Motorola Cliq: First impressions of the third Google Android phone

The Cliq is Motorola's first phone with the Android operating system, which thus far is only supported by two phones, the T-Mobile G1 and myTouch (both made by HTC). The Cliq will debut on T-Mobile some time in the fourth quarter of 2009 for an undisclosed price. We got a peek at it last week at a New York City press event, and we were generally impressed.

Measuring 2.28 x 4.49 x 0.61 in, the Cliq about the size of an iPhone, only thicker. That's probably because it has a slide out QWERTY keyboard, with well-spaced keys. But you can also summon a virtual keyboard on the Cliq's large, multi-touch display, which at 178 dots per inch (DPI), is technically sharper than the 160DPI iPhone display. (We'll see how they actually compare in full tests once we buy the Cliq.) It also sports a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus, built-in Wi-Fi, and a full Web browser.

But the Cliq's most intriguing quality is Motoblur, a cool interface that sits on top of the Android desktop. Using widgets, Motoblur smartly links related applications under one view. For example, subscribers to Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and other social-networking applications can see and interact with all of their alerts in the Happenings screen. A small icon to the right of the message lets you know from which network the alert came. You can also link all of your social networks so that you update them with one "blast" from the Cliq's home screen.

There's also an integrated contact view, which like that on the Palm Pre, collects phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and other contact data from a variety of sources and puts it under one name. Also like the Pre, you can see all of your e-mails and text messages on one screen, even if you have many different accounts. Just flick the message off the screen when you're done with it. Data from these sources, such as photos, status and contact details, are updated automatically. Ditto for the Cliq's calendar.

Motoblur's Newsfeed widget can link to many news feeds for constant updates.

We didn't have time to see how well the Cliq handles photos, music, and other multimedia, but Motorola claims you will be able to easily sync playlists and music from both iTunes and Windows Media Player.

We look forward to further dissecting this intriguing specimen in our labs very soon. Stay tuned for the details. —Mike Gikas