Review: Motorola Q

Nobody wants to miss important messages just because they’re on the road. With the Motorola Q, you can turn commute time into productive time by keeping in touch with colleagues from just about anywhere.

Just like a BlackBerry, the Motorola Q comes equipped with a spacious QWERTY keypad that lets you type easily with your thumbtips, keeping typos to a minimum. It also features a side-mounted scroll-wheel that makes quick work of rolling through long menus, e-mail lists, and websites so you can find what you’re looking for and click the wheel to select it.

The Q’s large 2.4-inch, 320 x 240-pixel screen is a pleasure to behold when you need to access websites on the go, and its Outlook Mobile e-mail app gives you the intuitive tools you’re familiar with for sending and receiving important business mail. Windows Mobile handles the most common business file attachments easily, displaying Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, photos, and other documents quickly and easily with just a few taps of the five-way control button right below the screen.

Unlike most ordinary cell phones, the Moto Q uses a standard USB cable for charging and synching to your PC, so you don’t have to worry about losing an expensive proprietary cable. Plus, you can recharge your Q by simply plugging it into a PC’s USB port, which comes in handy when you don’t have the power cable or optional car charger nearby.

The Motorola Q is a precursor to a whole new generation of Windows Mobile phones that will seamlessly connect to your Windows Vista PC and Microsoft Outlook to keep your contacts and calendar entries updated between your phone and computer. Just $99 from Verizon Wireless, this sleek smart phone is a smart buy for anyone with a type A personality and a control complex.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

$99, www.motorola.com