Verizon's Droid Launch: Your Complete Guide

November 6, 2009, 10:40 AM —  PC World — 

Can you feel the tremors? Verizon's hotly anticipated Motorola Droid finally arrives on Friday, and -- if the earth-rumbling ads are to be believed -- we'll be feeling its force all over the world.

All right, so the ads may be a bit exaggerated. Let's face it, though: This phone is stirring up quite the geek-friendly frenzy. Whether you think it'll be a mere blip on the radar or you believe it'll send the iPhone scrambling to a secure bunker, the Droid has definitely become difficult to ignore.

Here's a quick and easy guide to everything you need to know about Verizon's Droid and its November 6 launch.

Verizon's Droid: The Basics

• Verizon's Motorola Droid is 4.56 by 2.36 inches and weighs just under 6 ounces.

• The phone features 3.7-inch, 854-by-480 pixel touchscreen display.

• It has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 5-megapixel camera with DVD-quality video recording.

• The Droid utilizes an Arm Cortex 550mHz A8 processor with 256MB of built-in memory. It has a 16GB microSD card and can be expanded to 32GB.

• Running the Android 2.0 operating system, the Droid is capable of multitasking and features unique options such as integrated turn-by-turn GPS navigation.

• The Droid connects to Google's Android Market, which features roughly 10,000 downloadable apps.

Verizon's Droid: The Buying

• The Droid costs $199.99 when bought with a new two-year contract. In most instances, however, you'll end up paying $299.99 up-front, then getting $100 back via a mail-in rebate.

• If you buy your Droid at Best Buy, you can avoid paying the extra $100 from the mail-in rebate. Best Buy will automatically credit the rebate at the time of your purchase, meaning you'll pay only $199.99 that day.

• The Droid requires a Verizon voice plan, which runs a minimum of $39.99 for 450 minutes. It also requires an unlimited data plan, which runs an additional $29.99. Text messaging is not included and costs extra to add on.

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