Motorola Droid Bionic May Have GSM Roaming

Posted by at 2:02 am on August 8, 2011

Motorola’s new Droid Bionic got its reveal this weekend in newly published FCC filing details that may have uncovered more than what Motorola leaked itself. The user manual shows a “global phone” section that claims the Android 2.3 device has GSM hardware for world roaming. If so, it would be Verizon’s first LTE-based phone usable with voice outside of the US.

A view of the exposed back has also confirmed that the new Bionic is the Targa. Motorola has always tried to portray the new Bionic as a modification of the original, but it’s now known to have been started virtually from scratch just a few weeks after the first Bionic design was shown at CES. Officially, Motorola has acknowledged that LTE-capable hardware issues were the reason for the delay, and most outside of official channels believe it’s a conflict between the LTE chipset and the original NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor.

Verizon should sell a wireless (inductive) charging back for the Bionic to serve those who have a matching charging plate.

A chance exists that the pre-release manual is using boilerplate copy and that the Droid Bionic won’t have any GSM. Motorola’s own specs so far make no mention of it.

The 4.3-inch, dual-core smartphone is due to ship in September, most likely towards the early part of the month. Verizon’s tendency to charge a premium for 4G phones could push the Bionic up to $250 or more on

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