Mobility Digest Review: Motorola CLIQ XT

I’m back with another review today for you, this one is of the Motorola Cliq XT that’s running Android. The first thing I have to say is that this is a lower end phone, similar to the Motorola Backflip that I already own which I don’t care too much for honestly. The same can be said for the Cliq XT as well, the hardware inside of this phone just isn’t up to the task of handling what you might want to do with it. The price on this phone right now on T-Mobile is Free so that’s something anyway. One of the great things about Android is all of the apps and games out there today, and you’re not going to be doing any type of 3d gaming on this phone at all. The interface itself is rather slow and sluggish, have a couple things running and you’ll know it surely as the phone will just slow to a crawl. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for budget style phones but not when they sacrifice the end-user experience as this one does.

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Vendor: Motorola

Price: from T-Mobile

Suggested retail: $329.99
Instant discount: -$180.00
Web-only discount: -$149.99
Price: FREE
*2 Year Contract

Overall Rating: 3/5

Motorola CLIQ XT

Get Social With a Touch! Powered by MOTOBLUR and offering Flash-enabled software and a pinch and zoom screen, CLIQ XT lets you experience the Web in a way that adds a whole new dimension to your social life.

5 Megapixel Camera
With quality worth printing, now you can really enjoy those special moments captured on your phone. You can also share them with family and friends by sending them to any e-mail address, T-Mobile camera phone, or MyAlbum.

GPS built-in
et your real-time location on maps, driving directions, and more

Proximity Sensor
A built-in proximity sensor turns your screen off when you are on a call so you don’t accidentally hang up, then turns it back on as you move the phone away.

Touch Screen with On-Screen Keyboard
Everything your phone can do is now literally at your fingertips. A high resolution touch screen gives you fast and fun access to your phone’s display.

Size: 4.6 x 2.3 x 0.61 inches
Weight:  4.2 ounces
Included battery: 1420 mAh Lion
Talk time: up to 7 hours
Standby time: up to 19 days

What’s in the Box?

Here’s the video unboxing:

The phone comes with a USB style charger, USB cable, two different back covers, documentation and a wired headset.

The Cliq XT is nice and small, but it feels heavy for its size. The phone though does fell well made, it’s nice and sturdy and it’s small so it can just fit right in your pocket. On the front you’ll find a touch screen and below that you’ll notice the now familiar Android style buttons.

The phone comes with two covers a rather smooth metallic purple one and a black textured style cover.

There’s not much on the back, but the 5mp camera and a flash.

On the top you’ll find the audio jack:

On the sides you’ll find volume, microSD port, and camera along with power/lock buttons.

Removing the cover you’ll find the battery, sim card and microSD slot.

Impressions / Review:

The Cliq XT is running Android 1.5. Normally I don’t complain about the OS version a phone is running but 1.5 is just old. It’s like still running Windows XP right now when Windows 7 is out and a far superior option.

It’s Android so you’ll see the familiar sliding screens with a lot of social and messaging options integrated in. The buttons on the bottom below the screen do light up.

The keyboard is an Android style keyboard, when in portrait mode it just seems a bit to small for my uses, but in landscape it’s fine.

The dialer is nice, I like nice large dialers on phones, it of course makes dialing that much easier.

One thing great is there isn’t much crap on here.

Call quality is very good, I don’t have a problem with T-Mobile here in Pittsburgh at all.

Signal was fine as well, no matter where I went I had a signal but browsing seems kind of slow on the Cliq XT.

While using the phone I did find that it gets rather warm, and can get actually uncomfortable in your pocket.

 

Gaming is just horrid, at least 3D gaming is. I loaded up a racing game and it was just so slow it’s was unplayable honestly. It’s not even worth trying…

Lastly is the camera, and it’s rather minimalistic in terms of options. The viewfinder shows number of pictures, flash, and zoom. When you tap the screen a small menu will appear at the bottom.

Here’s the options, it might look like a lot, but there’s not many options per page, expect for color effects where you’ll find a lot of them

Here’s some sample pictures taken indoors in a bright room from varying distances and zoomed in.

The pictures aren’t bad, but they’re not what I would call good either. Surprisingly though the close ups are pretty good. You really have to hold the phone still though to get a decent picture indoors.

Here’s all the effect, while interesting I still find them kind of pointless especially if the camera can’t take good pictures.

Conclusion:

The Cliq XT is an interesting little phone surely, but I don’t think it’s one that I would want in my pocket at all. Even at the ‘Free’ price I wouldn’t want one. I might be a bit biased here, but once you use a phone with decent hardware specs in it you won’t want something like the Cliq XT at all.

The phone can get sluggish when you’re running more than a couple apps, to the point where you’re actually waiting for the phone to respond to your input.

The hardware in the phone is just not good enough to handle the Android platform and what you want to do. Sure it’s only 1.5, but I don’t think even putting a newer version on it would do much good honestly.

Pros:
+Two different covers
+Nice small phone
+Good call quality on T-Mobile

Cons:
-Phone can’t handle 3D gaming at all
-Slow interface
-Pictures aren’t that great
-Phone gets rather warm