Droid 4 smartphone hitting shelves Feb. 10 for $200

The fourth iteration of Motorola's signature Droid series is hitting the shelves for Verizon customers this Friday.

The fourth iteration of Motorola's signature Droid smartphone is hitting the shelves for Verizon customers this Friday.

The Droid 4 will feature the same basic design as the other Droid models with a four-inch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and will also feature government-grade FIPS 140-2 encryption, an 8MP camera with 1080p HD video capture, and Android 2.3 ("Gingerbread"), which will soon be upgraded to Android 4.0 ("Ice Cream Sandwich"). The device will cost users $200 along with a two-year service contract with Verizon.

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Like most Motorola Android devices, the Droid 4 also comes with the Webtop application that integrates your device into your laptop dock and makes the phone essentially serve as a mini PC. Motorola is also selling a smartphone dock to go with the device, called the Lapdock 500, for an additional $300.

Motorola showcased the Droid 4 earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In our hands-on experience with the device, we noted that the latest Droid featured a vastly improved physical keyboard with more distinctly embossed keys. The original Droid was the first Android-based smartphone to run on Verizon's network and was one of the first major smartphones to put Android on the map as a popular mobile operating system.

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