Yes­ter­day, Ver­i­zon Wire­less and Motorola announced its lat­est addi­tion to Droid fam­ily of Android-powered devices on Ver­i­zon Wireless—the Droid X.

 

• 1GHz TI OMAP 4630 processor
• 8GB inter­nal mem­ory, 16GB mem­ory card expand­able to 32GB
• 512MB RAM
• 4.3-inch screen WVGA 854 x 480
• 8.0 megapixel, Dig­i­tal Zoom, Auto Focus, Dual LED Flash
• Android 2.1 (2.2 Com­ing this summer)
• HDMI cable or Dig­i­tal Liv­ing Net­work Alliance (DLNA)
• Pre­loaded Apps
  • EA Need for Speed Shift
  • Swype
  • NFL Mobile
  • Skype Mobile
  • V CAST video
  • Block­buster
  • Back-Up Assis­tant
• WiFi b/g/n(?)
• GPS
• Blue­tooth
• FM radio
• WiFi Hotspot to con­nect up to 5 devices
• Three micro­phones – voice, video, noise cancellation
• 1570 mAh battery
• Notably miss­ing from the Droid X at launch will be the updated Android OS 2.2 (Froyo), but Motorola gave assur­ances that the Droid X will will receive Android 2.2 and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 with an over-the-air update in the lat­ter half of the sum­mer (August).

Pric­ing


The Droid X will cost $199 (after a $100 rebate) under a two-year ser­vice con­tract. In a move sim­i­lar to AT&T with release of the iPhone 4, Ver­i­zon is let­ting any­one eli­gi­ble for an upgrade in 2010 buy a Droid X at the dis­counted rate.  In fact, you can opt to select any smart phone with­out penalty. So, if you had your heart set on the Droid Incred­i­ble, you can accel­er­ate your renewal date.

The optional 3G Mobile Hotspot ser­vice is $20 per month. It allows you to con­nect up to five com­pat­i­ble WiFi devices. The data on this plan has a 2GB cap. (The pre­vi­ous plan cost $30, which only allowed you to tether one device, gave users a 5GB cap). Any­thing over the 2GB cap will cost you 5 cents per megabyte
Now, if you’ve been read­ing my blog, you know that I was all aflut­ter about the HTC Droid Incred­i­ble. I was aware this Motorola device was in the works, but knew if the Droid X came out this sum­mer, and I liked it, I would likely gift the Incred­i­ble to my son, and get the Droid X. My pri­mary inter­est in get­ting the Droid X is the addi­tional screen real estate, as well as HD video cap­ture. The Droid X is larger, though, so I’ll really have to see how the extra size feels—particularly the cam­era hump on the back, toward the top.

I am a lit­tle reluc­tant to post this pro­mo­tional video by Motorola, because it’s so over the top, but here it goes.

There is a more objec­tive pre­view, includ­ing some test video, of the Droid X over on Engad­get. I will post some review videos from some of my favorite sites as the become available.

In addi­tion to the stan­dard line up of shells, cases and car charg­ers, there are two nice acces­sories for the Droid X — a  tabletop/desktop dock and  a car mount.

I have also been encour­ag­ing my wife to hold off on upgrad­ing for her, now dated, Black­berry 8830. The only catch for her is that she is prob­a­bly more par­tial to a phys­i­cal key­board. She tried the Motorola Droid, but wasn’t too fond of the slider keyboard—a com­mon crit­i­cism. I’ve heard the Droid X is very easy to type on because the screen key­board is really big. Well, if my wife doesn’t go for the Droid X’s touch screen, the Motorola Droid 2 is expected to come out in the next cou­ple of months with an improved key­board and faster proces­sor. Here’s a spy shot of the key­board dif­fer­ences that leaked out last week, as well as some video from Android & Me.