Tags: compare q to blackberry
09/08/08
Motorola Q Music 9m Smartphone (Verizon Wireless)
Motorola Q Black Phone (Verizon Wireless)
Motorola Q9c Smartphone (Verizon Wireless)
There's something about Windows Mobile operating systems that leave one cold. Theoretically, a Windows-based phone is great idea: Built-in Office support, sync ability. However, I've owned several Windows portable devices, from PDAs to various smart phones, and I've never felt close to any of them. No "Wow, this is cool!" or "I can't live without this thing" feelings for me.
It's not just that they're underwhelming, either: I had such a violently negative reaction to my last Windows mobile product the Samsung SCH i730 that I went for nearly the simplest phone I could find, the LG VX8600.
Still, I have legitimate reasons for owning a smart phone and, the sting of the Samsung having dissipated, I plunged back into a Windows-based smartphone pond. Verizon was having a sale on its Motorola Moto Q and Q 9m Music.
Would this be the device that broke the Windows Mobile jinx? It had a full QWERTY keyboard, something I've never had before. It was red and, dare I say, racy!
It was returned less than a week later.
The keyboard is fine. The buttons have a nice feel to them. The MOTO Q 9m and 9c have a more laptop-like keypad while the plain Q has Treo/Blackberry-style "chiclet" buttons. The case feels substantial enough to be called "of quality." The Moto Q is a little too wide to hold comfortably in the hand- mine, at least.
The screen is good. The Q has just about every function one would need, and you can purchase a wide variety of software from online vendors like Handmark and Handago. I liked that I could read my ebooks and read and modify Microsoft office documents and PDFs.
Aside from those positives, the Moto Q is just plain annoying. You'd expect non-folding phones to be a problem in a pocket, but buttons and scroll wheels pressing against the case? Locking and unlocking solves that problem, but the Q seems harder to lock than it has to be.
More annoyances:
1. If I want to tether the phone to access the internet on my laptop, I have to go into a menu and change some settings. Why? On my subsequent Motorola, it was automatic.
2. I think running more than one program at a time is a disadvantage. I have to close each program or remember to run the task manager.
3. Email seems harder to set up and is flakier to use.
4. The music program welcome screen is a mess and difficult to navigate. If I want to play music, I prefer opening a separate player.
5. The regular welcome screen isn't much better. Switching between the two is a pain.
6. The new sync in Vista is, like most things about Vista, worse than its XP predecessor, activesync.
7. Despite the Qwerty keyboard, typing isn't as intuitive as in other applications. Text entry into a phone still requires forethought and cleverness from the design team and the Moto Q didn't have them.
8. Hey! Motorola, if you're going to build a phone for music, give it a standard, 3.5mm headphone plug- not the phone-only 2.5mm one. Adapters get in the way.
9. Battery life is the worst on any phone I've used. It lasts about a day.
I can see some Verizon customers preferring this one over the equally frustrating Treo, but, unless you have a special need to Windows Mobile, get a Blackberry Curve or World (The Pearl doesn't have a full keyboard.).
BlackBerry 8830 Smartphone (Verizon Wireless)
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