The accolades coming the way of Motorola's follow-up Droid - the Droid X, on Verizon Wireless - are an evident indication that the handset, which hits the markets July 15, is one of the hottest smartphones being debuted this summer; virtually at par with the HTC EVO 4G and the Apple iPhone 4!

Based on the increasingly popular Google Android operating system, the forthcoming Droid X - priced at $200 with a two-year Verizon contract - gets its zip largely from the silicon chip provided by Texas Instruments
(TI).

According to by Brian Carlson, OMAP product line manager at TI, the Droid X's OMAP 3630 chip not only marks a notable upgrade from the 3430 silicon of the existing Motorola Droid, but also boasts a two-times-faster speed, thanks to its design modifications and advancement to 45-nanometer manufacturing process.

Noting that the 1GHz 3630 chip enhances the performance of the Droid X by more than 80 percent, Carlson said in a phone interview: "The first thing you'll notice is that the Droid X is much snappier, much faster. Web browsing is one of the key areas. Running a graphics intensive Web page, comparing the Droid to the Droid X, it goes from about eight seconds down to below five seconds."

Along with the faster chip, the other key features of the Droid X include - 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive screen; 8-megapixel camera; Android OS 2.1; new and improved MotoBlur; Adobe Flash Player 10.1; and a few pre-installed third-party video apps.