Motorola Q
Phone Scoop Review
Jun 5, 2006 by Eric Lin
In Depth review of the highly-anticipated Motorola Q, the first EVDO Windows Mobile Smartphone and slimmest smartphone to date. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Blackberry Substitute - Not Killer
I bought this phone yesterday and so far am pleasantly surprised. My comparisons are to the Blackberry 7750 that this replaced. As the title indicates, this device is not a "blackberry killer" but is a nice substitute for those that need access to email but don't have huge volume. A blackberry is definitely a better email device, but this is a better phone with more third-party software available. The call quality is good and setting up the bluetooth for the headset and ActiveSync were pretty easy, however, if your computer is not running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and/or you are not running Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 for your email it would be more difficult to set up. I migrated my pop3 email accounts to an exchange server through 1and1.com and the ActiveSync works great - email push, update of calendar and contacts is automatic when you make a change anywhere. It is also nice that ActiveSync does for free what you would need Blackberry Enterprise Server to do (OTA update of contacts, calendar, etc.). The extended battery is a must for those that are dependent on email or the internet in any way and for $20.00 it is a great deal. The leather pouch from Verizon is not bad either. All in all, an excellent device which will take a little getting used for a former blackberry user and I highly recommend it if you are running the proper software to take advantage of what this device can do.
Great
Pros
small (even with extended battery)
call quality excellent
nice screen
wireless sync and active sync very easy to use
voice dial great
cool looking
jog wheel
price is great even at full retail
Cons
battery cover very loose
for me phone is had to take out of the holster
I really LOVE this phone
Everyone who wants a phone first and a lite PDA second should get this phone
Very Poor Software Programming
Con 1: There is no copy and paste feature on this phone. Even though it doesn't have a touch screen...copy and paste is possible. The Blackberry 7130e can perform a copy and paste and it doesn't have a touch screen. (This is just a sign of poor software programming...Verizon or Motorola should have insisted that Microsoft fix this error before putting this is the customers hands to trouble shoot for them)
Con 2: When you receive a text message from somebody that sends it to you from an e-mail account...you can't reply unless you follow this crazy procedure: type 6245 in the To Field, then type their e-mail address in the next line (remember...copy and paste doesn't exist on this phone), then you have to put a space on the next line, then you can type your text message.
Con 3: The Motorola Q has a Task List. This is a great feature that lets you enter your "things to do list" and it can be sorted by start date, finish date, or priority. All of this is great...but you can't enter the start date, finish date, or priority from the phone! This information has to be entered on the computer and then you can sort it on the phone. I've owned Palm and Blackberry devices in the past...I've never seen anything like this.
Con 4: There is no place to type memos. All the Palm and Blackberry devices have this feature. I never thought the Q would miss this. The Q does have a voice recorder...but that isn't helpful when you are in a meeting and you need to discretely take notes. Given that Palm and Blackberry are competition for the Q...how could something so basic be missed? While each of these phones target different market segments...the desire to be able to type a memo to yourself is basic...in school we called this "taking notes"!
If Motorola, Verizon, or Microsoft fix these issues for the customers that have already bought this phone then I will update my rating of this phone. This is the only way to effectively communicate these problems.
Good Job Verizon
I have had my Q for over a week now, and first I must say that I had some high expectation going in.
Good â
o Small with decent battery life. Standard battery last me 2 days or more and I sync every 5 min but donât rack up that many minutes.
o Comes with 2 chargers â With the USB at work and the AC at home, charging the Q is never a problem. My Q charges great off my Laptop with the supplied USB cable. It seems to charge just as fast as the AC unit.
o Email â Easy to setup pop accounts, a little harder for Exchange with certificates and all, but once up and running it is great!
o Sound Quality â Great sound quality. I replaced my first unit that sounded a little âdigitallyâ because of a battery issue, but my current unit sounds great! Very clear with great reception!
o Customizable â There are many things you can do to the phone to make it suit your needs. http://www.freewebs.com/smartq/ is a great site.
o Great Screen â the screen looks fine to me outside or inside. It is kindâof off center (bigger border on left than right) on my Q but who cares. I think they are all that way.
Bad (areas needing improvement ;?) â
o Still waiting for the instant sync update for the Q for Exchange 03. I hear it will be out in August? I think it will save battery when it comes out.
o Can only sync pop3 every 15 minutes. (oh well that is only my personal email anyway)
o Canât get MS Global contact access to work. Anyone figure this out? (see forum)
o Canât get POP3 to auto send. Donât even see an option for it
o Only view docâs and spreadsheets in PDF like viewer. Verizon needs to sell the full mobile office suite!
o Only limited Task list modifications are capable (can download software to do this)
o Not a fan of the soft keys and the send and home screen keys. They are too small. Also need more direct navigation keys, like calendar, contacts etc. I hate to rely on soft keys that donât always say what you want.
Instant Messenger (AOL) - no can do
I purchased the Q for my daughter who loves it. I played with it for awhile and being a computer geek, I was pretty impressed with it. The tiny buttons and keys do take a little time to get used to but that is no big deal. Image quality is also very good.
I was however somewhat disappointed when I learned that there was no AOL AIM product for it. I had researched this prior to purchasing the phone and came up with a third-party company (agilemobile.com) that makes instant messaging software for Windows Mobile based phones. However when I downloaded the app, it would not install because it wasn't written for this device.
MSN IM is available as part of the built-in OS but it is not that popular with teens or even adults. Also, the Verizon salesperson said there was software out there which would allow the AOL product but apparently he was thinking about a different Motorola phone or simply did not know what he was talking about.
The AOL IM issues will probably be resolved in the coming months so that would not necessarily be a reason to avoid this phone. Overall it is a pretty amazing product.
Pretty happy with it so far
It's my first smart phone. I watched people with their touch screens and eventually every one of them would tap the stylus over and over on the screen followed by various amounts of stress and swearing. I like the wheel. Since I'm not pre-programmed to the touch screen, I don't miss it at all.
The phone is the strongest and clearest I've ever had. I get reception where I never had it before.
The clarity of the screen is better than any I've seen. Amazing.
I knew the battery life would be low because of the size but the specs are not even close. 8 days standby?? What a joke. I get maybe 36 hrs with maybe 20 minutes of use. But, then the extended battery for $19.99 is fair, and bumps the life to about 48 hrs w/ medium use.
One major CON... The instruction book really sucks. Absolutely worthless. No wonder the index is non-existent, there isn't any information in the book. The think doesn't even tell you how to put your phone on vibrate. BUT... lots of on-line info here.
PROS - Reception Reception Reception, Screen clarity, Business apps are strong, syncs smoothly, wheel is a plus and keyboard buttons are easy to push, even with large hands. So far, I love it. I can't believe it was less expensive than all of the rest.
motorola q should be recalled
I returned my moto q because it was so annoying to navigate through. 5 steps to put the phone on vibrate is a shame. I thought I would invest the extra $200 into a treo 700 palm and test it out. What a dream. The 700p is so much easier to use. It just makes sense. Sorry q.
All considered Great Phone
I've had the Black Q from Verizon Wireless since July 2007. I've read all the problems about the phone including locking up and I really don't see these problems.. Only time it has ever happened to me is when I do something with third party software. And that is very rare.
Otherwise it's a great phone. Main reason I didn't give it a 5 is for not great battery life.
I actually bought the 8130 Pearl but it was more buggy (multiple bugs finally acknowledged by Verizon - one serious where it causes you to loose text messages or emails or can't make calls) and the only thing better about it than the Q was email and a little smaller. I returned the Pearl and went back to the Q.
Pros
- Great reception
- Very light weight
- A lot of third party apps
- Very customizable. Tons of resources on the internet to change almost anything you want. Including being able to watch full YouTube on the phone. Not the mobile YouTube version (though you can watch that also)
- Voice dialing works great
- Connection to bluetooth headset is very good
- Can sync to my computer through bluetooth so I don't need any type of cable
- EVDO makes fast web browsing
- Can store files/pictures/video and also put third party programs on storage card
- Easy enough to get mail from multiple email accounts
Cons
- Battery life is not great. I have three accounts it checks email every 30 minutes as instant email isn't as important to me. Though if I need to I can manually force it to check anytime. Bluetooth is always on. If I use the browser a lot and make a lot of calls (about an 1 - 1.5 hours on the phone) I'm down to one battery bar by evening.
- Not a good tasks program. Looking at getting a third party program for tasks and appointments
- Gets a little slow sometimes. Restarting about once a week fixes this. (No different than my Windows laptop)
Going back to Blackberry
I really had high hopes for this phone. After having two blackberry's I decided to go back to something Windows based. This phone has been a pain from the start. This is just my experience. It came with two batteries however, you need four (it is that bad) I have only had the phone for 5 days and can't wait until this long holiday weekend is over so I can take it back. I really want to like it...It looks great but, obviously looks are not everything. I am going back to Blackberry.
Buy a Treo
TOP TEN
Why A Treo Is BETTER than a Moto Q
1. Q looks Cheap - So many epople rushed out to buy one you would think that it was the "FREE Phone"
2. The wheel was BREAKTHROUGH (for the cave man not for a "smart device"
3. MS OFFICE VIEWER ONLY no REAL Applications
4. THIN DEVICE = No Battery Life So A thin PDA makes about as much sense as having Super Models run a Decatholon Looks Pretty but No endurance.
5. Treo Has a Larger Screen thab a Q
6. Q maxes out at a 1GB mini sd card for expansion Treo can use up to a 4GB SD for the 700 series and 4gb mini for the 755p
7. The Treo's touch screen is signifigantly more responsive than the Q's - you touch a Q's screen too much and all you get is a SMUDGED screen.
8. Adults who have Treos will make fun of you.
9. Children with parental control fire flys will make fun of you nad take you milk money
10. Motorola could not get Razor quite right.. and essentially this is a Razr PDA.. WHY??
Summary
- not as good as a TREO
- you WILL be laughed at.
- you will have you milk money taken from you.
