By 
The Motorola Milestone is the international name for the Motorola Droid, a handset that launched just about a year ago. Since then the sequel has debuted, and the sequels spin-off is about to drop in the from of the Droid 2 Global. So it makes perfect sense that now would be a great time for regional Canadian carrier Manitoba Telecom Services to launch the old school Milestone. I can’t knock ’em though.
The original Droid/Milestone is still a great phone, one that I haven’t found a good reason to part with to this day. It has enough power, is generally prioritized in terms of updates, and features a stock Android interface. If you’re into it, the root community goes deep on this one.
No word on pricing, or specific release date, but MTS should have the Milestone soon. That’s gotta count for something?
[via IntoMobile]
Better late than never, it is definitely a solid phone. However, the Canadian Milestone is poorly prioritized in terms of updates (my TELUS Milestone is still waiting for 2.2), and the last time I checked the bootloader was still locked down on this device. Root is possible, however full installation of custom ROMs is difficult to achieve. The stock experience is still solid however, even more so with the use of LauncherPro.
Actually, both rooting and ROM customization is relatively easy on this device. Look into G.O.T. Openrecovery and experience a whole new world of joy including 1.2ghz OC’ing and Foryo goodness. Flash never looked so good.
W0@@T!!! Go CANADA! This phone is still better than some of the newer handsets being released.
Is that a pic of the actual phone or a stock photo of an original Droid? (note d-pad) I didn’t think the Droid 2 had a d-pad.
Other than the VZW logo on the bottom of the display, the Droid and Milestone are identical outside.
@Dom
Thanks for the tip, I will certainly check that out!
Just clarify – this MTS phone is the CDMA Droid without Verizon branding. So in fact it’s *way more* hackable than the Telus (GSM/HSPA) Milestone. It is the same phone that has been launched on some regional CDMA carriers in the US such as Cellular South. These other CDMA Milestones (A854) have also been reported to work with Droid firmwares.
@danofsteel, it’s not the Canadian Milestones that are poorly prioritised for updates. NO Milestone has 2.2 yet, all of them are poorly prioritised. Releasing the mk1 Milestone now is senseless as the new mk2 version is coming in a month or two.
@Dom – whilst rooting is easy on the phone, true custom roms are still an impossibility owing to the locked boot loader. The kernal has to be signed by Motorola, and so the new froyo version is just a very fortunate if buggy early leak from Moto labs.
An out of date phone with out of date support from an out of date company, still moto must have somewhere to dump all the ones they didn’t sell, expect to see the dext arriving on the same network soon, lol!!