Droid X 2 Unboxed

The Droid X2 looks an awful lot like its older cousin.

Actually, the Droid X2 is the spitting image of the Droid X, from the physical input buttons to the lone speaker atop the screen and the company and provider logos. Check it out.

The X2 even has the same mini USB port and HDMI ports packed into the frame, which measures 5 inches long, 2.6 inches wide and only 0.38 inches thick. Just like the Droid X. X2 even weighs the same, at 5.5 ounces.

The X2 also sports an 8-megapixel camera with HD video recording. Motorola claims this new camera offers continuous auto-focus to offer 44 percent faster shot-to-shot performance than the Droid X. That’s not saying much. The Droid X always takes fine photos for us, but with a slow, slow shutter. Forget action shots. The Droid X2 is bit better in both still photos and video.

The qHD display, with a 960-by-540 resolution, certainly appeared clearer than the Droid X to our naked eye. It was definitely an improvement. Motorola said the X2 has 26 percent more pixels than the Droid X. The X2 display uses scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass and an anti-reflective qHD display for sharper definition.

The X2 (left) sports similar widgets, including the weather widget, which is enabled once a user grants the phone access to their location data. Pay attention to the dialer, camera, messaging and apps icons on the bottom of the X2 shown here on the left. Unlike the Droid X, these remain consistent across each of the X2’s seven home screens, providing a nice touch for the UI. Also, check out the Gallery App on the X2.

The Gallery app in the X2 is a nice touch, allowing users to view photos in the stack you see here, or via a classic, linear camera roll. See it here below the social networking app and to the right of the calendar app.

One nice touch we noted with the X2’s camera function is that Motorola added virtual zoom buttons on the camera’s on-screen display. This is a boon for users (like us) who find pressing the volume buttons to zoom in or out awkward and cumbersome.

The virtual keyboard on the X2 (left) is more or less the same as on the Droid X. However, unlike the Droid X, the virtual keys on the X2 vibrate after each tap. They also appear sharper thanks to the qHD screen.

The X2 sports some other apps that didn’t appear on the Droid X, such as the music app and rich location app, both of which are shown here. Rich location leverages the user’s location to show coffee shops, hotels, restaurants and other local businesses listed on Yelp and other sources. Verizon is also aggressively marketing V-Cast apps on this phone.

We’re in love with the X2’s blue-hued dialer shown here. The X2 is actually mostly blue-tinged, which is a nice perk from the gray dialer and other blah color schemes on the Droid X.

As we noted, the X2 (left) is powered by a dual-core Tegra 1GHz processor. Motorola claims this delivers “up to twice the power as its predecessor Droid X.” We frankly didn’t see that much in speed tests on YouTube, search or other Web-enabled apps. For example, take this YouTube video, which actually loaded faster on our Droid X (right).

Indeed, note how YouTube video on the X2 runs a few seconds behind the same video on the Droid X. Yes, they were started at the exact same time.

We tried it again with this Lady Gaga video (again, with the X2 left, X, right).

The X2 (left) won this round versus the X (right) by a couple seconds. Still, we’re not convinced how much more “powerful” this chip is than the single core. We seem to remember the Atrix 4G performing faster.