Motorola Q Cell Phone Review - Audio Quality
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Richard Baguley Published on March 08, 2007 Comment on this |
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The Q is a thin phone, and thin phones sometimes pay a price in sound quality: the speakers have to be smaller to fit in, so they don’t produce the sound quality you get from a bigger phone. But that doesn’t seem to be the case with the Q; both the sent and received sound of this thin phone was high quality. We test the sound quality using professional audio analysis devices: a Head and Torso Simulator (H.A.T.S) from Brüel & Kjær, and a Soundcheck, a professional audio analysis package from Listen, inc. Both of these products are used byindustry pros the world over to test audio products. For more on how we test, see here. We test the phones in use as a handset (held to the ear), and we’ll be adding more tests soon to examine the performance of the speakerphone and the headset.
Sound Receive Frequency Response (7.88)
Motorola Q on Verizon: Receive Frequency Response
Sound coming into the Q (such as an incoming phone call) is tested here; we look at how the Q responds to various sound frequencies, matching this curve against the limits set down by the ITU, a cell phone industry trade body that creates standards. The Q had some issues here: the response at the lower end of the frequency range (to the left) was somewhat stronger than the higher frequencies, which means that the lower frequencies are more heavily emphasized. This could mean that voices are boomier, with more bass than the higher frequencies.
Sound Send Frequency Response (8.24)
Motorola Q on Verizon: Send Frequency Response
Somewhat oddly, the sound that the Q sent was the other way around to the received sound; a peak at the higher end of the spectrum could overemphasize the higher frequencies. However, this fits in nicely with the ITU limits; they call for the higher frequencies to get a boost This might be a concern if it was an isolated peak (which can make voices sound odd and disjointed), but it fits in with the general shape of the curve.
Handset Side Tone (9.25)
Motorola Q on Verizon: Handset Side Tone
Side tone is the technique that cell phones use to let you hear your own voice: they filter part of the captured sound back to the headset. But to be effective this has to be a certain amount; around 18 decibels. The Q managed this with ease, though: we measured it at 17.49 decibels. It does favor the high frequencies somewhat, though, which can make your voice sound higher pitched than it is. But this didn't seem to be a big issue in our informal tests; the Q sounded fine and we didn't find ourselves raising our voices or wondering why we sounded like chipmonks.
Headset (0.0)
The Motorola Q does not come with a headset as standard, so we were unable to test the performance of the Q headset. It does have a standard 2.5mm headset socket, though, so it should work with most third party headsets.
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