First look: Motorola Droid 2 looks like another winner

The Motorola Droid 2, successor to the original Droid, went on sale August 12. Filling in for the vacationing Mike Gikas, I spent a few hours using the sample we purchased from a retailer. It offers several design refinements and handy new features. I found it easier to use than the original Droid smartphone and didn't encounter any notable drawbacks.

The Droid 2 is available from Verizon and costs $199 with a two-year contract. Verizon is reportedly offering an early upgrade, available now, to customers whose plans expire on any remaining date in 2010.

It's still a Droid. In form and design, the Droid 2 is barely distinguishable from the Droid. It's virtually the same size and weight, with nearly identical buttons and controls. It, too, has a slide-out keyboard, though it has been overhauled (more on that below). It comes with Android 2.2, the newest version of Google's operating system (the upgrade to 2.2 is being delivered to older Droids as I write this). All my attempts to verify that Adobe Flash 10.1 Player was running on the Droid 2 out of the box pointed to the conclusion that it wasn't running, even though there have been reports that Flash 10.1 is supposed to be bundled with the phone.

The new keyboards. The physical keyboard's keys are raised, which made it easier to quickly settle a finger on the key I wanted. With the old Droid's flat keys, I had to carefully feel my way from key to key. Individual keys appear about 25 percent wider than those on the old Droid. To make space for them, the Droid's navigation pad was eliminated in favor of arrow keys and an "OK" key, and the Droid's pairs of "Shift" and "Alt" keys were each replaced by single keys. The onscreen keyboard was also changed. In landscape orientation, keys were slightly more widely spaced, although most of the keys themselves appeared 20 percent narrower than their Droid counterparts. I found them easy enough to type on.

Faster typing. Touch typing on even the best keyboard, if it's this tiny, can be cumbersome. The Droid 2 includes the software called Swype that speeds up on-screen typing by eliminating the need to lift your fingers between key presses. To type "dog," for example you slide your finger from the "D" to the "O" to the "G." My fingers were sufficiently large that it was sometimes a challenge to know which key they'd stopped on, though the visual trail of their path that the Droid 2 displayed as I typed was a help. It took a few tries to get the hang of it, but within minutes I was typing long words, that I'd thought would be challenging, with confidence and accuracy. Swype can speed up typing, but to take full advantage of it, I found, you'll need to practice the new technique.

Beefed-up specs. The Droid 2 has a 1GHz processor, compared with 550mHz on the Droid. In using both, I didn't notice any significant speed improvement. Its battery is supposed to be able to last up to 190 minutes longer than the Droid's in continuous use and 45 hours longer in standby. A definitive conclusion on the Droid 2's speed and battery life, though, must await our upcoming slew of lab tests which will help us determine where place it in our Ratings of smartphones. (Ratings are available to online subscribers of Consumer Reports.) Like its predecessor, it comes with 16GB of memory, but can be upgraded to a total of 40GB (8 onboard; 32 removable), compared with around 33GB (32 removable) for the Droid. The camera and connectictivity are generally similar to the Droid's.

Mobile hotspot capability. The Droid 2 includes a feature that the newest iPhone model began offering just this summer: The ability to use the phone as a wireless hotspot for a Wi-Fi device, such as a laptop, netbook, or tablet. One Droid 2 can serve as a hotspot for up to 5 devices. With both the Droid 2 and iPhone 4, such wireless tethering requires a $20 per month data plan on top of your regular monthly plan.

Bottom line: The Droid 2's refined design and new features appear to make it a worthy successor to the highly-ranked Droid. The original Droid was one of relatively few smart phones we tested with good voice quality. Our formal lab tests will determine if we can say the same about the Droid 2.

If you're trying to decide between the Droid 2 and Verizon's Motorola Droid X and HTC Droid Incredible, both $199, here are some key considerations (voice quality aside): If you prefer a physical keyboard and can tolerate a heavier, bulkier phone, the Droid 2 (or the rated Droid) is a better match. Neither of the others has a physical keyboard. The Droid X has the largest display (4.3 inches) and slimmest case of the three. The Droid Incredible is a very good phone, though its battery life wasn't as long as the other Droids we rated.

—Jeff Fox

—Jeffrey Fox