Verizon has officially announced the teased and leaked Motorola Droid - or as it's officially dubbed "Droid by Motorola" - in the US with a launch date in early November and a $200 price tag to those happy to sign away 2 years of their mobile life.

And happy they might well be as the Android 2.0 device, complete with Google's new Maps Navigation, looks like a pretty capable gadget offering 3G speeds, slide-out QWERTY keyboard yet skinny dimensions, multi-tasking abilities, a 5-megapixel camera with video, voice-activated search and a 3.7-inch high-res widescreen, capacitive touch display.

Due to be the first Android 2.0 device to hit the market, the Droid gets Wi-Fi, A-GPS, Android Market, customisable homescreens, accelerometer, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 3.5mm headset jack, USB 2.0, visual voicemail, expandable 16GB memory card, Flash 10 ready HTML5 browser, Gmail (plus others), Exchange support and Amazon MP3, Google Talk and YouTube preloaded.

Droid by Motorola will be available in the United States exclusively at Verizon from Friday 6 November for $199.99 with a new 2-year customer agreement after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Motorola will also be offering a multimedia docking station to "transform" the Droid into an alarm clock, movie player or digital picture frame. An in-car mount will also be available.

Pocket-lint got in touch with Motorola in the UK to see when we can expect to be able to do the robot with this new device, but have received a statement that gives nothing away. It reads as follows:

"We've not yet announced availability of this device in other markets, but look forward to continuing to expand our Android-based portfolio around the world".

• Photos - Hands on gallery

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