While we wait for the pre-order date and availability date, how about some impressions from lucky people (or just rewatch all those videos). This specific review, however, is actually for the DEXT, but they are essentially the same phone (is anyone complaining?). Katherine, over at T3, was lucky enough to get some time with the Cliq sibling and she seems rather impressed by it, even calling it a “new dawn” for Motorola. She goes on to say that it is a “rock-solid” performer, extremely customizable, fast, and great for social networkers. Head past the break for a quick run down (if you are strapped for time) or head on over to T3 to read the whole thing. Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments!
The good
• Motoblur: Motorola’s combination of user interface and social service seems to be the winner. They say the widgets that allow you to customize the home screen are useful and quick, always updating live. For example, there is a messaging widget show the latest mails or texts right on the home screen, as they come in. The news widget collects information from several RSS at the same time.
• “Happenings”: It is the most interesting widget-connects to social networking sites and puts all status updates together in one single feed. It’s not without problems, though, as it shows the updates from all your Facebook friends. You know, all the 457 you really don’t know at all.
• Contact book: Apparently, the address books collects information—addresses, emails, phones, photos, status, birthdays, dates, events—from all your contacts, adding the latest info from the social sites you are connected to. This sounds rather cool, as it seems you won’t have to update your contact book ever again.
The bad
• The hardware quality: It doesn’t seem very good, according to them. Apart from the boring design, the touchscreen is “occasionally hit-and-miss,” and the phone feels cheap. The 320×480 screen quality is good, however.
• QWERTY Keyboard: The physical keyboard isn’t good. Bad layout, and not enough spring keep them going back to the virtual one, which is accurate and feels good.
Conclusion
Despite the bad points, Katherine seems happy with the Motorola Cliq, saying it’s a “rock-solid” performer, extremely customizable, fast, and great for social networkers. Go read her full review at T3.