Thursday, August 03, 2006 10:25 AM
by
stevetei
I heart my Q
Being a gadget geek, I always keep an eye on what's cool and new. As mobile phones go, I've been frustrated for years over having to choose between the feature set I desire and a reasonable form factor. I want all the cool features... the good camera, the big screen, the capable OS, big memory, 3G, QWERTY keyboard, etc., but the roughly lunchbox-size form factor of the Treo, Blackberry, etc. kills me.
This is a good time to point out that a mobile phone belongs in one's pocket. I stand staunchly opposed wearing one's mobile phone on one's belt. A phone is not a fashion accessory, people. Unless your profession is law enforcement officer or Caped Crusader, you should avoid the temptation of arraying your belongings in a series of pouches around your waist.
Until recently, I found the Nokia 6820 to be a good compromise between features and form factor. However, I was often frustrated by the tiny screen, slow connectivity, 1 centipixel camera, and weenie OS.
A couple of months ago, Motorola Qs starting popping up around campus like badgers. I was pretty impressed after messing around with a few of my colleagues' Qs, so I jumped in and bought one. I must say I've been really pleased. The killer feature for me is how well it works with our Exchange server -- it makes it really painless to function in Microsoft's email culture while away from the office. EVDO support is cool too -- it actually makes it practical to use the web to look up movie times or get driving directions while in the car (not while *driving*, mind you -- I don't recommend that). The good integration between Windows Mobile and XP is also handy. For example, I was surprised to find that the pictures I used on my camera to represent people in my address book were synchronized back to Outlook 2007, so my contacts' photos now appear in the headers of the emails I receive from them. And, of course, it fits in my pocket, which is key.