Motorola CLIQ XT Phone - a Review

I was intrigued into a review for Motorola CLIQ XT because I had heard a mixture of pros and cons about the Cliq MB200, and many argue that the XT is not just a revamp of the older model.

At first glance the Motorola Cliq XT has great design with a brilliant display and an easy to use keyboard and it doesn't seem to have the issues of the Cliq MB200. The old Cliq lacked some basic features such as a camera flash and a file manager. I also discovered that you could only store apps on the integrated memory, and that the memory card slot was in awkward position. In addition call quality wasn't great and the handset was sort of bulkish.

On the other hand, the Cliq XT offers a sleeker design with the onscreen Swype keyboard, and has a more full featured media player.

A Quick Comparison between the Cliq XT with the older Cliq model.
As soon as you open the Motorola Cliq XT box you will find a nice surprise - an extra back plate in metallic purple, together with the usual AC adapter, a USB cable, a wired stereo headset, a 2GB microSD card, and reference material.

Cliq MB200 at a glance
In practical terms, if you were looking for a solid looking reliable device, this was your best bet, but you would never fit the Cliq inside your pocket, if you're wearing skinny jeans. The slider on the old Cliq was solid and when compared to other Android devices such as the G1 or the Dream, the Cliq's design won hands down. Though the G1 was the first Android and held pretty well, it aged quite rapidly and it's practically inexistent storage and weird opening mechanism were outclassed by the Cliq MB 200.

Cliq's keypad was what you would call ergonomic - a big bonus in a cell phone. The keys were sort of dome shaped and the big enter key was comfortable to use even though the keys were plastic, not rubber like G1's. Some critics complained about the positioning of the bottom keys on a concave surface and said they are substantially buried under the edge of the device, but I felt it is something that you could get used to once you had the Cliq for some time.

Cliq XT at a glance
Some describe the Cliq XT as the old Cliq without the keyboard, but the XT is taller (4.59 inches), wider (2.3inches), thinner (.48inches)and lighter (4.4ounces) than the Cliq and this smartphone does fit into the pant pocket of your jeans and still feels solid.

The unique textured pattern on the backplate gives a distinctive touch, almost like leatherette, and a slightly stronger feel of durability. If you dig a smartphone in metallic purple, the extra back cover inside the box has a smoother, soft finish.

The Cliq XT has the same 3.1 inch HVGA touchscreen of the old Cliq and the Backflip. It is quite bright but is not as sharp as the Motorola Droid or the Nexus One. At 3.1 inches diagonally, the content on the screen looks too tiny and the onscreen keyboard is also pretty cramped and composing even a quick text message takes time and extra concentration.

However there is an alternative to the android keyboard - the Swype. This software make things much easier, since all you have to do is drag your finger from letter to letter on the screen, and many users say this software is quite accurate once you get used to it.

The Cliq XT also gives you multi-touch capabilities so that you can use the pinch-to-zoom gesture when browsing, the display has a built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor, and a small Led alerts you about missed calls, calendar appointments and updates.

Hardware
The old Cliq had no directional controls over the touchscreen itself and you just had to open it to get to the pad, which was something you simply had to get used to.

Below the screen of the Cliq XT, you get the usual home, menu, search, and back buttons found on most Android smartphones, but the XT comes with a navigational touch pad - A big improvement when compared to the older model.

The camera button and the standby key on the old Cliq brought up a menu of radios which was a pretty cool feature. The 3.5 mm headphone jack, the volume rocker, a micro USB port and an i-phone style mute switch were all welcome additions that pushed the Cliq way up over the G1. The 5 megapixel camera was another plus over the G1 and myTouch, but when it came to close focus, there was plenty of room for improvement and it still wasn't the best for a nice crisp focus - even for a long shot.

The Cliq XT has a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash, digital zoom, and autofocus. This model can also record MPEG video at HVGA resolution and has standard editing options, such as color effects, white balance, and picture quality - a nice improvement when compared to it's older brother. Picture quality also seems to have improved with time. The XT's camera grabs sharp and vibrant shots and the flash is a nice bonus.

Performance
Motorola's outstanding reputation when it comes to picking up even weak signals didn't show up on the Cliq and many said it was comparable to the myTouch.

On the other hand, the XT's call quality is great, with little background noice or voice distortion. The sound is rich and pretty clear and many praise it's quality. Internet browsing and downloading will be fast and with the built in flash lite support, you should be able to play u-tube videos and other videos without the slightest hitch. Music from MP4 files sounds rich and well balanced, both through the phone's speackers and throught the on-ear headphones.

Battery life
One of the biggest deal breakers for the the Cliq MB was the 1390mAh battery that made the phone shut down after a typical day of use, and you had to carry a second battery or keep a charger close by if you wanted to keep the phone alive for longer than that.

The Motorola Cliq XT comes with a 1,420mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 6.5 hours and up to 13.5 days of standby time, a slight improvement over the 1390mAH though something over 1500mAh would have been much nicer.

More about Performance - Speed, Software and Connectivity
The Cliq XT is equipped an 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A processor, an improvement over the sluggish Backflip, but it still isn't a high performance machine that can be considered a speed demon. You are likely to experience delays when switching screen orientations and launching apps but it handles multiple apps at once and is generally much faster and more stable than the Back flip.

The Motorola Cliq XT features are similar to Cliq's, as both run Motoblur software and Android 1.5. but the XT does have some new cool features such as updated music players that allow you to stream music from Shoutcast radio and view music videos on YouTube and GoTV directly from the browser.

Connectivity is a strong point of the new XT and thanks to Motoblur you will be able to merge email, contacts and calendar entries into a master list. This smartphone also offers quad-band world roaming, 3G support, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.0.

Price
The Motorola Cliq XT starts at $130 with an activation of a 2 year agreement with T-Mobile contract, another slight improvement from the $150 when Cliq MB200 was launched last year.

Works cited

"Motorola Cliq - titanium (T-Mobile) www.reviewscnet.com

"Motorola Cliq XT" Bonnie Chua www.reviewscnet.com

"Motorola Cliq review" Chris Ziegler engadget.

Price quoted from T-mobile.com