Motorola were once one of the top mobile phone brands in the UK but in recent years seem to have been overshadowed by the dominance of Asian companies that have proven so successful at piling in every piece of technology they can into their handsets. Now Motorola is making a comeback with their own slider phone the MILESTONE, which also boasts the illustrious title of the first Android 2.0 phone to be released in Europe.
The MILESTONE is set for release in Germany and shortly after in Italy, although a UK release is yet to be confirmed. The MILESTONE has already made an appearance in the US under the name of the Droid where it has been met with high levels of approval. However, there are some marked differences to the US handset, most noticeably in the inclusion of multi-touch functionality (that had purportedly been omitted due to pressure from Apple).
Yes, this means that the MILESTONE features a capacitive touchscreen, and a very spacious 3.7″ one at that. The screen also makes use of gesture recognition and haptic feedback so that you can be sure your selection has been accepted.
Operating on a sliding form the MILESTONE comes with a full QWERTY keypad and has a much more robust feel than many slider phones of this nature on the market. Motorola has also bundled in a very nice 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and digital zoom.
The Android OS doesn’t come with any touch up or interface overhaul from Motorola, but this is fine as you get to enjoy the Google Operating System in all its glory. This includes all the new Google services to be bundled into the new iteration of Android.
Motorola is not messing about with their foray into the Android market, and having the first Android 2.0 phone should certainly give them an edge over the competition. Whether this will be enough to revive the Motorola brand remains to be seen, but from the looks of the MILESTONE it certainly ought to.
Tags: Motorola-MILESTONE