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Motorola Photon Q LTE
8.0
final rating

reviewed on
this review has been viewed 798 times

Criteria Comments Rating
  • Reception and call quality No comments good
  • Display No comments good
  • Battery life To be fair, apart from the RAZR MAXX there are few Android phones with what I'd describe as excellent battery life. so-so
  • Camera I wouldn't buy this for the camera. so-so
  • Ease of use Like many of you, I prefer stock Android, but Motorola's customizations are relatively minimal and rarely get in the way. good
  • Design and form factor I'm not a huge fan of Motorola's design language, but the keyboard is well-designed. good
  • Portability (size / weight) Obviously the presence of a keyboard means you're not going to get a phone as thin as a RAZR, S3, or One S, but all things considered the size is good. good
  • Media support No comments great!
  • Durability No comments great!
  • Ecosystem (apps, accessories, etc.) No comments great!
Detailed review
How you feel about the Photon Q LTE will rest largely on how much you care about having a physical keyboard. There was a definitely point where I cared a lot about this, and while I've since found a virtual keyboard that makes typing on a touchscreen work for me (SwiftKey, if you're curious), I can still appreciate the value in having a real keyboard.

So I'm happy to report that during the week or so that I've been carrying around the Photon Q LTE I found it to be a pretty good option for anyone that wants a keyboard. As far as Android phones go it's nothing too remarkable given the other options out there, but the keyboard itself is good. Not perfect -- I'd change the placement of the caps lock key, among other things -- but it's fairly tactile, with well-spaced keys for a phone of this size (and the keyboard doesn't add that much heft to the phone).

I wouldn't recommend it over any of the top phones on the market right now, but I showed this thing to a few people who love having a keyboard and more than one said this was exactly what they were looking for.
review history
2012-08-27
Edited comment on Design and form factor
Edited comment on Portability (size / weight)
Edited comment on Ease of use
Edited comment on Camera
Edited comment on Battery life
Updated detailed review

Comments (3) subscribe to this review's comments

alsoknownasjazz

alsoknownasjazz

But does it infringe on any Apple patents? ;-)
groovechicken

groovechicken

Did they leave WebTop out of this one? There was some talk of Motorola possibly using Chrome in their ICS version of WebTop, but I haven't heard any further mentions. So now I am wondering if they decided to ditch it altogether.
peter

peter

I have not seen any mention of it.
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