Moto Q Smartphone
Phones are for function, not fashion. That's fact, not opinion—ask any serious stylist. Yet still we see thousands of impeccably dressed businessmen wearing their Blackberries on their belts like some sort of off-kilter techno Batman belt buckle.
While the function-not-fashion rule still applies to the Moto Q, it's so slim and pretty that one could almost forgive an executive for choosing to holster it on his waist. Almost, but not quite. Especially since, at just 11.5mm thick, it perfectly fits in the breast pocket of a jacket, or, if need be, one's trousers. And, of course, that's saying nothing of how easily it would slide into one of the many lined pockets of a woman's purse. But go ahead and wear it, showboat.
But form factor is just one of many reasons to get excited about the Q, the first smartphone to pose a serious challenge to RIM's dominating Blackberry when it comes to mobile email.
Simply put, the Q's email functionality is terrific. It runs on Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone Edition, using Outlook Mobile for an email client, which means anyone familiar with the desktop version of Outlook will be right at home. It's simple, intuitive, and—most importantly—quick. Checking and composing email is fast and easy, even if you work with multiple accounts.
Another key factor in judging a device's mobile email capabilities is means of text input, and the Q's QWERTY keyboard is one of the best on the market. The buttons are backlit, slightly raised, and tacky to the touch (providing good grip for fingertips). We suffered very few typos in our tests.
While the email functionality is attractive, hardcore business users may be turned off by the Q's lack of office productivity applications. But Motorola left out these apps on purpose. The company isn't positioning the Q as a replacement for Blackberries, which are targeted squarely at the corporate world, but rather as a hipper platform geared for consumer and light business use. And it meets the needs of that market perfectly.
Indeed, its consumer applications are almost limitless. The Q sports terrific photo and video capabilities with its 6x digital zoom camera. The massive, bright, colorful screen makes the Q a great mobile platform for capturing images (not coincidentally, the Q was used by amateur filmmakers at this year's Toronto International Film Festival in a workshop for the creation of mobile movies). It lacks the still and video editing capabilities of a phone like the Nokia 6682, but the WMA and JPG files it outputs are easy to work with using a PC-based application.
It does a nice job with music as well. The Q uses Windows Media Player Mobile as a player, and its interface will feel intuitive to anyone with experience with the desktop version. The Q's small stereo speakers are surprisingly powerful, though predictably tinny. It's best with headphones, obviously-which, to service provider and handset vendor Telus' shame, don't appear to be included in the off-the-shelf package.
One final note regarding multimedia capabilities: the Q has less than 100MB of accessible onboard memory for all applications, which means if you plan on receiving a lot of email, taking plenty of photos or videos, or using the Q as a music player, you'll need to invest in a Mini-SD card to increase storage capacity. That's right; the MotoQ has extendable memory capability, unlike many other smartphones. Nice touch.
Turning to performance, calls were clear and loud, and data transfers were fast and reliable (the Moto Q comes EV-DO ready). We didn't conduct any formal battery tests, but Motorola rates the Q for 200 minutes of Talk Time and 200 hours on standby. We used the Q extensively, making calls, sending and downloading data, and testing the photo and video functions, before it petered out, and were left with the feeling that battery life was perfectly acceptable.
It seems as though a critical review should have a few more criticisms, but, simply put, there's not much to dis'. It might not meet power business users' needs for document authoring and editing, but that's a design choice, not a flaw. The only other downside is price of use: smartphone service plans are more expensive than they should be, but, again, that's not the Q's fault. People in the market for a smart phone will have a tough time finding a more compelling alternative, however. Telus offers the Q for $600 without a plan, or $250 with a three-year contract (plans range from about $30 to $170 per month, plus additional bandwidth/minute fees, in some cases).
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