Motorola Q9m Review

Interface:

The User Interface on the Q9m is laid out in similar fashion to the other Q SmartPhones, except for that fact that there are two home screens. The Standard home screen is what we have come to expect from a SmartPhone, simple and unobtrusive. There are a total of 6 Themes that you can choose from for the Standard home screen (Windows Simple, Windows Default, Large Font, Windows Basic, VZW Layout, and VZW Classic Layout), with each one having a different layout. Windows Simple is the cleanest theme with the least clutter on the screen. Windows Default adds shortcut icons to the top as well as appointment and message notifications. Large Font is the same as Windows Simple except the font size is larger. Windows Basic is similar to Windows Default, except it lacks the shortcut icons as the top. VZW Layout and VZW Classic are also very similar to the Windows Default. Between the 6 choices, the Windows Simple theme was our favorite since it had the cleanest desktop.


Pressing the “Change View” button on the bottom right of the keypad will change to the Multimedia home screen, which is what the “m” stands for in Q9m. The right side of the screen has shortcut buttons for Music & Video, Pictures, Camera, VCast Music, and Volume. After making your selection, you then move to the left side of the screen where you can select the specific file that you wish to access. For music, videos, and pictures, there are Rewind, Play/Pause, and FastForward buttons for added control. We found navigating through the Multimedia screen to be quite intuitive and user friendly, much more so than a standard Media Player.


Phonebook:

The Contacts list is laid out in similar fashion as to other Windows Mobile devices. Adding a person to the contacts list is a relative easy task, despite the plethora of information that can be entered (First Name, Last Name, Work Phone, Mobile Phone, Home Phone, Custom Ringtone, Picture, E-Mail, IM, Work 2, Home 2, Company Phone, Categories, Pager, Car Phone, Work Fax, Home Fax, Assistant Phone, Radio Phone, E-Mail 2, E-Mail 3, IM2, IM3, Web Page, File As, Company Name, Department, Job Title, Office Address, Home Address, Notes, Nickname, Birthday, Anniversary, Manager, Government ID, Account Name, Customer ID, Spouse, Children, and Assistant). It is amazing the amount of information that can be stored for each contact, which leaves little else that it doesn’t ask for, except maybe for the persons blood-type.

Once the information has been saved, you can bring up the contact list alphabetical by pressing the right soft key on the home screen. From there, you can either scroll through the list, or type the name to perform a search.



Pressing and holding the speakerphone key will activate the Voice Command system. From there, you can choose from Call, Send Text, Send SMS, Send Email, Lookup name, and Open application. This works the same way as with most modern phones, where you can say “Call Marie’s Cell” and the voice recognition software will dial the appropriate number. The Voice Command system can also be used in conjunction with a Bluetooth headset.



Organizer:

The Calendar provides a quick view of the current day, week, and month. Multiple appointments can be added for each day, including the Subject, Start Date, Start Time, End Date, End Time, Location, Reminder, and Occurrence. When a saved appointment time is reached, the phone will play the alarm and show the appointment information on the screen.