N900 Competition – Motorola Cliq

Motorola introduced their first Android-based device, Motorola Cliq today. Company has been on downward spiral for long time in the mobile market, last really successful product being the Razr from years past. Now Motorola is attempting to renew some interest from the buying public by imitating the likes of HTC by taking Android platform and putting some make-up on top of it. Technically there is nothing exciting about the device, certainly nothing to make it stand out from e.g. HTC Touch Pro 2, Nokia N900 or iPhone. Design-wise it’s a lame duck too, soap box – like esthetics without any personality. Companies like HTC at least try to have some design innovation and bring ideas forward in their products. Not so with our friends from 90s glory. Motorola Cliq is the Chevy of smart phones.

Motorola’s skin on top of Android is called MOTOBLUR. As said, this is more of a “skin” than a true powerful and forward-looking take on Android platform. Obviously this is partly related to the fact that Android does not allow for deep modifications and access to the inner bowels of the platform. Thus manufacturers choosing Android are mostly left building “skins” as opposed to true functionality and UX innovation taking mobile computing further. MOTOBLUR’s key selling point is the homescreen integration to popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Nice and useful as such, but same features are now available from every single manufacturer and platform, often implemented in even more integrated manner of the “Your Social”-paradigm, like in Nokia N900.

Here’s the run-down of the technical specs:

• Landscape, slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• 5.0 megapixel auto-focus camera
• Battery: 1420 mAh (6h continuous usage)
• Weight: 5.6 oz, 163 grams
• Processor: Qualcomm MSM7201a
• Physical size: 2.28 x 4.49 x 0.62 inches, 114 x 58 x 15.6 mm
• Screen resolution: 320 x 480 pixels
• Operating system: Android 1.5 Cupcake
• Cellular networking: WCDMA 900/1700/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps (Category 7/8), EDGE, GPRS Class 12, AGPS
• Wireless LAN: B and G
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• MicroSD memory card support up to 32GB
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• MicroUSB connector
• Music Player (supports: AAC, AAC+, AAC+ Enhanced, AMR NB, MIDI, MP3, WAV)
• Video Player (supports: Playback – H.264, H.263, MPEG 4, YouTube; Video Streaming: MPEG 4, 3GP)