The first phone to run Android 2.0, the Motorola Milestone feels like an evolution of the T-Mobile G1. It's got a funny chin and handy slide-out Qwerty keyboard, but, with built-in Microsoft Exchange support, a stunning capacitive touchscreen and a smorgasbord of smart-phone features, the geeky gadget feels much more polished.
The Milestone is available from eXpansys for £450 SIM-free, or for £50 on a £35-per-month, 18-month contract.
Enter the Android
The Milestone is the first phone to run version 2.0 of Google's
Android operating system, and there are a couple of big improvements. The phone
supports Exchange email without a separate application, and it does
it very well -- we had no trouble setting up our Outlook email.
Exchange email is still handled separately to Gmail, in a different application, as on previous Android phones. Unlike on older phones, however, you can add more than one Gmail account, and they're all shown in the same, combined inbox. We'd rather have Outlook and Gmail work from the same email app, but we can survive without it.
Motorola told us that the official Facebook app for Android should work with Android 2.0 to merge your friends into your phone's address book, but we had no luck getting this specific feature working on our test phone, although the app worked fine otherwise.
This popular feature is available on HTC's Android phones and via the Motoblur feature of the Motorola Dext. There's no Motoblur on the Milestone, so its social-networking features are much more limited than the Dext's, but it's worth the swap to get the latest features of Android 2.0.
Of course, you still get all of the usual Android advantages, like a choice of thousands of apps from the Android Market. Apps are easy to find and install, and still mostly free, so you can add every feature and game you can imagine to the Milestone.
Worldwide wonderful
The Web browser has also been improved in the new version of Android, and
it does a fantastic job of rendering complex Web sites accurately and clearly.
It doesn't support Flash, so you'll miss out on some elements, but this is
still one of the best Web-surfing phones out there, thanks to its speed and simple user interface.
The Web browser also shows off the biggest bragging right that we have over the hugely popular US version of this phone, the Droid. Our Web browser has multi-touch zoom capability, so you can zoom in and out on those fiddly little links with a pinch of your fingers. It's a fast, intuitive way to interact with the Web, and we love it. We just wish it were everywhere -- there's no multi-touch functionality in Google Maps, for example.
MotoNav to nowhere
But the Yankees have their revenge -- the most exciting feature on the Droid
is nowhere to be found on the Milestone. Google Maps
Navigation is a free sat-nav feature for Google Maps that looks simply
awesome, and the Milestone doesn't have it. It doesn't have the in-car user-interface option either, which shows simple, big icons in landscape mode for
easy tapping when you're on the road.
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User reviews4
Add your review
martinb999 30 June 2010
Good: screen, apps
Bad: slider, lack of programmes, awful sound quality
Comment: Taking a call is sometimes difficult to interpret what the other person is saying as it is really is awful call quality....... like they are in a tin box thousands of miles away stuttering!
Naw, the potential is there but at the moment just doesn't come up to the mark. Sorry motorola.
j_gsk 27 April 2010
Good: screen, speed, hw keyboard, camera (in the daylight) customisation......
Bad: battery could be better,
Comment: I believe there is very few people out there who would have done such a comprehensive research about their future phone as I did. It was worth it. Milestone is more than a phone and android from google is such a ingenious thing. it really took google guys to cause little revolution in a mobile world and make it roll forward where seemed to be not that much invention, and where even the top end devices from giants like nokia still felt not finished, not fast enough and didn't provide customer experience you'd have wished for .. (and that's what made iphone stand out btw)
Back to the phone.
Screen is brilliant and responsive, whole device is fast, taking into consideration that it runs half RAM and half the processor speed of Desire or Nexus, what is it only those can do hmm??
So why did I choose Milestone if I could have bought better Desire, nexus or Xperiax10 with bigger screen and better camera??
Well,
a) should i mind that phone is running on 550 Mhz and not 1Gh? ..i don't, its FAST,
should i mind mind that ram is 256 not 512? well, i could make a use of it but, i installed an app that kills apps that are not in use to manage and free up ram and save battery.. works FINE!
b) built quality - just great.. I bought milestone before i had a chance try on hands Desire but built quality is very good. Will last the time it's been purchased for
c) and the biggest factor - Hardware keyboard. this is a thing that was critisized on the phone.. and i wasn't excited either when I held the phone for the first time. (there r 2 things that are in the way of your right thumb - the 'lip' and the D pad - why the heck couldn't they put that thing on the left so you wouln't have to strech your right thumb so much?) Well, after two months of use i can tell you that HW keyboard is the top feature and i HOPE that if milestone ever has a succesor that that next phone will have similar keyboard as this one. The flatness of the keys is what makes them very sure to press, I practically don't mistype. I don't remember ever pressing between the keys and getting something different. the keys sink very little at a press but have very good tactile feel to them. and this makes keyboard fast. So it just works and i'm glad guys from Motorola designed it this way. another thing, of course you need to be able to use phone with 1 hand (biiig downside of otherwise very good nokia n900) sw keyboard is always there (try to install swype keyboard from androyd market - just Abrilliant thing!)
There is one more factor that you might take into consideration when deciding hw/sw keyboard.. i comunicate in 2 languages. and for the 2nd one (no predictive typing on SW keyboar), the HW keyboard is just irreplaceable. And that's why this phone still, 8 months after release and after arrival of new beasts on the market, has no alternative out there.
If you do have reservations against 'screen only' keyboards and that is what puts you of android phones, than i can thoroughly recommend this one.
these are mostly mine experiences, you'll find a lots of videos on youtube, a lots of reviews about how phone works, behaves and what it lookes like and what it can do (and that list is looong.. i realized, i really don't need to open laptop for so many things i used to.. starting with emails and FB)
if phone today than one with android and if you're not sure how ur gonna get along hitting those tiny keys on screen.. or you tried and it drove you crazy, it's gotta be milestone.
blackie60 19 February 2010
Good: the dogs dangly bits
Bad: no motonav!!
Comment: brill device and its not an i phone !!!!!
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