Justin McCandless

I've been using a Motorola CLIQ for the past two months or so, coming off of my previous Blackberry Curve, so I thought I'd give my opinions on the phone.  I'm on T Mobile, so I'll be giving my opinions from that network.

For those who aren't familiar with it, the CLIQ is a touch screen + slide out keyboard type Android (1.5) phone.  It's got a pretty standard line up of features for this type of phone: 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, GPS, 3G.  Everything works acceptably well for the most part, with the only glaring weaknesses that I have noticed being in the processor and maybe the battery, which I'll get to.

This is my first Android phone, which I was really excited about due to it being mostly open source, and so far I really like the OS.  Android being open source mostly applies to app developers and the actual phone manufacturers, though.  Every time Google releases a new version of Android, you will still pretty much be dependent on Motorola to update their own version of the software and send out an update.  You won't be tweaking your phone's kernel yourself, or downloading fixes for low level OS stuff.  Open source also means the apps have more flexibility though, and there is no Apple-esque approval system.  Expect to still see a fair amount of pay apps, though.

For the OS itself, it is well organized, convenient, and fairly customizable.  You have a desktop that you can move side to side on through five different pages (keep in mind this is Motorola's Blur version of Android), and each can hold various widgets.  The widgets are usually pretty useful; you can preview emails, read RSS feeds, see Facebook statuses, etc.  You really have a lot of customization here with how you set up your desktop, too.  All other apps are kept in a slide out drawer, shown by simple icons.  And as is commonly brought up as a problem for the iPhone, Android can run multiple apps at once.

The camera is decent.  Definitely don't forget your point and shoot at home, but this camera will take some decent phone wallpapers or pictures acceptable for Facebook uploading.  Don't expect anything to look real pretty, though, if  you shoot some scene you want to get a really good picture of, you'll be wincing at the almost good quality of the image.  Also just as comparison, remembering back when 5 megapixel point and shoots were the top of the line, the pictures that those cameras took were much clearer than the ones this phone takes.  Which is to be expected I guess.

The GPS I have not tested extensively enough to really critique.  It works, and it will get you around town or to your destination on a road trip (don't expect turn-by-turn Google Maps Navigation yet though, it's not on Android 1.5).  I think the real test for accuracy is geocaching, and I hopefully will test that out at somepoint soon.  Also, keep in mind that to use Google Maps with GPS outside of wifi coverage you will need a data plan.  There is no preloaded app with local map data, though I wouldn't be surprised if a good one existed.

I have no glaring nags about the little things with this phone, and I think it was designed with care.  You won't accidentally unlock your phone and start butt dialing people, you can get to the camera quickly, it feels solid and looks good.  One of the small features that I really like is a switch on the side that can switch between two ringer modes of your choice (silent and vibrate for me, I never really have my ringer on).  That way you always know, by looking at a physical switch, whether your phone is going to go off in the middle of a class or not. 

The touchscreen is probably not as good as an iPhone's, and I often mistype when texting on the touch keyboard.  Thankfully there is a physical keyboard also, which makes that not too much of an issue.  This keyboard works well, with a full D pad that is nice for games.  Just to nitpick, the numbers are horizontal instead of in typical square block phone style, and being along the top row near the screen makes them somewhat hard to reach.  Also, the 'oh' and zero keys are right next to each other, which can be confusing.

On to the real problems.  The processor is very slow.  It will often lag badly just messing with the home screen.  Apps will sometimes freeze and give you a "Wait" or "Force Close" option box.  This can be very annoying, though for me it's not quite a game breaker.  I would stray from this phone because of this issue, but it doesn't in anyway make the phone a pain to use.

Another issue is the battery life.  If you don't charge this phone every night it will die.  It has just enough life to make it through a day and not be a huge problem.  I tend to spend huge amounts of time away from home at a time though (often 12+ hours), so do keep this in mind.  I find that only during the days where I really spend long times away, or really use battery intensive features of the phone, does it die.  But having my phone die on me after charging it the whole night before was surprising to me when I could sometimes forget to charge my Blackberry and still use it for two days straight.

Looking at our other options,  the Motorola Droid is the clearly superior version of this phone.  However, it's not on T Mobile, which leads us to the Nexus One.  This phone has a much faster processor, which I assume would easily addrss the lag problems.  It also supports the latest versions of Android.  It does lack a physical keyboard, however, but unless this is a huge necessity for you I would go with the Nexus One (or Droid on a different carrier).  It has a different screen altogether, so I would assume that the touch issues with the CLIQ would not transfer directly to the Nexus One.  It also has the most clever name I've ever heard.

All in all, the phone is nice, it works, and the drawbacks do not make it unusable in any way.  If you're getting one regardless, smile. But if you're looking around for the absolute best choice, I would probably look elsewhere.