Introduction & Design
4.3
Motorola launched their Q smartphone amidst a flurry of hype proclaiming it the world's thinnest, lightest, and most stylish handset to feature a full QWERTY keyboard. Still a hair's-breadth skinnier than the new Samsung Blackjack, the Q is amongst the chicest handsets to offer the full productivity of the Windows Mobile platform ... at least until Motorola's forthcoming q9 debuts later this year.
The Q is now available for use on Sprint's CDMA network with high-speed EV-DO data services. Early adopters of the Q on Verizon complained about middling processor speeds that led to unbearable hang times when multitasking and/or switching between applications. Has Motorola found a sweet spot between style and performance with this latest Q, or is it still a case of a piece of good-looking hardware that doesn't have the juice to run the software that's installed on it?
I spent a few weeks with the Q for Sprint to find out. The answer says as much about the state of the US cellular marketplace as it does about the handset itself. If you want the price and customer service advantages that come with a carrier supported handset, the Q for Sprint is a decent choice for a Windows Mobile smartphone. However, if you're willing to go outside the box (and can use a GSM network like Cingular or T-Mobile), there are other WinMob devices that offer more in the performance department without sacrificing too much style.
Motorola really did a bang-up job on the Q's industrial design. The housing is finished a grey plastic that's at once pleasantly forgiving to the touch and 'grippy' enough to stay put in your hand without the need for cramp-inducing application of force. While a bit wider than the Samsung Blackjack (its primary competitor in the fashionable smartphone arena), that extra space affords a much more comfortable keypad layout. Just about my only complaint with the Q's design lay in the somewhat sharp lower corners - the bottom right corner had a tendency to jab into the flesh on my right hand thumb pad when I used the phone one-handed.
Measuring 117 x 64 x 11.5 mm and weight a scant 115 g, the Q certainly lives up to all of the "thin and light" hype. The device fit comfortably into pants and jacket pockets, and really made me rethink my aversion to carrying around a long, wide phone: the Q's remarkably thin profile helped me to forget the large footprint that's part and parcel of any smartphone.
A 2.4" screen sits just below a blue Motorola logo - flanked by earpiece speakers - on the front of the device. Below the display sits a two-row array of buttons featuring two softkeys, call, call end/power, Home shortcut, and backspace keys as well as a five-way directional pad. These buttons are plenty large for easy access, and the D-pad is raised a few millimeters above the other flush-mounted buttons for convenience. I do question Motorola's decision to place the backspace key here as opposed to at on the top right corner QWERTY keypad below; I found myself annoyed at having to hunt for it when composing an email or SMS message.
The QWERTY layout that occupies the lower third of the front panel features small oval shaped buttons that are mounted diagonally, which makes the keys feel a bit larger than they are and results in easy typing relative to the narrow overall width of the handset. While the Q's keyboard isn't as roomy as those found on full-sized Blackberry devices, it's head and shoulders easier to use than the cramped buttons on the Blackjack. Keys are finished in black with white labels save for the ten buttons which double as the phone's dialing pad. Dedicated shortcut keys for Email, Camera, and Speakerphone are a great touch here, though I did wish the keyboard featured a backlight as found on Verizon's version of the Q.
A scrollwheel and back-button combination on the right panel of the Q allows for one-handed access to many functions, a la Blackberry devices. The controls are easy to use, though the thick plastic ridge that frames them seems a bit overdone to me. A standard mini-USB jack - which is used with the included AC adapter as well as for data connectivity - and a rubber-capped slot for mini SD memory cards adorn the Q's left panel. The rear panel of the Q is largely taken up by the battery cover (an optional extended life battery adds just a hair of thickness to the device), with the camera assembly at the top and dual speaker grills at the bottom of the panel.
Overall, I found the Q's design very pleasing. The font used to label the alphanumeric keys is pleasing to the eye, and the overall layout of the controls and QWERTY board is as roomy and easy to use as one could expect on a device that packs this many buttons into such a small space. As mentioned, the lower right corner of the phone pressed uncomfortably into the fleshy part at the bottom of my thumb pad during one-handed use, but aside from that I liked the design of the Q.
