Motorola Milestone review

Another improvement is the ability to add multiple accounts, including support for Exchange accounts which is handy if your office uses Exchange for work email and calendaring. A new Universal Inbox brings together all your emails from multiple accounts, although you’ll have to enter your Google Mail account into the normal email app rather than the dedicated Gmail app for this to work.

The Contacts app also shows contacts from each account you’ve added, but you can choose which ones to display. Sadly calendaring isn’t similarly integrated, and there are separate calendar apps for Google and Exchange accounts. Android 2.0 is meant to let developers import data from more sources, but it’s early days yet. For example, Facebook’s latest app lets you add a Facebook account, but unfortunately it doesn’t import your friends into the Contacts app or show Facebook emails in your Inbox.

While Motorola’s implementation of Android 2.0 is mainly standard we can’t work out why it hasn’t included its own Motoblur software. Initially we decided this was because many of the features of Motoblur would be duplicated by Android 2.0’s new features, but Motorola has done little to customise Eclair or make using the Milestone as seamless an experience as Motoblur on the Dext.

In fact, Motorola has hardly changed the basic Android experience at all. The home screen, which only offers three “panes”, looks like a vanilla Android installation, and there’s little to distinguish it from any other (forthcoming) Android 2.0 phone. The only exception is a 60-day trial of Motorola’s Motonav navigation software, which makes up for the fact that Google’s own Maps Navigation software doesn’t work outside the US yet.

MotoNav isn’t the most sophisticated satnav software, and while it has 3D landmarks and buildings, these make the map load slowly. Maps and points of interest for the UK and Europe are included. The screen is just large enough to make it readable, although you’ll need to buy the optional car mount kit for £26 to use it comfortably in the car. Google Maps Navigation should be released outside the US sometime in the next few months however, so there’s little need to upgrade from the 60-day trial.