Launching today through Telus (except in Manitoba or Saskatchewan), the Motorola Milestone is already presenting a confusing issue, one that I’ve never encountered before as a reviewer and is rather difficult to explain, so please bear with me.

The Milestone is the Canadian and European version of the Droid, which launched last year in the United States to much acclaim. Time Magazine even declared it their “Gadget of the Year”. It is the first Motorola phone to be powered by Google’s own software and at the time of the US launch was running the latest version, Android 2.0.

Since then Google has released a new version of their software, Android 2.1, to support the launch of their own Google-designed phone, the Nexus One, with a number of new features including multi-touch controls for the web browser, weather and news widgets, and an updated Google Maps among additional animated effects and visual enhancements.

Just last week, Motorola announced on their Facebook page that they would be issuing an update for the Google software on the Droid/Milestone so it could have all the new features too. This free update is expected in the US “soon” and will be coming to other world markets as well. Canada wasn’t mentioned in the announcement, but with the timing being what it is, you’d expect the phone to launch here with the new software already added, especially as there is no Canadian release date set for Google’s own Nexus One. Motorola could offer all the new Android features here in Canada first, making the Milestone more attractive.

I’ve been testing a Milestone now for more than a week and have been checking with Motorola Canada for details on any planned update. Will they launch an updated Milestone today or go ahead with the old software and apply the update later? At this time, the company can only confirm that it will launch today, Feb. 16th, through Telus for $200 on a three-year term. My review unit is still running the old 2.0 software and so I can only assume that what is being sold at stores today is the same.

This means that, for you the consumer, I can offer little advice. Is it okay to buy the Milestone today or should you wait? Wait until the update is delivered or wait for the Nexus One to get its launch in Canada? I have no answers and if that doesn’t instill much confidence, we’re on the same page.

Here then is my review of what I’ve been testing and as new developments on this issue rise, I’ll see about coming back to revise it.

The Motorola Milestone

Different wireless carriers use different kinds of networks and so Motorola has had to create two versions of the same phone. Identical, except that one, the “Droid”, is designed for Verizon’s CDMA-based network in the US and the other, the “Milestone”, is designed for Telus’ HSPA network here in Canada.

The Milestone represents the best of two worlds. Google excels at software and online-based services while Motorola is at their best when engineering new handsets. Combined, they work better together in becoming a smartphone than the previous “Google phones” before it.

Design

It’s of a solid build, if not the most attractive-looking phone. It certainly doesn’t have the sense of style that Motorola is known for the in past. Imagine three slabs, elongated in length, stacked atop each other unevenly. The sides aren’t flush with each other and so in handling it, I find it to be all corners. It’s black with two little bronze, but muted accents.

It has a physical, slide-out QWERTY keyboard that, thanks to the Milestones substantial width, is well spaced out, but the keys are flush so you’ll need to pinch them in order to type. Next to it is a little directional pad so you can quickly navigate through menu screens. Both are back-lit for use in the dark quite beautifully.

The screen switches orientation with the keyboard, displaying in landscape for typing when the keyboard is out, and back to portrait when tucked away. In this closed mode, you have the touchscreen supported by four touch-sensitive buttons at the bottom – “back”, “menu”, “home”, and “search”. I must confess, except for the back button, I rarely use these.

Hidden along the edges are volume controls, a power button, 3.5 mm headphone jack, mini-USB jack, and a shutter button for the built-in 5 MP camera.

What really sets the Milestone apart from other Android phones is what lies underneath the hood. An Arm Cortex A8 550 Mhz processor assures a great deal of performance speed while Motorola’s own phone technology adds dual-microphone CrystalTalk noise reduction, voice calling, and a speakerphone that’s better in quality from most.

Camera

One of the most impressive features is the 5 MP cameras which is supported by image stabilization, 4x zoom, LED flash, and automatic focus. With the option to add microSD memory cards (up to 32 GB) it also makes for a handy camcorder too. It supports geo-tagging, offers several scene modes including Night Portrait, Macro, and Sport for fast-moving action. Photos and videos are displayed in a 3D gallery and in addition to the touchscreen delivering “pinch and zoom” controls for the browser, you can use them with your photographs as well, although at 5MP I had expected a more powerful zoom than we’ve seen on other phones.

To transfer and convert content from your PC, Motorola includes their Media Link software, created by Nero. It allows you to sync photos, videos, ringtones, and music with specific folders and libraries (including iTunes) on your computer. It can play your content as well as convert it to an appropriate mobile format, although you may have to purchase the upgraded version for $33 to access additional codecs. I found the software adequate, it took a few extra steps to actually get content synced, apparently just selecting folders wasn’t enough, and a bug keeps having the software download, start install, and quit a software update.

Touch Controls

Most manufacturers have now caught up to Apple in offering a fast, responsive touchscreen with intuitive controls and that certainly includes Motorola and Google. You can easily swipe, flick, tap, and scroll through the Android 2.0 with startling ease. Haptic feedback is used to give a little vibration response when you use the touch-sensitive buttons below the screen, but thankfully not for the controls on the display itself.

Special for the Milestone, Motorola has included their own My Sign gesture controls. This is an added app that allows you to use your finger to draw gestures on the screen to quickly access key features. For example, you can draw the letter A on the screen to activate airplane mode, G to toggle GPS, B for Bluetooth, and W for Wi-Fi. V will call your voicemail, and the hardest of them all, drawing a musical note will launch the music app. These gestures can only be used when the My Sign app is open and only on the designate area and so it isn’t necessarily a faster way to activate these features, but an easier one to find them in one place rather than searching through settings menus. I’m not sure how much use it will get.

Dock Display

Thanks to the popularity of the Droid many manufacturers of mobile accessories offer cases and custom vinyls for the Milestone, but the best is a dock being offered by Motorola themselves. Designed to both charge and sync your Milestone to your PC, it docks the phone in landscape mode, triggering a desk clock application that displays the time, weather, and the date. It can also be used as an alarm clock, slideshow for your photos, and even play music making it one of the handiest docks I’ve seen.

Full-Featured

Beyond these Moto tweaks the Milestone is a full-featured smartphone with support for an international range of GSM networks and both 3G and Wi-Fi internet access, important for those looking to cut down roaming charges while traveling. It has both a built-in GPS and a digital compass plus accelerometer and proximity sensors. Like many Motorola handsets it includes stereo Bluetooth with support for many profiles so you can use it for hands-free, file transfers, and music playback.

Although the battery life is about the same as other comparable smartphones including the iPhone 3GS, BlackBerry Bold, and Palm Pre, about two-thirds of a day, the battery is replaceable and the phone itself charges through USB which is handy.

Android

For those who are not familiar with Google’s Android, it is a touchscreen-based system that uses a set of three desktop screens to arrange and present application short cuts as well as useful widgets that offer quick access to Google search, weather, social networking feeds and more. A hidden tray at the top offers a useful glance at incoming notifications (of which there are many for e-mail, voicemail, Twitter, etc.) and a second tray tucked to the side offers a quick menu for all the apps installed.

Google’s Android Market offers a free selection of downloadable apps including many of Google’s latest innovations - Google Sky to quickly navigate the stars, Google Goggles to search the web with pictures. When the company launched their Buzz social network last week, it was the Android version of Google Maps that offered a Buzz layer.

The advantage of Android is that it’s open source, meaning that there’s no restrictions on who can create software for it. This is ideal for hobbyists, but for non-tech savvy consumers it means having to sort through apps that require “root access” or added downloads that will prove to be too complicated or confusing.

Android supports both Push Exchange and Push Gmail e-mail and if you are a Google user it will automatically populate the handset with all of your contacts and content as soon as you sing into any Google account.

Tapping The Android

The Milestone is indeed a top choice for those looking for an Android smartphone simply because of its feature set, it’s fast performance, and a design that marries a keyboard and touchscreen simply, something that previous Android handsets have always had a tough time with.

Now, if we can only settle this issue with the software update…..