Motorola Milestone

As with the last handset, the Milestone also runs the Google Android mobile phone operating system. The version running the phone is the latest iteration, Android 2.0, with this being the first handset to arrive out-of-the-box with that installed.

This latest update to Android looks and feels much like any other vanilla deployment with its three customisable home screens. However, there have been some improvements to a few key areas. These fall into the realms of native Microsoft Exchange support, a better UI and browser experience along with a much improved virtual keyboard. The latter is almost a bit of a moot point with physical keyboards, but the browser’s ‘pinch to zoom’ plus full HTML viewing works much better than on other phones. The zoom feature was left out of the US Droid version of the mobile, where missing from the European model is the Google turn-by-turn navigation software which was replaced by Motorola’s own sat nav. The plus side to this is no other phone has the Google mapping software either so what we don’t know we won’t miss, also all the Motorola maps are based on the phone and they’re not pulled down over the air.

One item missing from the Milestone that was first seen on the Dext is the Motoblur, which is an overlay to the Android OS much the same way as the Sense is on HTC Android mobiles. Besides expanding the number of screens available for widgets there’s an in-built engine, for displaying social networking updates on the home screen. Motoblur also offers up great security for the handset, where it’s possible to track the mobile’s every movement through Google Maps, along with being able to back up all the phones’ contents into the cloud. If the phone is ever lost or stolen, the handset can be remotely wiped of all data and the content restored to a new mobile. Other redeeming features that were available on the Dext but not the Milestone are the phone book’s synchronisation, where Facebook and Gmail contacts are automatically populated throughout the address book in an intelligent way. We contacted Motorola to ask why this was missing from the Milestone, with its response being that it is not aiming this phone at the same market as the Dext. We firmly believe those elements of security would be a useful addition for anyone, not just social networkers.

System Specifications : Android 2.0, 3.7-inch 480×854 touch screen display, slide-out Qwerty keyboard, 5MP Camera, 3.5mm audio jack, Quad-band GSM, 8GB microSD card, Bluetooth, WiFi, AGPS, microUSB.