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MWC 2010

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Samsung Wave Sony Ericsson Garmin Nuvifones Moto Cliq XT

Motorola is really cranking out new Android phones these days. The Cliq XT is essentially a keyboard-less version of the Cliq. This allows the XT to be dramatically thinner.

Moto Cliq XT

The XT has a small touch pad below the display for scrolling. This is like the "optical mouse" on some recent phones, but using technology more like the touch pad on a laptop. Surrounding the touch pad are the standard four Android navigation keys: home, menu, back and search. I was delighted to discover that these are actual physical keys, not touch keys, and they're decent keys, too.

The design is distinctive and not-unattractive. The back has a nice-feeling texture. It feels good in hand. The build quality is decent. With a 5-megapixel camera and WiFi, the features are respectable.

Like the Cliq, the Cliq XT has BLUR, Motorola's layer of software over Android that adds a plethora of social networking features. Blur is built on Android 1.5, so, at least for now, the Cliq XT runs a relatively old version of Android. That may affect compatibility with third-party software going forward, as developers increasingly target newer versions of Android. We hope Motorola can update BLUR to run on newer version of Android, and roll that out to existing phones.

Our favorite feature of the Cliq XT is Swype text entry. This impressive software lets you enter whole words just by dragging your finger across the virtual QWERTY keyboard in one motion. It's remarkably accurate even if you aren't. Motorola told us it will be standard on the Cliq XT, which is great news.

Look for the Cliq XT in March on T-Mobile USA.

Here's a quick video of the key features:

Next page: Windows Phone 7

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