CLIQs are pretty hard to come by in the wake of Motorola's big announcement today, but we flagged down an all-too-nice rep who showed off the phone's major talking points. Though it's got the same old Qualcomm MSM7201a beating in its chest that we've found in countless other Android and WinMo phones -- not anything thoroughly modern like Snapdragon -- we're feeling cautiously optimistic that MOTOBLUR is snappier in day-to-day use than HTC's competing
Sense. The built-in widgets Motorola is supplying look top-notch with a ton of spit and polish (seemingly without sacrificing speed or usability), so all told, we think Moto's been really cranking this year baking this platform to a golden crisp. Follow the break for the epic demo, and pay special attention to the white model when the rep pulls it out -- the back was supposed to be stylized Morse code that reads "I love Friday nights," but apparently they ran out of space, so it's now just random dots on a cover. At least it still looks cool, though, and that's the important thing.
posted Sep 10th 2009 3:49PM
I can fully say...hardware wise, this is what the G1 should have looked like!
It looks a little cheap TBH, and the screen is smaller than any of the other android devices AFAIK.
Not bad of course, but the Sholes with OMAP3 blows(assuming it exists) it away.
I just hope it has a headphone jack but this may be the phone I get, hope they price it right
They showed the headphone jack in the earlier pics.
And I'm not talking about screen size and all that. Just the look of the device. The G1 looking like this would've been much better. No matter how cheap it looks...it looks better than the G1
But the real story is another handset maker has abandoned Windows Mobile.
It is obvious now that Windows Mobile has become the OS of stone age.
Wouldn't you agree?
True...until windows mobile 7 next year. It should be as aesthetically pleasing and functional as android, pre, and iphone OS with the power and flexibility of windows mobile.... We hope!
"same old Qualcomm MSM7201a"
:(
remember, it must be "PR-Approved"
"same old Qualcomm MSM7201a"
FFFFUUUUUUU!!!!
....UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU*GASP*UUUUUUUUUUUUUUU !!!!!!!!!!
Whats the deal with no flash? How hard is it to slap an LED flash on to the device?
You are NOT serious.
Not bad but the standard home-screen looks a little messy. Oh, and someone should have totally lifted the white one from the handbag to get a look at the non-PR approved stuff then put it back without anyone ever knowing :)
I'd agree. The UI does seem quite cluttered and does not really have the polish I'd expect from Motorola. The concept of Blur is really nice. They took the simple facebook integration that HTC added to the Hero and took it a few steps further. I know with that the widgets that Motorola put on the Cliq were as nice as those on the Snese UI. http://htcsource.com
This UI is nice.
I wish my G1 had it.
just wait till the boys at xda get their hands on this rom. those guys will cook up a flash room with the quickness!
*flash rom
Yeah your right.
I do wanna see how this will run on the G1.
Same hardware = no difference
You may be able to hack the UI onto another platform, but the content comes from a hosted server. Without a validated account, you get no contact integration, happenings, or messages.
This phone will have nothing to do with xda. Xda-developers is strictly an HTC-made community.
Do not expect the same hacking options that can be done with the Dream, Magic, and Hero.
Looks great. Seems like Motorola did a great job with this one. Let's hope the DEXT turns out to be just as nice.
I thought the DEXT was the same thing as the CLIQ, just that it was the international version?
Ah, my bad. Completely misread that on the skim through. Well, the Sholes is what I meant.
What is with all these people WHORING themself out to the point that all they show is WHORRING out apps on a phone...
People are pathetic...
I try to keep myself OFF the grid..
Hello, my name is John Connor...
How you liking those new social networking features in iTunes?
The lady was a PR rep, so she was only allowed to show certain features of the phone. From what I'm seeing, it's pretty nice so far.
Yeah...cause tweeting every single song you're listening too isn't whoring yourself out. =|
Man, that place is loud...
it really must be hard to hear in there with all the FAIL floating around.
I can't watch the video at work, but two questions:
1. Does it support .mp4 video playback?
2. Does it have a 3.5mm headphone jack?
Other than that, color me excited.
yes and yes.
You might want to ask more questions... there is a lot it does badly.
1. Yes
2. Yes
Source: http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-CLIQ-US-EN.alt
That damned 528MHz processor is a deal killer for me though!
You might want to edit out her phone/email/name in the video.
it's all fake.
Very cool, can't wait until its inevitably ported to the G1.
while it may be the "same old" processor, it seems like a lot snappier than my g1 right now, so im guessing moto spent a lot of time optimizing code. time will tell tho if thats the case. still waiting for a price point
If you flash a brand new ROM onto your G1, it'll be just as snappy. Although, it's quite likely that this will be just as sluggish as your G1 after 2 weeks of use.
http://developer.motorola.com/products/handsets/cliq/
according to the dev spec site, while the processor is the same, the RAM is bumped up relative to the g1, 256Mb compared to the 192 in the g1. Does this make a huge difference? idk. but considering that the average app is about 1-2 Mb, this could make a noticeable difference in performance
If you're running a cooked ROM like CyanogenMod's ROM, its night and day compared to a stock ROM. Its blazingly fast! http://www.cyanogenmod.com/
That wasn't dummy contact info -- Christy Wyatt might want to turn her phone off for a couple of days ;-)
"Does the Motorola logo ever light up?"
LOL! That just struck me as funny for some reason, coming as it did as the first question he asked about the device.
Yeah, out of all the random questions to ask, "Does that logo light up?"
Still, seems like a cool phone.
Thick
Christy answered when I called her!!
BWAHAHHAHAHAAA
Nice, slow interface. Backed by the POWERFUL specs, that's about what I expected.
Its not bad, but not very apealing either.
The CLIQ looks pretty slick, the interface seems to really me a light theme over Android, because you can really see the android interface, the Sense UI from HTC is completely different, from the Videos and how to flows, in my opinion anyway. It doesn't look as slick as this especially with the social integration, but really does anyone need other people's updates on their main page, I would rather have some more or less informational apps, like news, but the status updates and the sorta deck of cards interface they have going is nice, that part makes it look pro. I would rather have more RSS and feed integration than social integration on home screen, so you can do it the Hero way, and slide across from different home screen and widgets.
Overall, I see a legit successor to the G1, I'm pretty sure current G1 owners are gonna get this phone once its released for sale, it looks like a step up in design, and functionality, and I guess for the people who need a keyboard cause of heavy texting will want the social integration, and the people I see who have a G1 are all teens and maybe up to the age of 24.
I'm 52 and love my G1. Who's idea is it that only the kids love smartphones? Us Grandads need all of the social networking to keep up with family and the endless trail of ex-girlfriends who always want to stay in touch.
The sad thing is that if this came out before the Hero, it may have been a bigger deal. Their whole concept of a widget-laden home screen has already been done and in a much more visually appealing manner IMHO.
I mean, look at the media player and calendar widget...where's the eye candy?
I still think the Palm Pixi would be my ultimate choice in phones if they put damn Wifi in the thing
Does this thing have a virtual keyboard while in portrait mode?
This is the phone previously called Morrison right? (think I read that on phandroid).
If that is the case, then it looks a lot better than the concepts did, and for the price point I would expect it to hit at, it will be a great mid-level phone.
If this is indeed the morrison, then I look forward to seeing what the polished version of the sholes ends up looking like. If it improved as much as this was over the original pictures we saw floating around (and if it gets a bump in processing power) I think it will be the phone that takes me from ATT.
Damn.. I think i like this UI more than Sense
If you already have a G1 I dont see much reason to jump to this, but if not, then sure go for it
They could have at least put WinMo on it, you know, a mobile OS that many people use?
Ouchh
Or they could just leave Android, you know, a mobile OS that is actually worth a damn?
Sorry if I had to be truthful, but many people do use WinMo and it would be nice if Motorola could make a better WinMo phone.
D-Pad on the left WTF
yep, where it belongs.
its not a PSP so yeah id rather have it on the right.
snes emulator win?
No pinching and zooming. Hero for me.
really shouldnt be your determining factor. i have a iphone and i never pinch to zoom, double tapping does the job better.
Good point. I do like the form factor of the horiz slide out, but I don't really have an option either, since I'm on sprint, and like the Sense better anyways.
Looks nice and all, but not my thing. As I said in one of the other posts on this topic, the interface really reminds me a ton of Maemo, even the font looks similar.
I think with the larger rom, 512 vs. the 256 on the G1, that upgrades to newer versions of Android will be possible. I have read that the G1 may not be able to upgrade due to its ROM size.
I assuming she meant the dots were Braille not morse code??
Why are they sticking with the same old hardware? Is this just a rebadged HTC?
Engadget, the Sense UI was fixed in the new ROM, get your facts straight.
It doesn't really matter what T-mobile, ATT, and Verizon are up to. Now that Sprint is offering a killer deal, the Hero is the way to go!!
I am going to be hard pressed to not buy this. I adopted the G1 when it was premiered and although I still love the device I am looking to move to something better. It's going on a year and nothing worth my dough has caught my eye other then this, well for T-Mobile that is.
Only thing is how much will this thing cost straight up....I got a year left in my contract now.
Full exchange support?
i assume im not forced to use google with this one? desktop sync? does anyone know.
It's still a shame about the hardware inside but at least MOTOBLUR seems to not be as resource intensive as Sense UI. Wonder if that's because there are less widgets/processes running in the background with MOTOBLUR by default. Sorry didn't really notice this in the video.
But I got to say that thus far, we're all still waiting for a "Damn, that Android phone is a must get even if I have to sell my....". The Hero came close but not quite close enough. Android still has a bit to go in my personal opinion, to capture more mind share at present but it's good to see Moto back.
WANT