[Android Smartphone] Motorola Cliq Review Roundup

Hi there, people! Ok what I got here is a review on the first Android Smartphone from Motorola, called the Motorola Cliq… According to the Motorola Co-CEO they will release many smartphones equipped with Android OS till the end of next year. Now can this Moto Cliq give a new breath of life to Motorola (since they’re having quite difficult financial times, lately)? Well this Motorola Cliq review might be the answer to that question. Is the Cliq lovable? does it have nice features? One thing that is interesting is this feature: MotoBlur… but before we talk further about it, let’s just start the review, shall we? Oh I almost forgot, I basically write this review based on informationweek’s review on the device. I summarize the review and add some of my personal opinion so that you can save more time reading it

By caldenni
Cliq’s Design and Hardware

The Moto Cliq resembles many qwerty devices to date. It has a sideway QWERTY keyboard under the screen, with a reasonable size and weight… However, the QWERTY keyboard n side buttons performance is not that impressive. The side buttons can be hard to be activated for those who haven’t got used to it. Meanwhile the keyboard -even though they have nice countours- is a bit hard to use. Anyway, the Cliq also have a 3.1 inch touch display with 320 x 480 pixels of resolution.The same display found in iPhone and other phones. The design is not bad, but the quality of the build is not so good. I’m talking about the case,which feels plasticy and feel cheap. But hey, the phone is not bad at all,perhaps it is just my personal opinion,

Cliq Performance

Just like any other Motorola phones, the Moto Cliq has a superb call quality, ringer and speakerphone. So conference call with speakerphone is no problem with this device. The Cliq actually support 3G connection. And the reviewed Cliq unit is reported having an inconsistent connection, even in T-Mobile 3G coverage. Our folks at the informationweek mostly got the EDGE from this device. Disappointing, I know, but I can’t really sure about this. Perhaps there were something wrong with the reviewed unit.

Cliq MotoBlur and Battery Life

This is the feature that define the Cliq. MotoBlur is basically a feature that allow you to have a real-time stream of information that flows into the device. Nice idea. But somehow the reality isn’t that great.

Blur drops three widgets — called “Happenings,” “Updates,” and “Messaging” — on the home screen. “Happenings” is a constant live stream of all your friends’ Facebook and Twitter status updates. “Updates” are all of your Twitter and Facebook status updates. “Messaging” is a unified inbox that merges your SMS/MMS and instant messages with Facebook e-mail messages and Twitter direct messages. The two most useful aspects of Blur are the “Updates” and “Messaging” widgets.

“Updates” is what the end user takes advantage of to post to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Perhaps what’s most useful is that you can pick and choose which networks you want to share with. Open the app, type a message, use the pull-down menu to choose the social network, and off the update goes. Alternately, you can send the update to all of your networks at once to keep them all in sync. It’s a simple client that does what it says it will do.

“Messaging” is really a messaging center for all incoming messages that are aimed directly at the end user. That includes regular messaging vehicles such as SMS, MMS, and IM, but also e-mails that are sent to a user’s Facebook or MySpace account, or Direct Messages sent through Twitter. I must admit, it is really nice to have one place to find all of these messages, rather than bouncing around to different applications spread across the phone.

Now the “Happenings” is really a battery-life-sucking feature. Since the  feature feeds all your Facebook and Twitter friends’ status updates to your phone, and if the phone is under constant data connection to T-Mobile, then I guess you know what that means. Yes, Poor battery life… but overall the concept of MotoBlur and its two features I mentioned before is really interesting hopefully the Motorola will improve the MotoBlur soon

Cliq Review Conclusion

In sum, the Cliq is a solid effort for Motorola’s first Android phone, though it could have been more refined. The hardware issues are easy to fix, as are some of the problems inherent in Motoblur. The fact that Motorola conceived Motoblur at all demonstrates that the company understands how and why people are using smarter devices to keep track of their social networks. This alone gives me hope that more good things are to come from Motorola.

[Thanks, information week ]