Motorola Milestone 2 Android smartphone

Motorola Milestone 2 review: The Motorola Milestone 2 offers an improved keyboard and HD video recording

Good Gear Guide

  • Review
  • Specs
  • Images
  • User Reviews
  • Buy Online

Pros

  • Great keyboard, industrial style design is well built, smooth slider, excellent display, latest version of Android

Cons

  • Touch-sensitive menu keys, feels a little slower than alternative Android handsets, design won't suit all tastes

Bottom Line

The Motorola Milestone 2 is a very similar smartphone to its predecessor. However, the Milestone 2's improved keyboard, HD video recording and faster processor are all welcome improvements and make it well worth considering if you're after an Android smartphone with a physical keyboard.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 829.00 (AUD)

Motorola Milestone 2: Software

The Motorola Milestone 2 runs the latest version of Google's Android operating system, 2.2 or Froyo. Improvements include full Flash support, built-in wireless tethering, and the ability to store supported third-party apps on a microSD card. Unlike the original Motorola Milestone, the Milestone 2 comes with the MotoBlur service, the same software featured on Motorola's lower priced DEXT, Backflip and Quench smartphones. Motoblur is a widget-based interface that combines multiple social networking and communications accounts (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LastFM, e-mail, Picasa, Photobucket and Yahoo Mail). You'll need to create a MotoBlur account to use the service, but it's free and all content and data is pushed live to the handset.

We like the idea of Motoblur, but the execution of the service on previous smartphones was far from perfect. Thankfully, some of the issues we encountered on the first iteration of MotoBlur have been corrected in the updated version that ships with the Milestone 2. You can now choose to only display contacts with phone numbers (rather than be lumped with all your Facebook and Twitter contacts in the address book), and home screen widgets can be resized, which we found very handy. The widgets we found enticing included "happenings", which lets you can see at a glance updates from all connected social-networking services, and airplane mode, Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi quick toggles. We also liked the sticky note widget, which allows you to save a quick post-it style note on the home screen.

Motorola Milestone 2 review

One of the best features of Motoblur on the Milestone 2 is the ability to resize your home screen widgets.

The Motorola Milestone 2 runs fairly smoothly, with no major lag or slowdown during regular use. However, it feels a step below some of its competitors — particularly the HTC Desire HD — when it comes to speed. It isn't a deal-breaker, and we wouldn't describe the Milestone 2 as slow, but screen transitions feel slightly less snappy than on other Android handsets, and scrolling isn't as smooth or slick. We found this improved when we disabled Motoblur and used one of the many third-party launchers from the Android Market (but this means you lose Motoblur's features).

The Motorola Milestone 2's large, multitouch-aware display combined means this smartphone is great for Web browsing. You can pinch in and out to zoom just like on the iPhone (though it generally isn't as responsive, especially on Flash-heavy pages), and pages load and render quickly.

The Motorola Milestone 2 has a few handy applications preloaded, including Google Latitude, Quickoffice and a task manager. Its media player is a notch above most other Android phones — the "connected music player" automatically finds album art and lyrics from the Internet for any tracks in your library, while an included "song identification" feature, similar to the app Shazam, is also included. Other features of note include the 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and dual LED flash, which also doubles as a 720p HD video recorder. We loved the fact you can use the volume keys as zoom buttons, while the physical camera button functions nicely as a shutter for taking photos.

The Milestone 2 has 8GB of internal memory, along with a microSD card slot for extra storage. Motorola includes a 8GB microSD card in the sales package. Battery life is about standard for an Android smartphone; it will need a charge every night with constant use, but light users may be able to go almost two days without a recharge.

The Motorola Milestone 2 will be available in Australia from 1 December through Optus and Vodafone.

Become a fan of GoodGearGuide on Facebook

Follow GoodGearGuide on Twitter: @GoodGearGuide

Stay up to date with the latest reviews. Sign up to GoodGearGuide’s Gear Daily newsletters

Keep up with the latest tech news, reviews and previews by subscribing to the PC World newsletter.

Be the first to comment.

Post new comment

Users posting comments agree to the Good Gear Guide comments policy.

Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.

Most Popular

Tethering tutorial: How to use your iPhone as a modem
Capacitive vs resistive touchscreens
How to pick the right size TV for your living room
LCD vs plasma vs LED TVs buying guide
The next Xbox reveal: What to expect from the Xbox 720

Best Deals on PCWorld

Mobile PhonesView all »
TabletsView all »
Broadband View all »
Powered by
HeadphonesView all »
GamesView all »

Resources

Mobile Phones Product Finder
Find the product you're looking for with our Mobile Phones search tool.

Latest User Reviews