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Review: Motorola Photon Q for Sprint

Form Basics Extras Wrap-Up Comments 18

Aug 28, 2012, 3:46 PM by Eric M. Zeman
updated Aug 28, 2012, 4:00 PM

Motorola's latest Android smartphone focuses on the 4G-lovin', keyboard-cravin' Sprint customer who also has a hankerin' for some hot hardware. The Photon Q delivers these and more in a tidy tool.

The Motorola Photon Q is Sprint's first LTE 4G device to offer a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Toss in a good display and Android 4.0 and you have a potential recipe for success. For those who prefer a physical keyboard, the Photon Q could be the 4G phone of your dreams.

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About the author, Eric M. Zeman:

Eric has been covering the mobile telecommunications industry for 17 years at various print and online publications. He studied at Rutgers Newark and University of Kentucky, and has a degree in writing. He likes playing guitar, attending concerts, listening to music, and driving sports cars.

Related

Motorola Fully Reveals the Photon Q

Jul 26, 2012
On the heels of being out by Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, Motorola today provided more details about the Photon Q. The Photon Q is a sideways slider with touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard for messaging.

C Spire Wireless Launches LTE in 4 Miss. Markets

Sep 9, 2012
C Spire Wireless today announced that its LTE 4G network is now available for the first time in several markets in Mississippi. C Spire said that residents of McComb, Brookhaven, Meridian, and Greenville, Miss., are the first who have access to its LTE 4G network.

Sprint Pushing Jelly Bean to Motorola Photon Q

Apr 25, 2013
Sprint today indicated via its user forums that the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update is now ready for the Motorola Photon Q. The system update adds a wide range of new features to the Photon Q, including Google Now, Voice Search improvements, bug fixes, and camera enhancements.

Motorola Updates List of Devices to Receive Jelly Bean

Dec 7, 2012
Motorola recently revised the customer support page that lists which smartphones will receive updated versions of Android and approximately when those updates will arrive. The RAZR M, RAZR HD, and MAXX HD have all received Jelly Bean.

Motorola Talks Jelly Bean Updates for Its U.S. Devices

Oct 20, 2012
Motorola has updated the list of devices that will receive updated versions of Android and is revealing for the first time those slated to get Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The Droid RAZR M, RAZR HD, and MAXX HD are all schedule to receive the Jelly Bean update before the end of the year.

Motorola Photon Q

4.3" display 540 x 960 pixels
Snapdragon processor 1 GB RAM
1,785 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Hardware Text Keyboard, Headphone Jack (3.5mm), NFC

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Comments

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carmodboy99

Aug 29, 2012, 2:41 AM

Not the greatest review dude...

I'm too lazy to search the archives and make sure, but based on your comparisons and the descriptive examples you gave on this phone (Atrix HD, DROID 4) it seemed like you have never even seen a Motorola Photon 4G (without the Q). I get that its essentially the same as the Atrix 4G, but you never referenced that either. Anyway, based on the review, you confirmed all of my worst fears, they kept the phone at par in some areas but made it worse in others, (8GB internal memory that you didn't mention, vs. the 16GB internal that the Photon shipped with, same 8mp camera that takes horrible pics, same 1080p video capture, sealed battery that still wont make a full day on 4G, sub par speaker phone... I could go on, the comparisons were there to b...
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carmodboy99

oops, block right now*

Clearly you see that I gathered enough info from your review to formulate an opinion about the phone despite my complaints, so thanks for taking the time to review the phone anyway. Knowing it still has the same lame cheap ...
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Eric M. Zeman

I reviewed the Photon 4G a year ago. I thought that was a great phone. It was a slab-style device, though, and not a slider. https://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.p hp?a=8574

The Photon Q shares few features with the Photon 4G other than the ...
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Clyons

Aug 29, 2012, 12:15 PM

The Camera is good

I thought the same thing about fuzzy pictures at first on the Photon Q but, and im sure you already knew this, I took a small plastic film from over the camera that came on it out of the box. I know to do this on any new phone but this one was so small that I didnt notice it at first.

KOL4420

Well the Camera is not as good as the Photon 4G... the camera quality is actually quite disappointing compared to the new phones that were just released recently. The images come out all grainy. Not sure why the images didnt look like that on the revi...
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Captain Ahash

Aug 28, 2012, 5:09 PM

Nice pedalboard.

I'm jealous of your electroharmonix pedals 😛

Eric M. Zeman

Ha. Thanks. The Black Finger is the pixie dust everyone needs for their tone.

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