Motorola Milestone

ChrisGreen1993 · 19 Jul 2010 at 15:47

Ok, this post may be a little long. Here goes:

I've been looking at getting a smartphone as my current phone is more useful as a paperweight. I like the look of android and have been looking at motorola milestone contracts. I know there are better phones out there but there contracts are too expensive.

I don't make lots of calls or texts but I use email a lot and would probably use it for browsing the web on the go. So internet is a must in the contract really.
So far I have found this deal:

http://www.buymobilephones.net/mobi...0-(24mths)-inc.-Internet/6038044?adnetwork=af

A few Q's

Is this site any good?

Does anyone know of any better deals?

I've never had a contract before as i've always been on pay as you go, so i'm not 100% sure how they work.

Do you keep the phone when the contract is up?

and how does redemption work?

How good is the Milestone?

Also the milestone has a locked bootloader, which means i can't put a custom ROM on. Is this a big deal or not?

Sorry for the long post

Thanks

Chris

osc89er · 19 Jul 2010 at 16:26

If you pay your bills then you own the phone.

You send some of your bills to buymobiles to get cheques or bank deposits back. You must follow all rules or they will throw your application in the bin (eg recorded delivery, bills from correct months, within 30 days, etc)

The Milestone is, I think, faster than the iphone 3GS. It was in the top tier of phones with the Nexus One and the Desire.

There are many people out there who have never and will never root their phones and install modified software on it. If you're one of those then it shouldn't matter to you. However, if like many on these forums, you are a tinkerer who wants to get all the performance you can then it will be a limiter for you eventually.

Take for example the HTC Hero. It is one year old and in the UK still hasn't had an official update from Android 1.5 but because I am rooted I have had Android 2.1 for several months now.

Get the Milestone and you will be at the mercy of Motorola who have made it clear that your right to customise your phone is not something they care about.

flat-6 · 19 Jul 2010 at 16:55

The locked bootloader isn't a huge deal any more (to me at least) since you can now root them and overclock the phone to 1GHz plus. Got mine at 800Mhz now and it is miles better.

Remember you can go through www.quidco.com and get cashback from most of these phone retailers. The buymobilephones deal is pretty good since total contract cost is £375 and the phone must cost something similar to that sim-free.

For me - good:

* The screen is fantastic
* You can type fast on the keyboard
* All the Google stuff with Nav and Gmail integration is brilliant
* Insane fast 3G with HSDPA
* Browser is better than on iPhone 3GS

Bad:

* Keyboard could be a LOT better
* Slow at stock speed when you have a bunch of stuff on it, and some fancy widgets
* 2.1 rom still has some minor bugs

If you get a cashback contract, make sure you work out the dates of all the stuff you need to send in, and put it on your calendar when you order the phone. Make it hard to forget.

reflux · 19 Jul 2010 at 16:59

Droid 2 is out next month, and might be making its way here at the Milestone 2. But that's only a maybe.

ChrisGreen1993 · 19 Jul 2010 at 17:08

Thanks for the replies.

flat-6 said:
The buymobilephones deal is pretty good since total contract cost is £375

Is that the deal I linked to because it adds up to £450, or am I missing something?

Also how does the quidco cashback work?

Hxc · 19 Jul 2010 at 17:12

I have a milestone and love the phone, I still maintain it is the best built and most high end feeling phone I have yet to use on the Android platform (including Sony X10, Desire, Galaxy S), but the processor does slow it down a tad. I don't know if it would be wise to tie yourself into a 24 month contract with one right now, I reckon it'll get 2.2 and not much more, so will be very, very outdated in another 2 years... I have another 12 or so months left on mine, I think.

flat-6 · 19 Jul 2010 at 17:19

ChrisGreen1993 said:
Thanks for the replies.

Is that the deal I linked to because it adds up to £450, or am I missing something?

Also how does the quidco cashback work?

Sorry I was looking on a contract comparison site which gives the total cost but posting the url seems to be verboten. It was the same as the deal on buymobilephones anyway.

Quidco doesnt have buyphonemobiles but they do with loads of others like Mobiles.co.uk. If you click through to the retailer from them, they track it and you'll get cashback into your account. Look for the quidco thread in GD for more.

Hxc · 19 Jul 2010 at 17:22

What's the process for getting SetCPU working by the by? I thought rooting still didn't enable that due to the locked bootloader?

flat-6 · 19 Jul 2010 at 17:36

There's an app on the market called Milestone overclock, just add that to the superuser whitelist and you're away.

Hxc · 19 Jul 2010 at 17:50

Wow. I just rooted and installed that. Dear lord this phone goes so much better at 800mhz!

Columbo · 19 Jul 2010 at 18:02

Had some issues with my galaxy s so I've dug out my old milestone and rooted it.

Never did before for fear of killing it but it was a doddle and I'm now running a 1ghz milestone. What a difference the overclock makes.

It really is a different handset and if id done this before I would never have got the galaxy s.

Hxc · 19 Jul 2010 at 18:08

I am just wondering what the battery life effect will be like. I've whacked on setcpu to knock down the frequency when the screen is off and all that sorta thing, but we will have to see.

Columbo · 19 Jul 2010 at 18:48

Hxc said:
I am just wondering what the battery life effect will be like. I've whacked on setcpu to knock down the frequency when the screen is off and all that sorta thing, but we will have to see.

Well I rooted mine yesterday morning and I've had it clocked at 1ghz now for just over 24 hours.

Didnt charge it last night as it had a full charge on Saturday night, currently about 34% left with medium usage I'd say.

So Ive not noticed any significant change for the worst at least.

ChrisGreen1993 · 19 Jul 2010 at 19:01

How good is the milestone as an MP3 player/media player?

flat-6 · 19 Jul 2010 at 19:31

ChrisGreen1993 said:
How good is the milestone as an MP3 player/media player?

Not as good as an iPhone but otherwise fine, MortPlayer is a good replacement for the standard app, which is now much better in 2.1

Use Google Listen for podcasts.

Battery life when overclocked - I've not noticed a difference and I'm not using setcpu. It does a day of use no problem.

Aod · 19 Jul 2010 at 21:30

flat-6 said:
There's an app on the market called Milestone overclock, just add that to the superuser whitelist and you're away.

can you link me to a guide showing how to do this? how would i root it to get access to this superuser whitelist?

Jabbs · 19 Jul 2010 at 21:51

Meh Milestone worst phone purchase i have made.

Aod · 19 Jul 2010 at 21:55

Jabbs said:
Meh Milestone worst phone purchase i have made.

...why?

Hxc · 19 Jul 2010 at 22:00

Aod said:
can you link me to a guide showing how to do this? how would i root it to get access to this superuser whitelist?

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/05/29/how-to-root-motorola-milestone-on-android-2-1/

One thing to note is that depending on your bootloader version there may be a couple of tricks. On newer bootloaders you have to hold the camera button rather than X to get to the bootloader, and if when applying update.zip via the bootloader you get an EOCD error, you need to reflash the SBF with RSD Lite and then NOT let the phone boot into android; ie, when it's rebooting from flashing, hold the camera button and apply update.zip then, rather than allowing it to enter android first.

That's what I followed today and after spending about 30mins googling the EOCD error have a nice rooted milestone running stunningly at 800mhz.

Aod · 19 Jul 2010 at 22:04

sweet! thanks very much!