Motorola CLIQ Android Phone, Titanium (T-Mobile)

by Motorola

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.7 x 2.2 x 0.6 inches ; 5.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002TX754K
• Item model number: CLIQ
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The CLIQ 3G-enabled touchscreen phone for T-Mobile, is Motorola's first Android-powered device, and the first to feature the innovative MOTOBLUR overlay to the Android OS, which manages and integrates e-mail and social networking activity including Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. In addition to a brightly colorful 3.5-inch touchscreen, the Motorola CLIQ also offers a side sliding full QWERTY keyboard for quick typing of tweets, status updates, and e-mail.

The first phone with MOTOBLUR, the CLIQ automatically delivers your messages, contacts, e-mail, updates and photos from social sites, and more--right to your home screen.

Powered by the Android OS, you can customize your Motorola CLIQ with thousands of apps available via the Android Market.

With integrated Google technology, the Motorola CLIQ brings one-touch access to the popular Google mobile services millions of people use every day, including Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, YouTube and Picasa. CLIQ also provides easy access to both personal and corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts supported by Exchange Server and Gmail.

Enabled for T-Mobile's high-speed 3G network, the CLIQ offers fast data delivery and an enhanced Web-browsing experience that lets you connect quickly to social networking sites. The CLIQ offers GPS location services for turn-by-turn directions using Google Maps and Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g) for accessing home and business networks as well as hotspots while on the go. Other features include a 5-megapixel camera for still photos and video capture, Bluetooth for both hands-free communication and stereo music streaming, a digital audio player, an included 2 GB microSD memory card, and up to 6 hours of talk time.

Key Features

• Powered by the Android operating system with deep integration of Google services and access to thousands of apps to customize your phone via the Android Market. (Learn more)
• Innovative widget-based MOTOBLUR overlay to Android automatically delivers Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, and work and personal e-mail updates to the home screen in easy-to-view streams so there is no need to open and close different mobile applications. (Learn more)
• Update Facebook, MySpace and Twitter at once instead of opening individual apps with MOTOBLUR as well as upload your photos to Facebook, MySpace, Picasa and Photobucket.
• MOTOBLUR continuously displays your friends' latest profile pics as part of your texts, calls, e-mails and address book
• View your friends your way: MOTOBLUR lets you view friends from A to Z, by contact history or in groups you make yourself.
• Customize your home screen with your favorite widgets and short cuts
• Your information is continuously updated and backed up into a secure environment, so you're connected and protected even if you lose your phone.
• Fast 3G connectivity via T-Mobile's HSDPA/UMTS network. (1700/2100 MHz bands, UMTS/HSDPA; see more about T-Mobile's 3G service below)
• Quad-band GSM phone for good global voice connectivity. (850/900/1800/1900 MHz bands)
• Built-in GPS with turn-by-turn directions provided by Google Maps and other third-party apps (for real-time directions). With Google Maps, you can instantly view maps and satellite imagery, as well as find local business. And Google Maps Street View enables you to explore cities at street-level virtually while on the go. If your phone's missing in action, log into My MOTOBLUR to track it down with GPS.
• 3.1-inch touchscreen display (320 x 480 pixels, 262K color depth)
• Full slide-out QWERTY keyboard with familiar layout lets you type messages easily without scrolling for the letter you want.
• 5-megapixel autofocus camera/camcorder for sharing images online and creating high-quality prints. Features include digital zoom, multiple white balance settings and color effects, three quality choices, and editing options for both still photos and video.
• Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g) for accessing home and corporate networks as well as hotspots while on the go.
• Bluetooth connectivity (version 2.0) includes profiles for communication headset, hands-free car kits, and the A2DP Bluetooth profile--enabling you to wirelessly stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones or speaker dock.
• Memory expansion via microSD card slot with support for optional cards up to 32 GB (2 GB card included).
• Multi-format digital audio player with dedicated Amazon MP3 Store app for over-the-air downloads.
• YouTube app for streaming video over 3G and Wi-Fi connections.
• Real HTML Web browsing provides more pages and better Web content delivered efficiently to your phone.
• Visual Voice-mail allows you to listen to your voice-mail messages in any order, respond in one click and easily manage your inbox without ever dialing in to the network.
• Voice-activated dialing lets you call someone with simple voice commands when your hands are busy
• Airplane mode allows you to listen to music while the cellular connectivity is turned off
• Speakerphone

Vital Statistics
The Motorola CLIQ weighs 4.9 ounces and measures 4.5 x 2.3 x 0.61 inches. Its 1420 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 6 hours of talk time, and up to 324 hours (13.5 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies, as well as T-Mobile's 3G network (1700/2100 MHz).

T-Mobile Services

• High-speed data connectivity via T-Mobile's 3G network: In addition to its quad-band GSM connectivity, this phone is also compatible with T-Mobile's UMTS/HSDPA 3G network, which operates on the 1700/2100 MHz AWS spectrum. This phone is designed to automatically connect to the best available network (3G or GSM/GPRS/EDGE) to provide faster data speeds when accessing the Web.

  In areas where the 3G network is not available, you'll continue to receive service on the via T-Mobile's EDGE network (which stands for "Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution"). This high-speed, mobile data and Internet access technology is fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services (with average data speeds between 75-135Kbps), including full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and e-mail on the go.

  While this phone is optimized for use with T-Mobile's high-speed 3G network, many of its functions will also work well on the moderate-speed EDGE network. If you plan to access the Internet extensively on your phone, 3G network coverage may serve you best.

  Activities that work well on EDGE or 3G networks:

  • Email, instant messaging, and texting
  • Downloading ringtones, CallerTunes, wallpaper, light data files
  • Sending photographs via e-mail or picture messaging

  Activities that work best on a 3G network:

  • Viewing content-heavy websites (lots of images or videos playing)
  • Viewing YouTube and other video files (they will play on EDGE, but require loading time)
  • Uploading large files (photos, videos, presentations) to sharing websites
  • Downloading large files from an e-mail or a website

  T-Mobile's 3G network is currently available in 222 cities nationwide and covers more than 160 million people. By the end of 2009, T-Mobile USA expects its 3G network to be available to approximately 200 million people across the U.S.

Android Power

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The Power of Android and MOTOBLUR

The Motorola CLIQ runs the Android operating system, which provides easy access to a wide assortment of messaging tools and Google apps. With Android, you're able to richly personalize the entire theme of the Motorola CLIQ with new widgets, icons and wallpapers--which can be added directly on the home screen--in order to truly make it your own.

Developed by Motorola, MOTOBLUR is an innovative solution that manages and integrates communications--from work e-mail to social networking activity--on your CLIQ. Updates to contacts, posts, messages, photos and more are streamed together and synced from sources including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, and work and personal e-mail. MOTOBLUR automatically delivers these updates to the home screen in easy-to-view streams so there is no need to open and close different mobile applications to keep up with the latest content.

CLIQ also features multitasking capabilities and one-touch access to the Google mobile services millions use every day, including Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, YouTube and Picasa. Easy access to both personal and corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts is supported by Exchange Server and Gmail. e-mail and contacts are also supported by Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail, and other POP3 and IMAP e-mail services. It also combines instant messaging support for Google Talk, as well as AOL, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger.

The app screen.

All your messaging in one place.

Contacts with recent status updates.

Additionally, the Android Market hosts a wide variety of unique applications, and with the Motorola CLIQ's one-click access to it you can find and download a wide range of innovative software applications--from games to social networking and on-the-go shopping--to personalize your phone. Here's a sampling of just some of the available applications:

• Sherpa, created by Geodelic, learns a person's likes and dislikes through behavior and user feedback, prioritizing recommended retailers, restaurants and attractions. Sherpa features a learning machine that automatically customizes itself to the user's preferences.
• imeem Mobile streams music customized to your tastes, recommending new songs and artists based on which songs you identify as your favorites.
• WorldTour puts live webcams from around the world onto your home screen.
• Phonebook offers an upgraded, more personalized phonebook for Android.
• FreshFace is a theme engine to further customize your phone.
• Movies by Flixster takes the aspect of movie reviews to the next level. Through integration with Facebook, you can find friends who also want to see that movie or read reviews from friends who have already seen it.

The Motorola CLIQ is pre-loaded with the Android 1.5 (Cupcake) operating system update, which includes the following improvements:

• Easy upload of photos to Picasa and videos to YouTube
• Spanish language support
• Edit multiple messages in Gmail
• Faster My Location acquisition in Google Maps
• Faster web browsing with smoother page scrolling
• Improved camera with faster start-up and image capture
• In-call keypad timeout to eliminate face dialing

Product Description

Compatible Model with T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ mb200 GSM Cell Phone

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Phone Minor Flaws - Former iPhone and Blackberry User, November 2, 2009

By 

Always Samsung "ravereviews" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Motorola CLIQ Android Phone, Titanium (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone)

The best review from a former iPhone and Blackberry user.

I have been in love with the G1 since it came out a year ago, but I couldn't get over that ugly chin sticking out! I was beyond ecstatic when the MyTouch 3G was released, but after playing with the device for 3 hours I realized what a piece of crap it was and returned it. The screen wasn't that big and it made texting and instant messaging a living nightmare. In addition to that, the phone was not multi-touch capable, so if you're a fast texter and really quick with the emails then the MyTouch 3G is not for you. The virtual keyboard could only handle one letter at a time and I found myself hitting the wrong letters on so many occasions. I would hit a letter and the phone would pick up the surroundings letter. This really is ashame because the thirty-five dollar data plan is mandatory and its travesty that one can't even use it to the best of their ability. The lack of a keyboard also made the MyTouch 3G a big downer. Anyway, I digress.

Now, let's get to the Motorola Cliq. This phone is everything that the G1 and MyTouch 3G should have been, but better. This device doesn't come with Eclair (Android OS 2.0), but it functions just fine. Hopefully a mandatory upgrade will be made available to all Android users soon. This is a great PDA smart phone for anyone who is heavy into texting, emailing, and surfing the web. It's a full featured phone, but at the same time it's nothing groundbreaking. There is definitely some acclimation when it comes to the Cliq because I am so use to my Blackberry 8900 and I think its one of the best built devices with a very responsive well built OS.

If you're looking for a device that is very similar to the iPhone on the T-Mobile network then this is probably the closest that you will ever get. My initial impression of the phone was not a good one because it kept asking me to create a user name and password. I thought it was asking for an email address (Yahoo, AOL, Gmail), but it wasn't. It was asking you to create a MotoBlur account. I did, but kept getting an error message. T-Mobile customer service didn't know what to do and [...] has an area to sign into MotoBlur & an option to create a motoblur account, but when you click it there's nothing on screen that lets you create a name/password.

Android OS - Many people have said that the Android OS is a game changer since its release back in the fall of 2008. It seemed like the only thing at the time to combat with the forces of the iPhone. To some extent it is and to some extent it's just not quite there yet. To be honest it's a bit on the clunky side. It does take a few seconds to exit out of certain applications, or to even get to the main home screen menu when exiting out of email and texting. When you become so use to using your cell phone for just about everything - speed is everything. That also includes how responsive and quick your phones OS is. My only gripe is that I wish there wasn't that few second lag in-between operations.

Motoblur - The Cliq includes MotoBlur which lets you connect your Facebook, MySpace, and twitter accounts directly to the advice, so whenever your friend writes a new comment it immediately goes to the homepage of the phone. This is a great idea and saves you time from going into the web browser and having to log in each account in order to check for updates. However, this feature is a battery killer. I have mine turns off, besides if you lend your phone to someone else to use (To make a call or use web browser) they will all be up in your business. I could careless about this feature.


Email - This is also not an Android device that has Google branding with it. It's just a Motorola phone using the Android OS. There is NO G1 branding logo anywhere. However, you can still sync up your Google email address, but the Gmail feature is such a disappointment. Synchronization has to be turned on for the Gmail to function to the best of its ability & that's a BIG battery draining feature. You can also sync your Yahoo & AOL email addresses. The AOL and Yahoo email feature is way better then Gmail and doesn't require synchronization to be turned on. This helps save tremendous battery power. When you send an email from your desktop it doesn't come to the phone right away, but you can set the phone to check for new emails every 15 mins, 30 mins, or manually, etc. It doesn't work the same with Gmail which is a big let down. I am a big fan of the Blackberry and it's the only device on the market that gets an email within 2 seconds of sending it. The same can't be said for the Android OS. Much work needs to be done.

Web Browser - One of the best features on any android device including the Cliq is the web browser. Surprisingly, it doesn't launch [...] as the main homepae when you click browser. The Android Browser is probably one of the best browsers on the market right now and is up there with the Safari Browser and the Palm Pre's browser. You cant pinch and zoom to enlarge the way you can on the iPhone, but there are zoom in controls which are easy to use. You also get a dedicated YouTube app that lets you watch Youtube videos. Though the video clips aren't as sharp as the iPhone - There is a setting and option when you are watching the YouTube clip where you can see the videos in "Higher Quality" so its crystal sharp and less blurry.
There is a big difference that one will notice when switching from standard to HIGHER QUALITY.

3G - TMobile recently launched their 3G network about a little over a year ago, so they are still building from the ground up while the other networks are already moving into 4G. It's great that the CLIQ has 3G, but it does get spotty and unresponsive sometimes. There were many times that the 3G would switch between 3G and EDGE. I didn't have that big of a problem with it, but I am sure over time it will get better. Wi-Fi is also included, so this is a great alternative for someone who might be at home and only has EDGE access.

Instant Messaging - The CLIQ comes with Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, and AIM pre-installed. My Blackberry 8900 came with all 3 and included ICQ & Windows Live. Another thing about the IM that was such a disappointment is that synchronization had to be activated in order for you to sign into the messaging client, which in turn drains the battery power like crazy. This was such a disappointment. My BB never had this issue. You sign in and start chatting. There was no extra setting that had to be activated in order to chat, but on the CLIQ it's a requirement. The extra requirement only means that you have to charge you phone twice in one day because of heavy unnecessary usage.

Motorola really could have done a better job with the CLIQ, especially for the price. But I think most of the minor flaws have to do with the Android OS. I was originally an iPhone user that became a Blackberry user and I have to hand it to the Blackberry because it's quick, responsive, and built in such a way that its function is superb. Everything from Email to text to instant messaging is just so quick. There is hardly any lag and it's easy to learn how to use. The Blackberry so far is the best PDA I have ever used, but its web browser needs work. Pick up the CLIQ phone because it's a winner. There are some minor flaws, but the pros outweigh the negative.

Pros:
Android OS (Can be a pro & a con)
Full HTML Web Browser
Threaded Text message
Email sync
Android Marketplace
Full qwerty keyboard
YouTube Application
5.0 camera/camcorder
Big vibrant screen
3.5 MM headjack
Decent call quality (No issues yet)
Mini SD up to 32GB
Use your songs as ringers
Wi-Fi
Personal Email (Up to 10 accounts can be added)
IM
My Favs
Excellent Multimedia Player
Includes 2 chargers (Wall Charger & USB charger)
T-Mobile offers the best minute and data plans on this planet

Cons:
Poor Battery Life (Lower light setting and turn off Motoblur to save power)
Gmail is a disaster (Not push capable)
Needs better notification options when next text/emails come through
No PUSH email capability
Trackball (I miss you)
Occasional lag time when entering/exiting a screen/app
Micro USB (No more Mini USB)
No ear phone or free carry case

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Promise, but significant problems w/Motorola silent, November 23, 2009

By 

Enigma (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Motorola CLIQ Android Phone, Winter White (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone)

Right now, this is a 2-3 star rating, I'll give it 3 since I do side a bit more that way.

Have had this phone since it was released on 11/12. I have now had 3 of them personally (white, 2 titanium) plus my wife's white. Have also known 3 engineers who have Android backgrounds (we all hail back to the G1 then MyTouch then the CLIQ). A few of us understand the well-documented SDK and are engineers. My wife is a 'typical' user just looking for a phone to work, but wanted to get her off the iPhone and ATT due to cost and her service problems (3G in the Tmo edge range and constantly dropped/missed calls in 5-bar areas, plus bars constantly going from 5 to 0 to 3 to 5 to 0, etc. in moments when in the midst of deep orange coverage metro areas. This happens with 3 other non-iPhones I have for family on ATT. NEVER seen this or had complaints w/the 4 other phones I have on T-Mobile).

Anyway, of these users, all have returned during the buyer's remorse period except me (call me an optimist with hope). I do like the phone and it's potential, but Motorola needs to do some serous work. All of the following I've personally experienced with four devices: 2 white, 2 titanium, 1 my wife's, the others mine as I return hoping for a better/improved one. I also have incorporated daily feedback of 3 others (which was consistent with mine and the forums out there).

Pros:

- Very nice form factor. I love it and it did get my wife (briefly) off the iPhone, which has been impossible to do.

- Slide out keyboard - best I have used (but after a few days gets a bit 'wobbly', but seems to settle at that point.

- Backlit keyboard that auto-senses light conditions. Letters and dpad light as necessary. If you press the 'ALT' key, then numbers and symbols light until done. Very nice.

- Social network: if you use Facebook/Twitter/Picasa/MySpace, you'll *really* love this phone and motoblur:

- 5 screens, not 3 as on other Android devices. Load em up!

- Very fast 3G on Tmo's network. Side-by-Side tests against an N-97 and iPhone 3GS all with full bars and this is 4-6 times faster. That's a tmo benefit: not oversubscribed and they don't throttle.

- Other than periodic reboots, no dropped calls, great call quality - oh, and play w/your phone will talking: take a pic/vid, open email, open notes, etc.

- Voice Search rocks.

- Gmail integration (mail, contacts, calendars) all rock. I'm not sure what another reviewer means it's a disaster - never had trouble w/the G1 or MyTouch. Not sure what is meant by "push", but emails received show up nearly instantly just as Exchange ActiveSync does and sent emails go right away. Contact and calendar changes are synch'd immediately. Works great for me and since Android is Google's, you'd hope it would :-)

- Motoblur's on-line remote wipe is an awesome feature. Have used thrice when returning phones. It is great. (But I don't like the phone tracking that is in their portal you can't disable w/out affecting your phone).

- Spent 2 days playing with the DROID and the Cliq interface is nicer and generally seems snappier. The Cliq keyboard is far better and the unit doesn't look like a prototype they forgot to improve looks on before release. Oh, and Tmo's rates are less than a third of VZW's.

Cons:
First, my wife:
- Battery life abysmal. She never uses wifi (set not to scan and not setup), no BT as it won't pair with any of our 3 cars ranging from 2009 to 2010 (very common complaint if you search), no use for GPS with Nav systems in all cars, no widgets (weather, blur, etc - she has not use for them - she has no facebook, twitter and definitely no myspace accts), 2 emails setup: gmail and work - work we dropped autosync and polls once per 4-hours. Very few programs (solitaire, bettercut, pandora), no wireless location turned out - no use, etc. After properly cycling her battery a couple times, she still had an issue of being nearly dead before noon! Battery life is a common complaint in reviews/forums and personal since between hers and the 3 I've had now, they are all the same.

The rest (since we are engineers very familiar with Android) and I go through 4-6 phones a year, rotation periodically so have strong background experience.

- Very, very poor battery life (no widgets, no motoblur setup, work email polling 4-hours, occasional GPS when I open maps, but stops pulling when navigate away and doesn't update anything if not in Google Maps (don't enter and use latitude, you'll notice location hasn't been updated for the amount of time you were out of latitude (e.g. I waited 3-days once and no update). This DOES work w/wireless tracking though, but I don't use as, unlike other Android phones, you have no choice but to send data to Google.

Regarding battery saving: answers from Motorola, T-Mobile and some others in forums equal neutering the phone: turn off 3G, don't use Wifi, don't use BT, keep screen dim, screen auto-off in 30-seconds (nice for reading something, eh), set auto-synch work email to Manual or 4-hours - don't use activesync, turn off google's sync until you need it. Huh? This is beyond perplexing. I've used many, many other smartphones with these features that last me 24-hours or longer (last one nearly 3-days and it was a multi-tasker ALWAYS with 3G/GPS/Wifi/ActiveSync on) and 2 other Androids that don't last me less than 12-15 hours w/everything enabled. If you have to do all this to a Cliq get it to last a "work day" - why have it? There's something wrong.

Battery == very common complaint.

- Cannot uninstall pre-installed programs that take up a lot of space on the phone and run periodically taking precious RAM. Who uses MySpace now? Installed, can't remove. There is QuickOffice, Tmo's MyAccount, Tmo's Mobile Backup, imeem, Many "Motoblur" apps such as Happenings, Tmo's My Album (who stores photos w/Tmo?), MyFavs (fat, ridiculous pig that has no icon and I don't have a myfavs plan), Social Messaging, Shazam (c'mon, neat at first, but I and others have just no need for it), Social Status, TeleNAV GPS Navigator (huh??? Don't need it and Android 2.0 has this - free), their version of a Weather widget, which never updates and takes 20-30MB of your RAM and so on. Most of the 3P apps are trials only and if you don't want them, don't pay, but they are 'stuck' on your phone. Very common complaint.

- Internal phone storage (where apps are installed on your 512MB ROM), out of box, you only have 201MB available. Seems plenty? Install what you want and shrinks fast and compare to MyTouche's 270+ MB. Further, if you "upgrade" an app, it doubles (or more) the amount of space required for it. It's not a true upgrade, it simple installs over the uninstallable version and take unnecessary precious space. Google Maps is a good example: ships w/an outdated version that goes from 1.02MB to over 4MB if you install the upgrade. Uninstall and it leaves the old version firmly planted. What happened to the concept of having on the phone what you want or performing legit upgrades/not "side-by-side" that simply take significant amounts of resources? Why can't I uninstall unused apps? Imeem, MySpace, QuickOffice, Telenav, Mobile Backup, etc.? Very common complaint.

- Well known and confirmed by a couple at T-mobile (tech support and a store manager) touch screen has "dead spots" and can be very unresponsive. Yet in certain other areas, far too sensitive. Common complaint with other users and in forums/reviews.

- Tmo's Mobile backup automatically sends all your contacts to T-Mobile. I was alarmed when I figured this out. I tried using their site to remove them. The two options are: "Remove from Phone" and "Remove from Web and Phone" - no way to disable or just remove from web. Tmo - even back to their tech support didn't know why ALL contacts are going over and not just new ones (well, they are all new when Gmail synchs em to phone). They also couldn't figure out why no options in Mobile Backup. This was not by consent either on phone nor on any of the contractual paperwork I received. No one I knew was happy with this at all. Allow opt-in AND opt-out, but don't disallow any option. Most I've checked with have no idea this is happening.

- MyFavs, MyAccount and Mobile Backup are always running in the background.

- Slide out keyboard does not have autocorrect/suggestions/etc. It will insert an apostrophe now and then. Screen (Android) keyboard, works ok here, but I and others didn't buy a phone w/a slide-out to have to use on-screen (which I disable since it uses a lot of resources). Common complaint.

- Outdated the day it was release. It was released with 1.5 (been around forever and 1.6 came out some time ago and makes very noticeable improvements). Many of the apps were versions behind. Map to bug fixes or 2.0? Motorola has been silent even with all the noise out there. Been told by a motorola rep and tech support at Tmo that they may never go past 1.5 and just fix the bugs. Aside from the new Google maps, many other advanced features in 2.0, I'd be OK with just bug fixes and some better optimization. Common complaint.

- Boot time is ridiculous - nearly two minutes! Good luck in those pinch situations and forbid that you need to turn on your phone to dial 911.

- Periodic reboots during calls or just using the phone. Not often, but very problematic when it happens. Common complaint.

- Bluetooth won't pair with A LOT of cars from Nissan to Land Rover to BMWs and I forget what else I've seen out there. Common complaint. Also won't pair with other BT devices - some ear sets (I went through 3), 2 of my computers (a Mac and a 2009 ThinkPad) and a pair of... Read more ›

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Extremely sensitive to weather, November 14, 2009

By 

Kane (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

GRIPE #1:
I've owned the Cliq for almost 2 weeks now, the last 3 days of which it was submersed in a bowl of rice in an effort to fully dry it out, and hopefully get it fully operational again.

Did I drop it in the toilet? Did I forget in my pants that went in the washer? Did I take it swimming? No. I simply took it out of my pocket when my hands were SLIGHTLY wet from being in the rain (and I was not in the rain when I took it out of my waterproof pocket). Then I put it back in my pocket. When I took it out next and unlocked it it threw a conniption fit; hopping back and forth between ringer and silent. Worried I opened the battery door and saw a couple drops of water BEHIND the door. After fully drying off the phone for 3 days in a rice-bath two of the four side buttons no longer work.

Now I'd like stress several facts here.
* 1) I remember when Motorola made phones like the StarTAC which were almost indestructible. I foolishly continued to expect a high-reliability phone out of the Moto camp.

* 2) I am a very technical person with enough experience to know what I should and shouldn't expect from a device. This is not some crazy-guy review written by someone who's angry his phone didn't survive a tsunami.

* 3) This phone did NOT get wet. Nothing this phone was put through should have had any effect on it whatsoever.

This phone seems to be extremely finicky with regards to weather conditions. If you live in the northwest (as I do) or any place that gets large amounts of rain and humidity I would highly suggest that you buy a different phone. I'm simply amazed at how little it took for this phone to go down. My Blackberry Pearl has done been quite the champion for the past two years when it comes to ruggedness and I've never really thought of it as a rugged phone per se; this level of fragility is really inexcusable.

GRIPE #2
Random parts of the screen go dead every so often. This is an issue for multiple Cliq owners already. For more information on this problem do a search for "cliq keyboard dead zone" in your favorite search engine.


OTHER GRIPES:
Side buttons have barely any travel and therefore provide virtually zero tactile feedback.

Front buttons and keyboard keys feel squishy and don't instill confidence.

Integration all of your contacts lists from various sources (facebook, twitter, google, etc.) is painfully rudimentary. This is not an Android complaint, but a complaint of Motorola's software implementation Motoblur.

There is no way to stop the phone from ringing by way of a hardware key. So if you get a call/text/calendar notification and wish to stop it mid way you must first get it out of your pocket. Hit any button to wake it up. Then hit the menu button to unlock it. Then, if you've got a security code (as I do) enter that in. Then finally hit the notification bar. The entire process, as you can imagine, takes a long time and if you're in a meeting or some such situation it's very annoying. I must mention that you CAN also use the "silent" switch on the side to terminate the audible alert however that too take a while as the switch is flush with the phone and changing it's position isn't quick.


THE POSITIVE SIDE
* Nice looking screen.

* Responsive.

* The sliding screen (to reveal the keyboard) does have really good feel.

* While I admit to worrying about the long-term life of the physical keyboard, it is REALLY nice to have a tactile keyboard. Especially considering the problems with the touch screen.


THE BOTTOM LINE
If this was the only Android phone out there, I would probably have thrown an extra star in the rating for the OS alone. But there are three other Android phones out right now and half a dozen on the way in short order. There's no excuse for a phone with this price tag to come from a company with as much experience as Motorola and have such serious design flaws. High-tech and and high reliability are not mutually exclusive, and don't let anyone tell you different.

You have better options for an Android phone.