The Motorola Droid 2, which is reportedly a decent upgrade from the original Droid launched by the company last September, will hit the stores on Thursday, August 12, with presales for the handset starting on August 11.

Boasting some marked similarities with the currently hot-selling Droid X, the Droid 2 will be available for $199.99 with a two-year Verizon contract, after a $100 mail-in rebate. The handset will be powered by the Android 2.2 ‘Froyo’ operating system, which offers support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1.

The key features of the Droid 2, which is slider phone, include a 3.7-inch screen; a 5-megapixel camera; 512MB of RAM; Texas Instruments’ OMAP 3630 1GHz processor; a built-in Wi-Fi hot spot; and an enhanced standby battery life of 13.1 days.

In addition, going by the Droid 2’s image revealed on Verizon’s 360-degree demo page, the handset is designed somewhat differently to its predecessor; and while the original Droid had a solid black look, the Droid 2 also has a blueish tint to its back side.

Moreover, though the forthcoming Droid 2 features the same customized user interface as the popular Droid X. it has an essentially toned-down version of Motoblur. As such, though the handset the basic features comprising social network widgets and special navigation bar, it is notably less cluttered and intrusive.