Motorola Offers 'Adolescent Android' in Cliq

Nov. 30, 2009 — -- These days, choosing a smart phone feels a lot like walking through the halls of high school (cue John Mayer's "No Such Thing.")

The super popular iPhones hang out together in the season's hottest fashions, toying with their tailored apps; the Blackberry valedictorian candidates concern themselves with taking care of business; the old school flip phones blast '60s and '70s rock and wonder why the cell phone world isn't as simple as it used to be.

And then, in late 2008, the Android phones entered the scene. No one's quite sure where they fit in.

This year, Motorola has embraced the GoogleAndroid operating system and is trying to create its own cool-kids tables in the cafeteria.

Much of the hype leading up to the holiday season has been dominated by the company's recently released Droid on Verizon, a business-centric powerhouse that sports Android 2.0. However, once the dust settles, people will also remember the Droid's less flashy cousin, the Cliq, over at T-Mobile.

The Cliq also runs on Android (albeit 1.5 not 2.0) and can best be described as an adolescent Android phone, one that has been made simpler by Motorola to have a more "ready right from the box" feel that the iPhone has done so much to create.

Some of Cliq's successes come courtesy of Motorola's MOTOBLUR interface. The point is to push all your various social networking content to the phone and to your homescreen so you always feel connected.

At first blush, I loved this feature. It allowed me to Tweet and Facebook with one hand while wiping away the tears caused by no longer having real friends with the other.

But quickly, I grew tired of the constant barrage of status updates. Even worse, the poor battery life of the phone meant that I had to choose whether to be connected during the day or night, not both -- unless I wanted to lug around a charger all day, which feels way Web 1.0.