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Motorola XT860 4G AKA Droid 3 video review

#263 | 3:38 |

Gadget TV

Friday August 19, 2011

A powerful dual core smartphone running Android 2.3 and featuring a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard with hardware number keys. The XT860 4G, AKA the Droid 3, is an impressive Android option. Even the MOTOBLUR Android skin interface, as much as we don't like it, is much improved. The XT860 is a major handset from a major manufacturer that will receive a major marketing push; exactly what's needed to spread the Android word.

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Show Notes

Motorola XT860 4G AKA Motorola Droid 3

$100 on a three-year term
$550 with no contract

XT860 4G Droid 3 specs
Dual core OMAP4430 at 1GHz
512MB RAM
540x960px 4-inch display (qHD)
16GB internal memory
Expandable memory up to an additional 32GB
8MP rear camera capable of 1920x1080p HD video recording at 30fps
Front VGA camera for video chat
Android 2.3 with MOTOBLUR interface

Front
The 4-inch qHD 960x540 display slides up to reveal a full 5-row QWERTY keyboard. In the top left is the VGA front camera for video chat.

Left
Micro USB for charging and syncing and mini HDMI out for connecting to an HDTV.

Right
Volume rocker and not much else.

Top
Power button and 3.5mm headphone jack with support for in-line mic headset.

Interface
MOTOBLUR is present and accounted for, but doesn't mess up the show as it's much improved over previous versions.

Bottom line
A solid and powerful smartphone. A little on the hefty side owing to the slide-up screen configuration. A nice, bright 4-inch LCD screen and 8MP camera with full 1080p HD video recording steal the show. The 512MB of RAM (as opposed to a more typical 1GB in dual core smartphones) may prove a bottleneck. The 3D hardware accelerator means this shortcoming shouldn't affect gaming however.

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