Is this the Droid 2 keyboard? (And is it any better?)

By Phil Nickinson
last updated

You guys know how much I hate headlines with question marks, but that's pretty much where we stand on the above photo. Above you see the Motorola Droid keyboard at top, and what purportedly is the Droid 2 keyboard beneath it. The perspective's a tad off, but the keys look to be noticeably bigger (and they damn well better be if the leftmost keys -- tab, ALT lock, shift/caps lock and ALT -- are going to be that huge). Also of  note is that the golden D-pad has given way to four arrow keys and an OK button.

This likely would be an improvement -- we won't really know until it's (a) real and (b) in our hands. But, really, just about anything would be an improvement over the current Droid keyboard. [Howard Fourms via Engadget]

Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson
22 Comments
  • its centered so thats a big plus. the buttons also look bigger. but still doesn't look usable enough for me
  • it took some getting used to but now i dont have a problem at all with the droid keyboard...this does look like an improvement though...but what the heck!? is that BLUE!?
  • Finally a back button the keyboard! I always thought that the menu key on the keyboard was stupid and that a back button would be much more useful!
  • I really hope this is not the real deal. Does not look that much better and God help us all if the new droid is blue.
  • wait a minute... Isnt AT&T getting an Android device with a sliding keyboard?? By LG or something?? and it was BLUE!! maybe I'm delusional.
  • I read the android slider is supposed to be made by HTC. Also I have used Olympus DSLR for years and I recently upgraded mine and they had the same "blue buttons" reading the manual it stated that that color is the only color easily seen by people that are color blind so maybe that is a hint as to why they are blue. Hope this helps some.
  • That keyboard is way better than the current Droid. Notice how the keys are somewhat bubbled. Kind of like the T-Mobile Wing by HTC. Best keyboard on a phone, ever!!!
  • The keys are no longer flat!
  • i still think the G1 has by far the best qwerty keyboard of all phones!!
  • seriously, why did the put a keyboard on the droid 2, I would have figured that Motorola would have put a flipping mechanism to take the rear camera move it to the front! talk about front facing camera. I mean 5mp or 8mp up in your face it would have the best in the market probably at the time.
  • The keyboard on the droid is not that bad, At first it was a pain but once the keys bubble up (about 2 weeks of use) ite really nice, alot nicer than my tour. Ive had customers buy the phone and say the keyboard is akward and hard when they walk out but they come to pay there bill or buy one of the docks and they say they keyboard is not that bad after using it.
  • But after awhile the keys just stop working, or you need to press really, REALLY hard.
  • Actually, roughly half of all Droids already HAVE bubbled buttons (mine does), and it is from what I've been told a significant increase in usability. The picture you see there is of a droid that does not have the bubbled buttons. In all honesty, my droid has been really nice to type on. Anyone who currently has a flat droid will shit themselves silly with how much nicer it'll be to have texture.
  • Am I the only one who noticed that "OK" button to the top right of the direction keys? Since when does Android have an OK button on it? Also, where's the menu button? Am I taking crazy pills or something? I have no idea what phone this would be, but I'm feeling like this is an old windows mobile keyboard photoshoped to look like an android keyboard.
  • No, you're not. Which is why I wrote about it above. :p
  • lol. Sorry, I didn't read it carefully enough. I made the same post on the engadget comments. I guess you're assuming that's the same as hitting the center of the d-pad. I can see that, but I would think it would be the same as hitting the enter key. I guess we won't know till we know. I have to say though, if this is legit I would think the lack of a menu key would be a major missing item. I would think you would want that much more than a voice button.
  • I don't see why a menu or a back key would be a big deal. The menu and back buttons on the display are easy to press when the slider is open, so using up valuable real estate on the keyboard for those easily-accessible functions seems to be a waste.
  • It looks like a huge impovement
  • Why would one consider the droid 2 over the droid incredible ? or better even the EVO
  • It's the keys from the cliq with a different layout which is a good thing. Hopefully a little bigger though.
  • my only problem with the current keyboard is the big direction pad which shifts all the keys toward the left. the new keyboard, if real, is definitely way better for me.
  • It is hard to get the keyboard perfect on a smartphone. Users have to get used to it and then it works perfect for them. My pre plus has a smal keyboard but I text on it very fast.