The Motorola Droid 2 looks a lot like the original Droid, and a teardown reveals that the similarities go more than skin-deep.
In fact, the internal layout and most of the Droid 2's components are nearly identical to those of the original Droid, gadget repair site iFixit found.
The most significant upgrade is to the processor, which is probably a Texas Instruments OMAP 3630, iFixit says. Running at 1 GHz, that compares to the 600-MHz processor in the original Droid.
The phone now supports fast 802.11n Wi-Fi.
The keyboard is also different, with a tighter, more durable-seeming slider mechanism and no D-pad, which makes for a more spacious key layout.
But the rest of the specs -- and even the circuit boards -- look remarkably similar to the first Droid. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, the Motorola engineers must have figured.
It's got the same 8-megabit NAND flash memory module, and comes with the same 8-GB micro SD card for storing apps, music, photos and other files.
As with the first Droid, there's a secondary microphone that helps cancel out background noise to make call quality clearer.
A 5-megapixel rear-facing camera has a dual-LED flash. It supports 30 fps video recording, compared to the original Droid's 24 fps. Otherwise the camera is pretty similar to the original one's.
The display is the same as the first Droid's: a 3.7-inch, 854 x 480-pixel WVGA LCD screen.
Story continues with more pictures of the Droid 2.
The Droid 2 has a 3.7-volt, 1390 mAh Li-on polymer battery, which Motorola claims will give you 9.5 hours of talk time. It's easy to remove: Just pop the battery cover and pull it out. It's the same battery that's inside the Droid, although Motorola's claiming more talk time, which suggests they've made enhancements to the phone's power management software and perhaps to other features.
In terms of capacity, the Droid 2's battery is only slightly smaller than the iPhone 4's 1420 mAh battery -- but the iPhone's is not easily removable.
It took 21 steps for the iFixit guys to get to this point, but they were finally able to remove the slide-out keyboard. Unlike the original Droid, there's no D-pad on the Droid 2, leaving more room for buttons.
After tearing the Droid apart, the iFixit guys appear to be stumped as to how to reassemble it. They promise to post more photos once they've figured that out, however.
iFixit: Motorola Droid 2 Teardown (via Kyle)
Photos courtesy iFixit.
See Also:
- Motorola Introduces Droid 2 Phone
- Motorola Set to Launch Droid 2 Phone
- Motorola Upgrades the Droid With Droid X
- Hands On With the Motorola Droid X
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