mobil phone: Motorola Milestone check

Motorola Milestone: Overview of the design and printing

While Motorola might be feeling pretty happy about actually releasing a new phone in Dexter, he was clearly not the handset to relaunch the brand. So step forward the landmark (Droid our users in the United States), the last Android phone - but can be Moto's greatest?

The first thing you notice about the Motorola Milestone is the quality of construction - compare it to some Android phones out there and you'll feel it's much better than the plasticky options available from some companies (including him itself - the Dexter was an element of poor quality on this).

The phone is much thinner than before, reaching only 13.7mm thick, which is impressive when you consider that packs a full QWERTY keyboard in this context as well. With elegant design, the phone has a decent weight to this - to us it hits the sweet spot of not being too heavy, but heavy will just add the premium to the device.

The decision to use gold decal is a little suspect though - it goes back to the teeth grindingly frustrating days of D & G branded Motorola Razr, which adds nothing except too much gold to the device. However, it does feel a little retro 80s ... we assume that is what the children are in those days.



But this phone is intended to be so much more than that - it has been reported particularly in the United States as the best phone Android so far, being the fastest, most up-to-date and conclusions of the agile yet Google crowd.

To this end, it has the latest version of Android (2.0) and a beautiful 3.7-inch screen to start. The display is easily rival the HTC Hero In an effort capacitive slick and responsive with very little slow when browsing through the Milestone.

Motorola's new device is a fairly basic case when you are looking forward with a touch sensitive four buttons to the notion that it is only a phone. They are a little hieroglyphic like design, but it's something that we are seeing a good amount of these days, and we guess they work well when they are lit to use the touch sensitive.

The first thing many people notice when using the step, the lip at the bottom - and we bugger if we can work on what it is. When the QWERTY keyboard slides open, it's quickly apparent that this is the way to type while holding the camera with both hands, if Motorola is there, we do not know - we can only assume that 'there is some important material crushed in there.

However, we prefer that Motorola had to step a little thicker than to add on this extra track - a big, big problem for the phone and we can imagine it puts a lot of people out of purchase of the aircraft.

The QWERTY keyboard is slightly cramped - think somewhere between the Nokia N900 (large) and the Palm Pre (narrow). Others asked us to verify that the phone have all said the keys are spaced far enough to hit but his lip got in the way of ease of handling and therefore hits.

The action of sliding the keyboard is nice, and once again the sensation of continuous high quality - there is a click of Nice when fully deployed. We are also pleased to see a D-pad and select key included - but touch screens could be great for video and the Internet, they can be very tricky when trying to change the text, and D -Pad is a bargain in this case.



The exterior of the phone is filled with buttons of your average, with 3.5 mm jack for headphones rinse well with the chassis, and power / lock button right next door. This button is a bit difficult to reach, being situated at the rear portion of the screen, but you get used to it over time.

Overall, the build quality is quite good, but very likely to polarize the taste - it is very industrial to the future, and the use of gold is a bit of a gamble for us, but at least all the bits we are looking for are present and correct.

In the box

Motorola has been evident, with donations provided - an eco-friendly power cable is included, and a microUSB charger. There is a microSD card 8GB also included with all software MOTONAV aboard and a good place to store all your media and the like.


As you can imagine, a pair of headphones base, which doubles as a handsfree kit are included in the box - unless you are desperate to talk using a wire we can not imagine you will use this too as we 'd advise using your taste buds whenever possible.

Motororla Milestone: Interface

The Milestone Motorola is running the latest version of Android, 2.0, and it debuted with a lot more in the United States because it included navigation technology offered by Google called Google spiritually navigation. We'll get the bad news on the first track - it's not here and it's a shame, with MOTONAV instead.

The other thing to note is that while Motorola Dext was only average room kit, we loved MotoBlur the overlay on top of Android, which has an easy interaction with social networks. What is also lacking for some reason, with only the return of Vanilla Android on the milestone.

The unit that we use is not yet officially available in Britain through a carrier, but only via eXpansys yet, and we hope that MotoBlur could make an appearance later in 2010 - do not receive your hopes up though.


That said, Android 2.0 version is a decent enough OS from Google, with all the bits in the right place for general browsing. There are only three home screens (we expected more) and while the icons are redesigned, there are no crowds here for Android fans to get excited about the same as HTC Sense of unemployment insurance.

We'll go over some of the interesting features of the OS if you are a newbie Android though, as there is a reason that some predict will become the dominant OS in a few years "for mobile phones.

The notifications are at the top of the screen - slide down to activate this and you will see if you have a new message, a USB connection or another application running that needs an entry . Also offered is an easy to use menu system: drag the tab at the top of the bottom list all your icons in iPhone-a-as it should, with the ability to press and hold one of these options to add to the home screen.

The Milestone Motorola also offers a number of widgets to play, including YouTube, which allows you to simultaneously search and download to the mobile site and a power bar which allows you to switch things such as Wi -Fi and brightness of the screen to help conserve battery power.

The Google search is included by default as a widget, and if you want to try something cool there is a little microphone icon again for Google Voice Search, which is exactly as it sounds - even if it ' is a little success and missed the milestone


Beyond the feature Android normal there is not a huge amount more in step than we've seen before - the main differences in Android 2.0 (such as support for Microsoft Exchange and updated menus contacts) are not really relevant here.

But the pure pleasure to use Android has never been so well illustrated on a phone than it is here on the episode - the HTC Hero might be a better overall experience, but she needed of upgrade the firmware to operate the way the water in which we are accustomed.

But the stage is better than that right on the box with the ARM Cortex A8 processor 550 MHz under the guise of pushing things well, which is impressive when you consider the other devices out there who manage to make less per box that this phone with almost twice the processing power.

Motorola Milestone: Calling and contacts

What we both love and dislike about the cue from Motorola is that it does not really do anything but show the power of Google Android 2.0 upgrade - which is great when you get to the bit cool no, not when you see the upgrade overlays other companies.

However, the contact is one of those to benefit from the power of Google, and it added an element of detail to what was essentially a simple list of names before.

The main difference is that you can sync contacts and access to your corporate network via the power of Microsoft Exchange. This means simply a must in your contacts is possible by adding in all the accounts you can synchronize a time in space - it is true when the only means of exchange and Google (and those of your SIM card) but in future the API will allow other companies to stuff Facebook and Twitter and a different type you can think of to complete the list of contacts - something we are very supportive of.



However, there appears to have had a problem with all this coding on Milestone - slipping in the list, there were a number of contacts that we thought we had synchronized not present. When we took the tab on the side (which automatically sorts them into groups by letter) suddenly these people magically reappeared, although if you were not fast enough to stab their name, they were gone.

We do not know if it's a problem of integrating so many names in a single list or if it's the curse of contacts Google strikes again, but it was very, very boring.

On the positive side, there is a new feature called Quick contacts that allows you to type a name and ways to interact with them in some way - we were particularly excited by the possibility of geotagging them.



However, we could not find any notion of power geotag on Milestone - if it was because he was too well hidden for us to find or just those on Google latitude (ie, person), we are not sure, but now the image of the contact does not contain at least the contact bar.

We do not like the ability to Star and contacts and have them in your favorites - it means you are able to see the people you love (or at least talk to as) a tab easy.

We would have liked to see the smart dialing dialer tab, making it easier to sift through the contacts, but unfortunately that is not there.

Call quality on the Motorola Milestone was OK - it has not been stellar and the phone felt a little awkward down on his head, but at least it does not fall all the time. We have experienced a couple of problems with the screen does not leave the mode of a power outage when removed from the ear - it meant hanging up on people was very difficult, unless you wanted to wait a while for the display of spring to life.

The coverage is quite good though, hung tight in some places - even if it was not stars, and even have a signal bar does not seem enough in some places.

Motorola Milestone: Messaging

We mentioned before that the bar had some Android 2.0 Nice updates in the box, and Exchange is one of them. This is not a given, it will be on every phone, because it is the manufacturer's discretion whether to activate it, but we are pleased to announce that Motorola has given the thumbs up.

This means that ways to contact your friends through the power of the written word have increased dramatically over the Milestone - we know that some companies have added support for Exchange in via RoadSync in the past, but this way is much more logic.

Messages are always screwed into the conversations, which makes the process of seeing what you have told your friends a lot easier, and the "type of call box" actually works here, so it did not before some devices, making the process much more complicated.


The onscreen keyboard has been massively improved in Android 2.0, with a recognition much more accurate word, but we have not been bothered about this - we cracked QWERTY on effort and place it in tip top in our opinion.

As mentioned before, there is a problem with your lip lock code keys, and this may be insurmountable for some people - but one you get your head (and your hand) around it, the Life becomes much easier.

However, we never managed to achieve a gear when it comes to typing speed on the marker, and we put it down squarely on the lips forces us to readjust during the capture process text.

But the things we liked: given an '@' key in hand without having to manually restart the Symbol mode, the positioning of the space bar and the fact that typing on it will automatically search bar when the display of home.

Some have already criticized this element of the phone - but we urge you to give him a piece of good ten minutes before deciding if you love or hate, as we are sure there are a few good people there down that could change their opinion.




Email is also available in two forms - Exchange (as mentioned above) and Gmail, you expect an Android device. For some reason it will not correctly configured on the box for us, but when it finally worked, it was fine.

Exchange was fairly easy to configure, provided you have all relevant information relating to domains and user names for your business account, and you can set the time to update almost instantly, which means you never miss an email if you do not want to.

One problem does arise - Google Mail placed in the "Manual Update" by himself for some reason, leaving us with a backlog of unwanted messages - however, this has been fixed with a smear and does repeat, then just keep an eye on it.

Other than that, messaging on Motorola Milestone works well - then we would have liked to see an intrinsic part of Facebook messaging, we can not believe it will be too long before we see another device that can perform this action running the system Android operating.

Transform your text message database to a MMS is a breeze Just take the route e-mail attachments on - there are also options to capture video and record audio along with the ability to add files from memory already if you 'll never be short of a mail option on the Milestone Motorola.

Motorola Milestone: Internet

We have reviewed a number of Android phones now, and the problem they have is good, they are nearly all alike when it comes to the Internet. This is not really important, as the browser is excellent, but it was excellent for a number of models now so it is difficult to separate devices.

However, one thing that the bar by Motorola and HTC Hero in common - they are moving Android who had pinch and zoom function, and is a great addition to any device.

We are less happy to see that no Flash player on board - it is something that we hope will begin to appear in a larger number of handsets in the near future, but the recent crop of mobile has done on the practice avoiding this


Another real problem with the Internet via Motorola Milestone is that it is clearly positioning itself for use in landscape mode - trying to display text in a column on the picture he just will not know.

So you're left with the option to resize the screen to fit all the text, or put the phone on its side and give the lords of Motorola. Unrebellious as it may seem, we found ourselves in the work of the latter - albeit under duress.

If you consider that HTC Hero can put the text to fit almost chip a single letter, you will see it just seems a little sluggish as Motorola is not the same, except when there is a sort of underlying reason business.

The good thing about this browser based on Webkit is it allows you to quickly and easily navigate through websites HTML, which means widgets such as text constantly updated will be happy to work for you. This is common in almost all Android phones on the turn and it works as well as we could have hoped.

There was a little too often having to wait while Hung web pages when using the 3G connection (which was partly to do with Milestone in not recognizing when it has a signal bar, as mentioned above) so mobile Wi - Fi was the best option in most cases.




And once again, we like the ability to be able to share a webpage, we're digging through the various applications we've installed - be capable of something to Chuck and tastes really gives Twidroid phone gadget special 'cool' feeling.

We're also fans of being able to display web pages that you regularly read as simply as if you look at your bookmarks via a special tab - this means that when you forgot a flag of your favorite sites, you 't have to go days of history to find it.

While we would have liked to see the Flash Player Milestone Motorola, we were satisfied with the Web experience. Pages loaded very reasonable timeframe (ie before you wanted to throw the phone into the wall) and the ability to quickly navigate between sites is always the mark of a decent browser.

Motorola Milestone: Camera

We can not help thinking that despite improvements camera that came as part of Android 2.0 experience, this element still feels sorely lacking in the department slickness. Say what you want on the terrible resolution camera of the iPhone, but at the end of the day, pictures taken are decent enough quality to be used every day.

The Milestone Motorola, like many other Android phones before it, does not live up to the very capacity of the iPhone, and it is with the dual LED flash and 5MP snapper bolted to the rear. We do not know why, but this phone seems to only take grainy, emphasis on images as often as he can.

Try and take a light background, and he will eat most of the image rather than being neutralized. Throw in some elements of low light, and the picture has more grain to store food for a chicken farmer.



Add to this the fact that you have to wait an age to take only the pictures (and then have a fair bit later attempts such as autofocus tries to arrange), but the treatment course in the background to add the photo to the media library is also a bit comical.

While the addition of the macro mode is a nice touch, and it works well most of the time (provided you are in a well lit and stable environment). But other changes, such as color correction, are not really worth writing Home About.

We dig the fact that you are able to share your pictures through various sources (such as Facebook, Twitter or e-mail by default under "Quicksend"), and the ability to score for more convenience thereafter.




The video is a similar experience with a hi-res ish camera (D1, 720x480 pixels) sequences that can score in a respectable 24fps. However, we were happy with the lack of such a jerky effort - we believe that it will be months if not years before finally seeing the "camera phone Android" as it still appears on the Internet these devices yet.

And the video on the benchmark is still a bit slow to process the same way the photos from the camera to take some time to save - but at least it'sa step in the right direction in the media.

Motorola Milestone: Media

Android and the media are not really the greatest of companions today, and while this has not been greatly improved in the Milestone Motorola, the main thing we liked was the fact we could actually watch your videos, photos or music phone without deciding Judder to a halt when one looks over one snap at a time.

We are not saying that experience is the smoothest possible that you'll never in your life, but at least the Milestone has a good move to be your dedicated media player - added a card to 8GB in the box is always ready to help is also important.

These days, especially with large screen, high definition screens to fashion phones, the video has been highlighted, what is apparent on the Milestone, indicated by small things like the press box being put Video mode by default.

Turn off the phone on its side to activate Cover Flow mode for the video image, as mentioned above, the speed at which it can sort these clips is impressive. Output video itself is a bit disappointing (especially considering it's a widescreen VGA (854 x 480) screen) - people like the LG Crystal, which is far from being a good phone, is best when it comes to video in our opinion.

However, playing music is more solid on the Android platform too, as while there is still a music player base, it is good, with options to view album art, songs Shuffle and check the track all your ads from your landing page unique (and sliding through a song for fast forward too).

Party Mode for him out a few tunes for you and a friend or five is a bit redundant, especially with the tinny sound from the speaker behind the gold.



The other thing to note is the embedded YouTube player - we know it is ubiquitous on Google phone (obviously) but it's still a real asset to the Milestone, as it not only chuck out video in high quality everywhere where he can, he has a Nice user interface and a search box too fast.

This means that when you're in the cafe with friends and need to prove anything on video - you'll be the one with the cool phone that can do it faster than most. When the day comes that BBC iPlayer is available on Android, these phones will certainly take another step towards becoming indispensable.

Motorola Milestone: Applications

Those of you Android fans out there have noticed that the Android market really starts to take the pace - with more than 15,000 applications ready to download.

Although this is a good game to play with, the main thing to note is that the level is recovering - things such as task managers for the third OS and improved the amount of games are necessities for demanding users Milestone Motorola.



Here are some we think you should be checking out:

beebPlayer

In summary, an Android version of the BBC iPlayer is a watered down version of the mobile application that we have seen on people like the Nokia N97 and the Sony Ericsson W995.

It allows streaming of all programs available on the normal service, but sometimes the quality is so low that they could not help wondering if the shows were recorded on a video player and listened to someone on the Internet .

Layar

You've dreamed of seeing through walls? Well, now you can kind of - the browser uses the camera and GPS data to see what is happening around you and let you see the world differently. If you want to see where the subway lines run in real time, or check Twitterers nearby, then this is for you.

Light Racer

Remember Tron? The movie with all the crazy effects? That bit with the bikes, which he had cut each other to win? Well, that fuse with Snake and imagine that instead of riding that you use a trackball, then you are most of the road. One word for this application: awesome. OK, and two others very difficult.

Super Mario sounds and ringtones

Is it properly licensed? We do not know. But at the end of the day there is an application that lets you use the "1 up" sound effect as an additional life ring, and the pleasure of your comrades with the phonetic sound of Mario jumping. That is obvious.

And what about the marker itself? Well, there is very little actually, except the mapping software. MOTONAV is the browser version of Google, we're (angry) inherit bad, therefore we can not tell you how Google browser.

MOTONAV is reasonable enough, but if you want something that will help you get from A to B quickly, we have always preferred to using a dedicated GPS - whether with Google Navigating this phone has changed things we'll never know


Google Maps has been upgraded, then you can now see a greater depth of information when the boot (including layers of satellite information, close friends of the latitude or traffic information (although not in the United Kingdom) and the application now runs much faster than before.

The GPS tracking is not as good as other phones, preferring to make a signal and aGPS to spend a little too often, but at least you only need to find quickly using either method.

Motorola Milestone: The battery life and organisateure

If there's one thing Android phone is good, it eats your battery, and while the Milestone Motorola is not really an exception, it is much better than other Android phones out there by the simple because it does not require a full all expenses of approximately 10 hours.

We believe it is important that you download software to be able to disable third-party applications on the phone, otherwise it will eat the battery much faster than you want. However, we managed ourselves to limit easily load only once a day or two, and very rarely does the quack Milestone for us to plug in.


We do not know the addition of the battery gauge is a good idea because it simply highlight what is eating all your power, without being able to switch much of leave, but when very nice to have there and nice to see how many times can last between charges.


The organizational skills of stage Motorola are better than a number of other Android phones to know because there is now the Exchange Calendar to factor in the equation - we do not know why we have to both a business and "normal schedule" with Google Calendar and Exchange version under separate applications.

Motorola has also seen fit to add a calculator and the mixture with a scientific mode should you desire to have a bit of a "tan". We know, we know we kill too.

Motorola Milestone: Options connectivté

When we were delighted with this bit for a while, and for good reason too - the Milestone Motorola Packs a great little secret PC. Well, we say great - this is not the most useful thing in the world, but it's still fresh.

Buried in the list of applications is the portal of the phone, asking you to connect the phone via USB or Wi-fi. It then prompts you to enter an IP address in the browser window, and you're taken to what looks like a secret site dedicated to your phone.

From there you can check your signal, reading text messages, edit your phonebook, pictures of control and much more. And since it can be done simply by Wi-Fi makes life much less stressful when you try to connect your phone to the PC, even if it does not show how awful the majority of your shots look.



And beyond, if you want to sync your phone to PC with USB, you can use it as a device supporting Windows Media Player, making it a lot easier to synchronize video and music just drag and drop files as you have with other Android phones.

Connectivity is sound as you'd expect from a device like this Android - Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP helps you listen to music with ease Wireless and Wi-Fi, even if a little power hungry is also a good effort.


GPS, we covered with Google Maps in the section on the application, but then he could do to be a little more responsive, and struggles in urban areas. And the phone also packs 10.2mbps super fast HSDPA 3G connection, which means he will remain fast, even when the next generation of 3G antennas are deployed in the United Kingdom.

Motorola Milestone: Gallery

Motorola Milestone: Verdict

What has Motorola done in two or three years? Exactly - very little. We are concerned when we heard that it was losing jobs, focusing on Windows Mobile and Android, and then dropping support for WinMo. We thought the end was near.

But it is shown that it can at least give themselves a fighting chance by embracing Android - We simply believe the company missed a trick or two here.

We loved

There are many similar on the Milestone Motorola, including the fact that the phone works quickly with minimal delay, which many companies fail to implement. It also performs well in most of its categories, such as media player or GPS, and 8GB card supplied is a nice addition.

The sliding QWERTY keyboard action is a pleasant sensation, and the fact it is so thin is a real plus for us. Add to that a beautiful WVGA screen and capacitive reactive, and you can see why we want to Moto Pat on the head in the Milestone.

We did

However, there are some glaring errors here that we are not too happy. The first is the fact that we were served vanilla Android here without superimposition MotoBlur cool to play with. This means that when you answer the phone, it is difficult to see what differentiates it from other Android phones on offer.

And the lip at the bottom of this milestone. Why Motorola, why? It's so boring and goes right into how to type - it ugly, it is an ergonomic nightmare and probably could have been done away.

Verdict

We have no qualms in stating that this is our second favorite behind Android phone the HTC hero. We know we have been comparing the Milestone heroes to many in this test, but for good reason - they are both excellent phones Android.

The slick interface, the QWERTY keyboard, premium quality construction - all these elements enter into the formation of a Milestone decent phone. But he dropped at any time by lack of differentiation characteristics of real (outside the portal cool phone) and the lip - well, less said about it the better now.

We would like to give Milestone a B + because it could try harder, but the effort we've seen is hard to fault and if you chose this place and keep it in your pocket (providing his phone) you will not be disappointed.