Motorola Q Cell Phone Review - Hardware
|
Richard Baguley Published on March 08, 2007 Comment on this |
|
|
|
|
Keyboard Text Words Per Minute (7.9)
The Motorola Q has a large, well-spaced keyboard, which contributed to an excellent score for typing speed: after some practice using both hands (or rather, both thumbs), we were able to mange an impressive 39.6 works per minute. That’s a touch faster than the Palm Treo 700p, but a little slower than the Blackberry.
The keyboard is far from perfect, though: while the angled shape and size of the keys make it easy to feel your way around the keyboard, the keys don’t have an awful lot of tactile feedback: a click indicates you’ve pressed a key, but there is no real feedback for the fingertips.
T9 and Auto Complete (10.0)
When typing text, the Q includes an autocomplete mode called iTap, which records the words you use and tries to predict which one you are typing from the first few letters. If it guesses correctly, you can accept the word by pressing the right arrow of the directional pad. If it guesses wrong, you just keep on typing until you have completed the word. The iTap mode works well, and is a very useful feature if you like to write in complete sentences instead of the txtspk that most cell phones force you to use.
One Hand Usability (2.2)
Although the keyboard of the Q works well when typing with to hands, it is not as good with just one. We found that the thin profile was a problem: the phone was awkward to hold in one hand, and it kept slipping from our grip. A rubberized case might help with this, but that wouldn’t help with the fact that the larger keyboard makes typing slower, as the thumb has to reach further over the keyboard. This meant that, in our tests, we recorded the average one-handed typing speed at a lowly 22 words a minute. So, if you spend a lot of time traveling on subways or buses where you have to use one hand to hold on and the other to hold your cell phone, a smaller phone like the Motorola Razr would be a batter pick.
Backlighting (4.5)The keyboard of the Q is backlit by a cool blue light that’s linked to the screen backlight; they both go on and off at the same time. The length of time both stay on for can be set in the power management section of the settings program: the minimum is 5 seconds and the maximum is 60 seconds (or to never turn it off). There is no light sensor to turn the backlight off in daylight or a way to control the level of backlighting for either the keyboard or the screen; a problem if you are using it in a darkened room and don’t want to blind yourself with the rather bright screen.
D-Pad/Joystick (7.0)
The directional pad of the Q is well placed and well-sized: it’s easy to find the different directions and the select button in the center of the directional pad.
Touch Screen (0.0)
Unlike Windows Mobile Pocket PC devices, smartphone devices like the Q do not include a touch screen.
Jog Dial (6.5)
The jog dial of the Q is located on the top right corner of the case, where it falls naturally under the thumb. It allows for quick scrolling, and pressing the dial in has the same action as pressing the select button in the center of the directional pad. However, there is no way to select a contact and make a call using just the jog dial; to get to the list of contacts, you have to use the left soft key. This seems like an odd omission: we would have liked to see some way to make a call from the contacts list using the dial wheel alone, as you can do with Blackberry phones.
Soft Button (5.0)
Two soft buttons are located below the screen. These are relatively easy to find by touch, as they have raised ridges on the bottom of the keys. The options that these keys are used for varies rather confusingly with where you are in the phone: on the home screen, the left soft key takes you to the main menu, where you can choose options like the Pictures & Videos program or the contacts list.
Volume Control (6.0)
In a call, the volume can be controlled with the jog dial. This is a good solution: it’s easy to adjust the volume with the phone at your ear to adapt for changing conditions.
Power and Standby (5.0)
The Q is turned on or off by holding down the power/end key for three seconds. Unfortunately, there is no way to put the phone into standby mode: you just have to wait for it to do the automatically, and pressing any key takes it out of standby, which could be a battery-drainer if it’s leaning against something in your pocket, unless you enable the key lock mode. It’s also possible to turn off all of the radios on the Q by pressing and holding the home key, then selecting flight mode from the quick list menu that pops up. This is a pretty standard set of power management options that should satisfy most users
Other Buttons (2.0)
The home button takes the Q back to the home screen, but also accesses the quick list menu when held down. From here, the user can select flight mode, lock the keyboard, go into silent mode and other options. The back key takes the Q back to the previous screen.
Screen Resolution (8.0)
The only screen on the Q is the main one: a 320 by 240 resolution, 2.4-inch screen that can display up to 65k colors. The screen is clear and bright, with images showing plenty of detail and good color. The shiny plastic cover does reflect lights, producing glare, though, and it seems to easily pick up fingerprints.
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (8.3)
The screen has a pixel density of 168 pixels per inch, a pretty standard setting for smart phones.
Screen Physical Size (6.0)
At 2.4 inches across the diagonal, the screen on the Q is a good size, especially considering the thin profile of the device.
Screen Brightness (3.0)
We measure the brightness of the screen by using a light meter in a darkened room 2 inches from the screen. We measured the screen of the Q at 60 lumens; a little on the dim side.
Color Depth (6.0)
Capable of displaying 65,536 colors from a 16-bit palette, the Q does an average job of displaying colors.
Power & Data Ports (9.0)
There are only two ports on the Q; the headphone port on the top of the device, and the mini USB port that doubles as a connector for data and power cables. This also means that, with a powered USB port on a laptop, you can use the same USB cable for data and charging, which gives you one less thing to carry around on a trip.
Headphone Jack and Compatibility (6.0)
A 2.5 mm jack on the top of the Q provides compatibility with most wired headsets (none is included with the Q), but standard 3.5 mm headphones will require a $14 adapter. The Q also supports the A2DP standard, so it should work with any standard Bluetooth headphones for playing back music wirelessly.
Internal Storage (1.0)
With a pretty standard 64MB of RAM, most users will want to spend a bit extra to get a MiniSD card to store media, as the 64MB of internal RAM will get quickly filled up.
Expansion Slot and Format (8.0)
The MiniSD port on the left side of the Q provides an easy way to add more storage space. At present, the largest available MiniSD card holds 4GB; enough for many hours of music and several hours of video. The MiniSD card slot does not support the newer, faster MiniSD HC cards, though.
| Previous Next | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
