Motorola Milestone

After a fairly shaky start, Google’s Android operating system for mobile phones has come along in leaps and bounds. Recently we’ve seen it on Google’s own Nexus One, and the stunning HTC Desire. Motorola’s Milestone is similar, but with one key addition: it’s the only recent Android phone with a full Qwerty keyboard.

It’s worth noting from the start that the Milestone is ugly. Some might say its design is ‘chiselled’, and the occasional flashes of gold do suggest that maybe the company was going for a 1980s retro look, but nonetheless the results are not pretty.

There’s also a strange lip that protrudes approximately 7mm from the bottom of the phone. This serves no obvious purpose other than to get in the way so we assume it was required to cram the parts inside.

Those two aesthetic complaints aside, however, the Milestone is nigh-on perfect. The screen has high resolution of 854x480 pixels, which dwarfs the iPhone’s display and gives even more room for websites than even the HTC Desire. It can connect to the internet using wireless networks, 3G and HSDPA, so you get rapid internet access just about anywhere, and satellite navigation is built-in too.

With the phone closed it works much like any other Android smartphone, with a usable on-screen keyboard for typing messages and surfing the web. Flip it open, though, and a full Qwerty keypad and four-way navigation pad are available. The keyboard isn’t the best we’ve used, but after a little practice it’s far, far better for typing emails and messages than tapping away at the screen.

The battery lasts for a few days in very light use, but surfing the web or running lots of applications at once – something Android, unlike current iPhone models, can do without fuss – will sap it more quickly. Expect to recharge every day if surfing the web a lot.

An 8GB memory card is included for storing music, photos and downloaded applications. And, unlike Motorola’s other Android phone the Dext, both the software and GPS ran snappily and effectively. A free update to version 2.1 of the Android operating system is available if your phone didn’t come with it installed.

If you don’t do much typing then the HTC Desire and Google Nexus One are similar handsets with nicer designs, although the Desire currently costs much more. For anyone who sends lots of messages, though, this is the Android phone to buy.