Gadgetory

hi this is Brian Bennett for cnet.com and right now we're taking a first look at the motorola droid mini super small compact and very lightweight you may not think much of the mini after all it does occupy the lowest rung and motorola's droid lineup for 2013 I have to say though that this little guy packs quite a mobile punch and for an affordable price to available now on verizon for 9999 with 2-year contract the droid mini offers most of the same core features you'll find on motorola's more expensive new droid models namely the one 9999 droid ultra and to 9999 droid maxx driving the phones android 4.2 jelly bean software is Motorola's fresh x8 mobile computing platform it crams 6 discrete processing centers around a dual-core 1.7 gigahertz Snapdragon s4 pro CPU an ability called touchless control means that the phone is constantly listening out for your vocal commands just say the words okay Google now then tell the mini what you'd like it to do there are a long list of commands at your disposal including ones for sending texts emails and making calls you can also look up places get directions set reminders and check the current forecast a feature called active display handily showcases phone alerts on the screen when the droid mini is sleeping the droid mini also feels very nimble and responsive whether that's flipping through home screens or settings menus there are five home screens you can personalize with your choice of application shortcuts and widgets the main screen features the useful circles widget that grace older motorola handsets it displays a time whether battery level plus offers fast access to settings and two other slick abilities these are wireless display to mirror the mini screen to compatible TVs and monitors and droid zap which shares photos and video with other android phones nearby the droid mini is 720p screen measures 4.3 inches bigger than the iPhones but relatively small compared with most Android phones it does get pretty bright though and has vibrant colors above the display is a 2-megapixel front-facing camera while below said three capacitive buttons for basic android control the only physical keys are on the right edge of volume rocker and power button the bottom lip holds a micro USB port and up top is the minis 3.5 millimeter headphone jack around back is the phone's main 10 megapixel camera with LED flash like the Moto X droid ultra and Droid Maxx twisting the mini a few times in your wrist fires up the camera app it offers minimal controls and settings but does have important shooting modes such as HDR slow-motion video and panorama snap images by tapping anywhere on the screen holding your finger down takes multiple shots in a row you can also zoom in and out by swiping up and down one thing I really don't like about the droid mini are its glossy surfaces like the droid ultra this phone gets covered in fingerprints and smudges in no time there's no SD card slot either to expand the minis 16 gigabytes of internal storage the droid minis power source is a sizable 2,000 milliamp battery which motorola says provides 28 hours of runtime I also like that just like the other new droids the mini supports the Qi standard for wireless charging connecting to Verizon's 4G LTE network the droid mini can grab fast data speeds that is if you're in an LTE coverage area I'm Brian Bennett for cnet.com and this has been a first look at the motorola droid mini