Photo gallery: Motorola DextMotorola's handset business has been down in the dumps of late, like Luke Skywalker stuck in the Death Star trash compactor, with the walls slowly closing in ready to crush. In Star Wars, Luke had R2-D2 to save him from oblivion, and in a similar vein, Motorola has turned to an Android to save the day — Google's Android. Can Motorola escape its recent turmoil, blow up the Death Star and put an end to the tyranny of the evil Emperor? Its fate rests with the Motorola Dext.
Showing its softer side
Motorola unveiled its first Android in San Francisco last week as a T-Mobile exclusive under the name Motorola Cliq, just before announcing it would release the same phone outside the US as the Dext. From a distance it seems like Motorola has approached this phone in the right way, focusing on software rather than trying to outdo Nokia and Sony Ericsson on hardware specs.
The Dext will be built from a respectable list of components. Its 3.1-inch touchscreen is coupled with a full QWERTY keyboard, it has HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and sports a flashless 5-megapixel camera. Motorola has opted for a five-way nav pad under the slide, which could cramp up the rest of the keyboard, but we'll have to wait to see if this is a problem.
Socially acceptable
The big news is the introduction of the Motoblur UI. Customised interfaces is one of the things we love about Android, and Motorola's looks like a winner with its focus squarely on social media. Similar to the Palm Pre and HTC's Sense UI for Android, Motoblur will sync contacts from your favourite social networking sites, like Facebook, with your phone's address book, keeping track of changes to user profile images.
Motoblur also comes packed to the rafters with home screen widgets, allowing you to monitor your friends' updates and tweets without having to open an app or link to a web page. While you're gawking at their recent activity you can comment or update your own status, again without having to leave the home screen.
Also included with the software is an online backup location for all of your private details and the ability to remotely wipe the phone. If you lose your phone you can activate a GPS tracking service, and after you've recovered the phone you can backup the data you remotely wiped directly from the Motorola server.
The Motorola Dext may not have the design to set hearts aflutter, but Motorola's commitment to software shows promise for the future. There's no firm yet as to an Australian release date, so stay tuned for news as it comes to hand. For now, take a peek at the launch video posted by our colleagues in the US.
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