Motorola is in a bad way. Wilson over at Giz basically tore them a new orifice over the Q 9m and I have always thought they’ve squandered the RAZR good-will on a series of odd products that were either violently crippled or ahead of their time — like the Moto PEBL, for example. That said, they’ve remained in high in the pantheon of phone gods that I have in my heads, up there with Nokia and Sony-Ericsson as companies I love but know need lots of help to catch up in the post-iPhone world.
An so we turn to the Q 9m, Verizon’s music player with keyboard for messaging and email. After launching the Q, Motorola found that many of the users weren’t heavy duty business folks but just regular consumers — teens and soccer moms — who wanted to send messages. After taking the successes and failures of the Q back to the drawing board, the decided to make a more accessible music phone for the general public. Did they succeed?
First, a tour of the hardware and design. The 2.5-inch screen is bright and very readable and the overall design feels more substantial than the original Q and soft-touch rubber on the front and back offer a generally nicer experience than the standard Moto shine-fests that are the RAZRs and KRZRs of the world. It’s a solid phone and the keys are nicely laid out and easy to press.
During the first few days of handling the phone, I found the interface to be a great improvement over the standard Windows Mobile 6 experience. I hate WinMo, and this clouds my judgement whenever I have to use a WinMo device, but Verizon and Motorola have hidden most of the annoying things behind a wheel-like interface that uses the side scroll wheel to its fullest advantage. But, as long-time WinMo users will discover, this also hides a number of important features that the OS usually puts on the screen.
Take, for example, key lock. In WinMo, the combination usually consists of two keys. On other phones, it’s a press of the power button, but this phone doesn’t have a power button, just a hang-up button that doubles as a power button. So I try all sorts of combinations and finally resort to reading the manual. Start and space. That’s the combo. There are no visual cues, no little lock icons on keys, nothing that would suggest to me that you can lock the phone.
The real problem is the default theme Verizon is using in the Q. This theme hides most of the useful WinMo information under a media player which, in itself, is very cool. (N.B. — after switching from the default theme I can now no longer find that cool UI setting, so the phone is stuck in some sort of default start screen. This can be remedied by pressing the little red button in the lower right corner, but it took a few folks doing research to figure that out.) However, the UI is oddly truncated and there are no visual cues as to what it’s doing. There are a series of icons, sure, but the volume icon seems to control media volume, not call volume, so you need to dig in to find “Profiles” in WM6. If you turn off the default theme and use something like Windows basic, things become clearer. If you leave it on, you’ve got to RTFM.
This problem I can live with. The EV-DO is quick and no sane person will spend $1.99 for VCast music when they have a MiniSD card slot on the side. The phone is stereo bluetooth compatible but they included a mini-audio jack, not a standard headphone jack — a huge no-no in music phones and a source of endless frustration. There is standard USB sync and you can put music on the phone using the MiniSD card or ActiveSync.
Email set-up using POP3 was easy with Verizon’s wizards and the browser, while the network did cut out occasionally, was acceptable. There is no VCast video — go figure — and no apparent way to use the in-built GPS system [bloops... only eGPS]. This can be easily remedied with an OTA update. But where is the IM client? I Europe, the kids love them some SMS. Here, the kids love them some AIM. This is a grave oversight and should be remedied.
Overall, I am happy with this new Q. I’ve used it for four days and it’s grown on me. As I’ve said many times, this is the last generation of phones that can use Windows’ antiquated and poorly conceived operating system. Verizon and Motorola tried to add a new layer of interface to this hoary old product, and they succeeded 80% of the time. If you’re looking for a messaging phone and you use Verizon, the Moto Q 9m is just fine. It works well, is fast, and is an acceptable music and messaging phone, which is mostly what folks want anyway.
The phone costs $200 online and requires a 2-year contract.
We will always have a love/hate relationship with phones. We see too many of them not to get frustrated when each one rolls off the truck and doesn’t do what we expect it to do. The Motorola Q 9m may have some flaws, but it is not bad.
Just so you know, to turn the theme back to the original VZW theme, press and hold the red button that is on the far right on the bottom. Two over from space.
Secondly, there is no GPS in the Moq9m, only eGPS. So, you’ll only be giving turn by turn instructions to the EMT’s pulling you out of your wreck.
All the benefits of working for VZW.
The Q9m is a glorified, jazed up Q. Took mine back till something innovative comes along.
I purchased this phone a week ago and I will be returning it tomorrow.
The phone dials numbers from my phonebook with out me prompting to do so. It hangs up on my calls despite me pushing the answer key. Oh, worst of all, the phone only has about an hour talk time, which means you will be carrying your charger everywhere that you go…
This is a much improved Q over the first, moves much faster. hold out about 60 days and you’ll be able to get VZ Nav with it. complete turn by turn directions GPS. until touch screen is perfected by the so called Iphone killers you can bet your sweet a$$ you won’t be seeing much in innovative stuff.
How about you spell check your review before you post it. Just an idea.
Are you kidding me….the best you can come up with to down this phone and Windows mobile is how to lock the keyboard and how to switch the view mode? And honestly, if you’re going to write, get a spell checker!
I just bought this phone 2 days ago, in the first hour of use, I knew how to lock my phone and switch views with any problems. I find the interfaces to be very easy to operate and talk about inter-connectivity, Windows mobile connects you to more devices and networks than you could possibly ever need.
I got the phone 2 days ago and it was fine. Now the phone is acting extremely slow and will not react. Is there anyway to solve this problem. It is basically acting like an old slow PC.
I love my Q i just wish it had a aim program.
I got one for Christmas. My friends were impressed. The screen is hard to see outside in the sunlight but good indoors or at night. After I read the manual, I will have a better idea of what I think but right out of the box, it seems to be everything the saleman promised.
I hate this Q thing my company gave me… my old RAZR stayed charged for 2-3 days. I have to charge this thing every night. ActiveSync deleted my contacts the first night I had it. Now I cannot get it to stop syncing. I don’t want my email stored in 2 different places (phone & pc). What idiot ever decided to put Windoze on a phone???? He ought to be shot!!!
Am I the only one who gets complaint from preople I call that I sound hollowed like I am in deep box talking.
I just got the Q yesterday and I absolutely love it. It’s very easy to use, and I love how bright the screen is. There is so much to do on this phone. It’s easy to lock (it only takes 2 minutes to read how to in the manual), which is how to stop it from calling people in your purse (duh.) I am so happy I picked this phone. I got it for free and I would have spent a good amount of money on it if I had to.
Hi Erin,
How did you get it for free? Best I’ve seen it $99 on Amazon.
Thanks!
so i just bought this like 2 days ago coming from the newer chocolate. i wanted to get something like a blackberry or along the line of them and so i got to looking around and saw this. at first i thought it was perfect for me seeing that it was made for people like me (19 student) so i buy and liked it right off the bat. now just an hour ago i tried downloading an application and it froze. so right now its shot. i turned it off and when i turn it on all i get is the verizion wireless start up logo…. i think i might be taking it back
I had the same problem and took it back, they replaced it. Now it is freezing up and it will completly freeze for ten minutes before doing anything.
Also since it holds unlimited messages it gets extremly slow and even more messed up with the more messages you have.
amazing phone…just wish the buttons were alittle bit bigger i hate having big fingers :D
Does anyone know how to get back a whole slew of contact numbers after they have been deleted? I was trying to figure out how to change the ring to vibrate for a few hours and accidently deleted a bunch of my contacts…still not sure how I did that but since most of them were stored only on my phone I am in a bit of a jam now. Any info or advice would be greatly appreciated.