Motorola released the Droid a few years back to mostly positive reviews. That was because the company had produced a smartphone that stood near the top of the industry in developments and performance. Lately, other manufacturers have caught up and Motorola has found itself playing catch up. In order to reclaim cellular glory, the company has unveiled the Milestone XT720.

With the XT720, gone is some of the size and weight of devices that came before. The Milestone’s shell measures 116 x 61x 11mm and the phone weighs 160g. The shape of the handset is rather unique. When viewed in landscape mode, there is a protuberance on the top right that seems to serve no other purpose than house three lights that indicate the camera option the phone is in. The front and back of the Milestone seem to be carved from two completely different pieces, as they fit together oddly. Critics have expressed their displeasure with the looks of the phone, stating that the changes were unnecessary. The new design does set the phone apart from the others.

Besides interesting designs, the Milestone XT720 offers the now familiar and sizeable 3.7-inch screen. A capacitive touchscreen, it provides resolution of 480 x 854 pixels on its display. To fully utilize the screen, a quite sharp 8-megapixel camera takes photos with a Xenon flash. This is unique to the Milestone, as other Android phones cannot yet boast this feature. Convenient additions to the camera are face detection and a panorama mode. Many smartphones that offer such quality cameras provide highly capable video recording as well, and the XT720 is no different. The recorder found on the phone captures video at 720p that can even be shown on the big screen using an HDMI port and the necessary cables to do so, all of which are included.

Motorola decided to install Android 2.1 on the Milestone in lieu of Motoblur, which may disappoint those who desire built-in social networking. The customer still receives a trial version of MotoNav as well as the new Phone Portal app. This is used to manage the XT720’s data right from the browser of a PC or Mac with a USB or WiFi connection. Speaking of browsing, the Milestone itself does a fine job, more so on the WiFi network, which is to be expected. And movies and Youtube look great on the 3.7-inch screen.

Motorola has not eliminated the competition with the Motorola Milestone XT720. They have, however, staked a claim once again as a leader in smartphone technology. The XT720 is sure to meet the needs of customers looking for a practical and speedy phone.