Motorola Milestone XT720 announced: 8 megapixel cam, 720p video, and Droid heritage (update: video!)
6/08/2010 01:33:00 AM
kenmouse
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Motorola Milestone XT720
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Motorola has just outed a Europe-bound Milestone XT720, a handset intended to grab the attention of camera lovers with an 8 megapixel sensor, 720p / 24fps video and -- a first for Android handsets -- a xenon flash. Speaking of Android, this will come loaded up with version 2.1 when it launches later this month. Plans for 2.2 upgrades are, as usual, not yet formalized and not under discussion. Other specs include a 3.7-inch, 480 x 854 screen, a 550MHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU, and a promised 9 hours of talk time and 320 hours of standby time. It looks very much like Moto's selection of Droid-esque handsets that have been prowling the Chinese market, and it seems the company has enjoyed success with the keyboard-less form factor and is pushing it out to Europe. US release plans are also not being discussed -- it might happen and it might not, seems to us like it'll depend on the Euros' reaction. We're just getting to grips with the handset right now, and will furnish you with video of it as soon as we can.
P.S. We're told this handset is closer to the Motoroi than anything else, Motorola describes them as sister devices. We also spotted a network update from Orange on the demo handset, implicating it as a possible carrier for the XT720 in the UK.
We've now got Motorola's a promo video after the break, as well as some comparison pics between this new handset and the original Milestone. And we've just added our hands-on impressions and video, you know where to find them.
Okay, so Motorola's big push here is "real world performance," meaning that we shouldn't just report the cold hard specs but also note how swift and buttery-smooth the XT720 is in use. Which tends to be exactly what people say when they're trying to promote a 550MHz processor in a gigahertz world. But let's not be too hasty here, it's quite true that the stock Android 2.1 ran without any hitches while we were playing with this new Milestone, and Moto is confident enough to say that this handset is "Flash 10.1-ready," suggesting Froyo is going to come out of the pantry at some point. Determining whether these claims stand up to scrutiny will require us spending some more quality time with the XT720.
One thing we can say already, though, is that the ergonomics of the phone feel all wrong. The surface of the touchscreen had too much friction to it, preventing the featherlight swipes that characterize the finest devices in this class, and the redundant protrusion on the lower right of the phone also doesn't help things. You'll see both problems in our hands-on video below -- sure, we're clumsy at the best of times, but the XT720 didn't help one-handed operation with its odd shape. Then there's also -- a more aesthetic concern here -- the fact that the front and back parts seem to have been designed by different teams. The matte blue backplate is in the spirit of the Droid, dominated by angles and straight lines, while the front end exhibits curves, a glossy metallic surround, and an ultra-glossy display. Go figure.
The overall vibe we got from this meetup was one of mild disappointment -- many of us have been breathing heavily in anticipation of a keyboard-less Droid, but if this is the best Moto can do, we'll just have to look elsewhere. The XT720 is 10.9mm thick to the Droid's 13.7mm, but as you can see in our comparison gallery, that's not really a quantifiable difference when you look at the two phones ... in the real world.
Either way, this blast from the xenon flash future is coming at us fast, with pre-orders starting from online retailers like Play and Expansys on June 11, and carrier announcements set to follow swiftly. We've already mentioned Orange as a pretty likely candidate, and the XT720's spec sheet also throws up 1700/2100 3G frequencies, which makes it compatible with T-Mobile's network in the USA -- should Moto decide to visit the phone upon its home market.
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