Motorola CLIQ Phone with MOTOBLUR Titanium T Mobile
Posted by Smartphone Review on January 30, 2010
Motorola CLIQ Phone with MOTOBLUR Titanium T Mobile
The CLIQ 3G-enabled touchscreen phone for T-Mobile, is Motorola’s first Android-powered device, and the first to feature the innovative MOTOBLUR overlay to the Android OS, which manages and integrates email and social networking activity including Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. In addition to a brightly colorful 3.5-inch touchscreen, the Motorola CLIQ also offers a side sliding full QWERTY keyboard for quick typing of tweets, status updates, and email.
The first phone with MOTOBLUR, the CLIQ automatically delivers your messages, contacts, email, updates and photos from social sites, and more–right to your home screen. |
Powered by the Android OS, you can customize your Motorola CLIQ with thousands of apps available via the Android Market. |
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With integrated Google technology, the Motorola CLIQ brings one-touch access to the popular Google mobile services millions of people use every day, including Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, YouTube and Picasa. CLIQ also provides easy access to both personal and corporate email, calendars, and contacts supported by Exchange Server and Gmail.
Enabled for T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network, the CLIQ offers fast data delivery and an enhanced Web-browsing experience that lets you connect quickly to social networking sites. The CLIQ offers GPS location services for turn-by-turn directions using Google Maps and Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g) for accessing home and business networks as well as hotspots while on the go. Other features include a 5-megapixel camera for still photos and video capture, Bluetooth for both hands-free communication and stereo music streaming, a digital audio player, an included 2 GB microSD memory card, and up to 6 hours of talk time.
Key Features
- Powered by the Android operating system with deep integration of Google services and access to thousands of apps to customize your phone via the Android Market. (Learn more)
- Innovative widget-based MOTOBLUR overlay to Android automatically delivers Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, and work and personal email updates to the home screen in easy-to-view streams so there is no need to open and close different mobile applications. (Learn more)
- Update Facebook, MySpace and Twitter at once instead of opening individual apps with MOTOBLUR as well as upload your photos to Facebook, MySpace, Picasa and Photobucket.
- MOTOBLUR continuously displays your friends’ latest profile pics as part of your texts, calls, emails and address book
- View your friends your way: MOTOBLUR lets you view friends from A to Z, by contact history or in groups you make yourself.
- Customize your home screen with your favorite widgets and short cuts
- Your information is continuously updated and backed up into a secure environment, so you’re connected and protected even if you lose your phone.
- Fast 3G connectivity via T-Mobile’s HSDPA/UMTS network. (1700/2100 MHz bands, UMTS/HSDPA; see more about T-Mobile’s 3G service below)
- Quad-band GSM phone for good global voice connectivity. (850/900/1800/1900 MHz bands)
- myFaves capable (Learn more)
- Built-in GPS with turn-by-turn directions provided by Google Maps and other third-party apps (for real-time directions). With Google Maps, you can instantly view maps and satellite imagery, as well as find local business. And Google Maps Street View enables you to explore cities at street-level virtually while on the go. If your phone’s missing in action, log into My MOTOBLUR to track it down with GPS.
- 3.1-inch touchscreen display (320 x 480 pixels, 262K color depth)
- Full slide-out QWERTY keyboard with familiar layout lets you type messages easily without scrolling for the letter you want.
- 5-megapixel autofocus camera/camcorder for sharing images online and creating high-quality prints. Features include digital zoom, multiple white balance settings and color effects, three quality choices, and editing options for both still photos and video.
- Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g) for accessing home and corporate networks as well as hotspots while on the go.
- Bluetooth connectivity (version 2.0) includes profiles for communication headset, hands-free car kits, and the A2DP Bluetooth profile–enabling you to wirelessly stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones or speaker dock.
- Memory expansion via microSD card slot with support for optional cards up to 32 GB (2 GB card included).
- Multi-format digital audio player with dedicated Amazon MP3 Store app for over-the-air downloads.
- YouTube app for streaming video over 3G and Wi-Fi connections.
- Real HTML Web browsing provides more pages and better Web content delivered efficiently to your phone.
- Visual Voicemail allows you to listen to your voicemail messages in any order, respond in one click and easily manage your inbox without ever dialing in to the network.
- Voice-activated dialing lets you call someone with simple voice commands when your hands are busy
- Airplane mode allows you to listen to music while the cellular connectivity is turned off
- Speakerphone
Vital Statistics
The Motorola CLIQ weighs 4.9 ounces and measures 4.5 x 2.3 x 0.61 inches. Its 1420 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 6 hours of talk time, and up to 324 hours (13.5 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies, as well as T-Mobile’s 3G network (1700/2100 MHz).
T-Mobile Services
- High-speed data connectivity via T-Mobile’s 3G network: In addition to its quad-band GSM connectivity, this phone is also compatible with T-Mobile’s UMTS/HSDPA 3G network, which operates on the 1700/2100 MHz AWS spectrum. This phone is designed to automatically connect to the best available network (3G or GSM/GPRS/EDGE) to provide faster data speeds when accessing the Web.
In areas where the 3G network is not available, you’ll continue to receive service on the via T-Mobile’s EDGE network (which stands for “Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution”). This high-speed, mobile data and Internet access technology is fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services (with average data speeds between 75-135Kbps), including full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and email on the go.
While this phone is optimized for use with T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network, many of its functions will also work well on the moderate-speed EDGE network. If you plan to access the Internet extensively on your phone, 3G network coverage may serve you best.
Activities that work well on EDGE or 3G networks:
- Email, instant messaging, and texting
- Downloading ringtones, CallerTunes, wallpaper, light data files
- Sending photographs via email or picture messaging
Activities that work best on a 3G network:
- Viewing content-heavy websites (lots of images or videos playing)
- Viewing YouTube and other video files (they will play on EDGE, but require loading time)
- Uploading large files (photos, videos, presentations) to sharing websites
- Downloading large files from an email or a website
T-Mobile’s 3G network is currently available in 222 cities nationwide and covers more than 160 million people. By the end of 2009, T-Mobile USA expects its 3G network to be available to approximately 200 million people across the U.S.
- myFaves Capable: This phone is compatible with T-Mobile’s myFaves service, which allows you to call up to five of your most common contacts–on any network, even landlines–without using any of your minutes. Learn more about myFaves from T-Mobile.
Android Power
The Power of Android and MOTOBLUR
The Motorola CLIQ runs the Android operating system, which provides easy access to a wide assortment of messaging tools and Google apps. With Android, you’re able to richly personalize the entire theme of the Motorola CLIQ with new widgets, icons and wallpapers–which can be added directly on the home screen–in order to truly make it your own.
Developed by Motorola, MOTOBLUR is an innovative solution that manages and integrates communications–from work email to social networking activity–on your CLIQ. Updates to contacts, posts, messages, photos and more are streamed together and synced from sources including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, and work and personal email. MOTOBLUR automatically delivers these updates to the home screen in easy-to-view streams so there is no need to open and close different mobile applications to keep up with the latest content.
CLIQ also features multitasking capabilities and one-touch access to the Google mobile services millions use every day, including Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, YouTube and Picasa. Easy access to both personal and corporate email, calendars, and contacts is supported by Exchange Server and Gmail. email and contacts are also supported by Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail, and other POP3 and IMAP email services. It also combines instant messaging support for Google Talk, as well as AOL, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger.
The app screen. |
All your messaging in one place. |
Contacts with recent status updates. |
Additionally, the Android Market hosts a wide variety of unique applications, and with the Motorola CLIQ’s one-click access to it you can find and download a wide range of innovative software applications–from games to social networking and on-the-go shopping–to personalize your phone. Here’s a sampling of just some of the available applications:
- Sherpa, created by Geodelic, learns a person’s likes and dislikes through behavior and user feedback, prioritizing recommended retailers, restaurants and attractions. Sherpa features a learning machine that automatically customizes itself to the user’s preferences.
- imeem Mobile streams music customized to your tastes, recommending new songs and artists based on which songs you identify as your favorites.
- WorldTour puts live webcams from around the world onto your home screen.
- Phonebook offers an upgraded, more personalized phonebook for Android.
- FreshFace is a theme engine to further customize your phone.
- Movies by Flixster takes the aspect of movie reviews to the next level. Through integration with Facebook, you can find friends who also want to see that movie or read reviews from friends who have already seen it.
The Motorola CLIQ is pre-loaded with the Android 1.5 (Cupcake) operating system update, which includes the following improvements:
- Easy upload of photos to Picasa and videos to YouTube
- Spanish language support
- Edit multiple messages in Gmail
- Faster My Location acquisition in Google Maps
- Faster web browsing with smoother page scrolling
- Improved camera with faster start-up and image capture
- In-call keypad timeout to eliminate face dialing
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Not the best, but getting there
The keyboard is a lot smaller and more cramped compared to a G1. Motoblur is useful unless you have thousands of Twitter and Facebook friends, then it’s a drain on the battery and your patience. Had a few random restarts and freezing, but as far as Android phones are, this one is pretty decent. But outdated already.
4 Stars My First Smartphone
I’m new to smartphones, so I don’t have anything to which to compare the Moto Cliq, but so far, I’m really enjoying it. I was about to get the iPhone until I checked this one out further; it’s the slide out keyboard *combined* with touchscreen capability that I wanted more than anything. It took a while to set up and learn basic functionality, and I’ve called and hung up on a few people by accident. Other reviewers are not exaggerating about battery drain, but if you’re used to charging your phone daily, then it’s no big deal. Otherwise, it’s been a joy to use and I’m surprised how much it has enhanced my life in terms of syncing to my google calendar, personal email, social networks. Also works great as an mp3 player, which was an unexpected bonus, especially in the car because when a call comes in, the phone automatically switches to speaker mode and I can talk hands free. T-Mobile support has been surprisingly good in providing expertise on functionality.
5 Stars Just Amazing!
ok i never write reviews for ANYTHING! I got this phone 2 weeks ago and it is just amazing. I am so happy I decided to post a review. I had the Iphone and I hated not havin a keyboard. It’s so hard to type on the screen depending on the size of your fingers. This phone has aol messenger, yahoo messenger & MSN msgr. It has a touch screen yet it still has a keyboard to use. You can use the screen keyboard or the sliding keyboard. You can get entertainment news, surf the web, google maps, email EVERYTHING !!!!!!! I truly love this phone. Best one i’ve had (and i’ve had a few)
2 Stars Don’t purchase CLIQ unless it has Android 2.0
The phone has great features to offer but with that, comes many restrictions as well. Comes installed with version Android 1.5 (outdated since this phone is launched) software from Motorolla and T-Mobile have yet to update the software to 2.0, which by the way has been out for a while at this point. You will find that you can’t view or update your Adobe Flash player, so that will limit your web interactive features that many sites use today.
Right out of the box, many user have experienced Bluetooth compatibility issues from the go, due to some software problems released with 1.5 and was poor Q.C. from many aspects.
You can’t delete pre-installed software such as IMEEM mobile, which was bought out and is no longer in service.
3 Stars Not for international travel, Tmobile a pain
This is my first Android phone, being a Blackberry user for years. I really wanted to like the phone because it is not an iPhone (monopolized closed system), more fun than the Blackberry (wide choice of applications, widgets, nice screen), etc. Right after getting the phone, I was able to install a golf gps app, shopping app, unit converter, multiple games, setup all my emails, etc. In fact, I was even able to download the Pinyin IME (for chinese character input), which worked fairly well.
Some of the phone features are very nice - going to the contacts app you can see ‘history’ of your contacts, which includes emails from them. However, phone dialer using the contact/address book is not convenient - if you have a large contact database (I have hundreds of contacts), you have to scroll thru them or slide out the keyboard to do a search. Without sliding out the keyboard, there’s no quick access to contacts such as typing in the first few letters of their name (Blackberry wins here).
Then the bad news came…bad battery life means turning off most apps and 3G, running the phone on the slower EDGE network. In fact, the phone had a hard time getting thru 18 holes of golf (tried to use the golf gps app). Turning all this stuff off means losing a lot of the ‘fun’ factor of the phone, and not having the advantage of the faster 3G. Still, with a lot of widgets turned off and running in 2G mode, I was able to get about 1-1/2 day use before needing to recharge the phone.
Other cons: GPS lock was real slow, and for gaming the touch screen was not always responsive or accurate.
The real deal killer was Tmobile. My last month’s bill (using the Blackberry) had a wrong charge of $300 for international roaming - this was for using data for “days” in a country where I was in transit for 3 hours. After spending 40 minutes on the phone with a service representative, they reversed the charges but “warned” that the Cliq should NOT be used for international travel because it continuously tries to communicate with the Google server and WILL run up roaming charges. The combination of bad billing from Tmobile and a phone that uses the internet too much really made it impractical to use the Cliq.
Since then I’ve gone back to the Blackberry, but still trying to get Tmobile to put my previous data plan (the Blackberry data plan and the Android data plan are different plans with Tmobile) in place so that my emails will come back on. What a big hassle to go thru all for nothing.
Maybe the Cliq with a better carrier with better plan options would have worked. Until then, it’s being returned before the remorse period is up.
cheap r4 dsi said,
So many fetures always come with so many problem so it will happen,just normal.every one have to think twice before buy any mobile that what they need actually?which is features is important and necessary in regular life than chose any mobile same as your needs.
komputerphreak said,
Great phone but there are 2 things that are not great! Cliq is still not running 2.0 software. Also my Cliq reboots itself at times and freezes on pink splash screen, (stick together). This is getting old and thinking an upgrade to 2.0 would fix this. Moto/TMobile, fix this if u want more of these phones sold asap!
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