Motorola Droid Pro demonstrates why portrait candy bar phones are rare [the competition] 42
Wed, 06 Oct 2010 2:39 pm EDT 
The tall portrait touchscreen has become a mainstay of the modern smartphone. When manufacturers wanted to add a keyboard, they made it a slider, either vertical like the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Torch or horizontal like the Motorola Droid 2, T-Mobile G2, and all manner of Android devices. But mixing the keyboard in without a slider was a recipe for a smaller/shorter screen, like the Palm Pixi, all manner of BlackBerry devices, and a smattering of Android phones.
That changes now, with the introduction of the Motorola Droid Pro. As you can guess from the Droid branding, this new phone resides on Verizon. There’s nothing particularly special about that (except for Verizon’s special and somewhat corrupted love for Android), what’s different is the form factor: tall portrait screen with attached non-slider keyboard. This sucker comes with a 3.1-inch screen (same size as the Pre) overtop a keyboard that looks like it was lifted off of a BlackBerry.
Stuffed inside is a 1GHz processor, 2GB storage (really, that’s it?), a 2GB microSD card, and a 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash. Otherwise it’s a fairly typical Android 2.2 phone, if you can get your head (and hands) around the shape - it’s right around 4 ½ inches tall. There’s one spot where we are jealous: this sucker’s a world phone. If you’re not familiar with what that means, we won’t fault you, as it’s not something we’ve heard a lot of in webOS land: a phone with both CDMA and GSM radios. The idea is that you can use it on your CDMA network in the US of A, and then when you head out to places where CDMA roaming doesn’t happen (i.e. the world outside of the United States) you can slap in a SIM card for some international calling and internets.
If that’s not to your fancy, Motorola’s got another phone in line for you, so long as you (1) like Android and (2) live in Brazil. The GSM-powered Pre-sized vertical slider smartphone is called the Motorola Spice, and was designed and built in Brazil, with that country as the target market for the phone. It runs Android 2.1 with MOTOBLUR (yay.) and is packed with fairly ho-hum hardware: a 528 MHz processor, 512MB storage plus whatever you can fit via microSD, a 3 megapixel camera, and a 3-inch 240x320 screen.
So, two new portrait keyboard-toting Android phones, one with hardware outclassed by the aging Pre, the other with hardware that handily outclasses the Pre, plus some goodies we don’t yet have on our webOS devices. Anybody tempted, or is the promise of new webOS phones enough to keep you in the Palm camp
Source: Android Central [Droid Pro, Spice]
42 Comments
No WebOS, no deal...
Unfortunately, I think you're in the minority. For the rest of the world, it's more like "webOS = no sale."
No WebOS or MeeGo, no deal.
Wow this is exactly what the Pixi should have been like 1 year ago.
No WebOS or MeeGo, no deal.
They are going after the Blackberry users now.
Droid Pro and Spice = Palm rip offs. The Spice almost looks identical to the Pre. But yeah, I agree with BobAtPitt...No WebOS, No Deal.
Make it a 3.5 screen and I would buy a Palm like that in a heartbeat :)
Speed, battery life and apps are the reasons that I'm probably leaving the Palm universe for an upgrade cycle. If I thought that Palm was coming out with something soon, I might wait. But I don't like "early next year". So, I'm probably headed towards an Evo or Epic.
In 12 mos if Palm is back in the game with a competitive handset, I'll come back.
personally i'd prefer a slab. but that's just me. and if it was a slider i kinda like the horizontals better.
good looking phone. better name than the pixi
I need new Palm phone specs before the Droid Pro comes out in november, to keep me hanging around, because early 2011 doesn't necessarliy mean january.
The number system on that keyboard sucks. I like it better when they are clumped together like a dial-pad, not a straight row.
OMG it's a CDMA/GSM phone...ugh, now I want it.
Palm really needs to make a phone with dual radios, I'd totally buy it no question.
"...what
2 keyboards! I want! :) I had to reread that twice..
This phone is ugly, i wont buy it.
Those resolutions are like travelling back to 2007.. No webOS - no deal ;)
So, I'm brazilian, and I live in Rio de Janeiro, and I can say one thing: The MotoBomb, (C)Apple, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia and LG are more smart than the Palm, and the HP.
They are launching everything here, and in rest of the world with all prices. In the end? They SELL!! Palm Pre/Pixi is not a best sellers? Of course!! Nobody can to buy, without to pay crazy taxes to import!!
The Android is not big because "is good", but because you can to buy in all world. Good or not, you can find the devices, can find the adds and can find do buy! Simple this way!
Next year? After wait for more than two years do Palm launch the Web OS, wait more two years (2009 ~ 2011) to MAYBE... the H/Palm begin to sell something here, is worst than very bad, no?
I really like the Palm Products, but I really HATE that they think as a small business... >:-(
Best Regards...
Took the words right out of my mouth. =)
fugly - not interested
i like the keyboard alot!
this is crazy, I was just talking about what my perfect phone would look like and then motorola announces that they made it. Only thing is my version has webos, 4in screen, and 32gb internal and a microsd slot on att.
It only "handily outclasses the Pre" if you haven't overclocked it. 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of memory and 16 GB of storage space, the Pre Plus is still competent against some of the best Android phones out there. In an unofficial test, I was able to beat an Epic 3 out of 3 times on website loads. It wasn't cached, though 4G is not available in my area (they sure don't mention that when they're selling the phones, though, do they?)
Pair that with a Pre/Pre Plus com board swap, and I've got the best mobile OS, comparable hardware, much better form factor and the cheapest (and unlimited) wireless plan. Sounds like a cool deal to me.
always felt like horizontal sliders are for teenagers. Give me a slab or I'll take a portrait slider as a second choice.
My daughter asked me if it was an upgrade to her Samsung Code (winmo 6.5) on MetroPCS
webOS world phone FTW!
If Palm came out with a phone similar in form as this one with webOS, I'd buy it. I liked the form factor of the Pixi, but thought that the screen was too small. IMHO, it would have been perfect if the Pixi was scaled up to match the Pre's screen size, processor, wifi, etc.
I really like the look of this phone, best of both worlds, and plenty of power under the hood. if the keyboard it good I'm sold.
I want a new webOS device (phone) sooner than later.
ITS SO PRETTY Wonder how hard it would be to port WebOS to this bad Boy :P
why port? no gesture area
It definitely makes me think about getting Android now...
know I like the look of this phone.I would love for Hpalm to make a phone like this.It looks like the pixi though.I think palm could make the screen bigger then this one an still have room for the keyboard. If you look at the pre you can see that is has more space for a bigger screen where the gesture area is at.That could be used for extra screen space.
know I like the look of this phone.I would love for Hpalm to make a phone like this.It looks like the pixi though.I think palm could make the screen bigger then this one an still have room for the keyboard. If you look at the pre you can see that is has more space for a bigger screen where the gesture area is at.That could be used for extra screen space.
I hope they are taking notes.I don't think I will wait until next year to get a phone.
Is it just me then that hates vertical sliders? I love the pre but would have really loved a horizontal slide. Give me a Horizontal Droid with WebOS please!
If this was available a month ago when I got my Droid 2, I'd be all over it. I'm a little worried about the thickness though. I think my wife Pixi Plus is just about perfect in size.
John
Ugly is for boys. Cute and Webos is for mature savvy girls. Get a grip or a palm pre. Just wish that Slate had a keyboard...gawd it makes me crazy...
I have to admit I really like the design of this phone. It's the perfect phone factor to me and ever since the Motorola Q, I've loved this keyboard style over the vertical ones.
I've gotta stop looking at this and remind myself why I'm sticking with Palm. =P
I tested the Galaxy S for 3 weeks and while the phone hardware was lovely and Android is perfectly capable, the OS is no where near as polished as WebOS. I'm happier now I'm back with my Pre, the only thing I want is a Hipstomatic style camera app that can create pinhole style images.
I like those WebOS devices. they're really helful when it comes to business issues, especially those involved with calling. Another side of this are some tariff plans and availability of those phones with them. It's always nice to have some good plan which gives you this kind of babies at a discount. I've done some searching and found this site - http://simtariff.com/. It's really nice and easy to use. Comparing one plan to another takes just a couple of clicks. Definitely worth checking out.