Motorola Milestone Preview
The Motorola Milestone is the name for the device branded as the Droid in the US, although its nickname for European customers could hardly be more apt. Motorola has been in decline for the last few years and it needs the success of both the Milestone and the Dext in the smartphone market to shore up its ailing business. The Milestone has a few key differences to the phone that will be released across the pond, but it will be one of the first phones to launch in Europe with Android 2.0 installed and ready to rock.
As with most modern smartphones, the Milestone is available in any colour as long as it is black, although it is very slim for such a large device. Its 3.7 inch touch screen is apparently going to have multi-touch capabilities, allowing you to pinch two fingers to zoom in on web pages, something the Droid is not blessed with. This puts the Milestone in direct competition with the iPhone and Motorola are already competing in terms of vital statistics. The processor is said to pack a similar punch to that of the iPhone 3Gs and the Milestone features a full QWERTY keypad which slides out from beneath the main screen, accommodating those who do not like typing on a touch screen. The built in accelerometer will automatically adjust the orientation of the screen when you turn the phone sideways, although this is a fairly common feature on phones of this type.
The Milestone has a 5 megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash and despite the somewhat average image capture it is certainly better than the iPhone. You can even record video in high resolution with a decent fps rating. According to the Motorola site, the Milestone can capture DVD quality video, which is technically true in terms of resolution, but far from capable of feature film creation.
The Android 2.0 operating system, which powers the applications and functionality of the Milestone, is big news and should help future Android handsets to compete with the iPhone. The Milestone will come with plenty of built in applications including YouTube, Facebook, GMail and many more. Access to the Android Market will allow owners to download plenty more applications and games as and when they become available and Google is very much behind independent developers creating applications for its mobile platform.
To get online, you can use the 3G connection for fast mobile internet access and decent download speeds depending on network coverage. Wi-Fi is also included, as is GPS. In the US the Droid comes with the newest version of Google Maps installed, which is able to provide turn by turn navigation. UK owners will have to wait for this service to become available, but there is a free trial of MOTONAV, Motorola’s own navigation software. This includes all the modern capabilities you might expect, including 3D landmarks and lane guidance. A subscription to the service is required once the trial period is complete, but there will be many other navigation options by that point.
As a multimedia device, the Milestone should cope well. The large screen makes watching video enjoyable, even when you are streaming from the internet. The Milestone will come with an 8GB microSD card in the retail package, but you can always upgrade to a 16GB or 32GB card if you feel the need for more storage space.
There is no news as to which UK networks will be offering the Motorola Milestone as part of a monthly contract, but it is on the cards for release by O2 in Germany, which suggests that O2 may well be partnered with the handset when it arrives here.
Tags: motorola, motorola droid, motorola milestone