Cameras and phones go to together like cheese and crackers. But it’s pretty rare these days to find a snapper of truly great vintage. The Motorola Milestone XT720, however, really does deliver. This is a camera that’ll make you want to kiss goodbye to your compact for good. Want to know why? Read our Motorola Milestone XT720 review: camera and we’ll reveal all.
Read the rest of our Motorola Milestone XT720 review:
Motorola Milestone XT720 review: Overall verdict
Motorola Milestone XT720 review: Design and build
Motorola Milestone XT720 review: Screen
On paper, the Motorola Milestone XT720 simply has an above average camera round the back. 8 megapixels, Xenon flash, digital zoom and 720p HD Ready video recording. Play around with it though and you’ll find it a joy to behold, something which will remind you why loading a camera onto a phone seemed like such a good idea in the first place.
Simple stills are really pretty special. The Xenon flash means this is a camera that can work in all lights, Results in dingy bars and taken outside at night were great, really impressive considering we were working with a digital rather than an optical zoom too. The fact that you can easily tweak white balance, scene mode and even take a burst of six shots makes this something to marvel at. It really is easy to tickle the settings in order to get the very best out of the camera no matter what situation you’re in. This is all aided by the 3.7-inch screen, which gives you a great view of any shots you happen to be taking.
In terms of video, the 720p filming mode sits well with rivals like the Galaxy S. It’s remarkably straightforward to get killer clips and even easier to stick them into the native video editor, prime them for YouTube and then upload them via one click. The editing suite isn’t as good as iMovie for iPhone, but more than good enough for getting your home movies ready for Facebook.
Better still, the HDMI port up top means loading your HD shots onto any HDTV couldn’t be easier, although you’ll need to stump up for a cable to make this all play nice. Hardly a hardship if making videos on the move is your poison. Likewise, simply sharing raw clips is easy too, utilizing the standard Android share button which you can access by tapping your snaps or videos once on screen.
The only note of caution we will sound is that both camera and camcorder will slaughter your battery life. We spent less than a day using both before we had to find ourselves a power source. However, if you want a smart HD video solution, a compact-bashing camera and a slice of the latest Android software to back it all up, this is where it’s at. The Motorola Milestone XT720 is a truly winning camera phone, an accolade few blowers can take these days.
