SHUT UP ABOUT APPLE. Oh sorry.

I hate to say it. RTFM

Verizon strikes again. Another example of how verizons control over thier phones, (nerfing blue-tooth file transfers, non existant use of ringtones via side-loading, charging $1.99 for song downloads (RIP-OFF!!)) And let's not forget thier excellent customer services. (HORRIBLE)

Let's see... Didn't Verizon pass on the iPhone because of control issues?

Way to go Big "V" Man.... and I thought my wife was controlling! She's got nothing on Big "V"

Once again.... this provides me with a sense of happiness with my iPhone and AT&T.

Anybody wanna chip in on the purchase of a shovel to send to verizon. They are gonna need it to keep scooping all that bull shit!!

@Camaro02: if you have to open the manual to figure out simple tasks such as typing symbols or playing a game through a logical process then there is a problem. People don't want to skim through a dry piece of overwritten noveltry just to look for the 'Caps' key. I want to pull it out of the box and play with it and have it work in a seamless manner. The public will always be able to design a device better than a manufacturer. It's up to that manufacturer to listen.

Now, *that's* the kind of hands-on review that needs to be written about devices.

Tell us how you really feel!

Even if he didn't read a manual, it just goes to show that WM6 is difficult to use compared to, say, the iPhone, which you can pickup and use without glancing at the manual.

@frostoy: @LOL...And here I thought Rothman review was harsh, but your description of your controlling wife pretty much made my day.

I'm sensing some negative energy from you Wilson.

@frostoy: question...Have you been to the movie theater lately? Did you get that $10 bucket of popcorn? How about that $7 soda. Ohhh, I know what you got, the $20 nacho combo. Come on man, can you really blame a company for side-lining a feature to make money. It's the same reason you only get 200 SMS messages with those iPhone plans.

You complain about the service that Verizon provided to you but I can say the exact same things about AT&T. Every customer will have a different experience and thus a different story to tell so don't come in here with your my company is better than yours attitude. I was with Verizon for years before changing to a company simply because of the phone offered. Never once did I ever have a service issue that wasn't immediately cleared up. My experience with AT&T and Cingular is quite the opposite. Your comment is based completely on negativity and doesn't have anything do with constructively judging the phone or the service provider

dude, its a motorola phone, what are you expecting? Everyone knows moto = the lose.

It's big. It's ugly. But..... will it blend???

I wonder how many folks waiting in line to get their hands on that Mud Turkey?

I'm getting this phone on AT&T service, and I own an iPhone too. So quite your yapping, its a great over all phone. Motorola is a great company, kinda lost its track for a little but this is making up for it.

Looks pretty good to me... what you smokin Rothman?

No surprise here since the first Q was crap. I should know since I exchanged mine 4 different times due to constant bugs and resets. I even got, "Maybe it is because of the programs you are installing?" from a Verizon CSR.

Regarding Solitaire, if it's anything like the version that came on Verizon's Q (I can't speak about other carriers since VZW loves to screw around with the interface so much), you use the number pad to play. If it IS the same interface, I'd say that the numbers above each card position should give you a pretty good clue about that.

Yes, the standard interfaces suck. That's why there are forums like qusers.com where you can download different backgrounds, menu layouts, plug-ins, etc. for smart phones. Your reasoning behind this is completely rediculous and I would attribute it to someone complaining that their Windows XP computer has stupid clouds and grass as the background and they don't like it. Or the blue bar with the green start button is ugly. IT IS POSSIBLE TO CHANGE THIS STUFF.

I may be the minority, but I can see a tremendous advantage on Verizon's side to standardize the interfaces on their phones. If every model functions pretty much the same, it's easier to walk Aunt Mildred through changing her ringtones or adding a contact to her phone book regardless of the fact she's using a Razr, LG, or any other phone.

Any WM6 device is to the iPhone, what XP/Vista is to Mac O/S. The Apple device will be more intuitive and user friendly, while with a little work the Windows device will be far more functional and customizable.

Hey, I live right across the street from motorola in schaumburg. they have phones in vending machines in the lobby for sale. of course, theyre all RAZRs and KRAZRS and CRAPZTRS

You need to change the heading on this post from "Mini-Review" to "Massive Rant", because that's all it is. I own a previous generation Q and am very happy with it. It's certainly not perfect, and it's certainly not for everyone. It does take longer to learn than an iPhone, for sure, and it's less intuitive. And yes it does lag a bit at times. But it does a helluva lot more than any regular phone or even the iPhone. Once you get used to it, it's an amazing productivity tool. And most of the time it's quite reliable. IMO, Moto makes the best Smartphones because they have great form factors, and most importantly, they function VERY well as a phone, with great reception, soundquality, and stunning speakerphone quality.

My Q (with some add on software) gives me a calendar, contacts, phone, broswer, GPS (with an add on bluetooth receiver), yellow pages, movie listings, restaurant reviews, photo gallery, camera, voice command, document viewing and editing, alarm clock, weather, news, stocks, etc. Does your phone do all that?

So how bout a little balance in future reviews, eh?

Verizon-
please
please
please
don't screw up the Samsung i760 like this
please
*sniff*

Decent product + Verizons crap proprietary interfaces = crap. You should be able to pick up a phone do something besides call with out looking at a manual.

@redman042:
My phone does that without any additional software, it's a Nokia N95.

Haven't had any of those issues on my HTC S710 which runs WM6...unlocked on T-mobile.

You might as well stop looking for the GPS. I just got a shiny new Blackberry 8830 from the V, which comes with a GPS receiver built in (ie, not dependent on the network/carrier). But (surprise, surprise), Verizon disables it at a firmware level, presumably so they can make money on their network dependent VZnavigator.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that they don't offer VZnavigator for the Blackberries either?

Not that I hate verizon, I am sticking with them due to the network, coverage, customer service, etc. But the do remind me of a controlling (and expensive) wife...

My guess is that in a couple weeks they will retract their GPS advertisements and say that they were talking about E-911 all along.

I'm guessing the reason why you were unable to setup hotmail on the phone is because you are using a Verizon device. Verizon has probably crippled the ability to utilize the email function built into WM6. Most likely users will be forced to use the Mobile Web or Mobile Email feature to access email. I have had WM6 since May and have not experienced any issues which you have described. The fact that you immediately blame WM6 because you cannot setup hotmail causes me to think you have never used WM6 before. It's quite easy to setup email accounts on WM6 but again, considering you are using a Verizon phone, no wonder it's a pain.

Mr. Black ya beat me to it. Don't blame Verizon and Motorola's obvious shortcomings on the OS. I also have an HTC Vox aka S710 (also unlocked on T-mobile) that runs WM6 and it works great. I've had nothing even close to the problems of which you speak. I'm not gonna say that WM6 is the greatest ever (and I'm darn sure not gonna say the iPhone is) but it's got a bunch of decent improvements over WM5 (and a couple of screw-ups in typical MS fashion).

Honestly though, it seems very irresponsible to critique a smartphone OS based on problems with one device. Especially when that one device is made by a company known for their poor software, and on a carrier known for completely locking down their phones. If you want to be fair and balanced about an OS, you need to try it out on a couple of different devices first. After all, would you write a review of Windows Vista based solely on your experiences using it on an underpowered machine? Of course not, you would try it on several different machines with different specs and then make your judgment.

That being said, if you try it out on 5 different devices, and all 5 of them suck, then go ahead and make your judgment. Just make sure all 5 aren't made by motorola and locked to verizon.

Quick follow-up, if you couldn't figure out that the solitaire game is played by using the number pad, then you're just dumb and shouldn't be reviewing jack. Again, I'm not saying that MS made a good choice by limiting their solitaire game controls to the number pad, just saying if you couldn't figure that out after 30 seconds, you're an idiot.

Ok, now I'm done ranting.

I'm not defending Windows Mobile, but your review is mostly about that, not the phone itself. Tell us how the keypad feels, battery life, you know, phone specific stuff. We already know all about windows mobile. Unless it's a Verizon specific thing, tell us about the PHONE.

@redman042: This isn't a review of the previous generation Q. This is a review for the current one that's been neutered/butchered by Verizon/Motorola. Not all Windows Mobile phones are alike. While they all run WM, the implementation differs greatly across manufacturers and carriers. I'm on my 4th Windows Mobile phone. I loved my T-Mobile SDA (stolen), quickly returned the T-Mobile Dash and Wing (premature WM6 issues), and finally settled on a WM5 Treo 750 from AT&T which I'm loving to death. The original Q was a great phone with some quality control issues. Looks like they've done nothing to improve it, but added a lot of things to make you hate the phone.

@TomTheGeek: It's not really a review about Windows Mobile, just Windows Mobile 6 on this particular phone. WM6 is great if implemented correctly.

Never had to refer to manuals once for phones and PDAs from my first phone (a StarTAC) to my first Palm OS device (Palm V), Pocket PCs, Windows Mobiles and newer S60 Nokias. Not sure why the reviewer think it is difficult.

i've had your page on my yahoo account for years and have always loved or hated the comments, but have never tried to register but todays comments have driven me to it. I'm dying to sling it to someone regarding the new version of my moto Q - in a nice way of course.

i've had the original moto q for over a year and aside from an occasional glitch it does my email, music, games and phone of course reasonably well. Verizon service has been very good compared to horror stories elsewhere. i'm looking forward to seeing improvements but i'm not upgrading today

This is why you should go with Symbian S60 OS instead of a crappy unintuitive UI with a Windows logo and "Smartphone" branding.

The Q9m looks like it was designed by a kid. Moto phones used to look good but have crappy UIs. Now they're both bad.

Goood. Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you.

I can't stand Verizon. Aside from the fact that their service drives me crazy, they're limiting all of the features on their phones. Want to use the convenient "Email" button on your keypad? Sorry, that'll be another twenty bucks per month.

You can't change what the menus on their phones look like, either. They've got those annoying links to VCast all over the place, but no one ever uses the service. Why bother, when you can just download the stuff for a dollar less online?

glad to see an honest review about this phone. The original Q was a disaster. too bad the new one doesn't sound much better. Verizon's OS even manages to suck on stalwarts like the RAZR. If you check cingular's OS for that phone, you will find it to be much better. All of this really derives from the fact that Motorola uses a proprietary OS rather than symbian to make everyone's life easier.

Where do I start about this childish review? Besides the unprofessional "WM6 Sux", I have to agree that anybody who couldn't figure out Solitaire is brain-dead (unless it completely changed from the version on the original Q).

Also, whining about Verizon's pricing has NOTHING to do with how good or bad the phone is. Verizon's pricing is the same for any smartphone (Windows Mobile, Palm, BlackBerry, etc.).

As for the Home screen, that's easily changed. If you don't like it, replace it. The photos even show that the reviewer managed to figure out how to change the Home screen.

And remember that's only ONE screen on the entire device. You can't judge the entire user interface based on the vendor-supplied Home screen.

The reviewer should give the phone to his mommy or daddy and let them write a REAL review.

It's not just Motorola - many manufacturers make the exact same mistake. I think the solution is easy - make the phone the way you think is right, give it to a few people and watch them. And LEARN. Then go back and correct the deficiencies. You do this a few times and you have a device that 90% of the population can use right out of the box. Am I wrong?

Am I right in thinking this is an upgrade to the Moto Q, but uglier and buggier? The wait on the release in the UK pretty much killed it from the start but it seemed like a good idea to begin with.

Why do Motorola just consistently rehash old phones without significantly improving them (or more often than not making them worse!).

Maybe using a touchscreen Pocket PC makes me immune to these frustrations. I don't see how a non-touchscreen Q should be compared to a touchscreen iPhone for usability.