Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE Review: A Nice Keyboard, but Middling Call Quality - fenstersteptach1964

As mortal who uses his phone more frequently to send textual matter messages than to make calls, I've been frustrated at the lack of phones with physical keyboards. Software system keyboards are acquiring better every year (my favorite for Android is SwiftKey); but until I can accurately touch-typewrite on them, I'll continue to prefer having fleshly buttons for typing long messages. Person at Motorola seems to have read my thoughts, because the company's new Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE for Sprint ($200 with a recently two-year contract, terms as of August 8, 2012) is one of the best keyboard-equipped smartphones you can buy true now.

Innovation

The Photon Q looks like a slightly chunkier version of the Motorola Photon 4G, which premiered on Sprint last year. Both phones have angular corners, though the Photon Q lacks the Photon 4G's usable kickstand. The Photon Q's angled corners make it comfortable to hold while making calls, and the phone is compact enough to fit well into most pockets. The Photon Q is largely unperturbed of a soft plastic that feels good to the touch, though I was hoping that the phone would be wrapped in Kevlar like the Droid Razr and the Droid Razr Maxx.

The front of the phone accommodates a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and a 4.3-edge in 540-aside-960-resolution display that uses the same Tinge Boost technology we adage on the Motorola Atrix HD. Motorola claims that Color Boost gives smartphones 50 percent more pixels than the leading smartphone offers, though the Photon Q's screen wasn't as sharp every bit the ones happening the Samsung Galaxy S Trey, Atrix HD, or HTC One X. (IT did look sharper and more vivacious than the sort on the Motorola Droid Bionic, however.) Like the Galaxy Nexus and the Atrix HD, the Photon Q uses Glass Cream Sandwich's realistic piloting buttons in the lieu of physical ones.

The back of the Photon Q holds an 8-megapixel camera and the phone's external speaker. The Photon Q uses a 1785mAh embedded battery; embedded batteries are supposed to last longer, merely you can't replace the battery yourself if it ever becomes marred or unable to hold much charge.

On the leftfield spine are the Photon Q's charging port and MicroHDMI port. The the right way spine of the phone hosts the bulk rocker, a physical camera button, and a small flap natural covering the MicroSD identity card slot.

The Keyboard

The last keyboard-equipped phone I reviewed, the Motorola Droid 4, carried an above-average Mobile River keyboard with top-mountain pass buttons. The Photon Q's keyboard is most identical to the Droid 4's. The keys are set slightly also approximate for my taste, but the buttons felt great under my fingers as I typewritten. The only button I had a problem with was the spacebar, which emitted an perceptible smashing noise every time I pressed it. Though the button worked, but the sound it made was a trifle unsettling.

Public presentation

Powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 processor with 1GB of RAM, the Photon Q handled virtually everything I threw at it without a hitch. Even when scrolling through content-heavy pages, the phone seldom slowed drink down perceptibly, take out when the browser tried to load a high-resolution image or video. Even then, I could sustain multiple apps unobstructed and spouting at the same time in the backdrop without slowing the device to a crawl.

If you're a big mobile gamer, you'll appreciate that the Photon Q can handle most games available in the Play Store. One bonus of having a physical keyboard is that some games and emulators let you map specific actions to specific keys. The arrangement isn't perfect, but it's a huge step out up from having to expend a virtual control tablet.

Prognosticate quality over Dash's network left a lot to be desired: Voices sounded a bit muffled, and I detected a low noisy haphazardness whenever someone spoke. You and your caller will be able to hear to each one separate, but you may have to speak up a bit to make yourself heard clearly. I tested the phone in our San Francisco berth?an area with good reception. Since call character varies depending on your location, you should consult coverage maps to get an idea of how good the call quality leave be in your area.

The Photon Q is one of sensible a handful of phones that can unite to Dash's modern LTE network. Unluckily, that mesh has yet to launch in San Francisco, then I couldn't exam the headphone's speeds on it. Connected Sprint's stream 3G network over a strong 3G connection, the Photon Q managed an average download speed of 0.49 megabit per indorse and an middling upload speed of 0.86 mbps, according to my measurements using the FCC-approved Ookla Speed Test app.

Even with LTE turned connected, the Photon Q held out concluded the better part of a daytime (about 5.5 hours) of normal exercise?including sending text messages, downloading a couple of apps, and playing a game or 2 for several transactions at once?before the battery ran out of succus. We haven't even ladder the Photon Q through our official PCWorld Labs suite of battery tests; when we doh, we'll update this Thomas Nelson Page.

The Photon Q does have an NFC chip, soh you'll be able to take reward of any software that may use that technology.

Computer software

Swiping upwards on certain app icons bequeath face you with new information.

The Photon Q ships with Android 4.0.4 beneath a custom Motorola overlay. I used a Motorola phone back in the days when the company relied on MotoBlur, and this new overlay is leaps and bounds better. For the most section, the operating system looks and behaves like Android Ice Cream Sandwich, with just a few tweaks.

Some app icons have little arrows next to them that you rump swipe to pop upwards a teensy-weensy "quickly-look" window. Depending on the app, these windows display polar info. For example, swiping the Browser app icon will bulge up a grid that displays your bookmarks, but swiping the Email app ikon will show your inbox and identify the number of unread emails you have. The fact that Motorola Mobility (the part of the company that makes phones) is now a subsidiary of Google may have led Motorola to exercise some control in tricking out its overlay, but in any even I'm gladiolus that the red-hot overlay doesn't interchange the look and feel of Android too drastically.

The Photon Q comes with two preloaded Sprint apps (Sprint ID and Sprint Zone) that can't be uninstalled, but I acclaim the carrier for guardianship the amount of preloaded apps to a stripped.

Entertainment

With only Sprint's snail's-pace 3G network to connect to, and without far-flung LTE coverage, you probably won't be cyclosis many HD movies to your phone unless you live in unity of the 15 areas in the Joined States that currently have Sprint LTE. It'll be a while before the rest of us can connect to that faster network.

If you hatred "the obnubilate" and want to hold on all of your media locally on your gimmick, you'll probably want to induct in a MicroSD card. The Photon Q offers 8GB of built-in storage, but that fills up pretty quickly erstwhile you start downloading apps and pickings pictures.

The rear speaker on the phone delivers seemly sound; but for higher-quality audio, I recommend using headphones.

Camera

I wasn't particularly impressed with the photos I got from the Photon Q's 8-megapixel tv camera. They tended to be a bite dark, and colours looked washed out. The Photon Q's Camera app provides few extras, though the telephone does have a zero-shutter-lag camera courtesy of Humanoid 4.0. The front-veneer 1.3-megapixel camera works well for video calls and is clear sufficiency that you can use it to get hold of a quick Facebook mortal-portrait.

The Photon Q can record video in 1080p, though footage looked a shade too saturnine. Audio pickup was slightly muffled, probably owing to the location of the microphone (it's on the bottom half of the phone to the right of the keyboard).

Overall, the Photon Q's camera isn't the best I've seen, merely it's satisfactory. Indoor photos may come out looking rather dark, then try to avoid shooting in poorly lit areas. The phone's video quality is quite good, but don't expect it to uplift every bit of sound from whatever you are recording.

Bottom Line

Though a bit along the stumpy side and hampered by a mediocre camera, the Photon Q is a satisfying choice for anyone who wants a phone with a physical keyboard. If you're a huge texter, or if you pen a lot of email messages on your sound, this model is well worth considering. It's not clean, but the Photon Q is currently the keyboard ring to beat.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/460837/motorola_photon_q_4g_lte_review_a_nice_keyboard_but_middling_call_quality.html

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