With the newest Apple iPhone unveiled and about to hit the market, attention is quickly turning to the next generation of another top-selling smartphone, the Verizon Wireless Droid. And in a case of history repeating itself, there are already leaked photos of the prototype.
A blog dedicated to Droid phones is displaying leaked shots of a device extremely similar to the current Motorola Droid, which premiered last November and is believed to be the fastest-selling device based on Google’s Android operating system.
Sleek and black with a slide-out keyboard, the displayed phone boots up in video footage with the sci-fi-like robotic red eye that is its trademark. The screen size is still 3.7 inches, slightly bigger than the iPhone’s 3.5 inches but smaller than the 4.3-inch touchscreens on the HTC EVO and Droid Incredible.
It’s unclear whether the new Droid will be out in time to ship with the updated Android 2.2, expected later this year.
The most obvious external difference, noted Droid Life, is puffier, domed keys and no more trackpad. But it’s inside where the big changes are, with a 750-megahertz OMAP processor, faster than the current 500 megahertz. The phone will also have eight gigabytes of internal memory, with an additional 8GB pre-installed on an SD card. The camera is five megapixels, but there’s only one — no front-facing camera for video conferencing like the iPhone 4.
No release date was suggested by the blog, but reports say it’s likely to coincide with the launch of the Droid Extreme, the next version of the phone formerly known as Motorola Shadow.
Expect to hear the name Droid quite a bit, says IDC Research wireless analyst Ramon Llamas. “This is a successful series of devices between the Droid, Eris and Incredible,” he said. “There’s no way Verizon Wireless is going to turn off the…