Customer Reviews

Motorola Q Black Phone (Verizon Wireless, Phone Only, No Service)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Black one is the same as the silver one, but the rubbery black surface is nice, and not "plastic-y." You know about all the cool things this phone does, but it's all pretty much irrelevant as the battery won't last long enough to do them, much less keep you available for phone calls. The feeling of walking around with this thing is pretty much the same as when you are forced to use your laptop with out it's external power supply: you know your battery's gonna drain before you get back to your desk. Pair up a bluetooth headset, and you'll be lucky if it keeps a charge long enough to wait on hold with Verizon while you try to get them to swap it out. The shame is, if it had reasonable battery life, it'd be great in SPITE of all it's other quirks (which is why I gave it 3 stars instead of 2). You can pay extra for the extended life battery which is roughly twice the thickness, but that defeats half the allure of the device and you might as well just have a Treo, which I understand works pretty well.

REVISION: Verizon sent me a new one of these after the first one I bought broke, froze and generally behaved psychotically. The replacement likes to shut itself on and off at will and oftentimes gives me un-fixable error messages when attempting to dial a simple phone number, requiring more time on hold with data/tech support, another trip to the Verizon store and ultimately (as my last one AND my girlfriend's Silver version of this phone did) a HARD reset, which in turn requires re-entering and resetting all personal settings and data. Even if you use Wireless Sync (Verizon's excellent on-line backup) you still have to go in and, one by one, change your contacts to list "first name first" should you so desire to have your names read like names. Amazon won't let me take off a star (Motorola should be happy to even get 2!) so I'll simply recommend that, unless you enjoy fixing phones, you avoid this one like a public restroom with an overflowing toilet.

Ever since the advertisement for the Q came out on TV, I have been floored by its sleek and stylish design. I was waiting for my "get one every two" deal and when the time came, without hesitation I upgraded my phone to a black Q. The keys are large enough to comfortably type and the colors and sharpness of text were very aesthetically pleasing. Since I had built smartphone apps for a previous generation of the phone, naturally I gravitated to the Windows Mobile based device. Also, since this is a windows based device, I didn't have to read the manual (except for advanced features) to figure out how to use the device. Setting up eMail was a breeze and integration with Outlook was very cool with meeting reminders popping up on time, very conveniently.

My honeymoon period with this phone was over rather quickly. One of the first things I did was to enter contacts from my old phone. Scrolling through the options for every contact revealed the slowness of the contact app. Selecting ringtones also had the same drawback - it took a noticeable amount of time to scroll through the ringtones before they would play the tune for preview. It was annoying to watch the field selector jump back and forth as the wheel was rotated, with each field painting itself slowly. Occasionally, when looking at a list view, the screen would draw blank but when you roll the wheel, items in selection would selectively paint themselves.

Secondly, in the three weeks I had the device, it hung twice while making outgoing phone calls and once as I was browsing the web. On the first two occasions, I had to turn off phone and back on to get it usable again. It was like rebooting a Windows 95 device when it hung or bluescreened. This is a cell phone and I expect its uptime to be measured in months, not days. On the second occasion, gwes.exe crashed and I was asked whether the phone can send the error message to Microsoft, just like the promts on Windows XP when something goes awry. Again, I expect this device to behave like a phone, not like a desktop.

The final straw was the battery life. You could see the battery draining in front of your eyes. That is how short the battery lasted. About a day of use with a couple of short phone calls and lots of email. It was constantly being charged when not in my hands. The power management setting that I selected (5 seconds for backlight to dim and 15 seconds for display to turn off) never persisted. It would temporarily be effective and then it would go back to a standard setting (5 seconds for display to turn off). This meant I had to constantly wake up the device if I was reading a page of eMail.

I finally got fed up and exchanged this for a blackberry. While the latter looks and feels like a brick, it has been rock solid. Research in Motion got its device designed quite right and I feel Motorola and Microsoft failed to capitalize on a beautiful device design with the Q. I give this a 2 star for device design and intuitive ease of use.

The Q is a frustrating waste of time and money. I have also experienced many of the problems described in the other customer reviews: random crashes, slow service, non-existant battery life, etc.

Do yourself a favor and get an iPhone or, if you need a device for business, a Blackberry. Compared to the Q, both are much better and more reliable alternatives.

This phone is great for receiving emails, however, the battery life is just awful. The original battery that it comes with hardly lasted a day, and that was BEFORE i had my Outlook email set up. I have never had a phone that just died in the middle of the night. It just drains when you're not even using it. So i opted for the extended battery and although it is thicker it is definitely still a must buy. The phone will last a little over a day, but i opt to charge it every night. The battery costs about an extra 30 but well worth it. It's still lightweight and thin which is a main reason people choose the q. I chose the black one because of the look and feel as opposed to the silver plastic one. I would recommend this phone for people who are on the road often and need a simple way to receive and send emails. It is not too fancy and very user friendly.

**UPDATE - 1 and a half years later
I have had my q for under two years and i couldn't wait to get rid of it. I wasn't even up for an upgrade but i couldn't deal with it anymore. Even the extended battery hardly lasted long enough. If you are in an area without service, forget about having enough battery life until you get to a part with service. It drains it extremely quickly. There have been several times my battery did not last until 3:00 in the afternoon. there were spotaneous shutdowns which would cause me to have to reboot the whole phone. If this phone is even still available, i do not recommend it. I have now switched to the blackberry curve and i love it already!

There's lots that could be better about the MotoQ, but for 4 oz it has a crystal clear screen that lets me search the web ANYWHERE! I love sync'ing my appts and contacts with my PC. While I'm talking on the phone on the go, I can view my schedule, add an appt, and then when I get home, I just USB and it sync's both new phone and new PC data. Even my wife has gotten in the habit of asking me obtuse questions like "What are the 7 deadly sins?" while we're biking knowing I can get the answer to any question, anywhere, anytime!

Down sides: This is a "smart phone" which means it doesn't have a touch screen. This is frustrating, and slows down a lot of interactions, but you get used to navigating essentially with arrow keys (actually there are two "pointers" that let you scroll, but they are basically arrow keys).

The Q doesn't come with any text editing software, but for $29 you can get "Documents To Go" which allows you to view and edit Word, Excel, PDF and Powerpoint.

The screen is easily scratched, and I haven't found a case I like yet. I use a $4 plastic holder.

The documentation is awful. I'm a power user so I found out stuff by trial and error (like the auto typing - which I like: it keeps trying to finish your words based on what you've typed - but how do you reject the offering? Turns out you left-arrow to reject, and right arrow to accept. Lots of stuff like this you have to learn yourself.

The call quality isn't great. I find unless I use an ear-bud, it's like a walkie-talkie or a dixie cup and string quality. Battery life is awful. Much worse if you keep blue-tooth on (like 10 times worse). So here's the problem: if you want to be heard, you need a bluetooth earbud, but if you want battery life, you can't have it on!

I like the last used list (it shows icons of the last 10 applications you've used at the top of the screen). Unfortunately it doesn't tell you what those icons mean, so you just have to learn. It seems to keep nearly everything open - I just hit the HOME key to get out. This is good in that I can go right back to the Word doc I was editing when a call came in. The start-menu has no shortcuts and isn't in any order I can tell, so hunting for an app I haven't used is a pain.

I like the home screen. Shows calls, messages and the next upcoming appt. The profile (which they don't describe well in the manual) is also great. Just arrow to it and select, and you can change the profile to silent, meeting (which is silent during scheduled meetings automatically, then goes back to normal). So when I'm at the movies, it's just two clicks to silence the Q.

I got as 2gb storage card, and that works well. I bought a few games, but they're all either disappointing (can't click on the screen so games are a hassle) or too small to see; or crash windows.

Email is very hinky. I only use it to send messages (tho I've tested receiving and it works) but it's very undependable.

Every once in a while my contacts disappear. Rebooting brings them back.

All in all, this light-weight phone/computer/web browser is great. Verizon wanted $45/month for web access. That's insulting. Sprint asks $15, so I switched just to use the MotoQ. Blackberry charges $45 for its access also above your phone charges. Forget them!

Definitely insure your phone if you get one. I've nearly lost this little guy a couple of times, and at $450 a pop, you won't be happy.

I went through three of these phones in a month before switching to a Blackberry.

1) Battery life - even the extended battery won't last a day with moderate use

2) Display light goes off too soon. If you change the setting it reverts back to the original one on its own

3) Constantly crashes and needs to be rebooted

4) Slow to recognize keystrokes

5) Gets really hot, so you need a bluetooth headset... but oh, that drains the pathetic battery even faster.

6) The contacts are set up very awkward compared to my treo (which i loved)

7) After long calls, the phone will fail to hang up, meaning you have to shut down and reboot.

8) All three of mine started glitching or wouldn't hold a charge within a few days of being brand new. The verizon people were great, but this phone is terrible and they know it.

Be warned, if you buy this phone you will regret it.

This phone is a poor replacement for my Blackberry. It's very slow, it's very buggy (including multiple random crashes for no reason), and the operating system seems like an early draft. There are few features with make the phone easy to use. You can't even change the font for reading email. I really wish I could send it back and get another Blackberry.

I bought it because I thought Windows mobile would be "seamless" with my desktop. It's okay, but it's no better than a Blackberry. In fact, consumers should beware that Windows Mobile Smart Phone is not Windows Mobile - it doesn't include Word or any of the other applications which I thought it would include when I bought it.

This was the first Motorola since I quit them "for good" a year ago. I think I'm going to buy iPhones for the next 10 years.

The Q looks like it might be a Blackberry replacement. It's not:
-It is more difficult to type on the Q
-The battery life (please see other reviews which will really go into depth on this) is terrible
-Sometimes the syncing software (I am pretty good with computers) works and sometimes it doesn't. This may be a Vista issue as I am running Vista.

I wanted this phone for a year but I was under contract and didn't want to pay full price so I waited. When I was eligable for my 'new every two'promotion, with Verizon, I ordered this phone. I read all about its short comings on the internet but figured I'd give it a chance. Well my love affair lasted about 1 week. The phone has a lot of very cool features but they don't always work and you have to use the 'kill' feature everytime you are done with them. Even when you just simply make a call you go into your contacts and make your call you then have to go and 'kill' the contacts funtion. This gets old fast and if you forget to do it you battery dies in a few hours. I was real good about 'killing' all of the phones apps but it still drained the battery. I didn't even have the data package and my phone battery had a very short life. The final straw was the last day when I fully charged the phone, 'killed' all the apps, locked the keypad and set my phone on my desk at work. Four hours later the battery was dead. This wasn't the first time and I couldn't take it anymore. I retuned it the next day. Thank god for the 30 day trial period. Until this phone gets a new operating system it will always be horible. I now own the Treo 700p and this phone is awesome. Save your money and your sanity. The reason this phone is 'Priced to move' is because it is horrible. Don't believe the people that give this phone a good rating they probably work for Motorola. Even the nice woman at the Verizon store said she returned her Q not long after she got it. She told me it is the most returned item at her store. The Treo 700p she says almost never gets returned. Consider the Treo and not the 700w, same operating system as the Q. 700p all the way!!!

After owning a Motorola Razr V3c for two years on the Verizon network I was ready to upgrade to a SmartPhone and I had my eyes on a Q for a while. Given the fact that my Razr had been quite reliable and very durable, I reasoned that going to a Q would be a serious upgrade. I was toting a cell phone and a Dell Axim PDA and honestly it was getting old.

The Q performs pretty well overall and my experience after eight months of use has been more favorable than negative.

THE GOOD:
Nice rubber-like coating makes for a sure grip.
Nice bright color screen.
Great reception-better than my BlackBerry Pearl.
Clear sound, on speaker or direct to ear.
Ringer volume is good.
Very easy to type; keys give good response and are easy to hit.
Backlighted keyboard.
Windows Mobile 5.
Very good pictures for a cellular phone.
Video can be very good also in good light.
Bluetooth allows OBEX (Object Exchange) functionality.
Standard USB device connection & charging.
OEM clip works well. Case recommended.
Accepts up to 2GB microSD card.
Low profile (thin) device.

THE BAD:
Battery life is not the greatest.
Phone has shut itself off without warning, but infrequently.

I purchased the extended battery (1640 mAh vs 1100 mAh for the one that comes with the unit) along with a new battery door to accommodate the thicker battery (often sold together). The original 1100 mAh battery had a very short life span, but where I work there is very poor cellular reception, so the phone is always working to find a signal and the battery drains quicker than normal. Bluetooth will also take the battery down quicker. LIon batteries do have a relatively short life span and will eventually lose capacity.

My work phone is a BlackBerry Pearl (I also had a BlackBerry World Edition) and both have their pros and cons. The Pearl has been solid, but I can type much easier and faster with fewer mistakes on the Q. Even my old BlackBerry's full QWERTY keyboard couldn't compare to the Q. The Q has a better keyboard and the keys are raised far enough above the surface of the device to give a better tactile response than the BlackBerry.

BOTTOM LINE:
This is a feature-packed phone that will play your mp3s, take decent pictures and video, store all of your appointments and contacts and still serve as a phone. This has been a wonderful device for typed communication; the full QWERTY keyboard has a positive feel and you will be able to type quickly with fewer mistakes. It will also work as a GPS with installed software (I recommend CoPilot 7 with Bluetooth antenna) and has the ability to be a solid performer. This is a very low profile phone that is not bulky like the UT Starcomm 6700 or a Treo 700. I have been fairly happy with it thus far and have looked past the occasional reset to have an all-in-one device that fits my needs.