Motorola has released the Droid X2, Verizon’s first dual-core smartphone. Although it looks similar to its Motorola Droid predecessor, it’s been improved with a higher-resolution 4.3-inch screen and a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor. Let’s put it to the test.
Taking the Droid X2 out of the box, I was impressed with its slim and light form factor. Starting it up for the first time, I could see its saturated colors filled the 960×540 screen in a resolution otherwise known as quarter HD or qHD. But even though the screen’s resolution is 20% higher than its Droid predecessor, it’s still not quite as sharp and vibrant as some of the OLED screens we’ve seen.
The Good
The speediness of the dual-core Tegra 2 processor makes everything happen noticeably faster and smoother. Apps launch faster, games play smoother, multitasking works better — but the most pleasing improvement is the smoother-scrolling screens, a joy to behold.
Another benefit of that increased horsepower is quicker camera response than previous models. Now you can start up the camera and take a picture in three seconds, and it stores those pictures quickly, letting you take another picture in slightly less than three seconds.
Shooting pictures and video with the Droid X2′s 8-megapixel camera resulted in well-focused, correctly exposed and colorful stills. See the gallery below for an example.
The Bad
The Droid X2′s 720p video recording was not quite perfect in testing. When I subjected the video camera to wide variations in light levels, it dropped frames. This shouldn’t happen with a 1GHz dual core processor on board.
What else is missing? There’s no front-facing camera for videoconferencing. And there’s no sign of Verizon’s much-vaunted 4G LTE network, because thi s phone doesn’t...
