The Motorola Titanium is a push-to-talk (PTT) Android phone, ruggedised for use in tough work environments.
Motorola Titanium: Design
At around £99 unlocked, the Titanium looks like a steal for anyone looking for a rugged smartphone. The device looks very similar in design to the Motorola Droid Pro and XPRT, though the Titanium doesn't feel as solid as its business class cousins. This is particularly odd when you consider that the Titanium meets military specifications for dust, shock, and extreme temperatures. Unlike Motorola's other rugged offering, the Motorola Defy, the Titanium is not waterproof-though it does sport a 4mm thick Gorilla glass display for added screen durability.
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The Titanium is also one of the few Android devices to sport physical "Call" and "End" buttons. The physical keyboard is a nice touch, though I found it a bit too cramped for my hands. Considering this is a phone geared towards people who work in places like construction sites, you'd think that the keys would be spaced out a little more to accommodate larger fingers and hands. The 320 by 480 resolution 3.1-inch TFT display is the furthest thing from eye candy. Colors are dull and images are not sharp and were a little blurry.
Motorola Titanium: Software
The Motorola Titanium runs on Android 2.1 (Éclair). That means you won't have access to Flash content, or any of the Browser or system improvements found in Android 2.2. When I asked Motorola why it went with a comparatively outdated version of the OS, I was told that 2.1 was necessary for the PTT functionality of the device. Whether that means that the Titanium will ever be updated to 2.2 remains to be seen, though I wouldn't particularly count on it.
MotoBlur is not present on the device, though the dock and several widgets are.
Motorola Titanium: Performance
While calls on the Titanium came through crystal clear, you better not plan on using this phone to surf the internet much. That's because, when tested in the US at least, the Titanium gets speeds around those of 1X. You can do basic things like update your Twitter status or look Google something online, but if you want to watch videos on YouTube or download applications you'll have to connect to Wi-Fi to avoid getting network errors.
I tested out the PTT functionality with several people and can happily say that it is the Titanium's biggest strength. The speaker was nice and loud (though a little jarring at times), and it was dead easy to relay messages back and forth.
The Titanium comes with a monster (1800 mAh) battery that can go for the better part of a day before having to plug the phone in to charge. Hopefully Motorola will continue to include large capacity batteries in its future devices as well.
Something I noticed in my time with the Titanium is that scrolling through homepages feels clunky and overall the phone seemed to just chug along. As I mentioned earlier, I wouldn't expect to do anything more than basic tasks like checking email on this phone.
Motorola Titanium: Media
The Titanium comes with a 2GB microSD card that can be used for storing music and photos, though the phone definitely wasn't built for media in mind. Videos taken on the Titanium's 5-megapixel camera looked horrible and audio sound garbled during playback. Photos faired a lot better, though could have been a little sharper. The Titanium does an average job at playing back music, though it's doubtful it will replace your standalone media player.
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