Droid 3

The Droid 3 looks like its Droid 2 predecessor-a black device with candy bar styling-until it’s opened.

While the original Droid keyboard was poor and the second one improved with raised keys, the Droid 3 keyboard is the best yet, offering a new, fifth row dedicated to numbers.

The Droid 3 camera is an 8-megapixel model. It also records Video in HD 1080p with 1920 by 1080 resolution. The device is half an inch thick, 2.52 inches wide and 4.8 inches long.

The Droid 3’s display is a pretty qHD touch-screen, powered by Gingerbread, which provides faster performance and a better graphical-user interface over the Droid 2’s Android 2.2 platform.

To see the interface in action, check out the Droid 3 contacts widget here. It’s not as static as it looks.

Swiping from top to bottom on the contacts widget spreads out the contacts for users to access and manage.

Facebook for Android, which we downloaded to the Droid 3, is a snap to update, thanks to the new keyboard.

Motorola has included its Motoprint application on the Droid 3.

Next eWEEK downloaded the Google+ mobile application, which also worked well on the Droid 3.

One of the key features of Google+ for Android is the Huddle group-messaging feature.

Google is kind enough (some would say wise enough, after Google Buzz) to warn users how Huddle works, including a terms-of-service link so users won’t be confused about what they’re opting into.

Here is the Citrix GoToMeeting sign-in page. This is sure to be useful for corporate road warriors, though we’re not sure how much so without video capabilities. Citrix plans to make GoToMeeting for Android available in the Android Market later this summer.

The Citrix Receiver lets IT administrators provision corporate applications to any device. A handy tutorial explains how the application works.

Check out the Droid 2 keyboard, which sports four rows, as a comparison point to the Droid 3.

Fortunately, Motorola has a nice compare feature, which lets us see how the devices stack up. Here are the Droid 2 and Droid 3 camera specs, side-by-side.

Interestingly, the Droid 3 battery is stronger than the Droid 2, though it gets less standby and talk time. Also, the video capture on the Droid 3 is far superior.

Compare the physical differences between the Droid 2 and Droid 3, which also has double the onboard memory and covers more ground as a world phone.