Friday, March 28, 2008

Motorola Q9m (Verizon): Sophisticated, but Sluggish



This latest smartphone for Verizon pairs excellent call quality with a top-notch keyboard, making it a strong Windows Mobile choice. I just wish it felt a little quicker.

The Q9m’s keyboard is the biggest change from the old Motorola Q. The larger, rectangular keys are easier to settle your fingers on (which helps prevent mistyping), and they depress with satisfying clicks. All but the most ham-handed will fl y over this smartphone's keyboard.

A superior phone, the Q9m has very strong reception. The earpiece and especially the speakerphone are unusually loud and clear, and ringtones sound terrific.

Verizon has updated the Q9m with a lot of useful new software. At the head of the pack is DataViz DocumentsToGo for Windows Mobile 6, which lets you view PDFs and view, edit, and create Microsoft Offi ce documents. Also, it’s Word-, Excel-, and PowerPoint-compatible apps are refreshing oases of cutting and pasting. Verizon’s new media-player home screen is less accommodating, but you don’t have to use it.

The Q9m’s one problem is that it feels a bit laggy. When typing an e-mail message, I sometimes had to wait for the screen to catch up with my typing, and PDF files took quite some time to open. Still, the new Q is a powerful, flexible mobile office.

Price
Motorola Q9m (Verizon): $199 to $349.99 list

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