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
Still a Treo Lover
I am three weeks into my Q experience and I can say I am about 50/50. There are some great times and there are some bad times.
Grrrrrrrrrrrreat things:
.The ability to use internet explorer with Sprint's EVDO coverage
.The 1.3 mega-pixel camera, great for pictures and video capture
.Loud ringers and good speaker phone
.The ability to create specific folders for certain files such as pics, mp3s, etc,etc
.Bluetooth apps that allow you to listen to mp3s or videos through a bluetooth headset
Baaaaaaaaaaaad things:
.Horrible battery life, the type of work I do requires a lot activity with my personal cell phone. I have to charge the Q up at least 2 times during the day just to be able to maintain. I may just need to get an extended battery.
.No ability to create word,excel, or any other documents for that matter(you can with the Treo 700P, I still carry it for that reason and also just in case my Q battery goes out
.Doesn't seem to stay synced with bluetooth earpiece consistantly(it seems to sync like every other call I make)
So for those out there who want to know what choice of PDA device to make.....if you're not already a member of the Treo Club, please join today.
DOES SPRINT EVER TEST PHONES????
This phone is horrible it has very nice features but it will drive you mad, if you type to fast it starts adding letters, the menu keys jumps into different menus for no odd reason.i came from having a treo and i cannot believe i traded my 650 for this slug.
Pros:
Sturdy
Great for listening music
fast internet connection
nice bright display
Cons:
Camera (i noticed someone had written that this device takes nice pictures, question for you is this your first phone ever.) horrible resolution.
Slow response to the keys.
NO SPRINT SUPPORT they seem to be having same issue.
Does not connect with all Bluetooths
NO word,excel or notepad Cmon...
NO Tv from sprint you have to pay for another program to watch news only.
Battery life? is there one? o yeah my battery went dead, sprint replaced it why no one knows.
I think Sprint should have tested this phone prior to just dropping it out the public,i am going back to my A900 otherwise i am going to trow this against the floor one of these days..... ebay here i come.
Buyer Beware
I have never been so disappointed in the cell phone giant known as Motorola. The Motorola Q for Sprint PCS is a huge disappointment. I currently have a Treo 700P and it blows the Q out of the water.
Pro's:
Finally a wireless phone with a scroll wheel {great job Motorola}
Beautiful screen
Nice Shape to the key pad, really easy for texting
Very Loud ringers, speaker and earpiece
MP3 ringtones!!
Con's:
Camera is not as good as my Treo
Screen is too small for such as large phone
Motorola UI is sooooo slooowww!
You have to access task manager and kill every application after you are done or it runs in the background crippling the speed even further.
Backspace is not on the keypad {situated next to the power button}
These may all seem like minor things but it was enough to turn me off to Motorola for good.
You get what you pay for
Well, I just got off the phone with Verizon Tech Support. (again) They are sending me another Q (again) In trying to think of pros for this phone, I guess all I can say is that when it does work it is a great phone. I will soon be on my third one in three weeks. It always looses it's sync with my laptop. (has happened on two laptops so not a computer issue). Tech support has had me delete, uninstall, reinstall, you name it, I have done it at least a dozen times. I pay extra to be able to tether and use as a wireless modem, but at least every other day I have to uninstall and reinstall the Verizon software, because it cannot detect the phone. In talking to my local Verizon rep, he told me that of all the PDA phones, the Q has had the most problems. I guess this explains being able to buy it new for 99 bucks.
Nice when it works
I'm on my third replacement Q in 6 months. When it works, it's great. My problem has been that all the Q's that I've had share the same problem. They need to be rebooted and freeze up on a daily basis. I've been stuck in hard reset hell since I bought my Q in September. Maybe others have had good luck with the Q, but I haven't. Verizon has been very good about replacing each phone. Nice customer service, poor phone. Maybe the next software update will fix my problems. I wish I had just stuck with my LG phone for all the headaches that I've had with this Q.
Q Stands for Quit
I was the first customer at my VZN store to receive a Q. So, I've used the Q since its inception.
Good: Nice screen, bright, easy to read. Keyboard, easy to use. With larger battery, no problem. Sound and volume, excellent. Great Voice Recognition, a big plus. That's about all I can say that is good about this phone.
Bad: I'm on my THIRD phone. First two worked fine for a short period then began having loads of problems, like dropping bluetooth, shutting down in middle of calls, not just dropping the call but turning itself completely off, needing a reboot, sometimes 2-3 times before coming back on line. This is a big problem for a phone used 95% for business. There have been myriads of other small, problems and hassles. Can't get an entire email from my company's exchange server. Email is not nearly as good as my old Blackberry. VZ has been very good about replacing the bad phones, but after first of year, I'm looking for a replacement to a different phone. I've almost lost business with this phone due to lost calls.
Worst phone ever
I bought the phone because I wanted to get my company e-mail without lugging my PC around all the time. The integrated PDA like features were a "plus" but not a "must" feature. The battery life is a complete joke. When used as a phone (under 1 hour of phone calls) the battery does not last 6 hours. When uses strictly as a e-mail device the battery lasts about 8 hours. Thinking this was simply a defective battery Since I took the phone back for a replacement battery - no difference.
Other annoying features - when accessing voice mail you have to put in your pin number - however the system does not always accept it - you need to disconnect and call back.
There is an annoying beep every 30 seconds when making a phone call (at least on the phone I had). I thought that perhaps this was a alert that other calls are coming in - no, this is just an annoying beep.
The clip case that comes with the phone has rests on your hip and constantly pinches you side when you sit down, so I end up carrying the phone in my pocket - which actually not bad except that it defeats the purpose of the hip clip.
When using the menu system - there are no shortcut keys. If you hit the next command without first bringing up the menu nothing happens, so after you "learn the process" you cannot quickly do the commands you want.
Finally the signal pickup is weak. I was in the Chicago airport and everyone was making cell phone calls (on verizon network) but I could not get a good signal on the Q.
Overall Pros & Cons
Pros:
Weight
Screen quality - excellent, very easy to read text
Cons:
Operating system is unstable
Terrible battery life
Speakerphone on the back - your hand muffles the sound
Sound quality is OK but not great
Few Quirks
I must say after reading other reviews I realize that the quirks I have aren't just my bad luck. I agree with "Q = Quirky. Do not buy this thing" on some issues. My phone also cuts off for no apparent reason during the day. Sometimes its right after I hang up and sometimes it just happens. I thought I had a defective battery. I have to take the battery out, put it back in, and power on again for it to work! Not good for a new phone! I'm happy with the calling features, the physical aspect of it....it's light, nice display, managable. It also takes a long time to power on, somewhat like a computer, my laptop is faster. And how do you turn off the sound to that loud annoying power on introduction?? I'm used to powering on and pretty much dialing. Hopefully others will have better luck. The next version will hopefully have worked out the quirks!
No Sync and Burn!
This is a truly sweet phone. So sweet that I endured hours upon hours between tech support first with Verizon and then with Motorola. Let me first say that Verizonâs tech support was beyond excellent in customer service. However the solution to my woes with the Q could not be resolved in their camp. Fearing Motorola would have me on hold FOREVER, to my surprise, I was speaking to a tech for Q in less than 5 minutes. In short, my Q will not sync. It does everything else just fine. I went from the frontline tech support guy through to the more senior support guy, straight to the team that pretty much invented the Q. After about 3 hours on the phone and numerous master resets and installs and uninstalls of Activesync 4.1 and 4.2 (bata) and downing firewalls and virus programs, the Motorola team had to call no joy on me also. (Trust me, these guys are great) Too bad for me; I really like this phone.
If you are having a connection issue and your virus program is disabled and your firewall is turned off, take the phone back before your 15 days are up as I did with Verizon. There is very little else that can be done at that point. Unless you are technically savvy as I am and enjoy getting into those Jedi master senior support tricks and tips.
Ok Blackberry, here I come. That 8700c better be tight!
Not Happy
I don't like this phone because of its terrible cell phone reception, I can't get any signal where I live. Other phones of verizon and different provides work well, but for some reason mine wont.
Other than that, I luv the phone. It lags a bit, and voice quality is not that good. People hear me well, but I don't hear them that well.
