Motorola Q Global (AT&T) review: Motorola Q Global (AT&T)

In August, AT&T refreshed its Motorola smartphone offering with the Motorola Q Global. The smartphone is largely similar to its predecessor, the Motorola Q9h, but comes with a fresh paint job and ships with Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Edition out of the box. Given the vast similarities in design and features, we chose to focus this review on the Motorola Q Global's performance. The Motorola Q Global is available now for $149.99 with a two-year contract.

For the most part, the Motorola Q Global is very similar to the Motorola Q9h except it comes in gray with a pinstripe design and ships with Windows Mobile 6.1 out of the box. For more information about the Q Global's design and feature set, please read our full review of the Motorola Q9h.

The Motorola Q Global features a new gray color with a pinstripe design but is largely similar to the Motorola Q9h.

We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; HSDPA) Motorola Q Global in San Francisco using AT&T service, and call quality was decent. For the most part, we enjoyed clear audio but there were a couple of instances where voices sounded a bit garbled. Still, it didn't prevent us from having a conversation, and we were able to use an airline's voice automated response system with no problem. Our friends didn't have any major complaints about how we sounded. The speakerphone was plenty loud, so much so that it surprised us when we first activated it. We successfully paired the Q Global with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones.

General performance was very similar to the Moto Q9h. The smartphone could be sluggish, particularly when we had numerous applications running in the background. We're only talking about a few seconds, but nevertheless, it can get a bit frustrating to have to wait for a simple task like opening a program. On the bright side, we didn't experience any system crashes during our review period. In addition, we were once again impressed by the smartphone's multimedia performance. Music playback through the phone's dual speakers sounded rich and full; arguably, the best we've heard from a smartphone to date. Watching video clips is fine in short spurts.

The Motorola Q Global's extended battery is rated for 9 hours of talk time and up to 30 days of standby time. In our battery drain tests, the standard battery provided 9 hours of continuous talk time on a single charge. According to FCC radiation tests, the Q Global has a digital SAR rating of 1.29 watts per kilogram.