If you’ve been sitting here, reading the posts from our American brethren on the upcoming Droid 2 and Droid X handsets from Motorola and thinking to yourself that you would happily splash some cash to get one of those handsets in Australia… You can forget about it. Because today, Optus has announced that it will be selling the original Droid – the one reviewed by the US team in November last year – as the Milestone in Australia, starting next week.
The phone, powered by Android 2.1 and still an admirable performer despite its age, was pretty much the top competitor to the iPhone for a few months. But now that we’ve been swarmed by more recent, more powerful Android phones (and the fact that the American public is soon to get this model’s successor), you kind of get the feeling that someone here dropped the ball with the local release of this handset.
Still, if you’re after a high powered Android device with a physical slide out keyboard, this is currently your best bet. Unless you decide to wait a few weeks and import a Droid 2 from the States, which is what I would do if I were planning on buying an Android phone with a keyboard.
The Milestone will hit Optus stores on July 7, available for $0 up front on a $49 plan over 24 months. Which seems to be the sweet spot for Android phones at the moment, even if they are a bit old…