I’m Smart Now: Motorola CLIQ

I’d been planning to get a smart phone. Why? Not just because everyone’s doing it. Mainly because when I’m out and about in the community, I’d like to be able to post things to my local news site, ParkroseGateway.com. With a smart phone, I can snap and post photos and write up instant blog posts, as well as make notes and record quick interviews.  And I get all the fun stuff as a bonus.

So when my nearly worthless Tracfone was stolen recently, I was ready to buy a new phone anyway.  I chose a Motorola CLIQ because

• It runs on the open-source Android platform.
• It’s available through T-Mobile, so I can share a family account with my husband.
• It has a full, pull-out QWERTY keyboard.
• It has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.
• It has a 5 megapixel camera and video recording capability.
• It has better performance ratings and more memory than the G1 and MyTouch phones (Android phones also available from T-Mobile).

You may now be asking yourself why I didn’t jump straight to the Nexus One, the newest (and possibly best) of the Android phones. It’s because of cost. The Nexus One would be a little more upfront, and a little more per month, mostly because you can’t add a Nexus One to an existing family plan (it wouldn’t be an upgrade for us).  That little bit does make a difference for me.

So far I’m very happy with the CLIQ. I did have to learn how to use it, but it basically ships ready to go. The phone was already activated when it arrived, with the same phone number I had before. The SIM card was installed, but it had been inserted backward (I don’t know whether that’s done on purpose or not). So once I figured out that that was the reason it thought there was no SIM card, I was underway.

The CLIQ comes installed with MOTOBLUR, which is a service that can combine your email and social networking feeds into one, pushing notifications to your phone. You have to open a MOTOBLUR account upon starting up the phone, unless you have one already.

I haven’t really been using the MOTOBLUR system, though. I’m used to doing my Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter separately, so I’ve been using the respective apps for those services. I think the phone is still using MOTOBLUR to notify me when I have a new email, though (I turned off notifications for Twitter and Facebook). You can also use MOTOBLUR to post a message to several services at the same time.

The phone itself has a touchscreen interface with three buttons below: menu, home, and back. The keyboard slides out with the phone in the horizontal position. It’s small but easy to use, and feels quite sturdy.

The home screen is pre-loaded with several widgets, which you can easily rearrange or remove, and is actually five screens wide; you can access the other sections by swiping horizontally. At the bottom of the screen are tabs for phone, apps, and contacts.  A number of apps are pre-loaded, and others (free and paid) are available throught the Android Market (look for Market in the Apps tab or one screen to the right on the home screen).

I’ve downloaded some apps, but I’m definitely still exploring and learning, so I can’t really recommend anything so far except my Twitter client — Twidroid. It works great, and I’ll probably upgrade to the premium version, which includes multiple account support, soon.  Another app I use often is WordPress; I can use this app to access all of my WordPress blogs, approve or delete comments, and even write a new post if I want to.

One thing you don’t have on an Android phone is iTunes syncing. There are apps for this, but I haven’t bothered with them. I just plugged my phone into the USB port on my MacBook, which recognized the SD card on the phone as an external drive, and copied the music files over. There is a music player app pre-installed on the phone, and it doesn’t mind at all that the music was purchased through iTunes.  There’s also an Amazon mp3 app provided for purchasing music directly from the phone.

Speaking of Amazon, there’s an Amazon app for browsing and purchasing, but there is NO KINDLE APP for Android, like there is for the iPhone. I’m still figuring out the ebook situation. I did download Aldiko, which allows me to download and read public domain books. I’m not sure how to go about buying and reading books otherwise, or whether it’s even possible. Barnes & Noble’s Nook reader actually runs on the Android operating system, so it would be nice if they could also develop a Nook app for Android phones. I’d pay for it!

One thing I had trouble with was the sound settings. I initially chose a ring tone and a notification tone from the standard set, but then later I downloaded (through the Android Market) a set of Star Trek sounds/ringtones. I successfully changed the main ringtone to (cue Worf voice) “Captain. Incoming message,” but couldn’t get the notification tone to change to “Console Beep 2.” It turns out that you have to change the notification tone in the MOTOBLUR settings through the Messaging app, as well as in the phone’s main settings.

I’m still enjoying exploring the phone and the apps. I haven’t got it all down. Two helpful tricks I’ve learned are to always try pressing the menu button to see what comes up, and if I’m stumped, to try pressing and holding on one of the items on the screen — this will often pop up a menu, too.

If you want or need a phone that performs multiple functions — photography, video recording, email, messaging, music, blogging, social networking — you’ll be very pleased with Android. I would caution anyone who’s not really comfortable with technology, but that caution probably applies to most smart phones.

UPDATE/NOTE 3/6/10: I just saw a TV commercial for CarToys that said they currently have this phone on sale for $23. WTH? I paid $149.99 through T-Mobile! But anyway, if you’re interested in this phone, try CarToys! No, I have no affiliation with them and get no compensation for this. Just letting you know.

Here are a couple of photos I took today with the Motorola CLIQ’s 5-megapixel camera. Click on the picture for a larger and clearer image.

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