Motorola Q Review: Q As A Phone

The Q Phone

Yes, the Q is a smartphone enabling email, instant messaging, MP3 player and so on. At the root of the Q is a very capable phone. Motorola's roots are in providing high quality cellphones and the Q smartphone is no different. Considering smartphones are true convergence devices, there can be a give and take when it comes to the quality of various features - including the phone. The Q definitely feels like a phone with smartphone capabilities, rather than the other way around. It's a RAZR that has graduated to a smartphone. With dedicated call/hang-up buttons, the Q felt more like a phone than a smartphone. Even the dialing made me feel as if I were using a traditional cellphone. Entering numbers on the Qwerty keyboard appeared on screen accompanied by the sounds of dialing. If you start dialing a phone number, the Motorola Q will immmediately guess the caller based upon the dialed numbers. Voice quality was superb on both ends. Using the side dial, you can easily raise the volume. Volume level is much higher than I've experienced on Treo smartphones. This is a plus for the Q, as you can always turn down the volume. Back to the form factor, the Q feels good while holding up to my ear. As a phone, the Q excels.

Voice Command

The Q comes with Voice Command. This feature worked great when using it to bring up a contact. For instance, after depressing the Voice Command hotkey, "Call Michael Brent" results in the Q confirming your request and bringing up the numbers for that contact. If you command the Q to "Call Michael Brent Mobile", it will confirm your request. Yes confirms the request and the Q will dial the number. Voice command worked great for contacts and calling. It did have problems when I requested it open third party applications or Task Manager. You have to add applications to the Application Laucher section of Voice Command Settings for this function to work.

The internal speakerphone was loud and clear. With the phone on a desk, I was completely audible to the caller and more importantly clear. As I remarked, the speakerphone is very loud and uses two speakers built into the Q.

Motorola Q Review continued: Memory and Battery.