Motorola DEXT hands-on preview

The DEXT is Motorola’s first Android handset, so we were keen to get a closer look at it to see how it compares to the other handsets using the OS that are currently ambling onto the market. That’s just what we got when we attended the phone’s launch.

Going against the current trend of touchscreen-only Android handsets, the DEXT packs in a slide-out Qwerty keyboard to go with its 3.1-inch screen. Thankfully, both perform pretty well. The touchscreen is the capacitive type, making it very responsive to even the lightest of pokes. We didn’t notice much lag either, putting the DEXT touchscreen navigation up there with the best from HTC.

The keyboard’s buttons have a fairly satisfying click to them too, while each key is contoured, making it easy to use without constantly looking at the thing – once you’ve got used to its dimensions at least. It doesn’t take up the full length of the device as there’s also D-pad to the left of the Qwerty.

As you might imagine with a keyboard of this stature, symbols and numbers are inputted by holding down an ‘Alt’ key rather than having their own dedicated keys. The top Qwerty line is reserved for numbers, which is arguably a little under-optimised, but is at least intuitive in its conventionality.

Other than being Motorola’s first Android phone, the DEXT is also a showcase for the company’s MotoBlur system, which is essentially the manufacturer’s take on Android. The tweaks it brings are simple, but should be useful for those with a bit of a thing for social networks.

MotoBlur harvests information from all the major social networks – including Facebook and Twitter – and sets up all your friends as contacts. If your friend’s phone number is listed on their Facebook profile, for example, it’ll be stored on the DEXT automatically. MotoBlur even keeps track of any changes too, so you can essentially just let it work its magic in the background.

If your Facebook friends list is just too voluminous to handle, you can just refer to the phone’s standard contacts list too. After all, who hasn’t got social networking friends they’d never dream of contacting in the ‘real world’?

Widgets for these networks are included as standard on the phone. Drop one on one of the DEXT’s home screens and you’ll be able to keep up with the latest gossip right from your mobile.

MotoBlur steps in once more here too. The last update, say the last Twitter post on your feed, shows up as a speech bubble over the widget itself, giving you even more instantaneous social networking fix.

As long as you don’t mind having you home screens filled with this speech bubbles, it means that MotoBlur is at least level-pegging with HTC’s Sense, the tweaked version of the Android OS used in the HTC Hero. Of course, the DEXT’s Qwerty keyboard means it’s got features above this rival too.

It comes with a cost though. The DEXT is a fairly weighty device, and reasonably chunky too. While the slide-out mechanism seems solid enough, there’s actually a tiny gap between the keyboard and screen sections, so it doesn’t look quite as slick as some slide-out handsets. Mind you, it looks better than the Qwerty-packing Android G1, with its genuinely wonky slide-out mechanism.

There are a few nice design touches too. You don’t need to remove to battery to access either the SIM or microSD slot, for example, and with the keyboard hidden, it’s a pleasantly simple-looking device.

We haven’t managed to get a proper look at the camera quality, but it’s not really one of the DEXT’s strongest features, in spite of its 5-megapixels.

There’s no flash and no sliding protection for the lens. The lens sits at the very top of the phone’s back, and there is at least a physical button you can use to take photos.

With MotoBlur’s additional functionality sure to appeal to a good number of those looking for an Android phone, the DEXT seems a good entry to the market, especially with the Qwerty seeming, at least on first impressions, pretty decent.

We’ll be back with a full review of the Motorola DEXT soon.

Motorola DEXT at Dial-a-Phone