We've been waiting for the Motorola Milestone XT720 for absolutely ages. When we looked at the Motoroi back in February, we said it was launching in Korea and destined to come to Europe.
Well, with a change of name, the loss of its digital video tuner and a few other tweaks to make it UK-friendly, the Motoroi has made it to the UK as the Motorola Milestone XT720.
If your favourite Android handset so far has been the HTC Desire, with its top of the range specs, we really can't blame you. But the Motorola Milestone XT720 could be the handset to give the Desire a run for its money.
We say that because of things like its 8-megapixel camera with xenon flash, 720p video recording, HDMI-out – with cable provided – and vast high-resolution screen.
Of course there's no Sense UI as you'll find on the Desire, but you might be able to live with that, and the rest of the expected goodies are here too, such as Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G.
The Milestone isn't cheap, though. SIM free it'll set you back around £350 (The Desire is currently going for around £390).
The Motorola Milestone XT720 is a chunky beast of a phone. It has to be to contain its 3.7-inch screen, but there's quite a lot of framing around the screen so that overall it measures 115.95 x 60.9 x 10.9mm and it isn't light, either at 160g.
It feels a bit brickish in the hands, partly because it lacks the rounded edges of the Desire, or indeed the iPhone. And then there's the odd 'hump' on the right hand edge which makes the Motorola Milestone XT720 even wider at the bottom than it is at the top.
The upshot is that anyone with smaller hands might struggle to hold the Motorola Milestone XT720 and will almost certainly find it a challenge to reach right across the screen one-handed.
This is a handset that is peppered with buttons and connectors. There's nothing on the bottom edge, but on the top you'll find a 3.5mm headset slot and the main on/off/hold button. Oh, and under a hinged cover, that mini-HDMI port for getting video onto your TV.
On the left there's a micro-USB port protected by a hinged cover. The right edge houses the volume rocker, camera key and a toggle button which moves you between stills camera, video camera and gallery.
Your comments (11) Click to add a new comment
bbuggy112
November 25th 2010
11. I just got my Milestone and overall I am satisfied, but you had better have a million mile extension cord because this one is a battery eater! My other complaint, is that this is a "Phone" Should it really be like a PHONE? Everyone I have spoken to including the phone company, says I sound like ****. The touch sensitivity is really touchy. The good over weighs the bad by a long shot. This has all kinds of toys on it to play with that it's addicting. Just my 2 cents!
Thanks,
Mike
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jiilskiss
August 10th 2010
10. apparently *long pause*
Thank you for contacting Motorola.
With regards to your recent query, we would kindly inform you that the update to increase the processing speed of the Motorola Milestone XT720 to 720Mhz is planned for the coming weeks however, for the moment, we do not have a precise release date. For any further assistance or information please do not hesitate to contact us again, quoting your Customer Reference number.
Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.
Kind regards,
Alison
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ars1958
August 7th 2010
9. The framerate is 20 f/s,that is why the video sucks.
http://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/index.php/motorola-milestone-xt720-unboxing-video
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ars1958
August 7th 2010
8. This phone is not ugly. It's along with the Moto ad promoting their phones as part of the commando ammunition .It's a "gun", a weapon complicated with a number of buttons,holes and grooves. A masculine device among girlish glamour "callware". Moto has to polish the video recording to compete.
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lsl
July 30th 2010
7. no word about smooth-workin/non-smooth-working?
the ram and processor-speed were the most discussed things before the launch.
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surnorteanewdeal
July 29th 2010
6. please, would like to know about the voice phone qualities:better than the Milestone, or the Omnia that i am still using.
i bought recently a Nokia N900 that sounds a lot inferior to my Omnia in that field( muffled,often echo and, less clear, lessarticulated and far less real voices.= badly surprised.
What's your point of view...?
Thanks.
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chimpaudio
July 29th 2010
5. Also, Reviewer, what was the sound quality on the video capture? I think sound is often overlooked on these so called media phones. I did read somewhere that the Droid x has 3 mics- 2 at the rear and 1 in front to provide different modes of operation such as running commentary etc.
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chimpaudio
July 29th 2010
4. Theres a review of this handset here http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/review/motorola-xt720-en.shtml where they show comparison shots with a Desire. I have to say HTC industrial design isn't always quite there. There's always a hint of "me too". Apart from the obvious bulk with this handset it falls short with its GUI experience and yeah, Sense is better! I've got a Moto and their smartphones never seem complete. I too considered this as an alternative to the iPhone lookalikes but will wait.
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bradavon
July 29th 2010
3. That's one ugly looking phone.
There's something seriously wrong with page 4 of this review. It's got a messed up picture of a Garmin Windows Mobile 6.5 device stuck in the middle of it.
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technomad
July 29th 2010
2. I've been waiting for this phone (because of the Xenon flash) for ages so it would have been nice to see some photos taken using the flash. After reading this review still can't decide whether to wait for Samsung or LG to make a decent Android camera phone hopefully later this year or get this one.
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denism
July 29th 2010
1. "Flash support seems to be a bit iffy. We couldn't watch video from the BBC website."
Er... could that be because Android 2.1 doesn't support Flash?
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