Verizon and Motorola will be adding a new member to its DROID smartphone lineup. New images and details have leaked regarding the DROID 5.
When Verizon and Motorola released the original DROID in 2009, it was intended to be an iPhone alternative. The carrier was losing customers to AT&T since Apple and the carrier's iPhone deal was a multi-year exclusive. Verizon enlisted Motorola to come up with a smartphone that it could market as being a "real iPhone alternative." The ads for the smartphone explicitly stated it was not only an iPhone competitor, but it also was also superior in many ways to Apple's handset that could only be found on AT&T's network.
Verizon's aggressive ads educated consumers and demonstrated how the DROID was the best alternative to the iPhone it didn't offer. It wasn't the first Android smartphone, but it was the most successful one, and the number of sales proved just how big it was. Verizon sold 1.05 million DROIDs in its first 74 days of being on the market, this number topped the original iPhone's 1 million sold in 74 days.
A new report claims Motorola and Verizon are getting ready to launch the fifth-generation DROID with the same slide-out keyboard the previous four iterations included. It will also bring a new trend in the smartphone world, by being both water-resistant and dust-resistant, like the Sony Xperia Z and the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active. Sources have told the site that the DROID 5 will include either a 4.3-inch or 4.5-inch display, and as you can see from the picture above, it will have an edge-to-edge display with very thin bezels.
Its slide-out QWERTY keyboard has a spacious five-row layout and also includes a dedicated voice-to-text button. The DROID 5 will also include out of the box wireless charging support and NFC. While the report doesn't list the processor the DROID 5 will use, it's very likely that it will use Motorola's new X8 Mobile Computing System processor. The company is currently using its new processor in its new DROID line and the Moto X, so it's very likely it will show up inside the DROID 5.
The report doesn't give an expected release date and other specs, but we'll keep you updated once we hear any new details.
