Motorola MILESTONE review: Hello Droid (Mobile Phone Review, latest, tech, news, report)

Android devices come from all walks of life but rarely do they carry as much baggage as the MILESTONE. Motorola seem to be betting the farm with the MILESTONE and the warm reception it’s getting must leave them breathing a sigh of relief. Catching the Android wave may’ve seemed like the last available move but a device like the MILESTONE makes turning the tide much more likely.

So, Motorola are back with a bang and the MILESTONE is one of the best spec’d phones to ever run Android. The Google Nexus One is supposed to instill fear in nearly every touchscreen device out there but the Moto Droid must be positioned well enough by now to withstand the attack.

Key features

Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support

10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support

3.7" 16M-color capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480x 854 pixel) resolution

Android OS v2.0 with kinetic scrolling and pinch zooming

Slimmest side slider with full QWERTY keyboard yet

Great build quality

ARM Cortex A8 600MHz CPU, PowerVR SGX graphics accelerator; 256 MB of RAM

5 MP autofocus camera with dual-LED flash and geo-tagging

D1 (720 x 480 pixels) video recording @ 24fps

Wi-Fi and GPS with A-GPS

133MB storage, microSD slot, bundled 8GB card

Accelerometer and proximity sensor

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1

Main disadvantages

No DivX and XviD video playback

No smart and voice dialing

Somewhat clumsy camera interface and limited camera features

No free GPS navigation solution

No Flash support for the web browser

No FM radio

There’s hardly anything missing on the Motorola MILESTONE spec sheet so we should be ready for an exciting ride. The test-drive got us impressed: at the end of our preview we felt positive about the MILESTONE prospects. So now, the Moto DROID has a full review ahead to build on that good impression.

Considering the rate of its sales, the handset is doing well from a user point of view too. Yet, a short-lived success is just not good enough for Motorola: the company doesn’t have the resources to come up with an equally talented successor as quick as some of the competitors. So, the MILESTONE needs to stick around the top of the sales charts for at least a few months to give Motorola some breathing space.

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