The much-awaited T-Mobile Android smartphone, Motorola Cliq, will be released for pre-sale online on October 19th. In early November, Cliq will be on sale in T-Mobile stores nationwide.

Motorola Cliq retails at $199.99 with a two-year contract and the appropriate data packages, so it's definitely not cheap. Motorola is dubbing this new Android smartphone as the first truly "social" smartphone.

The hope of any newly released high-tech phone is that it will become ingrained in the culture really quickly, much like the iPhone did (regardless of how you feel about that phone). We will see if the Cliq can get through to customers--even with it's price tag--and be a home run for Motorola.

It looks like a fun phone.

Cliq is equipped with:

3G

Wi-Fi

GPS

5MP Camera

QWERTY keypad

3.1 inch 480x360 touchscreen

More Cliq details...

Cliq Phone Update:

It looks like the Cliq just got a little bit better. That's what a system upgrade will do for a cell phone. Battery life and screen accuracy are two things that will be improved with this upgrade. There will be new battery life functionality as Cliq users will now be able to prioritize the handset's energy use. This is always a good thing for people who don't have the ability to constantly charge their cell phones.

The touch screen improvements will help fend off accidental calls made with an errant touch of the screen. This is one of the most annoying things that can happen--calling someone by accident. It will be harder to initiate calls with accidental presses of the screen. Business email connectivity should be more efficient as well.

It's an 8 MB download and should improve the phone noticeably. Now, if only the Motorola Cliq could be upgraded from Android 1.5.

More Details on Cliq at Motorola

More on Cliq at Engadget. A solid review of the phone, maybe the best one I've seen, and with lots of hands on pictures.

Cliq on Wikipedia