After Dell announced there new smartphone on AT&T, verizon and motorolla now followed it up with another major announcement to launch the new Motorolla Droid 2 phone from tomorrow in the US.

The new Droid 2 features:

• the phone packs a 3.7-inch color touchscreen,
• slide-out keyboard,
• 3G hotspot/tethering capability,
• 8 GB of build in flash memory, an SD expansion capable of holding up to a 32 GB card,
• a 5 MP camera capable of “DVD-quality” video,
• and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) connectivity to share pics and movies.
• The phone runs on Android 2.2, which features a Davlik JIT compiler and Flash 10.1, among other improvements.
• A handful of details remain unconfirmed — processor speed (rumored to be 1 GHz) and the amount of memory (rumored to be 512 MB).

Order and Contract details:

• The phone will be  available from the 11th of august, for pre-sale, and from the 12th of august onwards, in any verizon store.
• The phone will cost $199 for a new contract or full upgrade privileges if you’re already a verizon customer.
• Customers can opt for Verizon’s 3G Mobile Hotspot service for $20/month.
• The service allows up to 5 devices to connect via Wi-Fi to the phones hotspot (although, the resultant battery drain and the 5GB volume cap might serve as deterrents) .
• Talk/text plans for the phone start at $39.99 and the email/web data plans start at $29.99, so you will pay a base rate of at least $69.98 monthly with the Droid 2, before taxes and fees are tacked on.

Droid 2 R2-D2 edition:

To honor the trademark roots of the phone, (from Lucasfilms no less), the company has decided to ship a limited edition R2-D2 version. The press release mentions the new limited addition Droid as:

In honor of the iconic Astromech Droid from the Star Wars™ Saga, Verizon Wireless will offer a limited-edition R2-D2 version of the DROID 2, available only online in September. The special version of the phone will feature exclusive Star Wars content and external hardware designed to look like the trusty Droid from the film saga. Visitors to the upcoming Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, Fla., can see a preview of the limited edition phone and sign up to receive alerts when the phone is ready for sale.

[via Engadget]