The Milestone 2 is Motorola’s successor to the successful Milestone. With the Milestone 2, Motorola aimed to fix what was wrong with the original Milestone and also keep the specs current and relevant. Announced in late 2010, it is their current flagship QWERTY device and features a slide out full four-row QWERTY keyboard. In a world of nearly identical keyboard-less slate Android devices, the Milestone 2 is one of the few modern high-end smartphones remaining aimed at people who are stubbornly clinging on to physical keyboard.
The specs read like a typical late 2010 high-end product. Powering the Android 2.2 (Froyo) device is a TI OMAP3630 chipset with a single core 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor and PowerVR SGX530 GPU. The device has 512MB RAM for running applications and 8GB internal flash storage for installing applications. A 1400mAh Li-Pol battery ensures the device runs from at least a couple of hours a day to two days depending on how heavily used.
Other features includes quad band GSM, dual band 3G HSDPA, accelerometer, proximity sensor, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with A2DP, GPS receiver and 5MP camera with auto-focus and dual LED flash (including support for Geo-tagging) and electronic compass. The microSDHC card slot supports cards up to 32GB (the maximum currently supported by the standard).
The rear of the phone features a 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash. Like all phones, the lens itself is protected by a glass. The glass itself isn’t protected by a cover however. Opening the battery cover reveals the battery. Unfortunately the microSDHC slot isn’t hot-swappable as the battery is in the way.
The Milestone 2 looks and feels smaller than it is. It is slightly thicker than the keyboard-less Nokia N8, just a bit slimmer than HTC’s Desire Z and about the same as the QWERTY toting Nokia E7. Below is a comparison of the thickness of the Milestone 2 with other devices. From bottom to top: HTC Touch Pro 2, Motorola Milestone 2, Nokia N8, Samsung Galaxy Ace, Nokia 5630 and iPod Touch 4G
While the Milestone 2 has a reasonably sized battery, unfortunately I found that I am only able to eke out half a day worth of productivity before needing the charger. This is with Twitter and Gmail running in the background, pulling in data every couple of minutes. To be fair, most modern smartphones have poor battery life, but Android devices seem to suffer most from poor power management.
If you are in the market for an Android QWERTY phone, it is worth keeping in mind that the Milestone 2 is one of a few high-end Android devices that qualifies. There aren’t many alternatives – in fact the only I can think of currently is the HTC Desire Z. The Desire Z, while having a lower clocked processor, has proven itself as a great performer. Outside of the Android ecosystem, there is the newly released Nokia E7 which runs on Symbian^3 and the Windows Phone 7-powered HTC 7 Pro.
All in all, I can recommend the Milestone 2, with some caveats. It isn’t the best Android phone in the market in terms of performance nor is it in terms of features. Motorola hasn’t been the best manufacturer when it comes to keeping the software updated. The original Milestone for example has only just recently received Android 2.2 update. On the other hand, MOTOBLUR widgets are a nice touch, even if they are a bit ugly and the keyboard, while limiting, was comfortable to use.
Positive
- Solidly built
- Great design
- Well spec’ed
- High resolution screen
Negatives
- Slow
- Top row of keyboard too close to screen
- Poor camera
- Poor battery life
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