From the first time we tried using the Motorola Evoke QA4, we were impressed. On a touchscreen phone, there's one thing we always look for first, and that's the responsiveness of the screen. The Motorola Evoke had a great, responsive touchscreen. The home screen is divided into widget panels, and we enjoyed flipping back and forth between the widgets. The phone followed our finger smoothly, which made for a nice browsing experience. Even the accelerometer was responsive, and the phone wasted little time flipping into landscape mode when we tilted the device on its side.
The Motorola Evoke QA4 clearly tries to mimic some of the Apple iPhone's style, as its main face is a large, 2.8-inch, 240 by 400 pixel touchscreen, with only a single Home button beneath the display. Slide out the keypad and you'll find a standard number set, but this phone really cries out for a QWERTY keyboard of some sort. The onscreen keyboard worked fine, and we liked being able to type in a wider landscape mode. Still, the phone is so wide that the number keys really get more space than they need. Perhaps a 20-key layout is in order? Motorola has never used this SureType keyboard layout, but we think it would make a nice compromise between the wide QWERTY used on the iconic Motorola Q slab phones, and the Evoke's current large numeric keys. Of course, this would also bring the Motorola Evoke a step closer to mirroring the Palm Pre, with its dominating touchscreen, hidden keyboard and sliding panels interface. Still, with all the buzz the Pre is getting, that might not be such a bad idea.
The Motorola Evoke QA4 has only been announced so far for Cricket wireless, a regional CDMA carrier that has been making inroads in the U.S. market by offering month-to-month, flat fee accounts for unlimited voice and data. While we don't have much experience with Cricket, since the carrier doesn't offer service in the greater New York area, we see no reason why Moto would keep the phone locked onto a niche player, rather than selling the phone on one of the four major U.S. carriers. Again, the Palm Pre comes to mind, as the Moto Evoke would fit nicely as a feature phone on Sprint's EV-DO Rev. A network next to the Palm smartphone.
In any case, Motorola has packed the Evoke with plenty of useful widgets from the start, and we enjoyed playing with these at the CTIA 2009 show. In addition to Google search, Moto bundles a widget for direct access to Picasa, Google's photo upload and sharing service. There is a YouTube app, and videos seemed to play very quickly over the phone's fast Rev. A networking.
Pricing and specific availability, besides the Cricket announcement, have yet to be determined, but we'll be looking out for this phone in the second quarter of 2009.
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