I’ve had a new phone for about a week now. The Samsung Motorola Milestone with Android 2.0. This replaces my last phone which was the first Android phone – the G1. The Milestone is basically the same as the Droid in the US but due to copyright reasons over here it has to be called the Milestone (blame George Lucas!).
A lot of my mates asked me if I was going to get the Nexus One – the real Google phone. It is the fastest and made directly for Google so sounds like the best. The only thing that it is missing is a physical keyboard which is why I went for the Milestone.
So far I am really pleased with the phone.
Pros:
- Faster page loads
- Bigger, clearer screen
- Better browser
- Excellent YouTube quality
- Multiple Gmail accounts
- Voice search
- Phone portal
- Calendar widget
- Cursor keys not trackball
- Camera 5MP
- Still works faultlessly with BMW bluetooth
The phone is a LOT faster than the G1. Both at actually loading the pages (due to the HSDPA which the G1 didn’t have) and because of the faster processor to render the pages. The screen is fantastic as well and you can fit an awful lot more on there.
The browser is much better as well. It initially loads the page all crammed into the page. You then double tap the bit you want to read and it zooms to that block of text. You can also use multi touch pinching to zoom the web page.
You Tube looks infinitely better – you can watch in high def that looks great on the high res screen but does take a long time to download if you don’t have a good connection.
Voice search works very well. A search for “wikipedia functional programming” worked fine and all the other search terms I have tried work as well – including for names in my contact list.
The phone portal is an interesting feature – when you turn it on you get an address to enter into your computer which then takes you to a web server on the phone. You can then do things like download pictures, update contacts and all sorts of other things.
The camera is much better as well at 5 Mega Pixels. I am pretty pleased with the results, and it’s not even too bad in low light thanks to it’s 2 LED flash:
Obviously ignore the faulty camera operator! These pictures were uploaded directly to Picasa from the phone.
It’s not all rosy though.
Cons:
- Cramped Keyboard
- Charging Light
First off there is a really bright light that comes on when the phone is charging – really don’t see the point of it and it’s annoying when you wake up in the middle of the night and it’s on your bedside table shining directly into your retina!
My biggest gripe about the phone is the keyboard – which is why I chose this phone! The keyboard is nowhere near as good as the excellent G1 keyboard. On the Milestone they are not individual keys that are easy to feel but are a series of small round switches covered with a plastic sheet with the letters printed on. It’s pretty weird to type on. There are also only 4 rows of keys – the top row of number keys from the G1 are missing. I also find it difficult to get to the top row as they are too close to the slide out screen for my thumbs to properly connect with the button bit of the key.
The slightly disappointing keyboard has made me wonder if I should go for the Nexus one. It has more memory, a faster processor and a better screen (OLED). I don’t like the look of it as much and it looks a bit un-substantial. Having said that I’ve always said that I don’t care what my phone looks like, I just care what it does and how easy it is to use. The Milestone does feel substantial and high quality though. I’m not sure the Nexus would.
The virtual keyboard on the Milestone is actually very good so that’s another reason why you don’t need the physical keyboard. With the full voice entry on the Nexus as well you wonder if you need real buttons at all.
The wife wants a Milestone at some point so an option is to get me Nexus and to give her my Milestone. I’ll have to decide if I want a Nexus or not soon!
