New Android users will dig the Cliq

In a bid to turn around their aging handset lineup, Motorola is now focusing on bringing a slew of Android powered smart phones to the market.

The one time handset giant, which hasn't enjoyed a runaway hit since the RAZR, is counting on the new open source Android OS along with new hardware designs to win back users that have jumped ship since the iPhone and other game changers have come to market. Their first release , the Motorola Cliq, available now through T-Mobile aims to do just that by combining the Android OS with a special social media interface called Motorola Blur UI.

Read on to find out if the Cliq is right for you.

Hardware:

The Moto Cliq's design may seem familiar for those aquatinted with the first Android phone to market, the T-Mobile G1 , if for no other reason than it's only the second Android phone sold with a hardware keyboard. Fortunately, the comparison pretty much ends there. Although the Cliq doesn't necessarily introduce anything groundbreaking with its hardware, it does implement some design changes that are most welcome to the Android lineup.

For those Android-ites who have struggled with a quick and easy way to turn off their ringtone at a moments notice, the Cliq has introduced a toggle switch similar to that on the iPhone which toggles the ringer on and off without the need to even wake the phone up. It also has a almost completely revamped face button system, with only three buttons on the front panel (to the G1's four), and also lacks a trackball making the face less cluttered than older Android offerings. A definite good thing for many wanting to join in the Android fun but not wanting to pull out a device such as the G1, that some comment looks like 1982 (I love the G1, but its style's not for everyone). The fourth "missing" face button, power on/off, has been shifted from the front of the phone to the right edge, giving it an out of the way feeling that sometimes feels just a little too out of the way at times. It can be difficult to find even when looking, and users with large hands like myself may find that while trying to push the power off button, the phone starts to slide open making it awkward to turn off with one hand as you get the feeling that you don't have a firm grip on the device.

Keyboard extended, the Cliq shows off its most personal design element; a hidden light up Motorola Blur logo on the backside of the screen half of the phone. Normally I'm not one to appreciate multiple logos covering any device I use, but in this case it is a nice finishing touch, not detracting from the design of the handset itself. It's almost like having the Motorola version of the Bat Signal on your phone, sans Chief Gordon.

The keyboard itself appears well laid out at first glance, and even has special lighting that illuminates the symbol functions of the keys separate from the letters when you press the alt key. It does however have a crowded bottom row, which means it can be downright painful at times to find the space bar and also to press the alt key needed to access the symbol functions. I found it uncomfortable to use because of the spacing, and in general I found I always wanted the keyboard to open a little more than it was made to.

Housed along with the sliding keyboard is the trackball replacing D-Pad, which worked smoothly in every case I needed, even if its inconvenient to use since it forces one to have the hard keyboard open. In my opinion, an optical trackpad on the face would have been a better way to go, giving the keyboard more space for typing and not necessitating the phone being open. Or even better yet, a D-Pad made of optical trackpads!

But I digress...

The most problematic part of the Cliq's hardware for me is also one of the most important in general with a touchscreen phone; the touchscreen. While playing my favorite Android word game, Wixel Lite , it was very apparent that at times sections of the screen can become non-responsive, and allow you to select everything around what you are trying to select except the needed item itself. Which in the Cliq's case is only exacerbated by the lack of any input device on the face except for the screen itself. In spite of this hiccup, most uses of the touchscreen were fine, with very little lag on switching home screens that one would almost expect from a phone relying heavily on widget use.

The screen is however noticeably smaller than even the G1 screen, and this makes me wonder why Moto couldn't have used something a bigger or at least a better technology like an AMOLED instead of its plain LED screen. Although in fairness the Cliq is being sold as more of a mid-low pricepoint handset, and as such one cant expect all the latest and greatest as they need to keep the price to a certain level.

Other hardware aspects on the Cliq are very much in line with what one would expect from a modern smartphone, with a 3.5 mm headphone jack up top, a slot for a micro sd card which wont win over any developers

for its ill-fated placement in the battery compartment, and a 5 MP camera/camcorder. Music sounded good through the Cliq's 3.5 mm jack, and it was nice not to have to use an adapter, or special proprietary plug to get our cans connected. The lack of standard 3.5 mm jacks has been an issue with some Android phones in the past although the storm seems to be letting up on that front with even proprietary tech champion Sony Ericsson's upcoming Android powered X10 containing one.

Swapping micro SD cards can be an issue with the Cliq if you're inclined to change your card out frequently, as it is contained behind the battery panel which needs to be removed during a swap. I suppose one can always use the included usb cord for transferring music and photos but the option to swap easily would have been nice, especially for those on the move, what I imagine to be the Cliq's intended target audience.

Cliq also houses a 5 MP camera on it's back which produces descent shots in good lighting, but at the same time loses points by not including a flash of any type. The camera produces on average acceptable stills and video, especially when compared to older Android phones.

Another addition, a white pulsing notification light on the face of the handset lets you know when you have new updates to check out and it is happily coupled next to a very welcome proximity sensor which turns the screen on and off automatically when you get close to the earpiece in a phone call situation. Both feature work well although after some time you notice you get so many social updates that it barely gets to turn off.

In general the Cliq feels solid in the hand, both in phone weight and construction, even though the handset seems to be mostly plastic. It's rounded corners and general shape give it a definite one up on the G1, and it has almost none of the elements (chin, retro-industrial styling) that made the G1 such a design pariah.

Software:

Upon turning on the Cliq, you are asked to create an account with Motorola's Blur system. After entering a name and password, it's here that you enter account information for your social networks such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, LastFM, Photobucket, and Picasa as well as any email addresses you may use including Exchange email. After that the Cliq does the rest by grabbing all your contacts within each social network and pulling them into the phone's contact list. The Cliq recognizes no borders within social networking, and pulls all contacts from any of your synced accounts into one centralized contact list for better or worse. In theory the practice of having all your contacts in one place sounds great, but for heavy social network users, it can quickly devolve to the feeling that you're in the center of a very crowded room. Fortunately, they've built in a way to limit contacts to only the network you want to see by pressing directly at the top of the contacts list to change sources.

After drawing in your contact information, you are taken to the Blur home screen which is filled with separate Blur UI only social widgets for your status, your happenings, and your messages. The status widget is just as it sounds–a convenient place to quickly update your status for Facebook or Twitter without having to delve deeper into the OS. The happenings and messages widgets are a little more complicated, but still remain fairly easy to use. Happenings is a spot where all of the public messages directed to you (think FB wall posts, and Twitter @ replies) can live on the home screen, while Messages holds your private messages like email and direct private messages from Facebook, Twitter, and any used email addresses.

Both Happenings and Messages widgets work beautifully for the most part, although there are a few rough spots yet to be ironed out. The issue affecting the Happenings widget is at times depending on how many friends you have on each social network, it can quickly become a daunting list of hundreds of status updates and other info which at first glance can only be seen one item at a time. Once you explore the widget enough though you find that if you press on the header of the widget itself, your information will flow into a chronological list which is much more easily managed than the one-up design. Issues with the Messages widget aren't as glaring, but it too can still be annoying as the widget displays only the most rudimentary of message information. Anything more than reading the text of the message itself requires you open the email program, a strange choice for the Blur system which on all other fronts pounds the senses with an abundance of data.

The only other special Blur-only widget worth mentioning is the News RSS widget. RSS readers are a fairly self explanatory idea and they work exactly the way you picture. Like other RSS technology, the News RSS widget allows you to display stories either from preset bundles or custom feeds depending on your interests. It took less than 30 seconds to