Motorola CLIQ 2 Android smartphone (preview)

Motorola's original CLIQ smartphone (called the DEXT in Australia) was a budget Android smartphone that was heavily focussed on social networking. The Motorola CLIQ 2 is its successor, but it is targeted at a higher end of the market thanks to a 1GHz processor, a 3.7in display and an all-new design.

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The Motorola CLIQ 2 Android smartphone has a different design to its predecessor, with a chrome bezel and a unique honeycomb-style keyboard design. Despite the different look and feel, Motorola claims the CLIQ 2's keyboard is easy to type on, so it should offer a similar feel to the original CLIQ.

Like most of Motorola's Android phones, the CLIQ 2 will come with the latest version of Motorola's MotoBlur service, a widget-based interface that combines multiple social networking and communications accounts. Users will need to create a MotoBlur account to use the service, but it's free and all content and data is pushed live to the handset. Motoblur also provides excellent security features including the ability to automatically wipe the handset when it is lost or stolen, and the automatic back up of content over-the-air, similar to both the Motorola Milestone 2 and the waterproof Motorola Defy.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the CLIQ 2 Android smartphone is its relatively powerful specifications; it has a 1GHz processor, runs Android 2.2 or "Froyo", a 5-megapixel camera with flash, and 1GB of internal memory along with a microSD card slot. The original CLIQ suffered from lag due to its modest specifications, so we expect much better performance this time round from the CLIQ 2.

Motorola hasn't officially confirmed the availability of the CLIQ 2 in Australia, but we expect it to launch as the DEXT 2 in the coming months.