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| Motorola Droid |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 The Motorola Droid is a fascinating device, and a great addition to Verizon Wireless' lineup. It's the exact opposite of the Motorola CLIQ. While the CLIQ provides an innovative and deeply integrated social networking platform on top of a shoddy piece of hardware, the Motorola Droid is one of the most solid phones we've used, but it adds little to Google's own innovation. That's fine with us, since Google has added plenty of cool new features to Android 2.0 that will change the smartphone market for the better. Google Maps now includes a great, free turn-by-turn navigation system, and the interface gets improvements like a dedicated in-car mode that make us wonder why nobody else thought of this. The Droid hardware is rigidly constructed and loaded with high-end features. We especially liked the dazzling screen that packs more pixels than any other U.S. carrier phone, the 5-megapixel camera (though our unit's camcorder feature was bonked) and the fast processing that kept the system at a steady sprint. Even battery life was great on this phone, a rarity among Android devices. If Verizon Wireless and Motorola really want to dethrone the Apple iPhone 3GS, they'll have to significantly improve the music and video players, and we're hoping to see Flash 10 support in the Web browser sooner rather than later. But in the last couple months, Motorola has made a significant turnaround, and we're pleased to be able to highly recommend a Moto phone once again. Release: November 2009. Price: $200.
Pros: Excellent build quality. High-end features, especially the large display. Google Maps with Navigation is fantastic and free.
Cons: Verizon Wireless didn't add much to Google's stock interface. Camera was disappointing. Most features were superlative, but nothing unique.
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| Motorola Cliq |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 The Motorola CLIQ is the perfect phone for the true social networking junkie. If you like being bombarded with information from your friends, followers and favorite Web sites, the Motorola CLIQ does the best job keeping you in touch with everything. It can be daunting at times, with faces on your desktop changing at random and text bubbles popping up from everywhere. You can customize, since this is Android, but Motorola hasn't done much beyond the deep social networking integration. Besides the frenetic status updates, it's a fairly basic Google Android system, and a disappointing piece of hardware, as well. The phone design lacks any of the tight fitting lines and striking angles of Motorola's RAZR legacy, and instead feels wobbly and cheap, a real disappointment. The Motorola CLIQ isn't as refined as other modern smartphones, notably the HTC Hero or Palm Pre, but it's the perfect phone for a real social networking fiend, and we think that's a growing audience. Release: October 2009. Price: $200.
Pros: Keep all your status updates for all your networks and feeds up top. Easy to update multiple networks at once. Great custom widgets for Android.
Cons: Wobbly hardware design made touchscreen use frustrating. Phone was a bit buggy or unresponsive at times. Battery life poor. Multimedia experience sub-par on Android.
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76%
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| Motorola Rapture VU30 |
| Full review » Features » Gallery » |
 The Motorola Rapture VU30 is a feature packed, light weight flip phone for Verizon Wireless' 3G network. While most of the features work as they should, the phone fails to stand out in any way, except that it does a fairly good job all around. Music features were okay, with good external controls, but the music player and music store were basic and underpowered. Web browsing is a chore, and the camera took lousy pictures, but turn-by-turn navigation worked nicely, and was useful even with the flip closed. Instant messaging and e-mail will be a little disappointing to AOL, MSN and Yahoo fans, and completely unavailable to anyone else. So, everything is accounted for, but nothing is too great, except the price, which is much too great for this phone, with a $170 price tag at launch. For that price, smartphones and pseudo-smartphone abound, and we can't see choosing the Rapture over better phones on The Network (to see our comparison of recent Verizon Wireless flip phones, click here). Overall, it seems like Motorola's hardware does a nice job making things easy, but the phone falls short with lousy software that keeps the features from living up to their potential. Release: October 2008. Price: $20.
Pros: Plenty of shortcut buttons. Light weight. Very good call quality and features. External touchscreen with music controls.
Cons: Lousy messaging apps with few preset options. Basic, disappointing multimedia features. Camera images were poor.
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61%
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| Motorola i9 |
| Full review » Features » Gallery » |
 The Motorola i9 is the most powerful multimedia phone available on the iDEN network, which is kind of like bragging about a new sports car that uses leaded gasoline. The iDEN network is great for walkie-talkie calls, and the Moto i9 gets all the Nextel Direct Connect features business users and Boost Mobile fans crave. But buyers looking for an impressive multimedia device should look elsewhere, as the Motorola i9 comes up short in all of its advanced functions. The music player was basic and difficult to manage. The camera was lousy, and the external controls hardly helped us. Even the phone's design seemed out of touch: an amalgam of the dated RAZR styling with a touch of the Moto ROKR E8's controls. Not a winning combination, if you ask us. We wish Sprint had ditched the iDEN network altogether and stuck with the newer PTT services on their faster EV-DO Rev. A network, the technology used in the more appealing Sanyo Pro 700 phone, as this seems a better fit for the multimedia ambitions of the Motorola i9. If you need a multimedia phone for the Nextel Direct Connect network, the Motorola i9 is your best option by default. But if this is the best Sprint can offer, perhaps iDEN just isn't meant for music and pics. Release: March 2009. Price: $200.
Pros: More multimedia features than other iDEN phones. Large external screen with modeshift controls.
Cons: Flat keypad was hard to use; design seemed dated. Most multimedia features, especially camera and music, don't live up to expectations.
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57%
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| Motorola Tundra |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 The Motorola Tundra is a fine rugged phone, but it won't be our mil-spec phone of choice until the price comes down just a bit. It is a better phone than the Samsung Rugby in some key areas, but only barely. Motorola's Crystal Talk technology really seems to work, and the Tundra has better call quality than any other rugged phone we've seen. But that's the only worthwhile advantage this phone has, and for some customers, the Rugby is good enough to save a few bucks. We liked the interface on the Tundra, and the phone’s bubbly keys and rubber grip made it easy to use, even with gloves on. If you're hoping for an all around multimedia powerhouse tucked into a thick shell, you'll probably be disappointed with the multimedia and Web features on this phone. But buyers looking for a rugged walkie-talkie phone with the best call quality around will be pleased with what they find. Release: January 2009. Price: $200.
Pros: Durable and rugged. Nice buttons. Great call quality with robust calling features.
Cons: Every other feature beyond calling and durability suffers. Poor messaging options, dated Web browser, lousy camera.
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59%
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