After almost a year, the sleek and slim Q – the thinnest smartphone on the market with a QWERTY thumbboard – has finally arrived. Was it worth the wait?
Review summary of the Motorola Q:
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 While the Motorola Q packs in some impressive features into its svelte, half-inch frame, including top-notch messaging abilities, EV-DO support, Bluetooth and a surprisingly good 1.3-megapixel camera, we can't overlook the phone's disappointingly lethargic performance or its underpowered office features. Release: May 2006. Price: $150.
Pros: Slim and light for a smartphone; strong messaging features, including push e-mail support; sharp 1.3-megapixel camera; impressive call quality; good battery life
Cons: Sluggish performance; can't edit Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files; no Wi-Fi; no conference calling; display isn't touch-sensitive
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Full Motorola Q Review:
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Competition
Find out how well the Motorola Q competes with similar business phones:
Motorola Q vs. Palm Treo 680 vs. T-Mobile Dash
Editor's note: Thanks to a recent software update, the Q now supports dial-up networking, and some users are reporting improved performance.
Barely a half-inch thick and boasting some killer, RAZR-like looks, the Motorola Q has been making mouths water since its initial unveiling last summer. Armed with the latest version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS, as well as support for 3G networks (EV-DO in the case of Verizon Wireless, and an HSDPA version could be in the office, according to Moto CEO Ed Zander), Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and push e-mail, the Q has doubtless made its way up many a road warrior's wish list. Unfortunately, it looks like Motorola sacrificed speed and full-fledged office functionality for the Q's stylish, wafer-thin profile.
Slim as can be
For starters, the Q looks great. Measuring just 4.6 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches and weighing just 4.1 ounces, the Q is as thin and light as advertised; slipping it in a jeans pocket is no problem, which is something we'd never say about the thicker, six-ounce Palm Treo 700p, and it was easy to hold against our cheek during calls. This is one slick-looking smartphone.
The Q's QWERTY keypad is refreshingly roomy, making for good two- or even one-handed typing (again, something you wouldn't want to try on the 700p/w's crowded keypad). The flat, four-way navigational keypad is flanked by a pair of softkeys, along with dedicated "talk", "end", "home" and "clear" keys. On the right edge of the Q is a jog dial and a "back" key (which doubles as a one-press voice command button), while on the other side you'll find the IR port, a slot for miniSD memory expansion, and the USB port (which, in a nice touch, charges the phone while its connected to a PC). Finally, a standard 2.5 mm headset jack sits along the top edge.
The Q's 65,000-color, 320 x 240-pixel display looked bright and razor-sharp to our eyes; snapshots and images from the mobile Web appeared impressively vivid and lifelike with just the faintest trace of pixel lines. Unfortunately, the display itself isn’t a touchscreen, which might come as a surprise to smartphone users accustomed to tapping with a stylus.
Hurry up and wait
When we checked out the Q back in April during CTIA, we were impressed by its relative speed compared to the sluggish model we saw at CES in January. Well, we're not sure what happened in the interim, but the Q seems to have lost much of its pep. Flipping around various menus with the jog dial, the cursor struggled to catch up and the screen labored to refresh. Even worse, it often took several seconds for applications to launch, and we saw the multi-colored spinning "wait" ball appear all too often – all despite the Q's relatively generous 64MB of RAM and 128MB of flash ROM.
The dual-mode (CDMA 850/1900) Q scores points with its robust connectivity options, including Bluetooth (good for wireless handsets, PC synching and now dial-up networking, thanks to a recent software update), an IR port, and last but not least, support for Verizon's speedy EV-DO network. The Q is missing on-board Wi-Fi, although the phone's 3G support certainly helps to bridge the gap. In terms of synching, we had little trouble grabbing our calendar and contact info via Bluetooth, and pairing our Logitech Bluetooth headset was a snap.
Read-only Office
Wading into the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, we found that the Q's Smartphone version is easier to navigate that the tricky Pocket PC variety. Using the four-way navigational keypad and the soft keys, we were able to cruise through the menus (well, maybe poked more than cruised) with one hand, something we'd never attempt with the intricate menus on, say the Windows Mobile-based Treo 700w. That said, the Q's relative simplicity comes with some important limitations: namely, the lack of a full Office Mobile suite. While there's a document viewer that lets you open Word, Excel and PDF documents, you can't create or edit them as you can with the Pocket PC version, a blow for business travelers looking for a true mobile office in their pocket.
Although the Q lags in its document-handling abilities, its messaging features are up to snuff. Armed with the Smartphone version of Outlook Mobile, the Q lets you check up to eight personal and Web accounts such as Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, Gmail, and Hotmail (through the Pocket MSN app); you can also take advantage of Verizons Intellisync-powered wireless sync service, or get your corporate email and PIM info in real-time through the Q's support for the GoodLink push e-mail service. We had no trouble setting up the Q to collect our Yahoo mail, although we had to jump through several hoops to set up Exchange ActiveSync; by comparison, enabling our Exchange account via ActiveSync on the 700p was a simple matter of entering our username, password, and domain name. Instant message fans may be a bit disappointed that the built-in Pocket MSN app only supports MSN Messenger, although there are plenty of third-party apps that will provide Trillian-like IMing on the Q.
Music mavens will get a kick out of the mobile Windows Media Player, which handles videos as well as MP3, AAC, WAV, and EMA music files. You can sync your video and music collection (including protected PlaysForSure files) from your desktop with the PC version of Windows Media Player, and you can also groove to your music over a stereo Bluetooth headset – nice.
Surprisingly sharp snapshots
The Q's 1.3-megapixel camera took surprisingly good pictures for a smartphone. Our snapshots looked impressively sharp and vivid, with little in the way of haze or video noise. The clips we shot with the built-in camcorder looked juttery and blocky, but that's pretty much par for the course with camera phones. Once again, however, we were annoyed by the Q's sluggish performance; after snapping a picture, we had to wait several seconds to see the still we just took, and clicking another option (such as “Send via Bluetooth”) made for a long slog.
Motorola and Verizon have gone to great pains to call the Q a "phone first"; unfortunately, while you get hands-free voice calling, a speakerphone, a vibrate mode, and speed dialing, there's no conference calling, a key business feature we've been seeing on the most basic handsets. That said, the feature-rich Outlook Mobile makes for a pretty powerful address book.
We tested the Motorola Q in New York City, and call quality was excellent, even on our wired and Bluetooth headsets. The speakerphone sounded a little shrill, but that's to be expected. Our Web browsing on the mobile Internet Explorer was relatively speedy thanks to the Q's EV-DO connection, although the phone's inherent sluggishness often made for choppy surfing. We got about 4.5 hours of talk time for the Q, more than the four promised by Motorola, and the phone is rated for about eight days of standby time.
Price and availability
The Motorola Q will start selling for $150 to $300 ((Verizon Wireless)) in May 2006.
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