We’ve got the next step, sort of a side step, in the ever-expanding DROID line at Verizon here with the DROID 3, fresh out of the box. Together let’s have a look at a device that certainly steps lightly towards the future of handheld devices with a rather safe and solid look at the DROID way of working with things. This device has a 1GHz OMAP4 4430 processor from the streets! This is a bit of an upgrade, some may say, over the previously suspected NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor that was originally rumored to be being put in this machine. That said, look at the simplicity and the shininess of the DROID legacy as it keeps unfoldin’.

What you’re going to find here is a rather interesting setup, a Motorola UI that’s no longer Motoblur, but some sort of hybrid which presents new icons, a new set of animations between windows, and Gingerbread to the max. Inside the app tray you’ll see three full screens of 20 apps each, including your regular suite of Google apps plus some rather unique oddities.

You’ll find the app version of GoToMeeting, a program that allows people to chat in several different ways – mostly used on desktops, from what I understand, MOTOPRINT for printing paper, I suppose, NOVA which has been on every Android phone from here to the middle of this past winter, Social Location for geo-tagging, Skype for video chat, and all your favorite V-Cast apps you’ve come to expect from Verizon.

For those of you who’ve never experienced the DROID in this form before, it’s a heavy and seemingly hardcore chasis with a solid keyboard slider underneath. It’s something you’re going to want to protect and certainly nothing you want to be carrying around with you if you’re a construction worker. I say this only because I’ve got an aunt who refurbishes houses and has the last DROID slider – really not sliding so well anymore! Not that it’s specific to the Motorola line of DROIDS, but sliders in general, and this is no exception.

Point of interest: when the display goes to sleep, it flickers off in the same way that the Nexus S’s Gingerbread shutoff does – very cute, very nice.

The speakers seem loud, the chassis seem tight, and the whole device seems like a DROID-lovers dream. Will it stand up against the rest of the Tegra-cotta warriors and the other dual-core armies? We shall see!

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