Motorla Dext Handset

It’s been a while coming, but finally we have detail on the newest line-up in the Motorola stable, the Motorola DEXT. After troubling times during recent economic hardships, Motorola have returned to market with a high quality device, running on the Android operating system.

The one thing Motorola have always been able to produce is fine looking handsets. Responsible for such milestone products as the StarTac, Moto V. and the RAZR, the major problem Motorola faced was bringing a handset that actually worked as well as it looked. By bringing a device running on the solid Android platform, Motorola look to have overcome that problem and can focus on what they have done so well in the past, and hopefully deliver an all round, good looking, hard working and reliable mobile device.

The Motorola DEXT, (known as the CLIQ in the USA) is a fairly hefty phone in relative mobile phone terms, weighing in at a fairly chunky 163g. Although heavy, the handset isn’t overly large, measuring in at a comfortable 114 x 58 x 15.6 mm. The screen on the handset is a HVGA resolution (320 x 480) TFT capacitive touchscreen display, supporting up to 256,000 colours. An accelerometer is in place for screen auto rotate, and there is a proximity sensor which disables the touchscreen when the phone is against your face, during a call. Moving the phone away to access the menu during a call and the proximity sensor automatically re-enables the touchscreen. The phone incorporates a full side slide QWERTY keyboard, with four full rows of keys, with a 5 way D-pad style navigation key to the left of the keypad. The keys are a good size, and there shouldn’t be any problems with typing.

Motorola Dext Handset side

There has been a lot has changed in the mobile industry in the time Motorola have been away. The focus these days is strongly pointing towards simple and straight forward access to a variety of communication services such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Devices need a simple email set up, and should support a whole host of communication tools, with SMS, MMS and Instant Messaging being the staple of these. By choosing to release a handset running on the Android Operating System (and the Motorola DEXT is the first of a whole range of Android devices lined up for release from Motorola over the coming months), Motorola have set themselves with probably the best solution available to bring all these features to the end user.

It cannot be stressed enough just how much of an influence Android devices are going to bring to the industry; this relatively young OS is open source, and offers complete flexibility to manufacturers to customise it to their own ideals. Underpinning this is the Android Market, which hosts thousands of applications and games that can be downloaded and installed instantly to the Android handset. What Motorola bring with the DEXT, is a new User Interface called MotoBLUR. This UI offers great flexibility, and allows for customised live content widgets to be placed on the homescreen of the DEXT, offering quick and easy access to a whole range of social media content.

The DEXT also comes complete with an integrated phonebook, which allows you to follow the status of your contacts as they update their own statuses on MySpace, Facebook or Twitter etc. The whole concept of integrated phonebooks does offer an ideal way of keeping in touch by utilising new web messaging services, but you really do need to keep on top of your contacts list, as the constantly updating information can soon become overwhelming. It may seem like a good idea, to be registered with hundreds of interest groups, but you will soon find yourself cutting that down to the essential few, as there just isn’t the time in the day to keep up with all the incoming data.

The feature set on the DEXT handset is very strong, amongst the best to date from a handset running on Android. Apart from the benefits the MotoBLUR UI brings, the DEXT offers such options as a 5.0 Megapixel camera, with autofocus and Geotagging facility. The Built in GPS receiver is assisted by aGPS, and with the excellent Google Maps there is a whole host of local information available, such as directions to the nearest restaurant, cash machine, petrol station, and so on. Google Maps also brings access to the Street View feature, and the GPS unit can also be used with a whole host of third party apps downloadable from the Android Market.

Being an Android device, the connectivity options are numerous, with the DEXT bringing WiFi, HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps, plus 3G, EDGE, HSCSD and GPRS. Bluetooth is also included, for easy connectivity to a PC, plus offering support for wireless stereo audio. Internal memory is set at 1GB of available space for user data, with the DEXT able to take MicroSD up to 32GB in capacity. The media player is capable of supporting multiple audio and video formats, although there is still no native DivX or XviD support from an Android device here. The DEXT does deliver though with MP3, AAC, eAAC+, and WMA9, plus MP4, H.263, H.264 and WMV9. There is a 3.5mm audio output jack included, and the DEXT also includes apps from Shazam and Imeem Mobile.

The DEXT, then, squares up as a supreme return to form from Motorola, the one time leading manufacturer of mobile phones worldwide. With the exciting Android OS at the heart of this phone, the DEXT looks set to deliver, and could be the first step to Motorola’s return to their former glory. And with an expected release to market in October 2009, you shouldn’t have to wait too long before you can get your hands on one.

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Date: Sep 23rd, 2009 · Comments RSS · Tags: Manufacturers · Mobile Phone News · Motorola · Orange