Performance
The Photon Q sports a powerful 1.5 GHz, dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. Screen transitions are smooth and apps launch evenly. The screen is a 540 x 960 pixel, 4.3″ display featuring decent colors and good resolution. It’s not as sharp as the screens on the HTC One series or a Retina display, but it’s absolutely usable for the everyday.
The Photon Q averaged 4 MBps down/3MBps up on Sprint’s Houston-area LTE network. Not bad, but not awesome when compared to speeds that Verizon and AT&T get in the area. On the plus side, I received better 4G reception overall with the Photon Q than I did with the Samsung Galaxy S III. Calls seemed clearer. Audio is good, with a loud speaker phone. The combination of fast chip, good audio, and decent 4G speeds make this a great phone for my cloud-based music services even though Sprint’s phones normally work better on WiFi thanks to its slower network.
Surprisingly, I made it through most days without plugging the Motorola Photon Q in. I suspect this has less to do with the 1785 mAh battery that Motorola stuck in here than it does with Sprint’s software constantly re-enabling my WiFi even after I turn it off. While this is meant to spare Sprint’s network more than my battery, it actually was quite helpful. While I don’t have wireless internet access for most of the day, I’m used to phones dying overnight if I forget to plug them in thanks to all the stuff I have pushed to them. Because the Photon Q keeps connecting to my router, it uses less power. For those who find this solution annoying, it can be disabled and you can exercise a tad more control with the aforementioned SmartActions.
Less impressive is the camera. Despite an 8 MP rear camera, I found it almost worthless for stills. Colors were off, especially blues and reds, and many photos are washed out. Basic auto-correcting on my desktop fixed the color balance, but that’s not really excusable.
My son’s bed is not, in fact, pink.
Slightly fixed via desktop software, but still much “warmer” than reality.
Shadows don’t show up, making this frosting look like plastic.
On the other hand, the 1080p HD recording function of the camera is a solid feature. My younger brother is something of a camera nut, and while he’s sticking to his SLR for photos, he’s been taking more and more quick videos with the Photon Q. Having seen them, I’m impressed. Much nicer than videos taken with say, an iPhone 4S. It’s vexing to have such different experiences between stills and video though, and it’s important that you prioritize.
The Photon Q is supposed to have NFC, but I’m not finding any way to activate it or use it. This may be on me and having an NFC isn’t going to be the reason why anyone buys this phone.
What will be the reason will most likely be the keyboard. Almost identical to the keyboard on the Droid 4, the Photon Q’s keyboard has great feedback, good travel for a mobile keyboard, and a good layout. If I’ve any quibble, it’s that the @ is a shifted character, not a dedicated key a la Blackberry and other keyboards. I haven’t used the keyboard on the LG Mach, but the Photon Q is absolutely superior to other QWERTY Sprint phones like the Samsung Epic, HTC Shift, and Kyocera Rise. Add in a pretty good predictive typing algorithm and you have a real winner.
Hackability
The Photon Q doesn’t seem to have any custom ROMs available, but I’m seeing activity on bringing both CM9 and CM10 to the phone. Honestly, I don’t know how much you even need it on this phone. The skin is light enough to not get in the way, and the rest of the phone works fine. That said, wait a bit and you should find a good hack.
The Strengths
The Photon Q is a barely-skinned, non-bloatware infested, Android goodness for your Sprint account. Photon Q’s keyboard is good enough for the power user, and the rest of the features suit the average user fine. The phone has absolutely the best landscape keyboard that I’ve used on Sprint. It’s not just the keyboard that sells this though as I found myself using the virtual keyboard often enough. Simply put, it’s a powerful and well-built phone.
The Weaknesses
I’m surprised at how little storage the Photon Q sports. Although, in the era of the cloud, maybe that’s not as much of a deal breaker as it used to be. What may be a deal breaker is the camera. I can’t get over how bad my photos were. I’m not the world’s greatest shutterbug, but I’m better than this. The amazing HD video recording partially saves this, but it’s an annoying drawback.
Wrap Up
Even with the camera annoyance, this is an amazing phone. In fact, my biggest hope is that this phone grows Morotola’s presence on Sprint. It would be awesome to see the same almost-pure Android experience on a RAZR type device on a network other than Verizon.
If you’re more concerned about right now than about what comes down the line, this is an excellent choice for a Sprint phone. I suggest waiting until Cyber Monday and snagging this on the almost certain sales to get the best bang for your buck. If you can’t wait, I give the rare nod to pay full price for a phone because the Photon Q is worth it.
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