Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE review: the best full QWERTY phone on Sprint’s network

Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE review

The future of Motorola post-acquisition may still be a mystery, but the manufacturer has managed to stay quite active over the last few weeks: it unveiled the Atrix HD, its first smartphone with an HD display and native ICS build, and there's already much anticipation around Verizon's Droid RAZR HD ahead of the holiday season. For the here and now, however, it's Sprint's turn to soak in the Moto love with the Photon Q 4G LTE. (Say it five times fast.)

Naturally, the name of the phone doesn't leave a whole lot to the imagination. As you'd expect, it's a follow-up to last year's Photon 4G that trades WiMAX for LTE and adds a full-sized QWERTY keyboard. What the name doesn't tell you, though, is that this phone costs a lofty $200 on contract, and features a qHD ColorBoost display (not to be confused with the Atrix's 720p screen, which uses the same branding). In other words, it's gotta be pretty good to have any success at that price point. How does the latest Googorola device hold up against the rest of Sprint's LTE lineup? Is it worth the premium? Follow us southward to find out.

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Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE review: the best full QWERTY phone on Sprint's network originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE up for pre-order, hitting Sprint August 19th for $200

Sprint subscribers aching to get their thumbs on some QWERTY keyboarding, LTE action won't have to wait much longer. The carrier announced today that Motorola's verbose Photon Q 4G LTE will be hitting the network on Sunday, August 19th, carrying a $200 price tag. The handset's packing a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, Ice Cream Sandwich and an eight megapixel rear-facing camera. Interested parties can pre-order the Photon Q, et al. today. More information can be found in the press release after the break.

Continue reading Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE up for pre-order, hitting Sprint August 19th for $200

Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE up for pre-order, hitting Sprint August 19th for $200 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 10:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola to allow bootloader unlocking from Photon Q 4G LTE onwards

Motorola to allow bootloader unlocking from Photon Q onwards

Motorola's initial promise to allow unlocked bootloaders came across to many enthusiasts as somewhat hollow: as long as there was an escape clause, carriers like AT&T and Verizon could clamp down and maintain the tough-to-modify status quo. RAZR-philes will be happy to know that there's a plan to cut their own chains loose, after all. Starting with the Photon Q 4G LTE's August launch, owners will have the option to unlock the bootloader of at least some devices in an official way that reportedly keeps carriers satisfied. Details of how the process works will come later; we don't know if Motorola will take a cue from HTC's identifier tokens or try something more exotic, even if it's likely in either case to offer a big, fat disclaimer regarding the warranty. The option won't be the same as buying a phone that's unlocked from the start, but we don't think too many custom ROM lovers will mind after knowing that one more Android manufacturer is on their side.

[Thanks, RTbar]

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Motorola to allow bootloader unlocking from Photon Q 4G LTE onwards originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint’s Motorola Photon Q LTE is coming ‘very soon’ (update)

Sprint's Motorola Photon Q LTE is coming 'very soon' update

During Sprint's earnings call, CEO Dan Hesse revealed that Motorola's Photon Q, the company's latest LTE "world phone" is coming "very soon." The Photon Q is believed to be the Android 4.0-running QWERTY-slider you can see in the image above, but now that the company's head has let the cat out of the bag, we expect more details to roll around very shortly.

Update: Sprint's PR engine has kicked into gear, offering the deep dish on the new handset. It's a super-specced edition of last year's Photon 4G and will indeed offer a QWERTY-sliding experience on Ice Cream Sandwich. Beneath the 4.3-inch ColorBoost display you'll find a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera and NFC as well as Motorola's Smartactions application to help users extend battery life and anticipate your daily routines. Pricing and availability will be announced within the "next few weeks," but given how excited Dan Hesse sounded, we can't imagine we'll be waiting too long.

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Sprint's Motorola Photon Q LTE is coming 'very soon' (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 08:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FCC Fridays: July 6, 2012

FCC Fridays July 6, 2012

We here at Engadget tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there individually, we've gathered up an exhaustive listing of every phone and / or tablet getting the stamp of approval over the last week. Enjoy!

Continue reading FCC Fridays: July 6, 2012

FCC Fridays: July 6, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Photon Q wanders into the FCC with Sprint LTE

Motorola Photon Q wanders into the FCC with Sprint LTE

What's that? A Motorola phone with Sprint LTE, EVDO and the model number XT897 getting approved by the FCC? Why, it looks like this could be the Photon Q LTE! We weren't able to glean much in the way of detail save for the fact it packs NFC and LTE band 25 (Sprint's 1900MHz flavor), but this is good news for Motorola fans disappointed in the dearth of new handset options over the last six months. Head to the link to get your fill of measurements and other fun numbers.

Motorola Photon Q wanders into the FCC with Sprint LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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