Motorola Q9h Global

Call Quality

Call quality: Call quality on the Motorola Q9h was acceptable, but we did occasionally experience an echo when we spoke. However callers could typically hear us clearly and they could rarely tell when we were using the speakerphone.

Audio quality: Music playback on Motorola Q9h cell phone is decent for a cell phone. There were occasions when we found the audio quality to be tinny, but overall, music playback was acceptable through the cell phone’s speaker. However, we did need to use the side controls to increase volume often.

Ease of Use

Menu/phone book: The Motorola Q9h offers two different options for viewing the main screen. There’s the old-school or latest version of Windows Mobile (we found the latter easiest on the eyes) and you can select your own background image to personalize it even more. Since the Motorola Q9h uses Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Edition 6, it’s no wonder the main interface looks so similar to your computer desktop; it works the same way too. While this OS is an improvement over Microsoft Windows Mobile Edition 5, the changes are far from revolutionary. Besides the faster delivery of e-mail (and relatively easy setup) and the inclusion of mobile versions of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, there’s not a whole lot extra going on here. The nice thing about having the actual applications is that you can view, create, edit, and send documents on the go, which makes working outside the office a better experience.

One of the reasons people opt for a smartphone is for its syncing capabilities, and we’re happy to report that you can sync your cell phone with more than just calendar appointments and contacts with the included ActiveSync software. Since the Motorola Q9h’s address book is essentially a mini version of Microsoft Outlook, the cell phone provides plenty of room to store actual addresses and other pertinent information, such as e-mail addresses, contact numbers, and details of calendar appointments. Astonishingly enough, it also offers spaces for more information than you may even have for a person. For example, there are slots for Government ID and Assistant information. Since this is a GSM phone you can also save contacts to the SIM card. Additionally, once you add calendar appointments to the cell phone, the time and relevant information will appear on the screen. However, you will likely have to spend a decent amount of time customizing the cell phone’s features to fit your needs.

Messaging: If you’re considering getting this cell phone, its e-mail capabilities should be a top reason. Since the Motorola Q9h uses Microsoft software, it handles mail from Microsoft Outlook extremely well, especially if your company has the appropriate Exchange Server (check with your IT department to find out if the Motorola Q9h will connect with work e-mail out of the box). If your company doesn’t use the correct server, you may have trouble making a connection.

The smartphone supports POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP protocols, among others, which means you can access just about any of your e-mail accounts. You can even set up multiple mailboxes, one for each account. If you want to send an IM from this cell phone, you’ll need to download the application since there aren’t any preloaded options. However, we should note that if you plan on leaving IM activated for most of the day, it will quickly drain the battery. As far as text messaging goes, it’s easy to type out messages on the mini-keyboard, and it usually does a good job predicting the words or phrases you’re about to type, which expedites things. Unfortunately, there aren’t any time stamps on messages.

Camera/video: The Motorola Q9h sports a 2-megapixel camera with a flash that could easily do double duty as a flashlight in a dark room. While there’s a translucent gray screen next to the lens where you can see a bit of yourself on the back of the smartphone, it doesn’t really work for framing and snapping self-portraits. To access the camera, you can either do it by simply pressing the button with the camera icon on it at the bottom of the smartphone’s keyboard or scroll through a couple of menu layers to launch the application from the Pictures and Videos folder. As for picture quality, it's actually pretty good capturing colors but details can be a little blurry. And while the phone's homemade videos aren't stellar, the shape and quality of the Motorola’s display makes playback quite enjoyable. Additionally, we should note that adjusting image settings isn’t exactly intuitive; however, you can adjust Mode, Brightness, Resolution, Zoom, and White Balance. One nice feature is that you can easily turn a set of selected images into a slide show with relative ease.

Music: There are a plethora of music options included in the Motorola Q9h including X/M radio, watching streaming music videos (there are even some great classics from VH1), a Music ID application so you can learn morw about the music you’re hearing and of course an MP3 player. No surprise here: it’s a Windows Media Player. Thus, you can listen to MP3, Microsoft WMA, and Apple AAC files on the Q9h. If you want to use the included syncing cable to port songs from your computer to the smartphone, you’ll need to have Windows Media Player 10 or later to get it to work. Of course, you can always store songs on an optional MicroSD card and insert it into the Motorola Q9h.

Connectivity/Bluetooth/Wi-Fi: You can do a lot with Bluetooth on this cell phone. Besides being able to connect easily to a Bluetooth headset (we found call quality was acceptable with the Motorola H500), you can use it to sync up info (such as contacts, music, pictures, video, ringtones, and calendar) between your Q9h and other compatible Bluetooth-enabled devices. We were also able to use it with the Motorola T815 and turned the cell phone into a full-featured GPS device. You can also use Bluetooth to turn this smartphone into a high-speed 3G data modem for a Bluetooth-enabled laptop. If you don’t have a Bluetooth-enabled computer, no worries, you can do the same thing with the included USB-to-mini-USB cable. However, we should note that you definitely need to get an unlimited data plan to use this feature.

Design

Look and feel: There’s no denying that the Motorola Q9h is a good-looking smartphone, with its slick silver sides, black rubberized back, and large, bright screen. It’s slim and it’s sleek. The bright display is downright beautiful and ideal for viewing videos (unfortunately, that activity tends to drain battery life); it's also viewable in most lighting situations. As noted, the Q9h sports a rubbery black backing similar to the Motorola Pebl's, so it won’t easily slide around on a table and is comfortable to hold in the hand. Perhaps the best design feature is the inclusion of both a side rocker key and a four-way navi-key, which makes navigating the menu and the overall interface a lot easier. We really particularly appreciate that only one side of the smartphone’s spine has buttons. There’s also a dedicated AT&T button, which is essentially a quick launch for the browser.

Keypad: At first glance, the black keypad looks spacious and it is. Since the keys are curved misdials and mistyped words are at a minimum. This keyboard should be easy to use for people with both large and small fingers. We also found the keys to be highly tactile. As noted above, the predictive text application is pretty good on the Motorola Q9h, so in reality, you’ll probably be typing about half a message or document. Additionally, Motorola has included some launch keys for the music, camera, calendar, voice notes and address book applications that line the bottom of the keyboard.

Battery Life

The Motorola Q9h's battery performance was not as robust as we would have preferred and noticed a considerable drain when Bluetooth is activated or when using the GPS feature. If you’re using this cell phone more for calls than messaging and other work-centric features (such as automatically checking for e-mail hourly or more frequently), it should last about two to three days before it needs to be recharged. However, if you want to use the more multimedia-rich applications such as the music player, the camera, or video playback, you’ll need to recharge every other day. Additionally, you can use the included USB cable to charge the Motorola Q9h when it’s connected to your computer; however, there’s no guarantee the computer will be able to charge the smartphone (it varies, based on what the computer is doing).