Motorola has announced their first Android-based handset, the CLIQ. Gizmodo has published their impressions of the device.
In short, they’re impressed with it, saying:
- It feels comfortable in the hand.
- The screen is capacitive, bright, and responsive.
- Social networking is “deeply integrated into the phone.”
Dan Nosowitz also goes on to write:
It’s not faster, and it’s not as smooth as say, the iPhone or the Pre, but the transitions are nice and it’s not sluggish by any means.
My definition of sluggish is any device that is slower than the iPhone 3GS. It is the new standard for device speediness.
I just don’t understand why Android handset makers all use a 528MHz processor, didn’t they learn anything from the 3GS? Increase the processor speed and the device will be more pleasant to use.
Gizmodo may be impressed, but I’m not.
Motorola Media Center – Press Releases – T-Mobile USA Unveils the Motorola CLIQ With MOTOBLUR.
Update 9/12/09: Bonnie Cha of CNET on the Motorola CLIQ:
We finally got some hands-on time with the device, and while we’re impressed with the hardware and the features are on par, it’s the Motoblur software that makes us weary. The integration of data from different sources is great, but having all information like Facebook updates, tweets, e-mails constantly streamed to your home screen is completely overwhelming, in our opinion. And is it really necessary?
Update 9/12/09: Lance Ulanoff reports on the launch of the CLIQ for PC Magazine:
Motorola Co-CEO Dr. Sanjay K. Jha commanded the stage well. He was reading, obviously, but it came off fairly naturally. So it’s hard to account for the disconnect that followed. Jha began the announcement part of his speech by talking about MotoBlur. To be precise, he talked about what MotoBlur could do, but never specifically said exactly what it was. He called it a “solution” but that could still easily be a phone. In fact, he showed an image of a phone no one had seen before on a big screen behind him and explained how MotoBlur manages all your contacts and even aggregates them all into a master contact database. He said MotoBlur can also handle your social interactions and give you a customizable, widget-based interface so you could have instant access to the things most important to you.
For a full 5 minutes, I thought the name of the new phone was the MotoBlur. Wrong.
Update 9/14/09: Tony Bradly of PC World writing about the Motorola CLIQ:
the Cliq is a juvenile device. Motorola seems to have focused its attention on software feature innovation while completely ignoring the aesthetics and style of the hardware it is putting the features in. There are less functional hardware designs out there to be sure, but the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, rectangular micro-laptop with a 3-inch screen is uncompelling at best.
Update 9/29/09: The Motorola CLIQ is coming to T-Mobile for $200 on November 2. Pre-orders will start on October 19.
Update 10/14/09: Engadget has published Chris Ziegler’s review of the Motorola CLIQ. From the review:
Let’s be very clear: though it fares pretty competitively against the aging crop of Google-powered devices on the market today, the CLIQ isn’t the Android phone to end all Android phones. Then again, it’s not supposed to be — at least, we hope it isn’t — because a smallish HVGA display and an overworked, outmatched MSM7201A core aren’t going to win any believers that haven’t already been won over by HTC’s stable. What the CLIQ does do, though, is lay the groundwork for something better — a Motorola that doesn’t cause eyes to roll, a Motorola that makes aspirational phones that people can want to own again.
In other words, the Motorola CLIQ isn’t a handset that will knock your socks off. Instead, it is nothing more than a step in the right direction. But honestly, I don’t know if that step is big enough to show any promise in a company that has sat on its butt the past few years.
Update 10/19/09: The Motorola CLIQ is now available to current T-Mobile customers for $199. New subscribers will have to wait until November 2 to purchase one.
