Pros: Size, Speed, QWERTY pad, volume, memory capacity, EVDO network, ease of use, camera, WM Player.
Cons: Battery life, newer model is still having bugs like the data-transfer arrows.
The bottom line: I recommend this for people considering getting into Smartphones. I don't think it'd be up to the demands of a executive, though seems it would lag behind Treo or Blackberry.
I bought this phone to upgrade from my aging tri-mode phone from Verizon Wireless. And overall, I am pleased. The pictures it takes are very, very nice. And it can hold large amount of them, I have some 130 pictures saved on my phone, and I still have room for hundreds more. In addition, with a little computer savvy skills and ActiveSync, I can create many ringtones just as I want them in MP3 format, and put them right into the phone. No paying for ringtones. Verizon recommends Handango.com for the software on the phone, and I have bought several games from them, all play nicely, and thought some take a little time to figure out beings as they were designed for older versions of Windows Mobile. The Motorola Q has Windows Mobile 5.0 which is one of the newest mobile Windows applications, and there is not much software out that is made exclusively for it. I love the mini-SD slot, I have it loaded with a 1GB card, and it's loaded up with some of my favorite John Mayer live shows. I find it nice because I can plug in my phone overnight to charge, set the sound profile to silent, and play some music quietly to fall asleep too. If you choose not to have the album repeat the music will stop, it will exit to the home screen eventually and automatically lock the keypad when the music stops.

On the word of playing music, this will consume your battery. As will many of the other options. One of the main downfalls in the Q, the battery, is just not as good as I'd like. Maybe I'm a little addicted to messaging, but it seems it takes a long time for it drop from full battery, but as soon as it begins to die a little, it dies a lot. I remedy this by plugging in my phone in the car when I leave work, or drive to dinner in the evening. The quick half-hour drive is enough to recover almost the entire battery. If it doesn't charge completely it will charge it to get through at least the rest of the day.

Continuing on the topic of high battery use activities, data transfer. I warn, I warn to a degree I can not stress enough, know if you have data transfer in your plan. Smart phones assume their users have data-transfer plans. They assume they will be surfing the net on them, reading e-mails, etc....and they will connect as they see fit. If you don't have data transfer, write off ever signing onto the internet, or reading e-mail. And some programs. Or you will be slapped with a very expensive data-transfer cost from Verizon, or any provider for that matter. Your once within budget phone bill will turn into a financial mess monster. Personally, I don't have data transfer, I use my phone for text messaging, which I do a great deal of, and I never have the need. Verizon didn't offer any other QWERTY pads I liked so I opted for the Motorola Q. In some respects, it's more phone than I need. But most cases it's just what the doctor ordered. Back onto the topic of data transfer, I have only one program that uses it, and minimally at that, for me, it's actually cheaper to pay per KB for data transfer than get any sort of a plan. And I am a very rare case in that. Continuing with data-transfer problems, most of you who have Motorola's will understand this, for others this will be new. The data transfer arrows on the Q do not turn off. It's a glitch in the phone that they are planning on fixing. Where as with other Motorola Products it will prompt you that such and such amounts of KB have been transferred and then return to a normal antenna display, the Motorola Q remains with the arrows. I have discovered that it is no-longer transferring, and thus you are no longer being charged, but to be safe (always better safe than sorry) putting the phone into flight mode for a moment, and then moving out of flight mode will return the icon to normal operation.

My only other complaint about the Q is that it doesn't support WiFi, but really, it is a clear decision. The electronics needed to support WiFi are larger, so if the Q was to support WiFi, it would not be nearly as small and slim. Personally, this isn't a huge loss for me, the EVDO digital network is very fast, it loads pages very quickly, and is up to the challenge. Would being able to access the internet via your home network without paying heavily in data transfers be nice? Yes, but that is in forgetting one thing, these are smart phones. Not replacements for the laptop. These are combination of many things, part computer, part phone, part Palm, part entertainment center. It can't be completely everything. It provides just what the busiest of us need to get from home to office, or office to home, or to stay in contact with the business at all times of the day.

Personally I love my Q. With ActiveSync, Outlook, mini-SD, and other programs I have, there is never a moment when it lets me down. It is always up to whatever task I throw at it, and in addition, I find that it runs faster than most other Windows based phones I know of.

I plan on keeping my Q for quite sometime. Because it does everything I need it to, and it continues to one-up my expectations of it on a daily basis. That being said, I do recommend to anyone, before buying an all-digital phone, look at the digital coverage map for your provider. All digital service is not as wide spread at tri-mode service is. If you are not clear on this, you might be rudely awakened when you find that your home does not have digital coverage and you are left with no signal in your house. That also being said, digital service, and EVDO is the new wave in cell phones, providers are scrambling to cover as much area as they can with this, so any where there may be no signal now, there will be in the future. Though I can not say how soon in the future that may be.

UPDATE: (9-20-2006) This morning I installed the new software update for the Motorola Q from Motorola's website, in addition to the new Active Sync 4.2. The installation is a little complex, they have wizards, but there are tricks and hiccups you'll need to look out for. Motorola fully explains these and how to do them all. So it's no too terrible. The new active sync is required to talk to the new programing. 4.1 will never sync completely. But, the new software fixes many of the old hang-ups about the phone, it's faster now, it maximizes the memory usuage, so you can fit more stuff on there now, and it also corrects the former glitch of not being able to e-mail your text messages. Looks like all systems go, another great stride in customer loyalty and satisfaction from Motorola.