Overview:
The term "Motorola phone" had almost been relegated to ye olde speak, with the manufacturer taking its sweet time in releasing a new handset to market. Apart from the Dext, Moto has been rather quiet on the mobile phone front. So has it been concocting something of a masterpiece in the Motorola Milestone all this time? Let's find out.
Review:
The Motorola Milestone, or Droid in the US, is something a bit special, being an Android phone that fits in nicely with your office desk, thanks to impressive hardware and the very exciting Android 2.0 under the bonnet.
It's great to see the Android platform continue to expand from handsets we use on the weekends, to handsets we can get some work done on the fly with.
With a full QWERTY keyboard, to keep your emails sensical, the Milestone further adds a D-pad controller to the right as an extra navigation bonus.
Yes, the controller is gold, and yes, we are no longer in the 80s. If you do like a bit of bling though, you may not mind the chunky, jeweled look the Milestone has going for it.
If keys are too fiddly, the Milestone has a capacitive touchscreen, and unlike the Nokia X6, makes full use of this technology by including pinch-to-zoom.
The 3.7 inch screen itself produces an excellent image and colour quality at 854 x 480 resolution, producing bright pictures which is perfect for movie-viewing.
This screen res is more than twice the resolution of the iPhone 3GS, and says pants to other Android phones on the market, such as the HTC Magic.
Motorola's Milestone has earned its name in being the first phone to market with Google's brand spanking new Android 2.0 OS.
Android 2.0 packs a few nifty surprises, primarily multiple account support to synchronise a range of email accounts, and contacts. This includes your Gmail, Exchange, POP and IMAP emails.
There is also a "quick contact" feature, that is activated by tapping on a contact's photo. You then get immediate shortcuts to call, sms, email, or even navigate to their address.
Being a new Android platform, the search functionality has also undergone improvements, with a “Global Inbox” provided for you to browse emails from all your different accounts on the one page.
There is also a Universal Search widget on the homescreen which will scour your contacts, browser bookmarks/history, apps, media gallery, music or even Youtube , and can even perform a voice search for you.
The Android 2.0 camera app makes full use of the excellent hardware Motorola has provided. While 5 megapixels is stock-standard these days, there is twin LED Flash and autofocus to keep all of your blurry shots at bay.
The software lets you to adjust the white balance, colour effects and select whether the autofocus is set to landscape or macro.
Packing all of this into a 13.7mm thick handset seems like quite a challenge, but Motorola has done exactly that. Weighing-in at 165g, the phone still feels solid and will give you wrist cramp when using it while lying down.
The Motorola Milestone is available on £25 a month plans from a range of providers at MobileShop.com.
The Gaj-It Verdict:
Design: 7/10
Usability: 8/10
Features: 9/10
Value: 8/10
We Say:
Motorola has done good with packaging Android 2.0 into a highly usable handset with more navigation options than an Alfa Romeo. While the chunky feel may not be for everybody, we like how solid it feels, and think this is a brilliant way to house the power of Google's latest Android masterpiece.
One thought on “Review: Motorola Milestone. Android 2.0 Comes to Life”
I completely agree with you.
I like the desing, i’m 16 years old, And to be honest, the gold is really good looking, but I don’t really use the extra pad thing that it has the touch on webpages is so accurate that I don’t even need it, unless it’s used to play some games :P
I say, Buy IT! I’m very happy with it.