Bell Canada Launches Motorola Q Smartphone

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.bell.ca/shopping/en_CA_ON/64117.details?' target='_blank'>http://www.bell.ca/shopping/en_CA_ON/64117.details?</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Temporale-20060922-BellMotoQ.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />One month ago today, we told you about <a href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12126">Bell Canada's listing of the Motorola Q</a> as <i>Coming Soon</i> on their web site. Well, all that has now changed. Bell Canada has just launched the Motorola Q Smartphone. (For those of you who are not familiar with Canadian operators, Bell is a CDMA operator. So this Q would be a CDMA based Q. ;) ) The Q can be had for $449 without contract, or $249 on a 3 year contract combined with a minimum $60 data plan. It would be interesting to find out what differences this device has, if any, over the Telus or Verizon versions of the Q. Hopefully this ships with MSFP already in ROM.

[Jerry Raia]

Interesting they keep using that older picture of the Q. The numeric keys are black. The headphone jack is on the top right, not on the side. It doesn't have any printing on the left side either.

[scottb]

Interesting they keep using that older picture of the Q. The numeric keys are black. The headphone jack is on the top right, not on the side. It doesn't have any printing on the left side either.
Also, it looks like the microphone is directly under the Alt key in that photo. The actual phone has it well below the messaging/on-off key.

[Jerry Raia]

Yes, good catch.

[ericm]

Where I come from (Ireland) everything is GSM/gprs networks. I'm in the States and am totally confused with the amount of competing protocols. I would like to get the Q but is EVDO incompatible with GPRS? Will I have problems when roaming in Ireland/UK?
I'm sure I can get an unlock code, but when I put my vodafone sim card in will it not be able to register with the network in Ireland/UK?
Eric

[Jerry Raia]

Hi and welcome to the site. :)

Right now the Q is only available from Verizon and as such is CDMA. It will not work in Europe. You want GSM. There will most likely be a GSM Q that will work here in the US, on Cingular, and in Europe. Verizon had a 6 month exclusive on the Q. That will soon end. There is no place to put a SIM card in the current CDMA Q. CDMA phones do not use SIM cards.