Motorola Droid Debuts, Then Disappears

The hotly anticipated Android-powered Motorola Droid smartphone made a brief and surprising visit on the Web yesterday as Motorola "accidentally" launched the phone's site. Before Motorola caught onto the mistake, blogs like Boy Genius Report and Unwired View nabbed pictures, including all of the upcoming phone's specs. Most of these specs were leaked in August and are now just being confirmed.

Some highlights (recorded by ZDNet):

• Google Android 2.0 (Eclair)
• Sliding QWERTY form factor
• 5 megapixel camera with image stabilization, 4X digital zoom, dual LED flash, auto-focus
• Video capture/playback capability: DVD quality up to 24 fps; D1 (720×480) resolution
• Music player
• Battery life: up to 385 minutes continuous usage. 1400 mAh Li-ion; up to 270 hours standby
• MMS, SMS, IM incl. Google Talk
• Predictive text
• Stereo Bluetooth v2.1+EDR
• Sync with: MS Exchange, Gmail, corp. calendar (Exchange '03 and '07), Google Cal
• 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• microUSB connector (USB 2.0)
• Webkit HTML5 web browser; Flash 10 available 2010
• 3.5mm headset jack
• speech recognition, voice dialing
• Unified contact list/phonebook (Gmail, Exchange, Facebook)
• Google services: Android Market, Gmail, Calendar, Contact, Maps + Street View, Search, Voice Search, Talk, Turn-by-turn directions, YouTube
• QuickOffice Document Viewer
• Amazon MP3 Store, Facebook
• Backlit TFT 3.7-inch WVGA (480×854) 16:9 widescreen display (267 PPI)
• Virtual keyboard
• Weight: 6.0 oz.
• 2.4 in. wide by 4.6 in. tall by 0.5 in. thick
• Accelerometer
• 550MHz processor
• 16GB microSD removable storage pre-installed; up to 32GB

The Droid was supposed to be unveiled on October 28 at a special event held by Verizon, but I'm not sure the premature reveal was accidental. (click on the screen cap to enlarge it and take a closer look.) It could be a clever marketing ploy; a whetting of techie palates before an even bigger showcasing. The only information missing, of course, is the most important: the phone's price and specific availability.

The Droid is just one of many phones lately that has been called an "iPhone killer," and though it boasts impressive specs, that statement should always be taken with a fistful of salt.