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Android has a decent media experience, if a little bit basic, and Motorola has tried to update this a little bit by adding in some 3D effects.
However, Motorola has defaulted to Android's basic media package for most of the applications, meaning it's a basic but functional experience most of the time.
Music
The Android layout for music on the Dext is the same as it has been for the Magic, G1 and Galaxy thus far, with a simple layout for Artist, Album, Songs and Playlists.
The UI for music playback is similarly simple, with album artwork, song title and other titbits of information next to some large and easy to use touch buttons.
One cool feature is the ability to touch the Artist's name, for instance, and search for content relating to them in the web browser or over YouTube. The latter is a nice addition, and especially relevant now the UK problems with the PRS are over and a multitude of videos are now available online.
Music lovers might not see this as the ultimate audio device, but there's a simple library layout to the tracks as well as party shuffle mode – although we're not sure we'd want to go to a party when the tunes are being pumped out by a Motorola Dext.
However, the single speaker is a pretty good effort, vibrating the case of the phone with its power. It's loud, a touch bassy and not as tinny as others – it's not going to replace a sound system but for watching a video it's pretty good.
Video
The Video Gallery on the Dext has been overhauled compared to other Android phones and finally resembles something close to a media suite on a mobile. Not only are the videos arranges in a thumbnail grid, users can also tag videos (presumably before uploading to YouTube, which you can do directly from the gallery, or share it between friends via email or similar).
There's also a video editing suite for your personal vids, where you can crop the footage, delete audio or take a still from a video frame. It might not sound like much, but it's a big leap forward for the Android clan and something to be applauded from Motorola.
Video playback still has the nice large icons for skipping and scrolling through the file, and it doesn't look too bad on the screen. Having seen full widescreen VGA screens on other phones, the playback can never look amazing in comparison, especially on a 3.1-inch screen, but it's more than passable.
YouTube
YouTube is back again on the Google-powered Android OS, with a simple interface allowing access to a growing number of videos. It might not mimic the full breadth of the website version, but it's pretty good now and it will only improve in terms of content.
The playback is the same as video files – at high quality the videos look the same as if they were stored on the phone. However, you have to activate this quality mode (over 3G at least, with Wi-Fi defaulting to it automatically) which means some users will never realise it's available as it's hidden down a few menus.
The Motorola Dext is probably the most full-featured Android handset on the market at the moment in terms of media, and with Spotify on board this will really rock.
iMeem has been supplied out the box, but we'll deal with that in the Applications section of the review.
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