Customer Reviews

Motorola Milestone Droid Unlocked Quad-Band GSM Phone with 5 MP Camera, MP3, Wi-Fi, GPS, Stereo Bluetooth--International Version with Warranty (Black)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I should have spent more time on forums before splurging over $700 on the GSM Milestone.
1] A smartphone is, first and foremost, a phone. And this is where Milestone fails miserably. While you can hear callers fine, folks on the other end have a tough time hearing you. Words go missing, speech is garbled, goes up and down in volume... At first, I though the network was to blame, but after trawling Motorola's support forums, it seems to be a common problem. People on their second and even third handsets are still experiencing horrible call quality. I switched SIM cards and tried the phone in different locations, but the problem persists.
2] The camera is useless because of the infamous 28.5 days bug. Have been regularly checking for firmware updates, but nothing so far.
3] Note that the GSM version comes with 8GB microsd, not 16GB like the Verizon Droid. I was not aware of this difference.
4] The unit I got was from the German market. There is no Google Voice Search on it! Apparently the UK version has it, but there seems to be no way to switch ROMs.
5] The phone cannot be rooted currently. While it may not matter to most people, I would love to switch over to other ROMs, especially for Voice Search.
6] No divx/ xvid support. My previous phone was the Omnia HD and the extensive file format support is something I miss on the Milestone.
7] After two weeks of struggling with the keyboard, I gave up. Maybe my fingers are too fat, and your experience might be much better.

Having said all this, the phone is amazing device to hold. Sturdy, industrial build quality, great screen, the slider takes 'manly force' to open up, Android has lot of potential and pretty close to iPhone OS in fluid use (yes, have used an iPhone for over two years)... The Market is good enough and there are lot of free quality software available.

So I would recommend you buy this phone, but with a caveat. Make sure you can return it back easily, if you run into similar problems.
As for me, the Milestone is tucked away in a drawer, waiting for firmware updates that will make it usable again.
I have moved on to the HTC HD2 and am loving that huge screen. Yes, it is Winmo, but fingers crossed - someday hackers will figure out how to put Android on it. And then I should be in phone nirvana.

Bests!

I have a limited amount of cargo space in my bag. I seriously do not want to waste money and real estate on 15 different gadgets.

Criteria:

PHONE. I want to be heard and to be able to hear. Droid: Brilliantly does this. anyplace anytime, anywhere. I have not had a call dropped or lost, but I have had a little issue with face dialing.

GOOGLE VOICE: Transcribes all my voice mail and sends it to my phone. from the house phone, from the cell phone, all redirects to one location. SWEET. and for the hearing impaired, I can read it and hear it at the same time. it is fairly accurate with people that articulate well, it is hit and miss for people that talk like they have a mouthful of cheerios.

RINGTONES: any song I have on any album I can rip to MP3 and make it a ringtone. a FULL SONG ringtone, not just 20 seconds that repeats. very nice.

CONTACT LIST: I want to manage this on my computer with a NORMAL keyboard and access to GOOGLE, FACEBOOK Photos, and other resources, DROID: Brilliantly does this.

TEXTING: I have to have a NORMAL QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode to type with two thumbs. Droid does this Brilliantly. Each texting conversation is kept in a running dialog with that person. so I know what question was answered when I get a text a day or two later, without wondering what they are talking about because I forgot what I said last. this is BRILLIANT!

CALENDAR:
EACH family member uses google calendar and this is without a doubt the only way that we can maintain our complicated calendar with color coded blocks of time for scheduling. Cub Scouts, Business Meetings, Chess club, Dr Appointments, birthday party's, remove the day planner from my wallet and reduce the weight by a few pounds is WONDERFUL! Everything sync's automatically, instantly giving me a two in one device.

DIGITAL PHOTO ALBUM: this is a squealing delight, the picture quality and size is fantastic, and I am a pro-photographer so I am pretty picky on picture quality. I am very happy to have three in one purpose device.

MP3 Player: with 5 kids, I rarely have a moment alone but yes, I have had time to sneak on the ear phones and listen to a song or two and it was very nice to have my own music instead of whatever white noise is going on around me. that gives me four in one devices.

GPS: when my husband got turn by turn with his blackberry a year ago I was so jealous, but the blackberry device is just vile in my opinion. He has the pearl and I despise the flaky little keyboard. I simply knew that there had to be something out there and I was so tempted to get the separate GPS but who need yet another device? GOOGLE MAPS is fantastic. voice search is sweet, the only drawback is the horrible 'digitized voice and poor pronunciation of words like creek and other simple street names in my neighborhood. overall better than the alternative. Happily I have now five in one devices.

LATITUDES: this is where we add the marzipan to the cake, I NEED to know where my kids are. I am one of those parents that simply need to know. If I could put a chip in their ankles at the vet legally, I would do it. With Latitudes, I can see where they are on the map anywhere without them having to do anything. They only share with me so I know that they are not 'at risk' but when you have a young adult daughter driving 2000 miles cross country alone, it is a frantic feeling when they do not call to check in. Latitudes works locally as well, if your 10 year old takes their phone and goes into an area that is out of the zone, you get an alert. I know without being strapped down to a computer all day, I can leave the house, but not leave my peace of mind. Six in one devices enough?

SHOPPING: yes, I am watching every penny. If I am shopping and it is a 'good deal' I want to know that it is really a good deal. there is a bar code reader, SERIOUSLY. a bar code reader that will search Amazon and give me a price IMMEDIATELY. and I can decide to buy there where I am or with One-Click, order it from Amazon. I have had it on my doorstep the next day after going through this process. THIS IS INVALUABLE. seven in one devices.

CAMERA. ehn not even close. I am way too picky when it comes to picture quality. They definitely dropped the ball on this one. I still have my Lumix DMC-LX3 in my purse and have to painstakingly upload to a computer and then to the blog for this but eventually it will get better. the mpg white balance is way too warm and I was not at all pleased with this. they need to go back to the drawing board and actually get some good optics. Same quality as the Alias 3 megapixel - BIG MINUS on this one.

BONUS:
Weather channel: I have 5 kids in 4 cities, I need to know.
Facebook: always connected, wheee cool. this is a fun and nice little app, not as easy to navigate as a computer, but good enough.
Twitter: fun.
Gmail: Oh definitely invaluable.
Mozilla: reading the newspaper, this is just way way too much fun. I am starting to wonder what I need a family for with all the fun that this has.
Games: Soduku, word search, chess, but seriously, who has time with all the other features like Facebook newsfeed?

a negative: the fail would be no java yet. it is expected in a couple of months so many web pages in the browser do not work since we are a java based experience, I am waiting patiently.

overall I love my droid more than my kids, more than my husband, more than my Nikon D300. It is my full function voice recognition turn by turn GPS, it is my full function mp3 player. it is my fantastic digital photo album, it remembers and keeps a running stream of my text's in a 'chat' format. it is my wifi anywhere I want to go browser / email / facebook / news/ weather / on demand connection. and I hear that it is a pretty nifty phone too.

I bought my phone in may of this year from another place. To date I have received one (1) update that fixed nothing. I bought it laughing at the others I know that have non "flash" devices, like the iphone.


However Motorola has not delivered flash on their "flash ready" device. In fact the bugs and failures are as follows.

No flash for over a year since being released, and over 8 months since 2.2 update and flash 10.1 became available, 2.3 is currently available.
Motorola has pushed back updates in a greedy little pig maneuver to try and force customers to purchase a new more expensive phone.
Using supported bluetooth devices causes music to randomly start.
The built in software CANNOT be uninstalled, eating up much of the memory available on the device.
Want to snap a quick pic? Try waiting 15-30 seconds.
Other music players don't play nice, Pandora works on updated devices. You will need to press the home button once you get a call, pause or stop the music on Pandora or any other media player, return to the call and answer. Expect it to start again during the call.
After using the phone for varying periods of time icons will not appear again until you reboot the phone, or give it a few whacks to change the orientation.
Sometimes the screen will not become active, and the buttons will not work.
Occasional reboots.
Battery life is poor.
Can't see the screen in daylight.
Don't wear polarized glasses or you can't see the screen in certain angles and orientations.
Poor call quality, or the remote party unable to hear you.
Locked bootloader, so no easy hax and other opensource software.
No wifi access point.
Wifi access points randomly fail to connect.
E-mail stops working, and or will not delete messages from server.
System apps hang and cause crashes, and or memory leaks.
Media player plays wma, but will not correctly list music ripped in Windows Media Player, all songs are out of order.
Included Motorola Media Link is complete and utter trash, you must sync all, or choose individual tracks at a time to sync.
No included wifi sync available, you must purchase, and it will not work with WMP or MML.
No bluetooth audio streaming that I have found.
Dodgy headphone jack causing crackling.
Music playback randomly stops, freezes, or skips.
Network connection problems when switching networks, emergency calls only shown, or no connection.
No warranty in the US directly from motorola, if you send it to be repaired they will NOT return your device.


I called Motorola directly about all of these concerns, I was advised by Jordan to sue Motorola. His actual words were "If you are unable to return the device since it does not meet advertised specifications, and since we are not meeting your expectations I would advise you to take legal action if you feel it is necessary"


If this is the sort of experience you are looking for. By all means buy it. I have never found a more frustrating company, device, and poorly supported product yet.

Ok... I actually have the CDMA version, the Motorola+Verizon DROID, and it's an excellent smart phone. I would give this version a five star rating, assuming the GSM modem works just as well. Best Smart Phone Ever.

But there's a BIG caveat for this, used in the USA: according to the spec sheet, it only supports UMTS/HSPA (3G) at 900MHz and 2100MHz... the European standard. Here in the states, T-Mobile uses 1700MHz/2100MHz, and AT&T's using the original 850MHz/1900MHz that's also used for Voice/2G/EDGE. So you can get EDGE speeds just dandy on this phone, but not 3G, here in the USA.

Motorola makes great devices which have the latest software, however once you buy the device you get no updates to it which makes it obsolete in a few months! Then they make a new version of the device with the newest software again to lure even more people to their trap. See Motorola Europe pages for example for comments on how Motorola is treating their customers.
[...]

Also in the US, they locked bootloaders of the newer phones which will soon create the same havoc it did as in Europe.

I would stay away from Motorola's products (and I wish that I never bought an Android phone from Motorola)

The Milestone is amazing hardware. But, Motorola appears to be intentionally avoiding keeping this device up to date, and actively preventing advanced customisation of the device unlike the CDMA version of this device, the Droid. This is a massive failure on Motorola's part.

In addition, unless you're in one of a few blessed countries, you cannot gain access to the full spectrum of applications available on the Android market or Google Voice Navigation - thanks very much, Google - you suck even more than Motorola because you pretend to "do not evil".

Severe bugs and support issues plague this device. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Summary;
If you think this device is simply a GSM version of the Droid, it isn't! This device is buggy, not been updated in spite of an update being made available on the Droid in December, has a locked boot loader and cannot run custom ROM's / firmware. Rubbish!

this phone is one of the worst i've had, its very slow, crashes very often, and has barely any space for applications, and has barely any RAM.

in other words, you can't put more than 10 applications, and you can't run more than 2 applications at once.

pro:
-its practically indistructable
-nice display
-thin, but bulky < hard to explain...

cons:
-only has edge connection on tmobile
-slow in terms of running applications, and scrolling through the home screen
-crashes more often than all my other phones put together

I'd much rather use my dad's cellphone the mytouch 4g or the best of the best (aka HTC sensation)

I have had this phone for a week and am blown away by its performance. First of all, it is far easier to use and navigate than the Blackberry Tour which I have just donated to another family member. Secondly, its functions are intuitive and intelligently laid out. You can access practically any feature within a second or two from any of the three homepages available. Thirdly, its call quality via Verizon is outstanding, as good as I have heard on any cell or land-based line. I had no trouble pairing it in my car. They have a number of fun live wallpapers to choose from that give the device a touch of lustre. Overall, easily the best mobile phone I have ever had, and a new benchmark for functionality and ease-of-use.

This is the unlocked version of the Verizon Droid. The Android App Market sees this phone like it sees other phones that have been hacked. Even if you never tamper with your device and buy it from a respectable retail outlet like amazon.com, you still won't be able to access more than half of the android app market because Google considers (for a reason not yet known) this unlocked phone to be hacked.
Be warned.