The Verizon Droid line of smartphones has been the carrier's flagship since its launch in 2010. With "Droid Does" commercials, which emphasized the things an Android-powered smartphone could do that the iPhone couldn't, it turned the gadget made by Motorola into one of Apple's first real competitors.

A lot of the things mentioned in those first ads, like multitasking and copy and paste, are now a part of the iPhone's design. And the iPhone 4S has features like Siri and the Retina Display, which are exclusive to Apple and aren't on Android smartphones. The Droid 4 has a number of improvements, though, which set it apart from both the iPhone and earlier Droid models.

4G LTE wireless radio

The 4G radio only works in select markets, which are connected by Verizon's 4G LTE network. Where it works, however, Droid 4 owners will have connection speeds (and Internet browsing speeds) much faster than on the iPhone or earlier Droids.

The downside of a 4G radio is that it uses a lot of power, so Android "superphones" which are 4G-equipped are huge to accommodate the extended battery needed (and usually have poor battery life anyway).

Hardware keyboard

This is nothing new to fans of Verizon's Droid lineup, which has featured both portrait (BlackBerry-style) keyboards and landscape-mode sliders since its earliest days. The iPhone still lacks a hardware keyboard, however, and is unlikely to have one anytime soon, aside from letting you pair it with Bluetooth wireless keyboards.

The Droid 4's slider keyboard isn't an ordinary one. It has five rows, complete with a dedicated number key area, and is edge-lit so that you can see the keys in the dark. It's similar to the one on the earlier Droid 3, in other words, but is paired with ...

Upgraded under-the-hood specs

The Droid 4 has double the memory of the earlier Droid 3, with 1 GB instead of 512 MB. This means more web browser tabs can be open at once, as well as making it faster to switch between recently-opened apps. It also has a faster 1.2 GHz processor, instead of the Droid 3's 1 GHz.

The rear-facing camera has the same 8 megapixel rating and ability to shoot 1080p HD video as on the Droid 3. But the front-facing camera is now 1.3 megapixels and able to record 720p video, letting others video chat with you in HD instead of blocky VGA (640x480) resolution.

No Ice Cream Sandwich ... yet

The Droid 4 won't ship with the latest version of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich, which was featured on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (also on Verizon). Ice Cream Sandwich brought a full graphical overhaul and numerous smaller updates. It will probably be upgraded later this year, however.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.