The original Motorola Droid was an amazing device (full disclosure: I own one and love it, so I’m a little biased) and here we are less than a year later and Motorola has already end-of-lifed the original Motorola Droid and has unveiled its successor, the Droid 2!

The new version of the Droid will look much like the original – the same screen size, same 5-megapixel camera, and with a slide-out keyboard, but the new version will eliminate the d-pad on the original Droid (a lot of people disliked it – I don’t mind it so much, I just don’t use it often) in exchange for a wider keyboard with higher keys, and will sport a faster 1GHz mobile processor in it, a substantial upgrade from the 600Mhz processor in the original Droid.

Additionally, the Droid 2 will come with Android version 2.2 “Froyo,” which is rolling out to existing Droid devices as we speak, have its wi-fi hotspot feature turned on (for an extra $20/month to Verizon Wireless) that lets your other mobile devices use your phone as a wireless base station, and a bit more onboard storage that will hopefully also improve performance.

I’ve mentioned before that Verizon Wireless has come a long long way, baby, and this is more evidence to the fact. Verizon isn’t as afraid to put high-end premier devices on their networks as they used to be, and their speedier hardware approval process has put them in the driver’s seat when it comes to top notch devices. The Droid 2 is available now in Verizon Stores and online, and if you’re a Star Wars fan, there’s a special R2-D2 version of the Droid 2 coming next month!

[ PC Mag :: Verizon, Motorola Introduce Droid 2 ]