January 5th. That’s when Motorola and Verizon first announced the DROID Bionic.
9 months grueling months later, it’s here. It’s seen delay after delay, and revisions to both its internal specs and its outward appearance have made the Droid Bionic we see launching today about as different from what was originally announced as any other Android handset hitting the shelves this month, but still: it’s rocking the Droid Bionic name, built by Motorola for Verizon, and it’s finally, finally here.
Given its launch window and positioning at the top of Verizon’s marketing masthead, the Bionic will be amongst but a handful of handsets that’ll be regularly held up against whatever Apple might launch as the next iPhone in the coming weeks. As such, you can be damn sure we’re going to give this thing a thorough examining before we publish our full review. Look for that early next week — but in the mean time, you can find our early impressions here.
For those who might be needing a refresher on the specs:
Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
Dual-core 1GHz Processor
1 Gigabyte of DDR2 Ram (up from 512MB at the original announcement)
16GB of internal storage, plus a 16GB microSD card pre-installed
4.3? qHD (960×540) Display
Verizon 4G/LTE Support
HDMI/Mirror Mode
4G LTE Mobile Hotspot (Up to 5 devices)
802.11n b/g/n
1735mAh battery
Bluetooth v2.1+ EDR
8 megapixel rear camera
0.3 megapixel (VGA) front camera (Blyeck)
The DROID Bionic is available for $299 on a new 2-year contract, or $599 at full retail.