It is hard to say when I started looking for this phone. Over a year ago, I knew that there were new laws coming restricting phone usage in cars, so I decided to get a phone with Bluetooth support. However, after making a decision and actually putting a "feature phone" into service, I found that I had too many problems, primarily from provided software, and I decided to look further.
I decided that I needed to spend more and get something Android. With Android, if there were problems, then there would at least be a chance of either finding a fix provided by a third party, or if absolutely necessary, downloading the developer kit and fixing it myseif.
During my research, I found that I preferred having a hardware keyboard. This was not a surprise. I have not been texting, but I do write. Because the main alternative to having a hardware keyboard is to use a screen keyboard, having a hardware keyboard is the rough equivalent of doubling the size of the display. The disadvantages are added weight, thickness and cost.
I had an opportunity to try the Motorola Dext (US T-Mobile "Cliq") and found that there was a lot I liked about that phone:
I also found that despite misgivings about security issues and potential runaway costs, I liked MotoBlur. If I had bought a phone before mid-2010, it would have been the Dext, and I would have switched to Bell Mobility.
Although the Dext was still available on Bell Mobility until around the middle of May 2011 (it was not advertised when I checked on May 20, 2011), and at an even lower price of under $150 Cdn (new), the technology had moved on. Unlike the US version "Cliq", the Canadian Dext did not get an official Android 2.1 upgrade. Users theoretically stuck at Android 1.5, and there were already significant programs that would not run on Android 1.5, such as most of the advanced HTML browsers. This was enough reason for me to look for something a bit better, but still in the original price range of the original Dext.
The Motorola "Cliq 2" was never a realistic option for me because it never came north into Canada officially. Sadly, it looks like it would have been perfect. Any shortcomings in the original "Cliq" had been well addressed. The Motorola "Flipside MB508" from AT&T ($379.99 US) could also have been a viable alternative, but likewise, it never appeared in Canada. After painstaking searching, the closest I could find was the "LG C710h" Shine Plus at about $300 Cdn.
Motorola Cliq/Dext: List Price $400 US. - 114 x 58 x 15.6 mm, 163 g. Display: 320 x 480, 3.1" diagonal (6.5 x 4.3 mm), 256K colours (65K effective), TFT, capacitive touchscreen. Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g CPU: Qualcomm MSM7201A chipset, 528 MHz ARM 11 processor, Adreno 130 GPU.
Motorola Cliq 2: List Price $400 US - 116 x 59.6 x 14.5 mm, 175 g. Display: 480 x 854, 3.7" diagonal, 256K colours, TFT capacitive touchscreen Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot CPU: 1 GHz (no details available)
Motorola Flipside MB508: List Price $379.99 US - 109.5 x 57.5 x 15 mm, 145 g. Display: 320 x 480, 3.1" diagonal, 16M colours*, TFT capacitive touchscreen Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n CPU: TI OMAP3410 chipset, 720 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, PowerVR SGX530 GPU (* Colours according to CNet & PCMag.com)
LG C710: $299.99 Cdn. - 109 x 54.5 x 12.9 mm, 118 g. Display: 480 x 800, 3.2" diagonal (6.92 x 4.15 mm), 256K colours, TFT capacitive Wi-Fi 802.11. b/g/n CPU: Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset*, 600 MHz ARM 11 processor, Adreno 200 GPU
(* According to "Android System Info":
Processor "ARMv6-compatible processor rev 5 (v6l or V6I, not sure) Implementer "0x41", architecture "6TE", variant "0x1", part "0xb36", revision "5"
I tried to check whether this is a Qualcomm MSM7227 or an MSM7627. Qualcomm's webside had no helpful information. From what I found out, I believe that the MSM7227 is used in this product and the MSM7627 is a similar chip with support for CDMA EV-DO phone technology.)
The LG C710h came with "Android 2.1-update1" firmware, which has performed well so far. I have had one crash while trying to initiate a call from within the "Contacts" list. I have read reports that the text messaging is unstable and may crash, losing all its saved text messages, but that was probably an earlier version of the firmware and I expect that it has been corrected. I have not checked for any further firmware updates yet, so it is possible that I am not currently running the latest firmware.
In terms of obvious design issues, the first one that I can point to right now is that I was disappointed with the "Contacts" program. It has separate fields for given name and surname, but it only sorts in that order. I can only wonder what is statistically more common, but I have always used the opposite order (by surname first). Also, the automatic name completion during text entry has some clear bugs in it. If one attempts to force a "caps" on the first letter of a word, it wants to force the first two letters into "caps". There are other problems with this text entry aid.
Apart from the above, my first experiences with the "Shine Plus" have been happy. I am hopeful that after a month of using it, I will have no substantial regrets. It does seem that in this industry, a lack of regrets is rare -- at least for people who are well informed and not lying to themselves.
[2011/05/18], minor revisions [2011/05/22]
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