This week we’ve had a look at the next slide-out QWERTY smartphone to hit the 4G LTE universe in the Motorola PHOTON Q. This device represents some of the best and the worst in the smartphone market today, starting with Motorola’s lovely take on a QWERTY keyboard, complete with light-up keys that feel rather nice to tap away on. The Sprint network, on the other hand, has been a letdown – both to the operating system and the hardware it’s working with.

Hardware

This device feels nice to use, the touchscreen works rather nicely, and the display is both bright and sharp. In the hands-on and unboxing video you’re about to see below this paragraph, you’ll notice that this device has Motorola moving into the no-button universe, relegating the physical buttons to the sides and the inside of the smartphone. The slider is a bit more loose than we’d like to see on a device that costs several hundred dollars right out of the gate, also.