Motorola Milestone - Review

“Milestone looks like a PDA, but its big touchscreen and good features mean it certainly doesn’t function like one. Sadly its lack of a certain ‘je ne se quoi’ prevents this otherwise good phone from becoming a truly great smartphone”

Motorola Milestone - Review

Milestone has a big and crisp touchscreen

‘Beautiful’ isn’t a word I’d use to describe Motorola’s Milestone.

Milestone isn’t ugly, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that what strikes you first is the smartphone’s dated angled edges and bronze accents out of keeping with the phone’s black body. It also a bizarre ‘lip’ that juts out from below the touchscreen.

Milestone’s aesthetical attributes are more in keeping with a PDA from 2002. Thankfully, though, Milestone doesn’t function like one.

Motorola’s smartphone runs Google’s cutting-edge Android operating system, and so can be customised with any number of applications, each downloaded from Android Market over the phone’s speedy 3G or wi-fi wireless connections.

I was impressed by the clarity of Milestone’s 3.7in touchscreen, which proved a great display for watching videos streamed from BBC iPlayer on.

The screen’s ability to recognise two fingers simultaneously made Google Maps really intuitive because I could use the iPhone’s familiar pinching motion to zoom in and out.

A virtual keypad is available for writing emails and text messages while holding Milestone in portrait or landscape mode. The keypad’s a little squashed when you hold the phone in portrait mode, but each virtual key vibrates gently when touched to improve typing accuracy.

Milestone runs Google Android

Milestone's physical keypad proved pointless

I’m at a loss as to why Motorola added a physical slide-out keypad to Milestone, though. There’s just no need for it, especially one that’s so poorly designed: its keys are too small, too cramped and, because they’re entirely flat, very hard to type at speed with.

Milestone has a couple of really innovative pre-installed applications, most notably My Sign and Phone Portal.

My Sign is a gesture recognition application that loads, say, Facebook when you draw an ‘F’ onscreen with your finger. ‘E’ opens email, ‘W’ opens the web browser…you get the idea.

Phone Portal connects Milestone to your PC over a wireless wi-fi connection, letting you view the phone’s entire call history, remaining battery life, stored images and more from the comfort of your desktop.

My only Phone Portal criticism is that the app didn’t seem to let me drag and drop music onto Milestone.

Music is moved onto Milestone using the supplied docking station, one end of which connects into your PC.

Milestone's dock morphs it into a bedside alarm clock

Camera images were a little dull

The docking station is a nice accessory for Milestone as it can also be used for charging the phone’s battery. While docked, Milestone’s screen automatically functions as a bedside alarm clock. It also displays local weather forecasts.

Surfing the web on Milestone was a pleasant enough experience, thanks to the smartphone’s decently-proportioned touchscreen. The responsive screen made switching back and forth between websites trouble-free.

I wasn’t overly impressed by Milestone’s rear-mounted camera because, despite having 5Mp at its disposal, images weren’t as crisp as I’d have expected.

On the upside, the camera has several pre-set shooting modes, including beach and snow, and a dual LED flash that helped light-up dark shooting conditions.