Verizon Wireless and Motorola today announced that the Droid 2 will be available for pre-sale tomorrow, Aug. 11. The highly anticipated successor to the original Motorola Droid will come running Google’s Android 2.2 (Froyo) for $199 with a two-year contract.
The Droid 2 features a qwerty keyboard, mobile hot spot capabilities for $20 per month, full push corporate e-mail and Adobe Flash Player 10.1.
Additional hardware includes a 4.3-inch screen, 8 GB of preloaded on-board memory and the 8 GB microSD card, which can be upgraded to a 32 GB SD card for a total cargo capacity of 40 GB. The phone has an 8-megapixel camera, HDMI out, 720p video capture, as well as preloaded Blockbuster On Demand for downloading movies and TV shows.
According to a press release, Verizon will offer a limited edition of the phone, which honors R2-D2 from the Star Wars movie franchise. The limited edition Droid 2 will be available only online in September. The special version of the phone will feature exclusive Star Wars content and external hardware designed to look like the Droid from the films.
Customers who want to add the optional 3G Mobile HotSpot service to their Droid 2 smartphones can do so for $20 per month.
In addition, current Verizon Wireless customers who have contracts ending by Dec. 31, 2010, can upgrade to any smartphone, including Droid 2, without penalty.
