Motorola Q Review

The Motorola Q is the latest smartphone release from Motorola. A long time in development, the long awaited release of the Moto Q has caused quite a stir in the smartphone market.

What's In The Box

The Motorola Q is currently available through Verizon Wireless and Telus Mobility in Canada will also carry the Q. The Moto Q from Verizon Wireless ships with:

• Motorola Q smartphone
• Lithium ion battery
• Holster
• Travel Charger
• User Manual
• Quick Reference Guide
• Welcome CD
• Microsoft ActiveSync CD

Hardware

Verizon bills the Moto Q as "the world's thinnest smartphone" and they were not kidding. As a longtime Treo user, the size of the Q is amazing. With the battery, it weighs in at 4.1 ounces compared to 6.4 ounces of the 700p. The Moto Q is also wider than the Treo, so the weight is more evenly distributed. In some ways, the Q looks as if a Treo were flattened. The Moto Q does not have the large external antenna found on many PocketPC and smartphones and this further adds to its sleek appearance. The photos below show a comparison in size between the Motorola Q and Palm's latest, the Treo 700p.

Motorola Q Keyboard

The phone features a QWERTY keyboard for entering text and numbers. The keyboard resembles a Blackberry keyboard. I have small hands, so found the keyboard to be wider than I prefer. All in all, typing still felt comfortable on the Q's keyboard. The Q will attempt to complete your words using 'predictive text' and in most cases it was correct. Pressing on the right of the 5-way navigator informs the Q software that it has correctly guessed the word you were typing and skips to where you would next start typing. On traditional cellphones, I've always found this feature to be poorly implemented, but this isn't the case with the Q. Either way, you can easily disable "Text Prediction" in the the Text Input Settings section of the Q. Additionally, the Q has three "hot-keys" that enabled quick access to Messaging, Pictures and Video and Voice Command. These are three of the primary functions of the Motorola Q, so I found them to be very useful.

Q Screen

The Q uses a 320x240 high-resolution display. When sitting next to a Palm Treo 700p, the screen on the Moto Q appears to be more of a landscape layout. At first glance, you'd think the Q has a higher resolution display. Text is crisp, icons appear very defined and web pages looked terrific on the Q. The Motorola Q comes with two "showcase images" preinstalled. Any questions about the quality of the screen are put to bed upon viewing these images. My only frustration was having to remove Windows Smartphone on-screen menus in order to fully experience the Q's screen. This is more a symptom of Microsoft's OS, than the Q. I had the same issue when reviewing Palm's Treo 700w which uses the PocketPC derivitive of Windows Mobile 5.

It's also worth noting that the Q does not have a touch screen. Instead, it relies on the various menus and buttons to navigate the interface. This is the major difference between it's Windows Mobile 5 sibling, the PocketPC operating system.

Motorola review continued: Q as a Phone.