Motorola describe the Android 2 based Milestone as “The Phone Without Compromise” so in this series of articles we’ll look at it closer so see whether it lives up to it’s name.

First impressions are very good – read on…

First off, the box is worth a mention – the device arrived in a small, easily accessible, box – complete with the phone itself, a getting started guide, Media Link software on CD, a pair of headphones (together with clip and additional protectors), a USB cable, and a USB charger plug. No over the top fussy packaging, no difficult to get into sealed plastic casings – moments after the phone arrived it was out of the box and ready for charging.

The device feels very solid, and well engineered, when held in the hand. In this sense it feels on par with the Apple iPhone 3GS – it feels slightly heavier but that’s probably down to the killer feature on the device – the sliding keyboard – but we’ll get to that shortly.

Around the device are a number of buttons and connectors including a 3.5mm headphone jack, sensibly placed on the top of the device, together with the power button. A volume tilt key is located on the right hand side, together with the camera key. On the left hand side of the device is a micro USB connector. On the front of the device is the screen, a status indicator light, and four touch buttons: Back, Menu, Home, and Search.

The most immediate thing that grabs you about the phone is the 3.7” WVGA 854×480 capacitive touch screen display. The screen is bigger than most phones currently available and the extra screen real estate is welcomed especially when you consider the sliding keyboard.

The killer feature of the Motorola Milestone in addition to the Android OS v2, in my opinion anyway, is revealed in a side sliding QWERTY style keypad with decent size keys and a D-Pad arrangement on the right hand side which is a great idea. The keys are flat, using a membrane in order to keep the phone thin, but it doesn’t adversely affect typing – I found it quite comfortable to use. Bearing in mind the phone has a slide out keyboard the Milestone is still incredibly thing.

I have been using it for a short while now and so far the Motorola Milestone has taken the edge over my current favourite phone, the HTC Hero, and it’s quickly become the one I pick up to use when I’m out and about.

I’ll be posting another article about the Motorola Milestone shortly, stay tuned…