Motorola Moto has mobile email mojo

We're just about ready to declare 2007 the year of mobile email (officially it's the International Year of the Dolphin, but we're rather tired of their smug grins and you-don't-know- what-we're-saying squeals).

All four mobile carriers are now using HSDPA as a network backbone to deliver something resembling true mobile broadband, and (primarily thanks to 3) there's even some price competition.

On the hardware side we've had the release of two consumer-minded BlackBerry devices (the Pearl and Curve) plus wanna-be ‘BlackBerry killers' from Samsung (in the form of the BlackJack), Palm (the Treo 750) and now Motorola's Moto Q 9h.

This is in fact the second-gen Q, following the late 2006 release in the US of the original slim smartphone. But we're glad Motorola's local team waited, because the new Q is a far superior beast. And it's black (or ‘liquorice', according to the side of the box). Just like black digital cameras take better photos, so do black smartphones download faster and let you call more important people. Or something.

Moto Q 9h: this serious overhaul of the original Moto Q smartphone includes HSDPA 3.6, Windows Mobile 6 and a much better keyboard than its predecessor

There are three stand-out changes in the Q 9h. First up, it runs on the 3G network (the original Q was CDMA) and uses HSDPA 3.6. For the time being, the Q 9h is restricted to Vodafone's network, which in turn limits HSDPA-enhanced coverage to the "greater Sydney and Melbourne CBD" zones plus Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth (you can check out detailed maps here).

However, we believe that once an ‘exclusivity period' of a few months passes the Q 9h will be offered on other 3G networks, although there's no word if this will include a NextG version for Telstra.

Secondly, the Q 9h has been upgraded to run Windows Mobile 6. As we've previously reported this is a substantial leap from Windows Mobile 5, especially in areas such as email searching (both through local ‘filtering' and on a remote Exchange mailbox), full HTML email and a more sensible set of hardware shortcuts.

Motorola has also tweaked the platform by adding a few of its own touches, some of which are totally unexpected -- such as installing the Opera Mobile browser with its homepage set to Google. The ‘pocket' version of Internet Explorer remains onboard for those needing IE compatibility, and the rest of the package is pretty much standard for Windows Mobile, including the solid organiser capabilities of Pocket Outlook.

That said, not everything in Windows Mobile 6 is in the Motorola Q 9h. Despite this being the Windows Mobile 6 Standard build, which by default includes the full Office Mobile suite and Windows Live Messenger chat client, both of those items are missing from the Moto.

Windows Mobile product manager Chris Sorenson told us that these were in fact optional components which vendors could choose to keep or cull, and in the Vodafone-tailored Q 9h the carrier chose the later.

Personally we can live without the ability to create diminutive Word documents, exceedingly small Excel spreadsheets and pint-sized PowerPoint presentation - Motorola bundles the Picsel viewer for viewing these if they arrive as email attachments, along with PDF files. Some other mobile email mavens may work differently and expect to be able to edit Office documents, so for now the Moto Q 9h will leave them hanging.

What does nark us is the absence of Windows Live (MSN) Messenger. We'd rate mobile IM as being just as cool and useful as mobile email, and with even broader appeal to the mainstream market. Sorenson hinted broadly that a simple solution might not be too far away, which points to Microsoft offering the Windows Live Messenger client as a separate download. We'd love to see that, because it's a brilliant mobile execution of the desktop client - compact, clean, fast and surprisingly fully-featured, down to using the phone's ‘vibrate' ringer to shake the handset if someone sends you a ‘nudge' during an IM chat.

If you're questioning the practically of IM sessions with a smartphone's tiny keyboard, you haven't used the Moto Q 9h. Its keyboard is the third most welcome and worth-waiting-for change from the first Q. Daddy Q's keyboard used the same narrow angular TicTac-styled keys as the Samsung i320n and BlackJack. Far from the best smartphone keyboard we've ever used. The Q 9h, on the other hand, is one of the best. The keys are taller and fatter, with a slightly soft rubber coating to cushion the fingertips, and a short yet positive travel and an equally snappy bounce-back.

Moto Q keyboard: the TicTac-shaped keys of the original Q were not our favourite

Moto Q9 keyboard: while it looks cramped, this is easily one of the best QWERTY smartphone keyboards we've ever used – fast, comfortable, accurate and a delight to tap or type on

Despite their being no obvious separation between the keys, Motorola's engineers have somehow managed to avoid the mistakes and mis-strokes you'd usually associate with a cluttered smartphone keyboard. Your mileage may vary if you've got big paws, but for our money the redesigned Moto Q keyboard is a dream.

We also liked little touches such as the series of pre-set application shortcut keys along the bottom row, the smart little up/down jog controller on the right side, the ambient light sensor and the blue backlight under the keyboard, which is consistent across the keys rather than suffer from distracting bright spots and dull areas.

What else do you need to know? The price is $799 outright through Vodafone, or free on a 24-month contract under their $79/month MyBusiness capped plan. The digital camera is the expected 2 megapixels with 15fps video capture, the processor is a nippy 325MHz backed by 256MB of onboard flash memory (128MB available to the user) plus a microSD slot accessible from the side panel (and a 512MB card thrown in to get you started).

We were also surprised to see the box includes a convenient desktop cradle - remember when every PDA came with one of these? - which can charge the Q as well as sync it when connected to your PC via the bundled USB cable. This lets you keep the supplied AC charger back at the office, at home or in your travel kit.

Oh, and the Q 9h is slim, very slim - just under 1.2cm, with the rest of the device a pocket-friendly 11.8cm tall and 6.7cm across.

es, the array of mobile email smartphones can be confusing at times, but the Moto Q 9h is proof that Choice is Good. As long as you don't mind Windows Mobile on your phone.