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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: Motorola Q Black Phone (Verizon Wireless, Phone Only, No Service) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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To keep your smartphone's applications up to date, and to optimize the performance of your device, you may need to perform firmware and/or software updates just as you would on your PC. To learn more about updates for your device, please visit Motorola's support site. Note that by clicking this link you will be leaving Amazon.com.Motorola's QWERTY keyboard equipped Q, formerly known as the RAZRberry in the rumor mills, might not exactly be the "BlackBerry killer" that many predicted, but it is certainly one of the most capable and user friendly smartphones available on the market today. Based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone platform, the Q picks up the best features from Microsoft's Smartphone edition of Windows Mobile while still offering a lot of PDA-like capability and screen real estate on its 65k color, 320x240 pixel display.
In terms of hardware features, the Q's right side 3-way scroll wheel and dedicated back buttons take center stage. These give the Q user fast BlackBerry-like scrolling with the ability to select an item or return to the prior screen--all with the user's thumb. Of course you can still do these same things the traditional way by using the 5-way direction pad and the back button that sits to its right. There's also a dedicated home key as well as the red and green call control keys. The Q's QWERTY keyboard is a bit stiff, but otherwise designed well. The dark keys serve double duty as the numeric keypad when the Option key (found left of the Z key) is used. The Option key can be locked on, as can the shift key on the opposite side of the keyboard. Along the bottom of the keyboard you'll find dedicated buttons for email, the 1.3-megapixel camera, and a dual-use key for the speaker-independent voice dialing system and speakerphone. When it comes to hot features, though, the Q's EV-DO 3G data capability tops the list. When used in an EV-DO coverage area, the Q user can expect to get wireless data rates that approach those enjoyed by home DSL users. When there is no EV-DO coverage available, the Q will fall back to the slower 1xRTT data network (roughly comparable to a 56Kbps modem). The Q can also connect to a desktop PC with a USB or Bluetooth connection. Bluetooth can also be used with mono and stereo headsets, as well as other devices like keyboards.
While WiFi wireless access would have been a welcomed feature, it would have only led to even more strain on the already overtaxed battery. The standard capacity battery is capable of a respectable 5.5 hours of continuous talk time, but realistically will only provide a day of solid use, especially if the Q user takes advantage of the BlackBerry-like push email support. The push system can keep your Q lock step in sync with your corporate or home email inbox without any user intervention required. On top of email synchronization, it can also be used to synchronize the Q's contacts, calendar entries, tasks and other items with your home or office copy of Microsoft Outlook. It is somewhat eerie how you can enter a new contact or appointment on the Q and have it show up moments later in Outlook--or the other way around. One of the great things about owning a smartphone is the ability to add 3rd party developed applications to the device. Since Windows Mobile 5.0 is quite popular, there are plenty such applications available both freely and for purchase. The Q has about 50MB of RAM for running applications, and a similar amount for storing data and the applications themselves. If you need more storage space, you can easily add a gigabyte or two by inserting a miniSD memory card into the Q's slot, located on the left edge of the device. The Motorola Q packs a lot of capability into a device that is only a half inch thick and weighs 4.3 ounces--considerably less than the competition. It comes highly recommended. Pros:
Cons:
--Reviewed by Michael Oryl, editor in chief of www.MobileBurn.com User Submitted Motorola Q Black Phone (Verizon Wireless, Phone Only, No Service) ReviewsDate: 2008-06-10 Poor Phone. Horrible Batt. Life Was very excited to get this phone and quickly disappointed. The battery life on this phone, even the extended battery is horrible. This phone spent more time on the charger then on my belt. Cannot download ringtones, wall papers, etc. Very limited on what features it had. Not user friendly at all. Thankfully verizon offered me an early out. Would not recommend this phone. Pay extra and get a Blackberry. Date: 2008-04-09 What a 2 year mistake !!! BOO HOO !!! SOMEBODY CALL ME !!! I never spent a more worthless $100 on a cell phone. SMARTPHONE - my shoe !!! I can NEVER get on the Internet, constantly says that it I BUSY !!! I live 10 miles out in the county, but let's get real here !!! In this age of wonderful communication, is 10 miles asking too much ?? I bought it with the super size battery, but it STILL has a problem holding a charge. Get this - if I am in town, AT LEAST the phone part works, but where I live, I have to step out doors to make a phone call. If I could afford to get out of a 2 year contract, I would. I am with Verizon Wireless and they DO have a good support line, but it seems that all the support in the world isn't going to get this lemon to work !!! C. Hoffman Date: 2008-03-15 An OK smartphone with some nice features and poor battery life After owning a Motorola Razr V3c for two years on the Verizon network I was ready to upgrade to a SmartPhone and I had my eyes on a Q for a while. Given the fact that my Razr had been quite reliable and very durable, I reasoned that going to a Q would be a serious upgrade. I was toting a cell phone and a Dell Axim PDA and honestly it was getting old. The Q performs pretty well overall and my experience after eight months of use has been more favorable than negative. THE GOOD: Nice rubber-like coating makes for a sure grip. Nice bright color screen. Great reception-better than my BlackBerry Pearl. Clear sound, on speaker or direct to ear. Ringer volume is good. Very easy to type; keys give good response and are easy to hit. Backlighted keyboard. Windows Mobile 5. Very good pictures for a cellular phone. Video can be very good also in good light. Bluetooth allows OBEX (Object Exchange) functionality. Standard USB device connection & charging. OEM clip works well. Case recommended. Accepts up to 2GB microSD card. Low profile (thin) device. THE BAD: Battery life is not the greatest. Phone has shut itself off without warning, but infrequently. I purchased the extended battery (1640 mAh vs 1100 mAh for the one that comes with the unit) along with a new battery door to accommodate the thicker battery (often sold together). The original 1100 mAh battery had a very short life span, but where I work there is very poor cellular reception, so the phone is always working to find a signal and the battery drains quicker than normal. Bluetooth will also take the battery down quicker. LIon batteries do have a relatively short life span and will eventually lose capacity. My work phone is a BlackBerry Pearl (I also had a BlackBerry World Edition) and both have their pros and cons. The Pearl has been solid, but I can type much easier and faster with fewer mistakes on the Q. Even my old BlackBerry's full QWERTY keyboard couldn't compare to the Q. The Q has a better keyboard and the keys are raised far enough above the surface of the device to give a better tactile response than the BlackBerry. BOTTOM LINE: This is a feature-packed phone that will play your mp3s, take decent pictures and video, store all of your appointments and contacts and still serve as a phone. This has been a wonderful device for typed communication; the full QWERTY keyboard has a positive feel and you will be able to type quickly with fewer mistakes. It will also work as a GPS with installed software (I recommend CoPilot 7 with Bluetooth antenna) and has the ability to be a solid performer. This is a very low profile phone that is not bulky like the UT Starcomm 6700 or a Treo 700. I have been fairly happy with it thus far and have looked past the occasional reset to have an all-in-one device that fits my needs. Date: 2007-12-26 Q GOOOOOOOD I've had my Q for about 2 months now. Positives: I love its user interface and sleek design. Mine has been very stable. I've had a couple PDAs and of course cell phones so what was especially sweet was when I first got it sync'd up with Outlook and ALL my contacts with their phone numbers were immediately available for quick dialing. Welcome to the 'smartphone' world. AWESOME. :-) I regularly text message as well as manage 3 different emailboxes including one that syncs with a hosted Exchange Server (service provided by AppRiver). This is great because when I am on my laptop and I create a calendar appointment, it automatically is enterred in my phone's calendar (no wires required). Likewise, when I respond to an email from my phone, it is in my sent folder when I get on my laptop. I just starting using motorolla's Blue Tooth T700. Pretty good hands free voice recongizion for dialing. Negatives: 1. Battery life. When they gave me an extra free one I figured this might be an issue. I have it on all day, checking 3 mailboxes every 15 minutes and I get a little more than 1 day per battery. So I pretty much keep on battery in the charger and swap them out when I need to. This is less of a problem if I let it charge up in the car on the way to work or at my desk. That's the price to pay for such a large screen, blue tooth, and the cell service. I am sure an aftermarket batter would hold it's charge longer. Plus I think there are some powersaving settings you can config that will help this. I just haven't taken the time to investigate that piece. 2. This next item is very nit-picky but hey, maybe someone from Motorola will read this... The "," and "." and "'" buttons throw me. It is more intuitive for me to have a comma and a period share the same button than a period and apostrophe. 2 months and still get it wrong more than I would like to admit. So hey Motorola, next time please swap the "'" and the "," so the comma is on the same button as the period. Overall, it's been a great phone. Thin, light, sturdy, and dependable. No freeze ups. I've even dropped it a few times. Date: 2007-12-25 Bad Battery Life / Terrible Sync The Q looks like it might be a Blackberry replacement. It's not: -It is more difficult to type on the Q -The battery life (please see other reviews which will really go into depth on this) is terrible -Sometimes the syncing software (I am pretty good with computers) works and sometimes it doesn't. This may be a Vista issue as I am running Vista.
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