Following in what is becoming a time honored tradition of Moto’s Droid phones leaking like crazy, the Droid 3 found its way into the hands of XDA.cn recently to leak just about everything that was left to be leaked about this still unofficial phone. The Chinese reviewers do not appear to have a very high opinion of the phone, due to some lackluster specs and their rather low opinion of Motoblur. We’ve dived through the 8-page review courtesy of Google Translate and mined out all the juicy stuff for you.
First of all we finally have confirmation that the processor will be a TI OMAP4430. This is a dual core chip, but according to the reviewers, it fell short compared to the HTC Sensation with it’s dual-core Snapdragon. With 512 MB of RAM, a stat which isn’t shameful in of itself, but leaves the Droid 3 poised to become obsolete fast, the Droid 3 put up a Quadrant score of less than 2000. It appears that its less than cutting edge specs have left it a little strained for power, especially when it has to render that shiny 4″ qHD display.
Speaking of that display, it is indeed the same Pentile screen seen on the Atrix 4G. As noted in their review, a Pentile screen skimps out some on pixels, actually having only 2/3 of what its resolution indicates. Granted it doesn’t mean its going to look like it’s got that drastically lower of a resolution due to some optics trickery, but the reviewers point out it still feels a bit like false advertising. Running on that screen is the new Gingerbread Motoblur we’ve seen on the Droid X and X2 lately. While this is a very welcome and marked improvement, its still Motoblur, and until Motorola comes through on that bootloader promise, you’re stuck with it
While its chips may be a bit less impressive than we would like and the screen nothing special, the reviewers did confirm what we’ve all known and seen in the leaks. Motorola makes really pretty, high-quality phones, and the Droid 3 is no exception. While it was really the only positive thing said about the phone by our Chinese tour guides, it may be the most important. As the number of phones with slide out keyboards seems to be declining these days, especially at the higher end, the Droid 3 will likely be considered mostly by people who’s first rule is that they’re new phone has one.
While the Droid 3 was going to be hard pressed to overthrow the current kings, the HTC Sensation and the Samsung Galaxy S II in regards to power, it will be a pretty sweet upgrade still for those of you who love hardware keyboards. Those of you who don’t NEED the keyboard, tell us what you think. Do these new specs turn you off, or are you still interested in the mighty D3?
[via XDA.cn]
The specs were good 3-6 months ago. Hurry moto and start shipping this thing. Else the icecream versions will be out.
“[…] is that they’re new phone has one.”
Their, not they’re. It really took me a while to understand the statement, since English is not my primary language…