Motorola Cliq
I finally got an Android phone! A few weeks ago, T-Mobile released the Motorola CLIQ, one of Motorola’s newest Android phones. It may not be the the juggernaut that is Verizon’s Motorola Droid, but it holds its own with its social networking features, clean UI, and sliding keyboard.
This isn’t a formal review or anything; these are just my thoughts on my cool new phone. ^_^
I had plenty of options for getting a new phone: Droid, iPhone, BlackBerry Storm, Palm Pre, myTouch, etc. Some of them are cooler than others, but I had some specific requirements for my new phone:
No switching. Verizon’s Droid is cool and all, but I didn’t feel like switching away from T-Mobile. I’m fine with my cellphone plan setup, and staying with my current cellphone provider keeps things nice and simple.
A physical keyboard. Sorry iPhone; you are awesome and all, but I’m not ready for a touchscreen keyboard, no matter how many of my friends try to convince me otherwise. There’s something about using a squished virtual tiny keyboard that makes me not want an iPhone. Make the keyboard or screen bigger somehow, and I’ll reconsider. Otherwise, I prefer enjoying full control with a physical keyboard.
Android. I’ve had this itch to try out an Android phone. The geek in me can’t help but want to play around with Google’s open source mobile operating system.
Enter the Motorola CLIQ. It’s a T-Mobile phone with a physical keyboard that runs Android. It’s just what I wanted.
Neat and Sweet
MOTOBLUR. The CLIQ has something called MOTOBLUR, which combines all your social networking accounts into one. On my previous phone, I would use Ping.fm to make updates to my social networks. It’s nice that the CLIQ has this functionality built in.
Updating my status
Android. The CLIQ runs Android 1.5 (affectionately nicknamed “Cupcake”). It’s not the latest version of Android, but oh well; at least I still get to download cool apps from the Android Market. Having apps like Google Maps and Shazam at my finger tips is just extreme awesomeness.
Slick keyboard. Some of the physical keyboards I see either slide out in a weird way or takes up too much space away from the screen or somehow looks awkward. The CLIQ has none of those flaws. Doing a quick upward slide of the phone reveals a compact keyboard that lights with easy-to-press beveled keys.
Volume! The iPhone is missing a physical keyboard to suit my tastes, but it’s also missing a healthy speaker. Whenever my friends want to show me some funny YouTube video on their iPhone, it’s suddenly a lost cause if we’re in a room with more noise than a refrigerator buzz. The CLIQ has a wonderful speaker, so maybe it’s my turn to show off some YouTube videos with my phone. :P
Audio jack. With expensive fancy phones, I expect manufacturers to trick them up with propriety accessories. Not Motorola: charging the phone requires a micro-USB adapter, and the phone uses a standard audio jack for easy listening with your favorite headset. I’m very happy that I can use non-Motorola accessories with my phone. Motorola, you’re my hero.
What Could Be Better
The network. Don’t get me wrong; T-Mobile, you’ve been good to me over the years, but unfortunately, being one of the less popular cellphone providers means that there’s less 3G coverage. It’s a growing pain for a smaller cellphone company, but I’ll put up with it for their decent service and cheap cellphone plans.
A newer OS. Why does everyone else get a newer version of Android? Droid has 2.0, and even most of the other Android phones are running 1.6. I won’t be able to enjoy Google Maps Navigation until T-Mobile or Motorola decide to upgrade the CLIQ to 2.0. Then again, going from a non-smart phone to a smart phone is a major upgrade for me already, so maybe I shouldn’t complain just yet.
Occasionally slow. The phone occasionally lags or hangs for a few seconds whenever I’m using it. Using apps that kill currently running processes on the phone helps speed it up a bit, but in a perfect world, I shouldn’t have to do that in the first place.
Development. Being a software engineer, I of course wanted to try my hand at Android development. While I can download the SDK and run an Android emulator on my computer, I’m unable to properly connect my phone. If I had to guess, I would say that the Windows USB driver hasn’t been updated to work with the new CLIQ yet. Here’s hoping.
The Final Word
All in all, I love my phone. The Motorola W490 was a nice Razr-esque phone that was good to me back in the day, but now that I’ve entered the world of smart phones and Android, I may never go back. MOTOBLUR makes it really easy to update my social networks and casually peruse Facebook and Twitter updates from my friends, and the physical keyboard in conjunction with the Android Market gives me my own custom iPhone-like experience. Thank you Motorola, for consistently giving me cool and fun new phones to play with.
