We love seeing hot new smartphones getting their price tags slashed mere weeks after its initial launch. The latest price reduction on the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid comes from Dell.com, making it possible to put a Droid in your pocket for just $119 and a 2-year contract with Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless. The deal also applies to contract extensions, so you don’t have to wait until you’re eligible for an upgrade to take advantage of the low price.

If you like high-tech smartphones and want an Android-powered handset, the Droid fits the bill perfectly. If you’re not sure that the Droid is for you, check out our hands-on impressions and video. Keep in mind that the Droid is so far the only Android smartphone to rock the new Google Maps Navigation app.

To recap: Dell is selling the Droid for $119 with new 2-year contract (or a contract extension for existing customers), and will even ship the handset to you for free via Fedex. That’s one “hot deal,” to be sure.

Dell’s $119 Motorola Droid

As we wind down our Friday afternoon and wind up for the weekend, we’re going to leave you with some intimate images of the Motorola Droid. The folks over at Phone Wreck managed to strip a Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid down to its bare parts, and they took some extensive photos for your viewing pleasure. These teardown pictures give us some interesting insights into the Droid, but they’re mostly just fun to look at.

The Droid teardown shows that the relatively small RAM/ROM chips (256MB/256MB) come from Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF). You’ll also want to take note of the beautifully integrated PCB that is so small, it actually turns out to be one of the smaller internal components of the Droid. Interestingly, the NAND Flash memory module bears handwritten markings that indicate the chips are sample units. And, no, we’re not ashamed to admit that handwriting on sample IC’s piques our interest.

Take a gander at the pics and think about just how much work went into making sure your Droid can stream sleepy puppies from YouTube.

Head on over to Phone Wreck for the full Droid teardown gallery.

[Via: PhoneWreck]

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) announced a new all-touchscreen phone called Crush. The device is a mid-ranger with power and lock keys unusually placed above a 2.8-inch 240×400 pixels display — a fact that gives Crush a somewhat interesting look. Rest of the specs include a 3G radio (EV-DO Rev. 0), 2-megapixel camera, media player, Bluetooth, 950 mAh battery, and of course a microSD memory card slot.

No details on pricing except that the Crush will be affordable, and that it will hit US Cellular before the end of this year…

UPDATE: The Motorola Crush is available now at US Cellular for $79.95 w/2 year agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

[Via: Unwired View]

The metaphorical ink on the just-leaked Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Motus spy pic hasn’t yet dried and were already hearing rumors that the Android handset will sport some really unique features. If you thought the form factor was a bit odd, you’re going to want to sit down for this. Word has it that the Moto Motus will feature a “reverse flip keyboard,” and (as if that isn’t crazy enough) something called a “rear directional touchpad.” Of course, the Motus is also rumored to be packing the usual assortment of smartphone features.

All this is completely unconfirmed at the moment, but Android And Me are saying that the Motus will feature a 3.1-inch touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera (with LED flash), 3G data, WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth 2.0. Android 1.5 OS should be running the show with Motorola’s social network-savvy Motoblur UI skinned atop. As for the geeky specs, were expecting a 528 MHz Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) MSM7201A CPU, 512 MB ROM / 256 MB RAM, quad band (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) GSM radio, and a never-been-done-before quintuple (yes, thats five bands) WCDMA radio pulling down 3G service on the 850Mhz, 900Mhz, 1700Mhz, 1900Mhz, and 2100Mhz bands! For those of you keeping score, that would mean the Motus can hop on any 3G network in the world (even T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) USAs wonky 1700Mhz 3G network) and work as the mobile gods intended.

The “reverse flip keyboard” kinda, sorta, makes sense, given the quirky looking keyboard in the spy pic. That “rear directional touchpad,” however, is just plain confusing. A touchpad on the backside of the touchscreen? Your guess is as good as ours. Whatever it turns out to be, we’re hoping it changes the way we think about interacting with touchscreens.

[Via: MobileCrunch]

You see the handset in this here blurry spyshot? It’s apparently the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Motus that was rumored in a leaked roadmap not too long ago. We know, it looks like it was taken by Mr. Blurry-cam’s drunken step-brother after a booze-fueled night of fun, but Engadget Mobile has confirmed that what we’re looking at is another Android-powered smartphone from Motorola.

The Motus looks like a respectable smartphone from what we can see in the spy pic, but we’ll have to wait until we put hands on it to really get a feel for it. That keyboard might prove to be a sticking point, but, again, that’s us just talkin’ to the wind. The Motus has a lot to live up to…

[Via: EngadgetMobile]

TELUS (NYSE: TU)’ MiKE network is currently running a promotion that will be of interest to anyone looking for a new Motorola (NYSE: MOT) iDen device. From now ’till December 31st, you can save $50 on the Motorola i9, i365, i365is, Clutch i465, i576 and i580.

The rebate form itself is quite specific. Make sure you use black or blue ink and scribe CAPITAL LETTERS only now! Also, include your original store-identified sales receipt with the purchase price circled. After that, give me 5 laps, 20 push-ups and hit the showers.

Sheesh. More over at MiKE.

[Via: MobileSyrup]

After MetroPCS, we have another carrier offering the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Quantico. The rugged clamshell doesn’t impress with its specs sheet, but that’s usually the case with such devices that are primarily made to work under all conditions. In that sense, the military specs-certified Quantico is made from the combination of chrome, glass and rubber – to survive extreme temperatures, dust, shock, and tough weather conditions.

Back to the specs – the Moto-made phone comes with a Bluetooth connectivity support, 2.2-inch 176×220 pixels screen, 1.3-megapixel camera, GPS, music player, 3G radio, large battery (1140 mAh), and a microSD memory card slot. As for the size, it measures 56×94x25 mm (2.2×3.7×1.0 inches) and weighs 119 grams (4.2oz).

U.S. Cellular is asking $99.95 for the Motorola Quantico after a two-year contract and mail-in rebate.

[Via: MobileBurn]

This one’s for our German Android fans. The country’s O2 (NYSE: TEF) subsidiary is offering the Moto Milestone aka Droid for a symbolic price of 1 EUR. Of course, your signature on a two-year contract is required, but you’ll be able to get what many people think is the best smartphone on the market for a friggin’ 1 EUR coin. Don’t expect to have a 10 EUR/month monthly bill, though, as the Milestone price will be included in the monthly bill. Actually, the device costs 480 EUR, and during the course of 24 months (duration of the contract), you’ll pay 20 EUR every single month on top of your monthly bill for your brand new handset. That’s actually a neat way of selling high-ticket items adopted by a mobile operator. We like it.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

I’m not sure what’s all the fuss with the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Debut. It’s superbly mediocre device, which honestly doesn’t deserve a special press release. Still, we keep covering it and I’m one of the guys to blame for that.

On the other hand, I’m guessing since it’s a decent looking iDEN phone, it does need some attention, considering just how ugly iDEN phones can be.

Anyway, the Debut i856w is now available on Sprint (NYSE: S)-owned Boost Mobile, which is offering the device in “stylish ivory coloring and flattering front and back.” Apparently, it’s designed for “fashion savvy consumers” and if that’s the case, I’m super proud to say I’m not one of them.

Specs wise, the Moto Debut comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera, media player, Bluetooth, push-to-talk functionality, GPS, and a microSD memory card slot. The price is $149.99…

So, a lot of Motorola (NYSE: MOT) droid owners haven’t been too happy with the 5 megapixel camera’s autofocus. In fact, it’s the single biggest complaint about the Android handset to date. All of a sudden, many have been reporting a drastic improvement in the camera, and attributing a silent over-the-air update, but as it turns out, the bug actually had a built-in (but unexpected) fix. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Engineer Dan Morrill explains:

There’s a rounding-error bug in the camera driver’s autofocus routine (which uses a timestamp) that causes autofocus to behave poorly on a 24.5-day cycle. That is, it’ll work for 24.5 days, then have poor performance for 24.5 days, then work again.The 17th is the start of a new “works correctly” cycle, so the devices will be fine for a while. A permanent fix is in the works.

Like some demented techno-werewolf, the autofocus on the droid will go feral in another 24.5 days, unless you manually set the date back to the clean period. Weirdest. Bug. Ever.

[Engadget via MobileCrunch]