Motorola DEXT preview
18 SEP 2009
Launch price
from £free on Orange
Stuff says
Motorola's opening salvo into Android territory is fired by social networking prowess but could lack the glitz to attract A-listers
PREVIEW
Motorola has lost its way since the RAZR craze, but with the help of Android it's hoping to reinvent itself Madonna-style into a smartphone force to be reckoned with. The DEXT is the first in a line of Motorola Android-based handsets, and as an opening salvo it's already creating a bit of a stir.
QWERTY keypad
Unlike recent offerings from HTC, the DEXT returns to using the QWERTY keypad of the GI, setting out its smartphone intentions from the off. It does add a little heft, but will no doubt grab the attention of prolific emailers.
But the big talking point is the new Motoblur skinning of the Android OS. Acting as an aggregator of your online life, Motoblur catergorises and delivers info from all your social-networking profiles (Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Gmail, Yahoo and Last.fm) direct to the homescreen through live widgets.
Motoblur skin
'Happenings' bungs together all your friends' and followers' status updates in one place, while you can update your own to either one or multiple sites via the 'Social Status' widget. Texts and emails are found, logically enough, under 'Messages', while there is also a widget to integrate your calendars with Google Calendar as well as a news feed.
Preview continues after the break...
Handily, Motoblur will work out which contacts are for the same person and amalgamate them into one to avoid multiple entries. You can also set it so a contact's profile picture and status appears when they call.
It may not be a market-first, as the manufacturer has claimed, but Motoblur certainly looks to be one of the more accessible implementations of the technology.
Decent camera and trimmingsOf course, no social-butterfly would be complete without a camera on their phone, and the DEXT obliges with a 5MP number with flash. There's a decent-sized 3.1in screen to view them on, but you'll have to rely on the 2GB microSD card for storage (upgradable to 32GB).
Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth,
GPS and a 3.5mm jack are all present and correct, while the rest of the UI is a typical Android affair. Many will no doubt be disappointed with the choice of Orange as the UK carrier, but fresh from its merger with T-Mobile, the future could well be bright for both Motorola and Orange.