Oh, how the mighty have fallen. For a phone that single-handedly resuscitated the business prospects of its parent company, gave a much-needed boost to Google's fledgling Android and finally added a compelling product to Verizon's lineup, the Droid can't get no respect. Initially billed as the anti-iPhone, the OG flagship embodied an aggressively tech for tech's sake design ethos, with its masculine, hard-edged build, geeky OS and Lucasfilm licensed moniker.

That was all once upon a time. Now, two years later and sucked of its disruptive significance, the only legacy remaining for the red-eyed Droid franchise is its brand equity and QWERTY slider appeal. Aside from BlackBerry addicts, most consumers appear none too chuffed to see those slide-out keypads become the stuff of mobile lore, and instead prefer those increasingly ubiquitous slabs (namely, of the 4.3-inch-and-up persuasion). So, where did it all go wrong? Why is the Droid 4, now imbued with LTE, getting the B-list treatment? Does a $200 price tag and a host of minor spec bumps (a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 1.3 megapixel front-facer and beefier 1,785mAh battery) merit another spin around the two-year contract pole? Head on past the break to see whether this former trailblazer can still do what it's namesake robot supposedly does.
Gallery: Motorola Droid 4 review

Continue reading Motorola Droid 4 review

Motorola Droid 4 review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

<h6 style="clear: both; padding: x 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6>Permalink | | Email this | Comments
[img]http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/54GCBKPfsC1M-0wPEKQOAqd0sns/0/di[/img]</img>

[img]http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/54GCBKPfsC1M-0wPEKQOAqd0sns/1/di[/img]</img>


[img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/weblogsinc/engadget?i=iuLT3Ut2dG0:MDN59xCWTU0:wF9xT3WuBAs[/img]</img> [img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/weblogsinc/engadget?i=iuLT3Ut2dG0:MDN59xCWTU0:V_sGLiPBpWU[/img]</img> [img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/weblogsinc/engadget?i=iuLT3Ut2dG0:MDN59xCWTU0:-BTjWOF_DHI[/img]</img> [img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/weblogsinc/engadget?d=qj6IDK7rITs[/img]</img>
[img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~4/iuLT3Ut2dG0[/img]

View the full article

View the full article