By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

As another challenger to Apple’s ubiquitous iPhone, the Motorola Milestone from Telus has to the potential to be the better Smartphone featuring Google’s Android operating system. The Motorola Milestone sells for $199 on a three-year lockdown with Telus, or contract-free for $599. Let’s see if it delivers the goods.

Motorola’s Milestone (known as the GSM version of the Verizon Droid) runs on Google’s Android OS 2.0 platform, codenamed “Éclair,” which includes some “new and improved” features like multi-touch, Microsoft Exchange support, updated Google Maps and optimized performance. Currently, Android phones available from various Canadian carriers use the first version of the Android OS, version 1.5, AKA “Cupcake,” which is now nearly a year old.

But an up-to-date operating system isn’t Milestone’s only contemporary feature – which, face it, isn’t really a wowser, more like a “yeah? And?”

As smartphone from the once-mighty Motorola, extras such as the simplified hands free car operation called Moto Car Home and Motonav turn-by-turn GPS voice navigation capabilities are also included.

Attempting to offer the best of both worlds, the Motorola Milestone can capably function purely as a touch-enabled smartphone in “candy-bar” mode with the slide-out keyboard retracted. Naturally, extending the device’s QWERTY keyboard frees up significant screen real estate.

Said keyboard is a flat surface with its keys etched out in a clean, utilitarian grid. A beveled touchpad sits on the far right for thumb navigation.

Typing on the physical keyboard is intuitive enough. You can type at a reasonable speed with two thumbs, though it takes some practice. Built-in error-correction works well and offers up commonly used words as well as corrections to often-misspelled words on-the-fly.

Keyboard aside, the Milestone’s large, 3.7-inch capacitive screen is bright, extremely responsive to touch controls and does a very good job of showing video and photos with no discernible lag or stutter. Its 854 x 460 resolution makes it easy on the eyes – it certainly holds its own against similar smartphones, though it’s not quite as crisp as some of the recent AMOLED smartphone displays out there.

The Milestone also sports a 5-megapixel camera made all the more exciting as Telus is generous enough to bundle a 16GB MicroSD card with each Milestone, which supports cards up to 32GB.

But while the camera takes reasonably clear snapshots, they’re triggered by an awkward and oddly placed button on the side. For a device with a handy-dandy touchscreen staring you in the face as you coddle it with your thumbs, employing a side-button shutter-snapper makes no sense, but there it is.

Also, you’ll want mute the camera’s “click” sound, which is way too loud and downright jarring otherwise.

As for video capture, Milestone does that too, but what Motorola terms as “DVD quality” video is off the mark, or a least a very loose use of the term. Then again, Motorola doesn’t say what DVD video was used as the benchmark for “quality.”

Still, it’s a Smartphone first and foremost, and the Motorola Milestone is by far the fastest Android phone yet tested, particularly evident with internet searches and getting Google Maps to determine locations and getting directions.

Battery life on a Milestone is surprisingly good, lasting almost three days with the Wi-Fi radio on and a bunch of applications downloaded, installed and tested. Even better, it takes less than three hours to fully recharge.

Interestingly, Telus Milestone gets better reception in more places than the Telus iPhone 3GS, which is prone to losing a 3G signal where the Milestone sustained solid strength for both voice and data.

Similarly, accessing the Android Market to find free Apps for the Milestone is a quick and easy affair. This week’s inclusion of  Paid Apps (the good stuff) on the  Canadian Android Market gives users more latitude in how they can use their smartphones.

Overall, the Motorola Milestone really showcases where the Google Android OS is headed. As a smartphone, it has tremendous potential, especially for users who crave a physical keyboard, large memory capacity and access to Google’s more advanced cloud applications.

But there’s the rub: Milestone has the potential to be better than iPhone. Weak photo/video functionality aside, it’s a great smartphone in its own right.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5