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
great for non pro
well, i used to be with tmobile for 5 years.
and let me say, i was sooooo sick and tired
of being tmobile's so-so service.
of course they do have ring tone, wall paper, decent quality of phone call.but it did not give me an such an exciment.
since my contract expired, i just gave it a
shot to be with other carrier. and turn my head to smartphone device. i am not true
gadget geek nor heavy data user. however,
since im gling back to skull, so i need some
device to track my days and task.
i ran almost 2weeks reserach on pda/smartphone device. finally i could narrow down the list such as treo 700w and moto q. also i actually went to a shop and try out those device on hand. i know these two competitor are totally differnt in many ways like touch screen, os, price and size.
so i decided to try cheaper one first, in case of upgrading to more expensive one(palm).
its been 3days with Q(verizon). so far im impressed. honestly, i hated moto's os, and no-good-at-all reliablity. but this Q is counter factor. it runs smoothly enough to make me satisfied. also, it does most of everything. specially, if YOU ARE STUDENT, then i strongly sugesst Q. you really do not need touch screen unless you need to impress someone. so here are my summary of pros and cons.
pros:
1.style=>thin and attractive
2.os=> it runs smooth, remember this is
not a window mobile. this is window
mobile FOR smartphone. so it runs
solid.
3.synch=>for first time user, yes, it is
little bit complicated.but when
you get hang of it, it will be
become like your daily phone
comfortable.
4.keypad=> nice and solid fell to it.
5.Evdo=> this is FACTOR that you will
be amazed and impressed everyday.
cons:
1.style=>it is little bit wide. you just
need to get used to it.
2.screen=>it is really really easy to get
scratch.
3.
Got my Q at VZW tonight and Voice Quality is a big issue !
Guys,
Drove 45 minutes tonight to Woodbridge NJ where the VZW store was happy to sell me a Q..
As you may know from my posts and reviews , I am very picky when it comes to Voice Quality. This has always been very important to me and my colleagues considering these things are phones and the conversation should be crystal clear. The features are secondary but important as well.
I spent many years with AT&T and we did lots of voice quality testing for all kinds of Broadband, IP phones and Voice over DSL which was somewhat invented in our lab in NJ. I do know what sounds good and bad.
Soooo. I am truly dissapointed - My first 5 calls were to friends who are all techno guys who do this testing with me each time there is a new phone in town.
Started with Abe and upon my first call to him and he did not know I was off my 670 yet, he replied what the hell are you talking on, it's sounds aweful.
I hoped that it was a bad cell and after my 45 minute trip home and lots of calls to lots of people , everyone says the same thing. The voice quality stinks..
Whats worse is the earpiece quality is almost as bad. It's like the Original V710 quality. Hard to hear and make out what people are saying.
In playing around tonight I happened to stumble on some interesting settings. There is an Audio Enhancement section with speaker and headset options. You can change something called Quality and Bass and Surround Sound.. It looks like they built in the SRS surround sound system into the phone to try and better the voice quality and I think they killed it big time.
One thing to note - The speakerphone is actually clearer than the normal use earpiece. This is a first and is really a problem.. Not to say the speaker is great, it's okay but better than the earpiece.
I have not tested Bluetooth, This is the only thing that can save this right now. I guess if the Bluetooth was good and use use it most of the time, then you could avoid using the earpiece.
Continued
All in all, bad phone.
I do not want to go into all of the fancy PROs and CONs of this phone.
There is only one thing you should know before buying this phone..
DON'T.
Period.
you will be satisfied for one week, until it freezes and won't let you recieve calls, send messages, view anything, ect. ect.
i could go on and on naming the bad things about this phone.
i am on my third Q, thinking maybe i would get a good one..no.
this is a watered-down, womanized BlackBerry.
oh, and you cant send pictures as advertised.
Why bother?
I'm having a tough time writing this review... I sell Sprint products and like to be able to firmly recommend a product to a customer. As of yet, I've yet to see a Motorola phone that I am truly excited about. I've used the RAZR, the KRZR and a slew of other Motorola phones and now I've tried the Q. They all seem to suffer from the same problem of a danged slow interface. Its terribly unnecessary. I read alot of reviews about this phone and I don't understand why Motorola is being given such slack in the substandard performance of their interface! Let me explain myself.... I know phone interfaces and when I'm navigating about this one, I find myself pushing a button twice thinking that the first time it didn't work because the phone takes so long to load up the screen. Of course, the second press loads something else that the phone takes forever to load up. Its just silly. The same is true with the typing. I'm not terrible fast at typing but when it can't keep up with more than 10-15WPM there is something wrong.
I just don't understand how a phone that is so slow can be recommended when there are phone like the Blackberry, Treo and HTC products that have the same function but function much better, that have a full keypad that can be typed on much faster and have the same operating system even and yet perform without the delay...
Long story short, I returned the phone and am disappointed because I really do want to like a Motorola but I'm still waiting for something that works like it should... Sorry if that's too critical but again, there's no reason to get a subpar phone when there are phones that DO perform.
The Q Stands for Uality
And there's no Q in "uality".
This thing backfired worse than any other phone VZW has ever launched. It seams like almost every aspect of the phone was exagerated. I have used it 5 weeks, and here's the low down:
Jog Wheel- useless. The phone is too wide for it to be effective. It is only there to lure blackberry users away
Signal- I actually thought it was pretty good.
Battery life- Joke. Wont even make it a day with good signal, moderate text and emails, you know, the stuff it was designed for.
Software- unstable, unreliable, laggy. Buttons randomly quit working. Multipe reboots in a day, just to make a phone call. You roll the dice on incoming calls, sometimes it answers, sometimes it doesnt.
Build quality- Wanted the cheapest smartphone on the market? You got it! Battery cover is flimsy and cheap. The buttons are poorly designed and hard to use. It creaks. The center keypad is creaky, feels like its going to fall apart.
Wifi?- i like how people are thinking this is some sort of oversite, or the lack of SD/IO ability is an oversight. It was intentional!! The only phone VZW ever launched with wifi came with firmware that crippled it! Why would they include that in any other phone, or give you the ability for web access any other way that paying for the data plans. This was not an oversight, it was marketing.
Web Browser- Garbage. Gives network errors when loading large pages. Wont read java. Wont log into secure sites. Wont save pics.
Add to the above list of annoyances the fact that the phone crashes constantly, wont activsync half the time, wont answer calls randomly, locks up, bogs down, shuts of and dies at its own will, and you have an unreliable toy that looks cool. Thats it.
great phone/pda
This devise does it all:
Phone reception is great no drop calls
Camera is good
Speaker phone is very loud
Bluetooth works good
PDA does all i want it to do (e-mail, internet)
Battery life is good, need more buy the extended battery at Verizon very cheap
Had this phone for over a month and i would tell everyone to go out and get it.
Phone is priced right even at full retail
Stay Away
First and foremost is it a good cell phone... Absolutely NOT... Locks up frequently. Must be turned off and rebooted to clear. Often not able to answer a 2nd caller while on the phone. Very disappointed with the Q. I purchased it from Verizon and used it for just over a month. It was a waste of time. Sending and receiving emails was fine. Dialing a number was difficult as the qwerty buttons were small and difficult to use. Speed dialing was also inconsistent - sometimes if you held down a number it would speed dial other times it would not. You MUST- MUST-MUST always lock the phone keyboard or it will start dialing numbers. It is a 2 step timed process to unlock the dumb phone. As for Verizon, I have been very disappointed with customer service as well. I have a 4000 minute per month plan and for the first time I went over (Yes and by more than 1000 additional minutes) because the phone often would not disconnect unless I removed the battery because it would freeze up. Often the phone dialed a number and remained on without my knowledge... Verizon offered me a $15.00 credit... but since they did allow me to return the phone after 30 days and reinstated my old contract date which expires in August 2006, Guess what, I will change to T-Mobile as I have heard they are now #1 and offer the Blackberry 8700 which has very high scores from reviewers in Phone Scoop. Beware of the Q... Also beware of Verizon as they do not perform any better than the Q. And yes, I have been with Verizon for at least 10 years. I have an Air card and a monthly bill of $250. but that is not important to them and that makes me realize it is time for a change...
If I give it a Letter Grade: B-
I own a Q. It is not a Treo. Never dealt with a Treo.
Okay with that out of the way.
Carrier: US Cellular
Version: Windows Mobile 5
In my opinion, the Q that US Cellular picked up deserves a little less bashing than it has been getting.
I have been able to do what I need/want with this phone fine up to this point and I donât think that is going to change all that soon.
I am familiar with Windows so I like the windows interface.
The QWERTY keyboard is a surprise since I have big hands I was amazed at how I could still get around that keyboard like I do.
Texting/emailing typing is a breeze for me.
I was in Milwaukee a week or so ago and US Cellular has EV-DO capabilities in that city. It was the BEST! It was high-speed data to your phone. Browsing was a breeze and I even installed some programs onto my Q because I could download at high-speed.
Not compatible with Motorola Phone Tools this makes me sad...
With 64MB of internal memory that is a very lack-luster job.
Makes me wonder if that was overlooked on accident because when you surf the internet/install programs/text/check email it takes space people!
I donât need the space to listen to music, thatâs what my MP3 player is for.
PROS:
Bluetooth
Web browser
EV-DO ready
QWERTY keyboard
Email client setup
Texting/Instant Messaging
Signal Strength
Vibrate Alert Strong
Expansion slot for miniSD Card
CONS:
Battery Power
Little buggy/glitchy
Prince
Active sync/No Motorola Phone Tools
Sound setup (havenât figured out how to keep some sounds with certain features like text/voicemail/alarm sounds)
Weak Alarm (Donât use this to wake up out of bed in the morning)
Storage 64MB of internal memory, whatever
-- LameWireV3 --
Answers Please
Despite reading all reviews I was surprised to learn that basic information about this phone is not identified.
Pros: Thin. So was the old school i700 from samsung.
Jog Dial and soft keys are a good secondary option to touch screen.
Cons:
No Touch Screen. No ability to process Pocket Office software. Excel and word documents can not be viewed edited and re emailed. The sacrifice of smaller equals Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone vs. Windows Mobile 5.0. This phone is Smartphone only. The only Excel, Word and Powerpoint option available is similar to Palm OS, it requires dataworks software. This is not a substitute for Pocket Office. Be warned.
If you want a thin smartphone with limited Business solutions there are many others.
Once again, nice try Motorola!
