Motorola DROID BIONICMotorola have kicked off 2011 with several dual-core devices, and the Motorola DROID BIONIC is another one of these, aimed at the US Verizon Wireless network.
Sporting a bigger screen but less memory that the Motorola ATRIX on AT&T, the DROID BIONIC is a high-end device which will probably find itself competing head-on with whatever next-generation iPhone Apple have up their sleeves.
Like the ATRIX, the DROID BIONIC has a quarter HD "qHD" 960 x 540 pixel display, but in this case it is a large 4.3" panel, which is 50% larger than the iPhone 4. Although the very high resolution "retina" display on the iPhone 4 does have a 15% higher pixel count than the Motorola, the DROID BIONIC is easily better than most of the rest of the competition.
Dual core technology is something that Apple cannot match at the moment, although there will almost definitely be an upgrade to the iPhone 4 this year which may incorporate it. Internal memory is a generous 512MB of RAM, although at the moment we do not know how much flash memory the DROID BIONIC comes with.On the back is an 8 megapixel primary camera with a secondary front-facing camera for video calling. The DROID BIONIC is capable of HD video capture and playback, and it also comes with a built-in HDMI port.
Motorola haven't said which version of Android the DROID BIONIC will ship with, but the Adobe Flash capabilities mean that it must be at least Android 2.2.
This is a LTE-enabled "4G" device, giving access to Verizon's newly launched high-speed network. There aren't many 4G handsets around at present, and LTE support certainly gives the DROID BIONIC another advantage over its Apple rival.
Verizon is a key market for Motorola in the US. Currently there is no version of the iPhone for this network, so a large proportion of smart phones sold on Verizon are Motorola DROID series devices. In many respects the DROID BIONIC leapfrogs Apple's popular handset, but we expect to see an announcement from Apple about future iPhone developments in the next few months.
