Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE (Sprint)

It's been a long time since Sprint's had a great keyboarded smartphone. The Motorola Admiral??was pretty good, but the BlackBerry-style keyboard and push-to-talk capabilities weren't for everyone. And the Samsung Epic 4G?paired a top-notch smartphone with a big, comfortable keyboard, but that was more than two years ago. Enter the Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE. It's got a killer keyboard, a fast dual-core processor, and support for Sprint's brand new 4G LTE network. It's kind of huge, but it's the best keyboarded smartphone on Sprint, and well worthy of our Editors' Choice award.

Design, Call Quality, and Network
The Photon Q looks like a cross between the original Motorola Photon 4G, and the Motorola Droid 4??over on Verizon Wireless. It measures 5 by 2.6 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs a hefty six ounces. Most good keyboarded phones are packing some extra bulk, but it's something to consider when making your decision. Luckily, a lot of that extra weight is put to good use in the Photon Q's absolutely fabulous slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Essentially the same as the one you'll find on the Verizon Droid 4, the five-row keyboard on the Photon Q is going to make many typists very happy. The rubbery, laser-cut keys are well-separated, ultra-tactile, and brightly backlit. I love the row of number keys up at the top, as well as the directional pad and the Caps Lock key. Simply put, this is the phone to get if you like to message more than talk. And that's a good thing, since the Photon Q doesn't boast the best call quality?more on that in a minute.

Sprint isn't making too much fuss over it, but the Photon Q is ULE Platinum Certification, which is the highest level of environmental performance recognized by sustainable requirements established by UL Environment and Sprint. So it's also a good choice if you're looking to make an environmentally conscious decision. It's also splash proof, though you shouldn't go taking it in the shower.

The display is an increasingly standard (for Motorola, anyway) 4.3-inch, 960-by-540 LCD panel. It's not nearly as impressive as the 4.8-inch high-res behemoth of a screen on the Samsung Galaxy S III, but it looks bright and sharp enough to satisfy most users.

The Photon Q is a world phone that supports Sprint's brand new 4G LTE network as well as its much slower 3G network. It also supports tri-band (850/1900/2100 MHz) HSPA+21 and quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) EDGE for international calling. Unfortunately, you can't swap out the built-in SIM card while travelling, so you'll be stuck paying some pretty pricey rates while abroad.

In this year's?Fastest Mobile Networks?tests we found Sprint's 3G network to be the slowest of the nationwide networks. We also got a chance to test Sprint's 4G LTE network and found it to be a vast improvement. Unfortunately, it's only available in a limited number of cities right now, so chances are you'll be stuck with significantly slower speeds until it comes to your town.

Sprint LTE is not yet available in New York City, where we tested the Photon Q, so all of our tests were conducted over 3G. Reception was fine, though call quality just mediocre. Voices sound fuzzy in the phone's earpiece and a little harsh, especially at louder volumes. Transmissions through the mic let through some background noise, and voices tend to crackle. The phone paired easily with my?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset?and the Motorola voice command system worked fine. The Photon Q uses Bluetooth 4.0, which allows various smart watches and fitness devices to communicate with the phone. The speakerphone sounds fine, but isn't loud enough to use outdoors. And despite the large 1785mAh battery, talk time was just average at 6 hours and 59 minutes.

Processor and Apps
The Photon Q is powered by the same 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor as the Galaxy S III. That means it's packing plenty of power for absolutely anything, from casual social networking to super high-end gaming. It shouldn't have trouble running any of the 500,000+ apps in the Google Play store.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/lt3_bmPE7jM/0,2817,2408850,00.asp

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