Almost like fashion, it seems that smartphone form factors of old are making a comeback, from Samsung’s Hennessy and Galaxy Golden flip phones to Verizon’s newly released LG Enact. Now even Motorola is rumored to be taking a similar diversion, with leaked photos of what could be the Motorola DROID 5 sporting a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
This shouldn’t be a surprise if the DROID 5 is, as the name would imply, a successor to Motorola’s DROID 4, which was also a QWERTY slider. In our review, we found the DROID 4 to be the best DROID of its time and a topnotch QWERTY slider. However, it was probably too little too late when it came into the scene, compared to other smartphones even back then. We were left wondering if there was still a future for this kind of device in a world of extremely thin phones with huge screens and quad-core processors.
Motorola seems to think so, if these leaked photos are to be believed. The DROID 5 is rumored to continue the DROID 4’s tradition and sport a 5-row slide-out QWERTY keyboard with a larger 4.3- or 4.5-inch screen. It is also said to support wireless charging and NFC. The photos show Verizon’s logo and it wouldn’t be surprising if the DROID 5 also supported the carrier’s 4G LTE network, considering its predecessor did likewise.
There’s still a lot of missing pieces to be able to form a decent picture of what the DROID 5 could be. It would be interesting if it will also run on the same X8 Computing System that powers the latest Motorola DROIDs as well as the Moto X, giving it features like Touchless Controls and Active Display notifications. But if rumors do pan out, our question last month remains the same: would you still buy a QWERTY slider?
SOURCE: Weibo (1), (2)
VIA: New Cell Phones
Seems like the past is haunting us. lol
I miss a querty since my Milestone… Shut up and take my money 🙂
aaand it will never release in Canada.. 🙁
buy it? no. steal it? hells yea.
I want it. I was never able to get used to the software keyboard. <3 my qwerty
YES!!! I would. For sure! I’ve never gotten used to onscreen keyboards and would welcome a top of the line Droid 5.
Verizon seem to be clearing inventory of the Droid 4 based on the shipping estimates so hopefully this is not far away from release.
Boom! Yes!!!! I’m so happy they’re making a droid 5. That is fantastic news, can’t wait. Good thing I didn’t pull the trigger on my 2yr upgrade last month.
Sooooo furious right now. After the announcement of the latest 3 moto phones through Verizon it seemed like there wouldn’t be a Droid 5, so i made the leap to the 4 assuming i’d ride that dinosaur into the sunset. Wrong. So now i get to wait another 2 whole years to get the Droid 5. Hopefully this thing isn’t out for Christmas. I mean.. i’m sure most of you want it out before that, but obviously I don’t. 🙂
Shhhh… I’m finished phone shopping. I can go ahead and wait this out with my Droid 4 until this comes out. Yesssss… best news I’ve gotten in 8-9 months.
SO excited about this. I’m loving my Droid 4, and I was worried there would never be a replacement for it.
I would hand over my credit card today if this is true. I use my physical keyboard for work – I need it to SSH into servers, and typing in long alphanumeric (with symbols) passwords is terrible on a touch screen. Not to mention, you don’t want to make a typo when you are admining servers.. I need this phone bad!!
I love a qwerty slider.. it is the best… cuz you can type everthing without even watching if your pressing the right letters. you can feel it 😉