5:55 PM
Raj
The phone that possibly revived Motorola's hopes
Great phone call quality, sturdy build, well-sized screen that offers good touch response, Fairly Snappy Android 2.1 OS
Bulky and not as sleek as the competition, average slide out QWERTY keyboard usability
Motorola, the company that in 1983 made the first cellphone (the DynaTAC 8000X), was in a miserable condition two years ago. After suffering losses, laying off employees and even putting its mobile division for sale, many thought it'll be the last we'll see of this mobile maker. Motorola top boss Sanjay Jha hoped to turn things around and get the company back on its feet. The company received a shot in the arm in December last year with the release of the Motorola Droid. The Droid was a CDMA-based smartphone that ran Google's Android 2.1 OS, and had most of the features that would satisfy a tech junkie back then. The phone did well, at least in the US. The Motorola Milestone is the GSM version of the Droid.
The Milestone was launched in India a few months ago. Thanks to some epic goofs by the Motorola India PR, it took ages to get here. We even contemplated whether we should go ahead posting its Review on Techtree now. But then we could see that a lot of people were asking for it in many other articles involving Android phones. So, it is nothing less than our duty to oblige. Here's the review of the Motorola Milestone.
Design and Build
The Motorola Milestone has a brick-like appearance. It may be one of the thinnest slide-out QWERTY laden phones, but the phone feels bulky when held or kept in a jeans pocket. It has the trademark Motorola build quality, i.e. it is built quite well. The phone isn't spectacular in terms of looks. It rather has a business appeal, thanks to its black finish and pointy edges. The front face of the phone is covered by a sufficiently large 3.7-inch display. The display sports a high 480 x 854 pixel resolution, making content on it look pretty crisp.
The brightness is up to the mark too. Under direct sunlight the screen is fairly readable. However, it is quite a fingerprint magnet. Its touch response is quite good and it supports multi-touch input, for pinch-zooming in the browser and other apps. The four typical buttons one finds on an Android phones are at the bottom corner. They are touch sensitive, which is a great thing, since it maintains the consistency of a feather-touch operation throughout. We liked this better than most phones from HTC that have physical keys for these functions. They work well and add to the phone's usability.
User Interface
The Motorola Milestone runs the stock version of Google's Android 2.1 OS. Since Android is an open-source platform, manufacturers are free to customize it till their satisfaction. Some makers like HTC have gone to great lengths to give their Android phones a unique identity with the Sense UI. But Motorola's stuck to the basics - the UI aboard the Milestone is the way Google had designed it.
Despite having a 600 MHz processor (when competing phones like the Nexus One or the XPERIA X10 have a 1 GHz one), the speed of the User Interface was quite snappy overall. There were only a few instances, like while sliding the menu, when there was a little stuttering. But it mostly will not hamper usability in a big way. Like every Android phone, the core Google apps come built-in: Push Gmail, Gtalk, Google Maps etc. If you're a heavy user of Google's products, then their seamless integration into the phone is a boon to use.
This is probably one of the first Android phones I've come across that has a dedicated equalizer app; it's got a couple of sound-modulating effects like Live, Ambient, wide and a couple of EQ presets. There is no option for custom EQ settings though. It is unfortunate that a screen this big doesn't get the deserving DivX/XviD video playback support, unlike the Samsung Spica.
But thanks to the big screen size, the overall user experience of the phone was good. Surfing proper websites was great, multi-touch worked well. The high resolution also ensured that everything looked crisp and clearly visible. The touch response was quite accurate, and typing on the on-screen QWERTY keyboard was an easy affair -- in landscape as well as portrait mode. The Auto Word correction was up to the mark.
Performance
Like earlier Motorola phones, this one leaves no stone unturned when it comes to call clarity. We could hear the caller's voice clearly. The volume of the earpiece as well as the speakerphone is adequate. Network reception was also spot on. All in all, we were really happy that the Milestone gave us that one elementary thing every phone must strive to achieve - good quality phone calls. However, one thing to take note of was the heating. The earpiece and back area would get a little hot if the conversation exceeded a few minutes. Nothing major to worry about, but just an observation.
Multimedia
The on-board 5 megapixel camera is good for outdoor daylight photography. Pictures with good ambient lighting came out well. But pictures in low light were grainy. The LED flash lights aren't powerful enough to brighten up a dark area considerably. They're only good for taking pictures of objects from a close distance. Video is recorded at D1 (i.e. DVD resolution), and the quality is pretty good. Overall, the camera is decent for casual clicking here and there, but we wouldn't rely on it for mission-critical situations.
Design and Build
The Motorola Milestone has a brick-like appearance. It may be one of the thinnest slide-out QWERTY laden phones, but the phone feels bulky when held or kept in a jeans pocket. It has the trademark Motorola build quality, i.e. it is built quite well. The phone isn't spectacular in terms of looks. It rather has a business appeal, thanks to its black finish and pointy edges. The front face of the phone is covered by a sufficiently large 3.7-inch display. The display sports a high 480 x 854 pixel resolution, making content on it look pretty crisp.
The brightness is up to the mark too. Under direct sunlight the screen is fairly readable. However, it is quite a fingerprint magnet. Its touch response is quite good and it supports multi-touch input, for pinch-zooming in the browser and other apps. The four typical buttons one finds on an Android phones are at the bottom corner. They are touch sensitive, which is a great thing, since it maintains the consistency of a feather-touch operation throughout. We liked this better than most phones from HTC that have physical keys for these functions. They work well and add to the phone's usability.
User Interface
The Motorola Milestone runs the stock version of Google's Android 2.1 OS. Since Android is an open-source platform, manufacturers are free to customize it till their satisfaction. Some makers like HTC have gone to great lengths to give their Android phones a unique identity with the Sense UI. But Motorola's stuck to the basics - the UI aboard the Milestone is the way Google had designed it.
Despite having a 600 MHz processor (when competing phones like the Nexus One or the XPERIA X10 have a 1 GHz one), the speed of the User Interface was quite snappy overall. There were only a few instances, like while sliding the menu, when there was a little stuttering. But it mostly will not hamper usability in a big way. Like every Android phone, the core Google apps come built-in: Push Gmail, Gtalk, Google Maps etc. If you're a heavy user of Google's products, then their seamless integration into the phone is a boon to use.
This is probably one of the first Android phones I've come across that has a dedicated equalizer app; it's got a couple of sound-modulating effects like Live, Ambient, wide and a couple of EQ presets. There is no option for custom EQ settings though. It is unfortunate that a screen this big doesn't get the deserving DivX/XviD video playback support, unlike the Samsung Spica.
But thanks to the big screen size, the overall user experience of the phone was good. Surfing proper websites was great, multi-touch worked well. The high resolution also ensured that everything looked crisp and clearly visible. The touch response was quite accurate, and typing on the on-screen QWERTY keyboard was an easy affair -- in landscape as well as portrait mode. The Auto Word correction was up to the mark.
Like earlier Motorola phones, this one leaves no stone unturned when it comes to call clarity. We could hear the caller's voice clearly. The volume of the earpiece as well as the speakerphone is adequate. Network reception was also spot on. All in all, we were really happy that the Milestone gave us that one elementary thing every phone must strive to achieve - good quality phone calls. However, one thing to take note of was the heating. The earpiece and back area would get a little hot if the conversation exceeded a few minutes. Nothing major to worry about, but just an observation.
Multimedia
The on-board 5 megapixel camera is good for outdoor daylight photography. Pictures with good ambient lighting came out well. But pictures in low light were grainy. The LED flash lights aren't powerful enough to brighten up a dark area considerably. They're only good for taking pictures of objects from a close distance. Video is recorded at D1 (i.e. DVD resolution), and the quality is pretty good. Overall, the camera is decent for casual clicking here and there, but we wouldn't rely on it for mission-critical situations.
The audio quality on the stock pair of earphones is just about acceptable. But after pairing it with our Creative EP-630s, we realized that the phone is capable of delivering a much better audio quality. So an earphone swap is a must if you're looking for audiophile nirvana.
Battery Life
The battery life of this phone is decent. It lasted us for exactly a day under moderate use. But with heavy phone call usage, being logged into Gtalk, 2-3 hours of music playback and use of other features, the phone lasted for about 20 hours. That is almost how much an average feature-rich touchscreen phone lasts, but we'd be happier if it would survive an entire day, even under heavy usage.
Price and Verdict
The Motorola Milestone sells for approximately Rs. 28,000. In comparison, you have the Nexus One/HTC Desire selling for almost the same price. They have an AMOLED display, 1 GHz processor and a thinner design (due to the lack of a hardware keyboard). The Motorola Milestone is a good phone overall. It's got no major flaws that would make us not recommend it, and it's definitely the best phone Motorola has made till date. But it's far from being the best Android phone right now, let alone being the "cell phone of the year".
However, its USP, the QWERTY keyboard, is also something that has worked against it in our opinion. The keys aren't the best to type on; they are certainly no comparison to the BlackBerrys. On the flip side, the on-screen QWERTY board does its job well. This brings us to the question; do you really need a QWERTY keyboard to begin with? If you're the kind who really hates typing on an on-screen keyboard but wants a big screen phone nonetheless, then the Milestone is a workable option. But if on-screen typing is fine with you, then we'd say get either a Nexus One/HTC Desire or even the HTC Legend. You'll get sleeker phones with better features that fit in the pocket well.
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