Droid 3 Front

The Droid 3 arrives nearly two years after the launch of the original Droid. It boasts Android 2.3 (code-named Gingerbread) and a dual-core 1GHz processor, along with a physical QWERTY keyboard.

The Droid 3 also includes an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video capture.

In this side-by-side comparison, you can see the Droid 3 is only slightly smaller than the original Droid.

Here is the user-replaceable battery sitting beneath the Droid 3s rear cover. The battery itself is rated at 3.7 V and 1540 mAh, apparently good for nine hours of continuous talk time.

Motorola prefers T5 Torx screws for its rear case. According to iFixit, this can make exposing the devices innards a rather sticky affair, unless you have experience with the necessary tools.

The Droid 3 offers a SIM card, enabling the device for global use.

Toward the left, you can see the Droid 3s camera aperture exposed.

After stripping away the speaker/antenna assembly, iFixits team then got to work prying off the motherboard.

The Droid 3s motherboard features, among other components, a three-axis accelerometer and Qualcomm MDM6600 supporting HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) speeds of up to 14.4M bps.

During the teardown, iFixit also noted, Interestingly, a hole through the motherboard allows sound to pass through for better transmission to the outside of the phone.