Introduction
The MILESTONE 2 has a single mission – to reclaim the top spot in Android messengers for Motorola. It has the pedigree and the personality, and with the right upgrades, it seems a lock to become the next all-in-one messenger of choice.
Who can blame Motorola? They liked it at the top of the Android food chain and want to relive the good times. Less in a mood to experiment, they know exactly where they’re going and the MILESTONE 2 might well be the phone to get them there.
The MILESTONE 2 has the right measure of metal on the outside and beefed up internals – both hardware and software. There are a few omissions too but not too close to being deal breakers. Here they all are, in a summarized form.
Key features
Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA support
3.7" 16M-color capacitive touchscreen with WVGA (480x 854 pixels) resolution
Scratch-resistant Gorilla glass
One of the slimmest QWERTY side sliders
TI OMAP3630 1GHz CPU, PowerVR SGX530 graphics accelerator; 512MB of RAM
Android OS v2.2; MOTOBLUR UI 1.5 with SNS integration
Web browser with Adobe Flash 10.1 support
5 MP autofocus camera with dual-LED flash; face detection, geo-tagging
720p HD video recording @ 30fps
Wi-Fi b/g/n; Wi-Fi hotspot functionality; DLNA
GPS with A-GPS; Digital compass
8GB storage; microSD slot with 8GB card preinstalled
Accelerometer and proximity sensor, in-pocket detection with auto lock
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
Smart and voice dialing
Office document editor
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
DivX/XviD video support
Main disadvantages
The internal 8GB of storage is for apps only
Side sliding mechanism is not spring-assisted
DivX and XviD playback has its issues
Non hot-swappable microSD card slot
No FM radio
There’s little missing on the Motorola MILESTONE 2 spec sheet. In actual fact, many of the phone features seem to have a special added quality – Gorilla Glass for the display, 720p video for the 5MP camera, Wi-Fi hotspot for the fast 3G, DLNA for the Wi-Fi connectivity, Flash for the web browser and so on.
Still, the main focus of the MILESTONE 2 is text-based communication – from the humble SMS, through email, to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace messaging there’s little that this messenger droid won’t do.
The Universal inbox is the tool to handle all this. It doesn’t really matter where each message is coming from – they all end up in the same place with a handy reply button to send back a reply on the corresponding network.
We’ll rummage through the box for starters and look at the Motorola MILESTONE 2 from all sides with a due inspection of the screen and keyboard. We’ll look at the rest of the hardware and the software too, but first things first.
Dr Mobiles Limited
1 Huron Street
Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344
Mob: (021) 117-2222
Facebook - Email - Posterous - Twitter - Blogger - Flickr