By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
The most surprising thing about the Motorola Dext, Bell Mobility's new Android-powered phone, is its build quality. As far as sliders go, this is one solid phone. With just the right amount of weight and balance, the Motorola Dext feels like it can take a beating. Performance wise, the Moto Dext runs Android 1.5 well even if this one of the first phones to showcase the social-media centric Motoblur skin.
OSold as the Motorola Cliq in other markets, the Motorola Dext is part of a triumverate of Motoblur-enabled Android phones released to rejuvenate Moto's place in the mobile market. The Dext, which is available exclusively on Bell Mobility for $80.00 on a three-year plan and $400 without a contract, works well in both touchscreen mode and in keyboard mode.
It seems that Motorola took design inspiration from a hand grenade as the Dext feels remarkably solid, has a ridged and very grippy back and has totally nailed the mechanics of the slide out keyboard. There are some nice touch The keyboard has way more play than the one on the Motorola Milestone and is easy enough to type on. We alo like the placement of the directional pad on the left of the keyboard and the backlit Motorola logo on the back.
In order to get started with Motoblur, users need to create an account and then individually access a variety of social media services (Facebook, twitter, Picasa, Photobucket and of course all the Google services). Once this is set up, the Motoblur interface will begin pulling realtime data from all these services and pushing this on your screen. When seen all together on the home screen, these widgets can be a bit overwhelming but accessing them individually brings up a larger version of the widget and works for such things as weather widgets and news readers.
Aside from Motoblur, which seems to constantly require data access to update happenings, Facebook updates and Twitter feeds- you also have access to the Android OS, its markteplace of apps and every feature that's available on Android version 1.5. Being on Bell, you also get a number of extras like the TV and radio access capability which when tested worked extremely well.
Motoblur does have some useful features like a universal inbox that presents all your e-mail from one central interface. This is convenient and useful feature that should be in every smartphone.
Motoblur caters to a specific type of user who needs constant feedback and the ability to constantly check into their networks. It can get a bit frenetic and there are times when you may want to turn it off, but you can't. You do get a number of useful features with Motoblur such as the ability to locate your phone using Motorola's website and should your phone get lost or stolen with no chance of recovery, you can wipe the contents and render it unusable.
Running Motoblur on top of the Android OS also means that it becomes more complicated to update the Android OS to newer versions. It will at least take more time as the new software releases need to be integrated and tested with Motoblur.
Comparing the Dext to the other two Motoblur phones (the Motorola Backflip and the Motorola Quench) we find that the Dext is the heaviest yet the one that feels sturdiest and most substantial. All three feel like quality phones however and do not disappoint in terms of fit and finish. Preference would depend on your provider as well as which form factor seems to work better for your particular needs.
Call quality on the Motorola Dext was impressive specially when using the speakerphone function. Bell's signal and HSPA data was easily accessible around the GTA.
The Motorola Dext is an impressive phone for people who need constant connection to their social media and who prefer firing off their status updates on a slide out keyboard.
Motoblur isn't for everyone and we'd definitely suggest checking it out before buying specially since its not just a feature but a big component of the whole experience.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5