Motorola Milestone XT720 review

The latest version of the Motorola Milestone, the XT720, is radically different from the original. It lacks the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but improves the camera’s sensor from 5- to 8-megapixels and adds a Xenon flash. Without the keyboard, it’s much thinner, but it still retains the chunky design and weighs the same. It also has the same 550MHz processor and runs Android 2.1, which supports multiple accounts, Microsoft Exchange and HTML5.

One of the main selling points of the XT720 is its 720p video capture capability (hence the name), but sadly it’s very disappointing. For a start, you don’t get an 8GB microSD card in the box as with the original Milestone, so if you want to shoot video for any length of time you’ll need to invest in at least a 4GB card. Captured video is also poor, suffering from banding and noise, especially indoors, and the camera doesn’t handle movement very well.

However the camera performs remarkably well for a phone camera and, in good light, it produces pleasing images. Photos are a little over-exposed, though, and not as sharp as they could be due to aggressive noise reduction. Chromatic aberrations are also a problem on high-contrast edges. In poorer lighting conditions, the camera struggles – there’s a lot of colour shifting and chroma noise. The flash is adequate for snapshots while you’re out and about, but it’s not powerful enough to light distant subjects.

Motorola’s designs always split opinion. The XT720 has a blocky design, but its weight makes it feel well-built, as does the rubberised back; the latter also improves grip. The capacitive touchscreen is responsive, but it lacks an oleophobic coating and is quickly smeared with oily finger-swipes.

Even with multiple apps open, the phone feels quick despite its relatively slow processor. Meanwhile, the battery lasted for almost two days in our light usage test, which is remarkable for an Android phone.

Motorola’s customisations are subtle. As well as Android’s standard apps, you get a few extra utilities such as a task manager and file manager, a trial version of the Motonav navigation software and an app that lets you define custom gestures. An interesting Phone Portal app lets you connect to your PC via USB or WiFi to manage the phone’s contents from your PC, and lastly there’s a copy of QuickOffice for viewing office files.

Charging is done via a microUSB slot that also handles data transfer, and there’s a Mobile HDMI Type D slot for outputting video and audio. A standard 3.5mm headphone socket is another welcome addition, and there’s a volume rocker on the right side. As well as a camera shutter button, there’s a smaller button that lets you switch between still camera, video camera, and video playback, with three backlit icons in the bulge on the side of the phone indicating which mode you’re in.

While the XT720’s battery life is exemplary, its headline feature – 720p video – is badly implemented, and its design may leave you cold. It’s available on contract for as little as £25 per month, and we’d recommend choosing the Unlimited Internet bundle rather than Unlimited Texts.

If you don’t mind its Quasimodo looks (complete with “hump”), and are happy investing in a memory card, the XT720 is a perfectly functional, great value Android phone with good battery life. However as a 720p video camera it fails miserably, and so just misses out on an award.