This isn't the droid I was looking for

... but it's the one I ended up with. See, I finally decided it was (past) time to upgrade my cell phone, a Motorola RAZR that I got back in 2007, when I defected to Verizon after AT&T summarily shut down the TDMA network they acquired along with Cingular, which my old phone had used. I liked the RAZR a lot, but the battery no longer held a charge for long, and the phone was undeniably, well, dumb. I couldn't get email on it, it most certainly didn't surf the web, and even sending a text (I think I might have done so as many as three times) was painful, limited as it was to the standard numeric keypad (press 1 once for a, twice for b, three times for c).

Back when the iPhone came out, and one of my co-workers got one, I thought it was pretty nice, but because it was AT&T-exclusive, I wouldn't even consider getting one. I did end up getting an iPod Touch, thereby acquiring much of the functionality of the iPhone without the phone. Still I craved the camera and GPS. But not from AT&T.

Finally, Apple took Verizon into the fold and, lo, an iPhone could now be mine. But by then, another of my co-workers had acquired a Droid X, which was pretty nice too, and I began to think maybe the iPhone wasn't my holy grail after all. Among other things, I had to consider that getting an iPhone would make my iPod Touch redundant (and I already have a fairly redundant iPod nano). Still, even the Droid X lacked something, a feature that I had come to wish my iPod Touch had: a physical keyboard. Granted, the virtual keyboard is pretty amazing, but even my relatively small digits proved clumsy at typing on virtual keys with no tactile borders.

I began exploring the options, and it came down to the Droid 2, which has the same size display as an iPhone, Froyo operating system (Android 2.2) – and most important, a slide-out keyboard. I dithered for a while longer, and finally made the plunge, upgrading to a Droid 2 (with, of course, a concomitant hike in my monthly bill for that required data plan).

So now I have the best of both worlds: On the one hand, a powerful smartphone that's really the pocket computer I've always wanted, complete with a very nice keyboard that my clumsy thumbs can manipulate with too many typos to correct, and access to the entire Android Marketplace. And on the other hand, my iPod Touch gives me access to the majority of the iTunes App Store.

But what, you may ask, about that rather prominent Star Wars logo on the screen? Well, that's what I meant about it not being the droid I was looking for.

As it happens, the Droid 2 comes in two flavors. The first is the Droid 2 Global, which is a pretty standard-issue phone, with the back available in white or – my personal favorite – a dark sapphire. The second is the Droid 2 R2-D2, with a back that looks like, well, exactly what you'd expect. It also comes with exclusive R2-D2 ringtones and miscellaneous Star Wars-themed content.

At first, I wasn't even considering little Artoo. I mean, I liked Star Wars much as the next person, but I'm hardly the kind of SW geek that just has to have the Star Wars model of whatever gadget I'm in the market for. And in truth, I thought it would look a bit silly for someone my age to be sporting such a gadget. (Now, if it had been, say, a Star Trek tricorder look-alike, that would have been a totally different story. But I digress.) Besides, the sapphire-blue Droid 2 Global was really sharp-looking.

And then I compared the prices.

The Droid 2 Global with a new two-year contract, with my $50 upgrade allowance, would cost me $149. R2-D2, on the other hand, although it normally listed for more than the Global, was on sale and, after my upgrade allowance, came to a mere $49. Was the understated sapphire back cover I wanted worth $100? Moreover, wouldn't I just be putting a sleeve or skin on the phone anyway, covering up the back and making it moot? The answers to those questions were no and yes, respectively, and so R2-D2 went into my Verizon shopping cart, and now graces the cell phone pocket of my shoulder bag.

The only time Artoo asserts his presence is in the rare instances when I shut my phone off; when turned on, a brief clip of Artoo beeping and booping away is displayed, and then he disappears. I immediately ditched the Star Wars logo by replacing the wallpaper. (And I haven't even gotten around to putting a sleeve on the phone yet.) No, not quite the droid I was looking for... but a fair trade-off for a $100 savings