dsutton01
12-16-2007, 11:50 PM
I upgraded my Q to the Q9 about a week ago, and I'm in love with the Q9 so far. For me, it's such a nice improvement, and many of the things I like the best are small things.
First of all, the major improvements I like:
1. GPS, fully integrated with Google Maps. Very nice.
2. IM software for AIM, MSN, and Yahoo!, already loaded, and it works fairly well.
3. Awesome keyboard.
4. Extended battery.
5. Talk/End buttons are larger now, and easier to use.
The smaller things, which are just awesome:
1. When sending a text, you can now just start typing a contact's name in the "To:" field, and a list of matching contacts pops up so you can quickly select one. On the original Q, you had to press the center button while in the "To:" field to load the contacts, then find your contact, then press the center button again. Now it's super simple. I love this.
2. When you have a number typed in, or in your recent calls list, and you want to update an existing contact with the number, you click the "save" button, and you can type an existing contact's name to filter the contact list until you find the contact you wish to update. On the old Q (at least on the ones I had), you couldn't filter the contact list when trying to save a number to an existing contact. You had to just hold the down arrow, or roll the wheel, until you found the correct contact, which was a pain in the ass!
3. A very cool call log system that shows you all the calls for any number, listed in date order, with the date, time, and call duration. To see this, just go to your recent calls list, choose a number, press the select button, then the first thing you'll see is "Last call" and a time of that call. Just press the select button on that, and you'll see a call history of all calls to/from/missed with that contact or number. You can also just press the menu softbutton and click on view --> all calls. I love it.
4. When viewing the recent calls list, each contact will show a letter on the right side indicating home, work, mobile, etc. You can highlight any entry, and then press the d-pad left or right to change to a different number. I can't remember if the original Q did this, but I think it didn't.
5. The auto screen dimmer - The Q9 has a cool little light sensor next to the screen that automatically dims the screen in dark rooms. Some have complained about this, but I find it very useful. You can disable it if you don't like it. The Blackberry 8830 has this feature as well.
6. The vibrate feature now seems more precise. Not a huge deal but for example, when texts arrive in vibrate mode, the phone pulses 3 quick times. It's less bothersome.
7. Easier to have larger memory cards. I have a 4gb card in now, and it just plugged in and worked. I think there was a .cab update for the original q to make it recognize larger cards, but it's easy on the Q9.
8. More descriptive messaging icons. The old Q had 2 icons for messaging: an envelope for emails or texts, and an envelope with a speaker for voicemails. The new Q9 has three icons: an envelope for email. An envelope with a mobile phone icon in the corner for texts. An envelope with a speaker for voicemails. It's nice to know if the msg is an email or a text, something I never knew on the old Q.
9. The phone seems to be faster than the original Q. Less lag.
10. Internal speaker is great. very clear and loud.
A few negatives:
1. bluetooth not nearly as strong as the original Q. I used to be able to put my phone in the back of my house and walk all over the place, no problems. Now, the range of the new Q seems to be half as good. I'm annoyed by this, but i can overlook it because there are so many little improvements.
2. integrated flash seems not to be as bright as on the original Q, but maybe i'm wrong...
I've heard that the rumored 6.1 updated will include threaded texting as well as some other nice updates. So that also makes this Q9 a keeper.
Hope this helps some decide if the Q9 is right for them. I absolutely love this phone - planning to keep it a long time. It works great with PDANet - and the data speeds are very fast. Was driving on I-10 the other day in the back seat of a car and did a speedtest on my laptop - 1.25mbs down, 100 up. not too bad.
First of all, the major improvements I like:
1. GPS, fully integrated with Google Maps. Very nice.
2. IM software for AIM, MSN, and Yahoo!, already loaded, and it works fairly well.
3. Awesome keyboard.
4. Extended battery.
5. Talk/End buttons are larger now, and easier to use.
The smaller things, which are just awesome:
1. When sending a text, you can now just start typing a contact's name in the "To:" field, and a list of matching contacts pops up so you can quickly select one. On the original Q, you had to press the center button while in the "To:" field to load the contacts, then find your contact, then press the center button again. Now it's super simple. I love this.
2. When you have a number typed in, or in your recent calls list, and you want to update an existing contact with the number, you click the "save" button, and you can type an existing contact's name to filter the contact list until you find the contact you wish to update. On the old Q (at least on the ones I had), you couldn't filter the contact list when trying to save a number to an existing contact. You had to just hold the down arrow, or roll the wheel, until you found the correct contact, which was a pain in the ass!
3. A very cool call log system that shows you all the calls for any number, listed in date order, with the date, time, and call duration. To see this, just go to your recent calls list, choose a number, press the select button, then the first thing you'll see is "Last call" and a time of that call. Just press the select button on that, and you'll see a call history of all calls to/from/missed with that contact or number. You can also just press the menu softbutton and click on view --> all calls. I love it.
4. When viewing the recent calls list, each contact will show a letter on the right side indicating home, work, mobile, etc. You can highlight any entry, and then press the d-pad left or right to change to a different number. I can't remember if the original Q did this, but I think it didn't.
5. The auto screen dimmer - The Q9 has a cool little light sensor next to the screen that automatically dims the screen in dark rooms. Some have complained about this, but I find it very useful. You can disable it if you don't like it. The Blackberry 8830 has this feature as well.
6. The vibrate feature now seems more precise. Not a huge deal but for example, when texts arrive in vibrate mode, the phone pulses 3 quick times. It's less bothersome.
7. Easier to have larger memory cards. I have a 4gb card in now, and it just plugged in and worked. I think there was a .cab update for the original q to make it recognize larger cards, but it's easy on the Q9.
8. More descriptive messaging icons. The old Q had 2 icons for messaging: an envelope for emails or texts, and an envelope with a speaker for voicemails. The new Q9 has three icons: an envelope for email. An envelope with a mobile phone icon in the corner for texts. An envelope with a speaker for voicemails. It's nice to know if the msg is an email or a text, something I never knew on the old Q.
9. The phone seems to be faster than the original Q. Less lag.
10. Internal speaker is great. very clear and loud.
A few negatives:
1. bluetooth not nearly as strong as the original Q. I used to be able to put my phone in the back of my house and walk all over the place, no problems. Now, the range of the new Q seems to be half as good. I'm annoyed by this, but i can overlook it because there are so many little improvements.
2. integrated flash seems not to be as bright as on the original Q, but maybe i'm wrong...
I've heard that the rumored 6.1 updated will include threaded texting as well as some other nice updates. So that also makes this Q9 a keeper.
Hope this helps some decide if the Q9 is right for them. I absolutely love this phone - planning to keep it a long time. It works great with PDANet - and the data speeds are very fast. Was driving on I-10 the other day in the back seat of a car and did a speedtest on my laptop - 1.25mbs down, 100 up. not too bad.