Android Battle: CLIQ edition

	CLIQ	Galaxy	Tattoo	Hero	Magic / MT3G	Dream / G1
Carrier	T-Mobile	-- (GSM / HSDPA)	-- (GSM / EDGE)	Sprint	T-Mobile	T-Mobile
Manuf.	Motorola	Samsung	HTC	HTC	HTC	HTC
Price	--	--	--	$179.99	$99.99	$149.99
Released	--	July 2009	--	Oct 11, 2009	Aug 5, 2009	Oct 22, 2008
Keyboard	Slide-out	Virtual	Virtual	Virtual	Virtual	Slide-out
Android	MOTOBLUR	Standard	Sense UI	Sense UI	Standard	Standard
Processor	528MHz MSM7201A	528MHz ARM11	528MHz MSM7225	528MHz MSM7201A	528MHz MSM7201A	528MHz MSM7201A
Screen	3.1-inch (est.), 320 x 480	3.2-inch, 320 x 480	2.8-inch, 240 x 320	3.2-inch, 320 x 480	3.2-inch, 320 x 480	3.2-inch, 480 x 320
Headphone	3.5mm	3.5mm	3.5mm	3.5mm	ExtUSB	ExtUSB
Touchscreen	Capacitive	Capacitive	Resistive	Capacitive	Capacitive	Capacitive
Still Camera	5MP with AF	5MP with Flash	3.2MP	5MP with AF	3.2MP with AF	3.2MP with AF
Bluetooth	2.0	2.1	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0
Exchange	ActiveSync	ActiveSync	--	ActiveSync	Depends on version	Depends on version
Storage	256MB, microSD	8GB, microSD	512MB, microSD	512MB, microSD	512MB, microSD	256MB, microSD
Battery	1400mAh	1500mAh	1100mAh	1500 mAh	1340 mAh	1150 mAh
Weight	163g	114g	113g	135g	116g	158g

It's been over 11 months since the Android first hit the scene with HTC's T-Mobile G1, and in that time we've come to the conclusion that, despite having more or less a clean slate on industrial design choices and specs, little progress has been made in the way of variation. Stacked up side-to-side, Motorola CLIQ manages to stand out with a slide-out keyboard and MOTOBLUR skin, but under the hood, it's pretty much as uniform as a netbook. Peruse for yourself in the chart above.

Update: We had a typo on the Hero screen size -- it's 3.2-inches, not the other way around! Stupid keyboards.

[looselycoupled Posted Sep 11th 2009 2:24AM]

@Eric

Don't bother replying if you don't have a clue about what you are talking about... All of those processors mentioned *are* ARM processors. TI's OMAP3 is a Cortex-A8 (ARMv7 instruction set), Snapdragon is a custom ARM core (ARMv7 IS), and Tegra is a dual-core ARM11 (ARMv6 IS).

The real problem is that HTC is a cheap ass company, and is milking all the old Qualcomm MSM parts before putting in decent chipsets like the snapdragon.

[raskall Posted Sep 11th 2009 2:48AM]

Hi

I am a bit annoyed of my favorite gadget blogs (Engadget and Gizmodo). In general I really enjoy reading both blogs, but you are to focused on the US. There is a world outside USA and you have A LOT of readers from Europe.

The Hero is actually released month(s) ago in Europe and is the mistress of millions of Europeans already. OK, the US chassis is different, but it is the same phone and it has been on the market a long time already.

I also miss articles about the recent Spotify mobile release. OK, so you doesn't have it in the US, but that doesn't mean its not big news for your readers. I would really like it if you expanded your focus to the whole world and not just the US.

[Atlantian Posted Sep 11th 2009 3:00AM]

http://developer.motorola.com/products/handsets/cliq/

CLIQ's true specs

Processor and memoryProcessor Qualcomm MSM7201A
Processor Clock Speed 528 MHz
RAM 256 MB
Flash ROM 512 MB
User Storage Available (max) 256 MB
Memory Card Type FAT32
microSDHC, Class 6
Memory Card Size Supported (max) 32 GB

[anothername Posted Sep 11th 2009 4:58AM]

The camera on the Samsung has AF too

[bdav Posted Sep 11th 2009 4:47AM]

So - if you want a real Keyboard, go Cliq, if you don't, go Samsung? I can't believe the Sammy hasn't got more press, seems to have pretty nice specs when you take into account the OLED which I see someone mentioned further up in the comments.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2009 10:45AM]

this article copy site: http://news.danawa.com/News_List_View.php?nModeC=4&sMode=news&nSeq=1534444&nBoardSeq=60&auth=1

[Theli Posted Sep 11th 2009 5:56AM]

I'm pretty sure Google had a hand in picking these specs. They seem to be part of a single generation of handsets. The only real breakout device I've 'seen' is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X3, with a Snapdragon processor and a WVGA display. It's also supposed to run Android 2.0. I would expect all of the major handset manufacturers to stay rather consistent in the future as well.

[rampantphoto Posted Sep 11th 2009 9:36AM]

RAM matters... RAM matters a lot... i've been increasingly disappointed with my G1's performance as of late... if this CLIQ turns out to be free... i might just have to check it out.

[neoprimalgmailcom Posted Sep 11th 2009 10:32AM]

The cliq has 256mb storage meaning it will have problems with a 'non xda' OS upgrade eventually. WHYYYYY ship the phones with such little storage?! Looks like the Galaxy is the best bet as a future-weathering device. All it needs is a physical keyboard.

[Paging Dr B Posted Sep 11th 2009 12:52PM]

these are all(or soon will be for the unreleased ones) great phones. Although I have a hard time believing that the tatoo is going to sell much with that resistive screen. Yeah maybe im a little bit of a fanboy but i've had my g1 since day 1 launch and have been amazed to see how this os has evolved. Yeah it was very cool but boring at launch but since the os updates and the kick arse roms the XDA guys are cooking up (whadup XROM) Android to me is the mobile OS I want in pocket. What I am tired of hearing is about the specs/processor speed and whatnot. for those of you complaining about how your dream or magic are slow now, why dont you go ahead and wipe it? When my pc gets slow (every year or so), i blow it out and install from scratch and it runs like new. You cant expect to install 3rd party software and have things run like it did when first new. What google really needs to work on is moving apps to sd because the built in storage is pretty small. Im running apps to sd and have over 140 apps installed, and each is categorized into seperate subfolders (whadup advanced launcher).
go android!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 11th 2009 1:45PM]

It should be a more complete comparison,
gps, gsensors, digital compass, etc are important features for geeks ;)

Also it would be good if you put the iphone side by side with them, its the main rival after all

[traut Posted Sep 11th 2009 2:22PM]

Images should have been in real size, compared to each other. Here the Tattoo looks as big as the others.

[johndavies24 Posted Sep 11th 2009 4:05PM]

One crucial spec is missing and that is onboard memory! The G1 has a mere 72mb and did not perform well as a result (well, after android was updated to allow widgets and things)

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 11th 2009 7:30PM]

Three reasons I'd need to upgrade from my G1 to a new android device are
#1 - The screen is as big as or bigger then iPhone. This is the one of the only reasons the iPhone and Blackberry Storm are on-screen typing friendly
#2 - If the processor is competitive to the iPhone's which is reason number 2 why typing, and just plain using it, is so fluid (My G1 Is a lagging Whore).
#3 - Custom GUI thats better than stock (Like Sense UI or Motoblur)


Better camera? Sure, what the hell, but not needed. Multi-touch would be a great upgrade too.. as long as they don't mess up One handed browsing. (Huge issue I had with the Pre) And a physical keyboard would be great but if the screen is big enough, I can live without. Everyone competing with Apple, Seriously, 3.2" Just Isn't Big Enough.