Motorola Milestone Review

Motorola Milestone Review

The Motorola milestone is Motorola’s flagship Android device, and has been received with an overwhelmingly positive response. Just from looking at it, you know that this isn’t a phone made to fool around with. Black and gold casing, with enough weight to make you feel like you’re actually gripping something. The QWERTY keypad is a definite plus for all those who do not fancy the virtual keypad. Now, let’s move on to the specifications:

Dimensions	60 x 115.8 x 13.7
Mass	169 grams w/ battery
OS	Google Android 2.0
CPU Clock	550 MHz
RAM	256MB
Screen Size	3.7”
Resolution	480 x 854
Audio Output	3.5mm
Positioning Device	Multi-touch screen & TouchPad/TrackPad
Primary Keyboard	QWERTY Keypad
Directional Pad	5 Way
Expansion Slots	microSD, microSDHC, TransFlash, SDIO
USB:	USB 2.0 host/client, 480Mbit/s micro-USB
Bluetooth:	Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Wireless-LAN:	802.11b, 802.11g
Main Camera:	4.9 MP
Autofocus_(AF):	Supported
Optical: Zoom:	1 x
Built-in;Flash:	mobile light (LED)
Built-in;accelerometer:	Supported
Battery:	removable
Battery-Capacity:	1390 mAh

Design
One of the most significant things you will notice when holding the Milestone is its weight. At 169 grams, the phone makes you feel like you’re actually holding to something real, which is a breath of fresh air from all the recent plasticky phones. The next thing is that the phone is extremely slim, for a phone with a physical QWERTY keypad, coming in at 13.7mm. Though the keys are a little small and a bit too flat, you will get used to it in no time. Other than that there are a few more physical buttons, for power, volume and camera on the sides of the phone and 4 touch sensitive buttons on the screen area. Those buttons are for navigating the Android OS consisting of Back, Home, Menu and Search. There’s also a microUSB port for pc connectivity.

Performance
The milestone comes with a 550MHz processor, which is much lesser than the 1GHz processors available on current phones but that does not seem to be a great drawback since the phone functions smoothly and without much lag.

Display
With a 3.7’ screen, this phone has one of the biggest screens available on current phones. In this case, bigger is better. The screen displays 16 million colours and has a feel similar to glass; it displays videos at 854 x 480 pixels

Camera
Dual-LED flash with a 5-megapixel camera delivers stunning visuals. The camera supports autofocus and optical zoom, which more or less fulfils your camera needs. The pictures take only a short while to process and while the image quality isn’t the best, it is still very good for a mobile phone.
Battery
The milestone’s battery lasts you for about 1-2 days before requiring charging and this is better than quite a lot of android devices out there. The 1400mAH, 3.7V battery seems to work wonders when coupled with the 550MHz processor.

Accessories
The Milestone has a unique accessory which is the Dock. It’s a device, priced separately at S$88 that allows for easy synching of files between the phone and your PC through windows media sync.
The dock shows the time, weather and shortcuts to various functions of the phone. The shortcuts allows you to answer your SMSes, change your ringtone and tune your phone settings all while its sitting stylishly in the dock. And charging while at that

Conclusion
The Motorola Milestone isn’t that new a phone, but it definitely stills pulls its own weight. The phone feels more real and ‘masculine’ thanks to its added weight and the updated android 2.1 OS is a welcome feature. Make no mistake this phone is still relevant and very much recommended. The phones target group is the business-class or those who prefers the business-class devices. You won’t find any integration with social media here to distract you; it’s all you need from a phone in a very cool looking design. Currently selling exclusive to Starhub at S$0-198, it’s definitely worth considering.

References: http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/product-guide/view/14978