Motolora Q Vs. Blackberry 8703e

A couple months back, I had the thought of trying out the Motorola Q. I had used the Blackberry 7250 for about a year and then last November upgraded to the Blackberry 8703e, which was a vast improvement.

Here are the big advantages of the Motrolora Q:

1. Small, thin and lightweight.
2. Runs Windows Mobile Smartphone Edition, so it doesn't require a separate server. It can use Exchange Activesync directly.
3. Has a mini-SD slot for expansion.
4. Can stream video. I even had it set up to stream all my programs I had recorded from my DVR anywhere I can had decent cell phone reception. That was pretty sweet!
5. Has a working full speed Nintendo Emulator. I used this feature like crazy. Having all of these classic Nintendo games available anywhere was amazing.

The bad:
1. Battery life was amazingly bad. We are talking 8 hours tops not even making calls. With an extended life battery I could get thought an entire day with really light use. I found myself charging it all the time.
2. Generally it could not make or receive phone calls. The phone almost never rang in the same places my Blackberry had no issues - for example my desk at work.
3. The interface, while I could figure it out in a few days is not very intuitive and would be a hindrance to the average user.
4. The standard holster is very flimsy.

In the end the inability to make and receive phone calls made me switch back to the Blackberry 8703e. I thoroughly do not recommend the Motorola Q unless you are a glutton for punishment and don't care about using it as a phone. Truthfully if you aren't getting email on it, or are just using some personal email account it would be only poor, not terrible. It is too bad though since it has so many cool features.