The ink isn’t yet dried on the rendered images of the Motorola Sholes Android phone and we’ve already got some spy photos of the real thing. What you see here is a decidedly less glamorous look at the Sholes and it’s slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The Motorola Sholes is due to hit Verizon Wireless before the holiday shopping season, alongside a slew of other Motorola Android smartphones on multiple carriers.
Notice the red directional pad? That definitely wasn’t in the rendered images we saw yesterday. Motorola’s probably still putting the finishing touches on the Sholes, so we’re not going to pass judgment until the device goes final. The keyboard is definitely reminiscent of older HTC smartphone designs. And, that’s a good thing – HTC’s keyboard designs have been reliably good. As for that recessed touchscreen. It’s not looking as sleek as the flush-mounted touchscreen we saw in the Sholes renders.
Still, the Sholes is expected to hit market with a 3.7-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, 256MB RAM/512MB ROM. 3.5mm standard headphone jack and a microSDHC slot. Motorola has already committed itself to pushing out its Android hardware by year’s end, so we shouldn’t have to wait long to put hands on Moto’s comeback bid!