Touchscreen Mobiles

MOTOROLA MILESTONE 2

The first Milestone had a decent screen and a disappointing keyboard. Moto has largely put that right with the new Milestone, improving the QWERTY by removing the pointless direction pad and adding larger, better-spaced keys. It still has some way to go to complete with the Torch’s keyboard, but it’s the best on an Android.

The inclusion of the MotoBlur overlay also makes the Milestone 2 a more enticing proposition. Inveterate social networkers will like the way it very fluidly aggregates different forms of communications from your contacts. MotoBlur also backs up your data to the cloud, which could prove extremely handy.

In conjunction with Android 2.2, the Milestone 2 is generally fun to use. Motorola has provided simple ways to navigate across the seven home screens and there are also some good widgets, including a strip of icons to easily turn N Wi-Fi aeroplane mode, GPS and Bluetooth on or off from the home screen.

Web browsing is fast and video playback smooth. It’s also Flash-compatible so more of the internet is visible than on the iphone 4. However, although the 1GHz processor keeps most things running at a good clip, the touchscreen can be annoyingly slow to respond.

With the camera taking decent five-mega stills and very good 720p video, this is a strong handset. However the feeling remains that there’s nothing exceptional abut it. You might be better off waiting for the Desire Z if you want Android 2.2 with a QWERTY keyboard…..

SPECIFICATIONS

Operating System: Android 2.2 with MotoBlur