 extra a month for 2GB of data.

Oh, and it doesn’t go on sale until July 15th…although you don’t need an advanced degree in marketing to figure out why Verizon is announcing it today.

More thoughts–including hands-on impressions–soon.

 
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5 Comments For This Post

  1. Jamie Ouye Says:
    June 23rd, 2010 at 11:47 am

    I am surely not the only one who thinks the timing to release these details today about a phone out July 15th is pretty obvious, right? The mobile war has vamped up quickly.

    I only wish Android phone manufacturers would come to some standard as to how they are going to place their buttons.

  2. ediedi Says:
    June 23rd, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    I am really curious how flash 10.1 non-beta performs on an android device. Have any reviews appeared?

  3. Hamranhansenhansen Says:
    June 23rd, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    “Flash Ready” is awesome verbiage, especially considering Flash was supposed to be ready for mobiles in 2008. I just read that only a tiny minority of the already extremely tiny Nexus One user base has installed Android v2.2. And only a small minority of them have installed Flash. So we are still talking about a Flash for Mobiles user base in the tens of thousands, tops.

    Flash Ready doesn’t help a Web developer make a case for starting new Flash projects in 2010. Without pre-installs, they’ll never get more than 50% of mobiles.

  4. Tom B Says:
    June 24th, 2010 at 4:11 am

    “Flash Ready”? I don’t hear USERS asking for this. Users hate flash.

  5. Guy Says:
    June 24th, 2010 at 4:54 pm

    When you do the hands-on review, please don’t neglect basic functions that I’ve found lacking in the two Android phones I’ve owned: DEXT (Android 1.5) and Milestone (Android 2.1).

    1. How well does BT pair with a headset? With the DEXT, I had to turn BT on in the headset first. With Milestone, the opposite.

    2. How well does wi-fi work? The DEXT software, an earlier version of Android, was inconsistent. I’d connect for an afternoon and the phone would not be able to connect for the next two days. I have yet to connect successfully with my Milestone, which sometimes finds my home network and sometimes cannot sense it at all.

    3. Does it behave oddly? The Milestone launches apps by itself, e.g., Voice Dialer and Corporate Calendar. There’s no way to keep them from launching. The Milestone has a tendency to reboot during calls. It also tends to shut off its antenna every now and then, something that can be fixed by powering off and on again.

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