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Motorola Milestone / Droid smartphone review

Milestone / Droid is an interesting product from Motorola, sales of which have reached Ukraine. The Milestone smartphone runs on Android OS and is equipped with an ARM Cortex A8 processor with a clock speed of 550 megahertz. This model is interesting, first of all, with a good set of media capabilities, progressive integration of web applications, a high-quality camera and many other useful "chips". Which ones exactly? You will find out during the review.

Foreword

Motorola Milestone should create serious competition for a large number of smartphones sold as well as those, sales of which have not yet begun on the Ukrainian market. This model was created "in reserve", i.e. in order to be relevant not only today, but also in a year. The range of using the model is wide enough. With the help of Milestone, you can comfortably work with text arrays, e-mail, surf the web, communicate using a large number of interactive applications and much more.

The main competitors are the SE XPERIA X10 running Android 1.6 and the HTC HD2 running Windows Mobile 6.5. In any case, Milestone has a more solid feature set. Another competitor is Nokia N900, but still this solution has not gained sufficient popularity and remains a niche one.

Appearance

The smartphone is made in a side slider form factor. The body consists of both metal and plastic parts. Note that there is much more metal than plastic. The body is assembled at a high level, no creaks or backlashes were noticed. Every part of the body is perfectly fitted, there are minimal clearances. The smartphone looks large enough, but when you take it in your hand, the situation changes in the opposite way. Despite its size, the device is pleasant to hold in the palm of your hand. This is largely due to the small thickness of the device - only 13.7 millimeters. Its weight is 165 grams, which gives the smartphone some solidity. The assembly contains matte elements, thanks to which the device does not slip out of the hand even after prolonged use.

The main navigation is carried out through the touch screen. He responds quickly enough to touch. Let's just say that working with him is pleasant and convenient.

The earpiece is very good, in a word, like in other top Motorola models. This is facilitated by the use of a proprietary development Crystal Talk, which filters speech from extraneous noise, and ensures sufficient audibility.

Below the display are 4 touch keys. They have good sensitivity, involuntary touching them are rare. Although it may take some time for someone to get used to them.

A good part of the rear panel is occupied by the battery compartment cover, which is made of metal and is securely attached to the body. Above the cover you can see the lens of the built-in camera and a double eye of the flash (it is LED here). Below them we see two inscriptions - 5MP and Autofocus.

Under the cover of the battery compartment there is a loudspeaker opening made in the form of a wide mesh. There are no complaints about the quality of the speaker: the sound is quite clear, the volume is also not weak. There are, of course, distortions, but they are insignificant.

If we look under the cover of the unit, then we will see a removable lithium-ion battery. Its capacity is 1420 mAh. In addition to the battery, this compartment contains two slots: one for a SIM card, the other for a memory card. In order to remove / insert a memory card, you will have to turn off the device. The lack of the possibility of "hot" replacement of cards cannot be called a significant drawback, but it is still an omission.

The ends of the device are not too burdened with functional elements.On the right side there is a camera activation button and a volume rocker. Left - MicroUSB connector with LED. This LED serves to show the charging process of the smartphone. The microUSB connector is used for a computer interface cable, as well as for connecting a charger.

The device has a built-in jack for connecting a wired headset or standard 3.5 mm headphones. It is located at the top. There is also a smartphone on / off button.

Motorola Milestone lacks automatic slider adjustment. In order to fully open the device, the user will have to bring the upper half to the stop. When the device is fully open, it will give a soft signal in the form of a kind of click.

In the open position, a full-fledged QWERTY keyboard with a 4-line layout appears in front of the user. There is also a multi-position navigation key. By pressing in the center of this button, the selection is confirmed. We will talk about the convenience of the keyboard in more detail in the corresponding section.

Hardware and operating system

The main technical processes are carried out on the basis of OS Android 2.0. Among the main changes, it is worth highlighting the optimization in the speed of work, as well as the optimization of the system for a large number of resolutions and display sizes. As for the Milestone screen, its diagonal is 3.7 inches, and the resolution is 480x854 pixels. The indicators are among the best on the market for modern advanced mobile devices.

The web browser was also updated. It now supports HTML5, allowing the user to create up to ten bookmarks while surfing the web.

The updated operating system also includes support for Microsoft Exchange, an improved virtual keyboard, and support for a camera flash (in earlier versions it was not).

The smartphone is powered by the TI OMAP 3430 chipset. Most of the tasks are performed by an embedded ARM Cortex A8 processor operating at 550 megahertz. Due to its good characteristics, the Android device works quite well. The amount of RAM does not pretend to be a record, here its 256 megabytes. In general, this amount of memory is enough for the reliable operation of the device.

Keyboard

As already mentioned, a group of touch keys is located under the display. These four buttons control a wide variety of functions in your smartphone. For clarity, each key is assigned a corresponding symbol.

The QWERTY keyboard in Motorola Milestone deserves to be called a full-fledged one. It has four rows of keys, it is convenient to use it. Despite the full-format layout, it will still take some time to adapt to the keyboard. This is due to the small (in comparison with a traditional keyboard) size of the buttons.

When active, the keyboard is beautifully backlit with a moderate white light. Even at night, the buttons are easy to distinguish.

Screen and widgets

The smartphone screen deserves all the praise. Today you can count devices with a similar display on your fingers. The display sensitivity is good, navigating through it is simple and convenient. You can “surf” the menu for hours, however, only with the help of your fingers, since the phone does not recognize pressing by foreign objects. In the menu and in all applications, the touch screen performed exceptionally well.

The display is a TFT-matrix with a diagonal of more than three and a half inches, and a resolution of 480x854 pixels, which is typical for good communicators. When working in the sun, the color rendering quality drops, but the information on the display remains readable even when the display is in direct sunlight. With the help of the built-in accelerometer, the picture on the screen can automatically change the shape of the scan depending on the orientation of the position of the phone.

The user has five virtual screens that can be swiped from left to right or vice versa.On each virtual screen, you can place the required application shortcuts. You can also take out folders, wallpapers, widgets here, and then sort them by groups or directions.

Below is a video showing the process of bringing widgets to the main page of the display:

Menu

The menu is almost identical to previous versions of the Android operating system. By tradition, on the main page of the display, there is a gray window at the bottom, after clicking on it, you go to the main menu.

There is a call notification area at the top of the screen. In it you can find information about all the user's calls. Note that there are almost no sub-items in the menu: more than two-thirds of the shortcuts are responsible for activating certain applications.

For clarity, we suggest watching a video:

Communications and GPS

The updated browser that supports HTML5 is fast enough. We did not notice any freezes or significant changes during its operation. Much of this is due to the updated operating system.

There is now support for Microsoft Exchange, which is also very useful. In Motorola Milestone, the user has access to synchronization of photo / video content, contact databases, synchronization with such useful things for work as "corporate directory", "corporate calendar" and a host of other useful little things. Applications "corporate directory" and "corporate calendar" will be of interest primarily to employees of companies, and with the help of Microsoft Exchange applications can be used for family purposes.

Synchronization via USB allows data transfer in both directions at a speed of approximately 5 MB / s. Plus, during such a connection, the smartphone is recharged.

Milestone implements Bluetooth v2.1 support with EDR support. Main profiles supported: HSP, A2DP, OPP, HFP, AVRCP, PBAP. We didn't like working with a Bluetooth stereo headset, especially when it comes to control. Perhaps it's a matter of device compatibility. Since we only had one Bluetooth stereo headset, we definitely won't say anything. There is support for wireless data transmission technology Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11g with support for basic security standards: WPA, WPA2, WEP. Not without support for the HSDPA standard. In theory, the maximum data exchange rate in the standard can reach 10 MB / sec.

Motorola Milestone has a proprietary full-featured Gmail client. Several applications for working with social networks have also been implemented, including Facebook. From communication applications, the My Sign utility can be distinguished, with which you can assign activation of a specific application or sub-item to various gestures.

The smartphone is equipped with A-GPS. A digital compass is also provided for navigating the terrain. Application activation time is approximately 20 seconds. There are no comments on this feature.

Media

There is an interesting thing in the Milestone smartphone, a kind of manager called Motorola Phone Portal. This application allows you to synchronize with the closed portal of the application developer, and then save there photo and video files, copy the phone base and much more. The program interface is intuitive and extremely simple.

I also liked the Moto Car Home app. Using this utility, the user can optimize the sound quality for the internal speaker of the device or a wired headset. This function is quite original. The next useful manager is the YouTube mobile client. Next up is the Audio Effects utility that lets you add special effects.

There are four subsections in the MP3 player menu: albums, artists, songs, playlists. It will take no more than five minutes to understand in detail all the settings of the player.

Camera

In smartphones based on the Android operating system with versions earlier than 2.0, the camera did not provide a flash. Here she appeared. The camera itself in the smartphone is 5-megapixel. There is a fairly large number of settings and shooting modes. The camera is also equipped with an autofocus system.

Conclusion

Motorola Milestone smartphone based on Android OS left the most pleasant experience. Obviously, it took a lot of time to develop this model. With a large enough size, the smartphone does not look bulky, rather impressive. Milestone offers the user a wide range of functions, a high-quality touchscreen display, a comfortable full-fledged QWERTY keyboard, a good camera, plus the speed of work on the Android platform raises no complaints. As a result, we have another high-quality product from Motorola. Despite the impressive cost, I think Motorola Milestone will have no problems with consumer demand.

Main advantages:

• Good build;

• Decent design;

• Excellent display with good sensitivity

• Decent speakers

• Good equipment

• Support for memory cards up to 32 gigabytes

• Good photo quality

• Availability of 3.5 mm jack

Disadvantages:

• Soil display

• Lack of possibility of "hot" replacement of memory cards

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