Motorola just showed off three new Droid smartphones last month (or, if you prefer, one new Droid and two spinoffs), but it’s apparently not done cranking out Verizon hardware just yet. Another new Motorola device clad in Verizon livery was spotted in a batch of newly-leaked images from Chinese social network Weibo, and it seems to hearken back to the Droid line’s roots.
Unlike the trim, all-touch smartphones that Motorola has been enamored with lately, the most eye-catching feature of the alleged Droid 5 is the same sort of slide-out QWERTY keyboard its forebears also had. According to Engadget, the D5 also has a display between 4.3 and 4.5 inches and a body that’s resistant to dust and water.
I know, I know, it seems a little yawn-worthy at first glance (even for sliding keyboard suckers like me). Curiously enough, that big five row keyboard isn’t the only difference between whatever this is and the other Droids that have just started hitting store shelves. One of the images depicts a camera interface complete with a discrete shutter button on the touchscreen, a UI flourish that doesn’t exist on either the Moto X or the Droid Ultra. That super-simple, touch anywhere approach to snapping photos on the go is a feature Motorola brass have been talking up for a while now so it’s quite surprising to see that the company may be mulling a reversion toward the mean.
If we’re lucky, that just means Motorola is still trying to lock down some of its UI experiences… though arguably solution the company already worked out was the better way to go. The grimmer scenario is that the Droid 5 outright lacks some of the niceties its cousins have, which is certainly one way to compartmentalize a product portfolio. At this point there are still more questions than answers, but judging by the fit and finish of the phone in those images it shouldn’t be too long before Motorola officially springs this thing on us and all our questions are answered.
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