Motorola DEVOUR

With 20-plus smartphones on tap for 2010, Motorola has a busy year ahead. Its first 2010 release: the Devour, a Google Android-powered handset that will launch on Verizon Wireless in mid-March. Like Motorola’s Droid and Cliq phones, the Devour melds a touch-screen with a physical Qwerty keyboard. But the Devour differs from its siblings in a few key ways:

Devour = Droid with easier access to Twitter and Facebook Devour is the second Motorola Android phone Verizon has picked up, but the first that runs Motorola’s social networking application, MOTOBLUR. Verizon views MOTOBLUR, which pulls social networking updates to the phone’s home screen, as the chief difference between the Devour and Droid. “You can do Twitter and Facebook on both phones, but Devour gives more instant access,” says Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Boyd Raney. Devour is also the first Motorola Android phone that can wireless synch photos and videos to DLNA-certified devices, such as TVs and game consoles. Motorola has said it will expand MOTOBLUR to include music, media and gaming, so think of this multimedia synching feature as the future of MOTOBLUR.

Devour runs Android 1.6–but it’s upgrade-able

The Droid was, famously, the first phone to launch with an advanced version of Android, called 2.0, and has since been updated to the latest version of Android, 2.0.1. The Devour, meanwhile, will hit stores running 1.6, a comparatively outdated version of Android. Motorola says it plans to upgrade the phone to a more recent Android build, but declined to say when the update would be released. It may take a while; the Cliq, which is based on Android 1.5, has only received a minor update since its October debut.

Yes, you can get Google Maps Navigation

Even without Android 2.0, Devour owners will be able to use Google’s free navigation application, Google Maps Navigation. The phone will ship with Verizon’s navigation application, VZ Navigator, and regular Google Maps, built in, but users can download the navigation-equipped version of Maps onto their phones.

You can buy the Devour at Best Buy or Verizon

As a Verizon phone, the Devour can naturally be purchased at Verizon stores. But the impatient and thrifty may want to get it at Best Buy, which will begin selling it sooner than Verizon (on Feb. 25) and $50 cheaper ($99 versus $149).

You can use it for work–but that’s not really the focus

Like the Cliq and Droid, the Devour has QuickOffice software pre-installed that can be used to view Microsoft files (Word, Excel) and PDFs. Work messages, contacts and calendars can be managed through MOTOBLUR.

At a glance, the Devour has a similar form to the Droid. Inside, however, this phone is a very different beast.

Motorola Devour: The Hardware

Like the Droid, the Motorola Devour features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The two phones’ similarities pretty much end there.

The Devour has a 3.1-inch, 320-by-480 pixel touchscreen. The resolution is comparable to the iPhone but lower than the Droid, which boasts a 3.7-inch, 480-by-854 pixel display. While specifics about the Devour’s processor have yet to be revealed, the phone is expected to be more of a midrange Android option compared to Droid’s higher-end status. It’s rumored to run on the Qualcomm 600-MHz MSM7627.

The Devour has an optical trackpad directly beneath its display. It’s said to pack a 3-megapixel camera with digital zoom, along with an accelerometer and dual microphones for noise cancellation. The Devour comes preloaded with an 8GB microSD card.

Motorola Devour: The Software

Motorola’s Devour will offer a drastically different software experience than the Droid and many other Android phones. Like the Cliq, the Devour comes with Motorola’s Motoblur interface on top of the stock operating system. It’ll be the first Android device on Verizon to feature the Motoblur skin.

Motoblur changes the very look and feel of the phone, adding live streams of information onto the home screen through a series of custom widgets. Social network status updates, e-mail, and other messaging tools are all integrated into the desktop with a unique graphical look not seen in the standard Android OS. Motoblur also provides automated backups of user data and phone settings.

One possible software downside: Reports suggest the Devour will ship with Android 1.6 rather than the more recent Android 2.1 release that debuted on the Nexus One or even the Android 2.0 release introduced with the Droid. Motorola has yet to confirm this.

If the Devour does ship with Android 1.6, one would imagine that a 2.1 update would be rolled out at some point in the coming months. With that said, though, Verizon and Motorola have yet to update any other Android handsets to 2.0 or 2.1 thus far, so it’s tough to say how long the wait might be.

Pricing of the Devour hasn’t yet been released, but most analysts expect the Devour’s to sell for less than the Droid’s $199.99 pricetag. As you might expect, a Verizon voice and data plan will be required with all Devour purchases. The cheapest possible option will be about $70 a month.