The Motorola Droid Bionic has had a storied past, despite merely beingness released a couple of days ago. It was originally appear way back at the CES trade show in January, though it was a very dissimilar looking smartphone back and then. Motorola went back to the drawing board and redesigned the Bionic to what we have today: a 4G LTE telephone that could be a doppelganger for the already-released Droid X2.

I accept had a review unit for a cursory period, and while I haven't had information technology long enough to subject it to a proper, in-depth review, these are my initial impressions of the Droid Bionic.

Reverse to what we were shown back at CES, the device that we have today is very familiar looking amongst Verizon'south smartphone lineup. Featuring a more often than not square confront, and the now signature hump on the dorsum for the camera that the Droid X and Droid X2 exhibit, the Droid Bionic fits right in with the rest of Motorola's Droid products for Verizon.

The Bionic measures 127.5mm x 66.9mm x 10.99mm (5in ten two.63in x 0.43in), and weighs 158g (5.6oz). While it is certainly not a small telephone past any means, it is deceptively light, and the askew edges on the back encompass allow information technology to rest nicely in your hand. Motorola is quick to betoken out that it is merely a pilus less than 11mm thick, and that it is the thinnest 4G LTE smartphone for Verizon to appointment. The phone'south low weight is enabled, in part, by the lack of metal parts on the Bionic, which is unlike from the Motorola Droid phones of the past. The Bionic is put together well, but it doesn't feel quite as solid every bit say a Droid X2, and the plastic structure doesn't seem fitting a phone of its stature (or price tag).

The Bionic sports a iv.iii-inch, qHD (540 x 960 pixel) display. Information technology uses the same pentile layout equally we saw on the Droid X2, Droid 3, and Photon 4G from Motorola. Screens with pentile layouts accept more noticeable pixels than traditional layouts, which tin can crusade the screen to await less sharp when viewed up close. The Bionic doesn't have too much of an issue with this problem, though nobody will mistake its screen for the Retina Brandish of an iPhone iv.

On top of the display is Gorilla Glass with a dual-layer, anti-reflective blanket. The Northeast has been deluged with pelting over the past couple of days, and so I have not even so been able to test the display in directly sunlight, just under a cloudy, rainy sky and indoors, the Bionic's display presented no issues.

Performance-wise, the Droid Bionic is no slouch, cheers to its dual-core, 1GHz OMAP processor and 1GB of RAM. The Bionic is the first 4G LTE smartphone to launch with Android 2.three.iv Gingerbread, and it runs Motorola's custom interface on top of that. The interface is very similar to what we saw on the Droid iii, though Motorola has updated and tuned information technology for amend functioning on the Bionic. Motorola's new interface offers a lot of 3D flourishes and effects when panning through dwelling house screens, swiping through the app tray, and moving widgets around.

These effects are purely for show, and don't actually serve any practical purpose, but they didn't seem to tiresome the phone down at all - at least not so far. We volition accept to see how well the Bionic handles its sometimes excessive animations once information technology has been loaded up with a number of apps and widgets.

The Droid Bionic features no less than three microphones, two of which are used for noise cancellation on phone calls. While I haven't had fourth dimension to test calls at length with the Bionic, the few calls I did make were clear and sounded good. The external speakerphone is sufficiently loud, and resists breaking upward even when turned up to max volume. The three microphones can also be used to control how sound is recorded when capturing video with the Bionic.

Of course, the Bionic's claim to fame is its 4G LTE radio, and in the limited fourth dimension that I have been able to test it, it has performed admirably. In New York City I was able to accomplish speeds as fast as 26Mbps down and 8Mbps up. On average, the speeds were about 17Mbps downwards and 4Mbps upwards.

The upload speeds were on par with what we have seen with other 4G LTE smartphones for Verizon in the by, but the download speeds were considerably faster on the Bionic. I will be further testing the Bionic'due south network functioning, including how well it works on Verizon'southward slower 3G network, when I review it in-depth.

Motorola has equipped the Droid Bionic with the largest battery seen in an LTE phone still. It has a 1735mAh capacity, and Motorola says that users tin await to become almost 11 hours of talk time or over 8 days of standby with it. Those are pretty lofty claims, and our experience with LTE smartphones and so far has usa expecting the battery to tap out after nearly half-dozen hours of utilize. Motorola reps that I spoke to say that the Bionic has been tuned for bombardment life, and that users should have no problem getting a full mean solar day out of it. I will certainly be putting those claims to the test.

For cameras, the Droid Bionic features an 8 megapixel unit on the back, consummate with autofocus and an LED wink. It is besides capable of recording in 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixel) HD video. The camera features continuous autofocus, which works surprisingly well for both stills and video, and you can zoom while recording video as well. Motorola's Photon 4G had a rather disappointing 8 megapixel camera, then I am hoping that Motorola has done a better job with the Bionic. The front of the phone features a VGA camera, which can be used for video calling in the Google Talk app.

Included with the Bionic is a 16GB microSD carte. The telephone also has 16GB of internal storage, with about 4GB of that partitioned for app storage. In addition to the usual Verizon V CAST apps that we ever see on Big Red's smartphones, Motorola has included a number of apps that will appeal to the enterprise user. The included Citrix app allows users to view their desktop PC when abroad from the home or office, and GoToMeeting lets them bring together webcasts right from their telephone. ZumoCast allows a user to access files stored on their computer from their phone, including media files and iTunes playlists. The media files tin can be downloaded or streamed to the phone. Finally, the QuickOffice app lets users view and edit various Office documents. Unfortunately, none of these apps are uninstallable by the user, only the 4GB of app storage infinite bachelor on the phone provides plenty of room for more than apps to exist installed.

The Motorola Droid Bionic is uniform with a number of accessories from Motorola that utilize its Webtop operating system, which emulates a desktop computer. Webtop has been upgraded for the Bionic, and it now features the Firefox iv browser. Verizon is offering three levels of Webtop accessories, including the $29.99 standard adapter to plug the phone into an HDTV, the $99.99 HD dock that allows for mouse and keyboard controls, and the pricey $299 Lapdock that converts the Bionic into a laptop computer (you can save $100 off the price of the Lapdock if you pony up for one of Verizon'southward more expensive data plans). Despite the upgrades to the Webtop software, and the powerful hardware of the Bionic, I ran into the same issues with it that I had with the other Webtop-capable phones, namely sluggish performance and memory bug galore. Motorola says that you tin can get a "desktop-similar" browsing experience through its Webtop interface, only in reality, it is very dull - to the signal of being uselessly frustrating. The whole idea is a unique concept, peculiarly the Lapdock portion, but in practice it is an expensive and inadequate culling to a netbook.

Motorola is offering the Droid Bionic for $299.99 with a new two-year understanding. Customers who opt to purchase the Lapdock with the Bionic, and sign up for a $50 per month or higher data programme, can get an additional $100 rebate off of the Lapdock. Be sure to stay tuned for our more in-depth review of the Droid Bionic.

Dan Seifert is a contributing editor at MobileBurn.com. MobileBurn focuses on cell phones, smartphones, tablets, and related hardware. Republished with permission.