Motorola Q 9m Cell Phone Review - Software
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Mark Brezinski Published on December 31, 2007 Comment on this |
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OS (8.0)
The Q 9m has version 6.0 of Windows Mobile Standard for an operating system. Windows Mobile is a notoriously slow OS, but most handsets handle it better than the Q 9m does. Lag seems to be relatively sporadic as well, so it's not as if you can expect any sort of consistency. Sometimes it took about a second between d-pad clicks while navigating through the Start menu. Those who are familiar with the platform will be relieved that you can create new Office documents rather than just view them.
Home Screen Score (5.0)
The home screen is a giant, red wheel of half-functioning media controls. The standard Windows Mobile home screen is also available, which is what most users will undoubtedly prefer. In fact, since the two interfaces are so different, there's actually a hardware key that switches between the two. We personally think this is a waste of a key. Overall, we tend to prefer the typical Windows Mobile home screen, as it displays more information about calendar appointments and your inbox.
Extensibility (7.0)
Windows Mobile is a very extensible platform. Chances are, if you find yourself wishing the Q 9m had a particular feature, a quick Google search will find a Windows Mobile program that'll help you out. Windows Mobile only comes in second to Nokia's Series 60 Symbian platform in terms of extensibility.
Customizability (4.5)
First of all, there's a hardware key shortcut that switches themes, which is fairly unprecedented in the world of mobile phones. It deserves special mention. Other than this technological breakthrough, there isn't much available to customize your phone. You can change volume profiles and display settings. The font can be enlarged, but it doesn't apply to menu items. We did like the ability to add any program as a speed dial.
OS Responsiveness (3.5)
The Q 9m is not a responsive phone. If the lag were only somewhat consistent we wouldn't mind as much, but it strikes without warning. It doesn't matter how inane and simple the task is, chances are a few times out of a hundred the "Hold your horses!" pinwheel will pop up for a bit. Even with the persistent and erratic lag, however, the phone is still usable.
Browser Features (7.0)
The browser on the Q 9m is a retooled, mobile version of Internet Explorer. We think mobile IE is an adequate browser, but we tend to prefer Opera Mini over it. Also, the Series 60 Symbian browser is far, far better.
Mobile IE supports both HTML and WAP sites. It also has JavaScript, though we had some problems getting our test applet to function correctly. Also, some images were displayed incorrectly, which could lead to text also being displayed incorrectly.
Cookies and encryption are supported. You can actually choose your encryption method of choice if you are wont to do so.
Browsing Interface (6.0)
Anyone familiar with IE or a phone browser will be able to figure out mobile IE. The default home page is some Verizon thing that offers nothing you'd ever want to click on, so we'd recommend you change it to something more functional. The right soft key will pull up the menu, while the left one brings up your favorites.
The menu will let you alter the font size and switch the view to Desktop or full screen mode.
The settings menus also offer good options, such as data counters for your temporary files.
Browser Access (0.0)
It takes seven steps to browse to a specific page using the Q 9m. First you have to get into the Start menu (1). Since mobile IE is the first icon, all you need to do is hit select (2). Once the browser opens up, hit the menu key (3), then "A" (4) to open up the address bar. You'll need to erase whatever URL is currently in the address bar by holding the back key (5). From here, just type in your desired URL (6) and finish by hitting the left soft key (7) to set the browser moseying through the internet. This is an average number of steps.
We didn't perform this timing test with our stopwatches and fast reflexes because we found our results were often inaccurate. Browsing to a URL depends on things like network connectivity, which can alter significantly based on arbitrary variables like location and weather. We've found that steps gave us a consistent way to compare phones.
| Cell Phone | Steps | Score |
| Motorola Q 9m | 7 | 5.71 |
| Palm Centro | 5 | 8.00 |
| Motorola Q | 6 | 6.67 |
| Pantech Duo | 9 | 4.44 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 11 | 3.64 |
| Nokia N95 with 3G | 7 | 5.71 |
Gaming (3.0)
The Q 9m comes with two different games: solitaire and Bubble Breaker. The former is the standard solitaire you might remember from Windows 95. Bubble Breaker is a puzzle game that's almost strictly inferior to Bejeweled. We did appreciate two full-version games, however. The Q 9m itself doesn't seem like the best gaming platform, however, as we found it was fairly easy to accidentally hit the select key when manipulating the small d-pad.
Calculator (7.5)
There are two calculators on the Q 9m: a regular one and a converter. The calculator has a very simple layout, but it has quite a few advanced options. The menu will let you use percentages, square roots, 1/x, and has expansive memory options. We would've liked to see exponents, however, especially since square roots are supported. The converter is great, and covers currency, time, weight, temperature, volume, speed, length, and area. Overall, this software is better than what we typically see.
Alarm (1.5)
The alarm on the Q 9m is incredibly basic. You can only set one at a time, and there are only two fields for doing so. The first is the time it'll go off; you can't set a date. The second field is the recurrence. You can only set it to off, every day, or week days. This might be all you need from your phone, but typically phones will let you set three or more, with better recurrence options.
Document Software (6.5)
The Q 9m has several Office approximations, called Documents To Go. Using these applications you can such as "Word To Go", "PDF To Go", etc. You can view and edit Excel, Word, and Powerpoint documents. You can also view PDF and zip files. We only gave a half point to Powerpoint creating, because the application is incredibly limited.
Other Software (1.0)
The Q 9m comes with a great file browser that will let you manage groups of files easily.
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