Verizon Devours Another Motorola Android PhoneVerizon Devours Another Motorola Android Phone

Today Motorola announced the latest Android handset for Verizon's network, the Devour. This new handset appears to be a step down from the Droid. It has less-thrilling specs, but it is the first handset for Verizon Wireless to run Motorola's MOTOBLUR.
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Motorola Devour Android Smartphone The Devour is the third Android handset from Motorola to run MOTOBLUR, the company's social networking service. The CLIQ (T-Mobile) and Backflip (AT&T) preceded it. MOTOBLUR ties together users' email, instant messaging, text messaging, Twitter posts and Facebook updates into a single content delivery platform. In theory, it's really neat.

As for the Devour itself, same as the Droid it is a sideways slider with full QWERTY keyboard hidden under the display. The display measures 3.1 inches and packs in 320 x 480 pixels (same as iPhone). By comparison, the Droid's display has 484 x 800 pixels.

It comes with the usual set of communications and media specs. It has a 3 megapixel camera with no flash and no autofocus, but it can record video at 24 frames per second. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, aGPS, microSD card support, and an accelerometer.

On the front of the phone, Motorola has built in an optical trackpad to aid in on-screen navigation. Trackpads seem to be popular among smartphone makers, as RIM has shifted nearly its entire line of smartphones to trackpads.

I like that the Devour offers a more mid-range feature set, but I am disappointed to learn that it runs Android version 1.6. The Droid runs Android 2.0, and the Nexus One runs Android 2.1. Hopefully Verizon Wireless and Motorola will see fit to update the Devour at some point down the road.

Verizon Wireless said that this device will launch in March, but it didn't provide any pricing.