It’s been quite a while since Motorola had a phone worth buying, but the CLIQ may be the end to their drought. When it comes to consumer phones nowadays, there are three types of people: dumbphone people, iPhone people, and other-smartphone people. I think it’s safe to assume most of you don’t really care about dumbphones. That being said, if you like the iPhone, go get an iPhone, but if you don’t really want an iPhone, consider the Motorola CLIQ for these reasons…

1. Android: With more and more phones coming out with Google’s mobile OS, consumers have more and more options. In my opinion, Android offers just as nice a mobile experience as the iPhone (save Apple’s app store), but people didn’t really latch on quickly because the first phone, the T-Mobile G1, was ass-ugly. One thing Android doesn't have yet is Microsoft Exchange support, so you suits may need to look elsewhere if getting your work email on your phone is important.

2. Social Networking: Along with the announcement of the CLIQ, Motorola announced their own "skin" to Android called Moto Blur. Basically, all this is doing is throwing some Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. widgets on your homescreen. Its a cool feature, and something I kinda wish the iPhone did rather than just a static image with "Slide to Unlock" at the bottom. Then again, some people's tweets or FB updates are suspect, and could be bad for business displaying them out in the open all the time.

3. Full QWERTY keyboard: Fat thumbs? iPhone keyboard driving you crazy? The keyboard on the CLIQ is actually pretty nice. I'm not sure why the phone's called the CLIQ since its mainly a touchscreenphone, but the keys are easy to press and separated properly. The D-pad to the left of the keyboard will be awesome for games when decent games actually come out. The back-lighting is also pretty solid, and easy to see at night.

4. OLED Screen: The screen is really what makes the CLIQ nicer than the iPhone. It may be about the same size, but the clarity is noticeably better than the iPhone. This may not really mean anything to you, but just know it's sweet, ok?

5. T-Mobile: The thing I hate most about my iPhone is AT&T. The service SUCKS - I constantly get dropped calls in my apartment, which is pretty unacceptable seeing as I live in the 3rd largest city in the country. T-mobile is a lot cheaper than AT&T and the service is probably just as shitty.

6. Replaceable Battery: I remember when my RAZR would last 4 or 5 days on a charge, but these smartphones really only get a day's worth. If you run out of battery on the iPhone, you're SOL, but if you get a secondary battery for the CLIQ, you can actually swap it with your dead battery easily.
So, if you're in the market for a new non-iPhone smartphone, the CLIQ may be of interest. Motorola has been in the toilet, so this phone really is their last attempt at regaining market share - which means this phone has been heavily developed and, from the company's point of view, can't fail. The price hasn't been locked down yet, but I would assume it should be around $199 with a new contract (maybe less, depending on T-Mobile) and will be available this holiday season. For a cool product walkthrough, check out Motorola's dedicated page here.