Vodafone unleashes the MOTO Q 9h

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If you’ve been chomping at the bit to get your grubby little hands on the HSDPA-capable Motorola Q 9h, you’ll be pleased to know the wait is over. Vodafone has launched it on their network for the price of $799 outright, or free when connecting to the $79 MyBusiness Cap plan for 24 months.

Available through Vodafone, the MOTO Q 9h provides broadband data connectivity to enable high-speed data downloads, voice functionality and the ability to view the most popular applications on the go. The MOTO Q 9h includes the latest Windows Mobile 6 platform, which is set to become an industry standard for next generation mobile devices.

According to a Motorola spokesperson, Vodafone has the exclusive rights to the Q 9h for the next month or so, after which it’ll be open to the other carriers. In a coup for the Aussie battlers down under, Australia was the first country to launch this smartphone. Boo-yah!

Quick recap for the stragglers, the Q 9h boasts the following features:
– Windows Mobile 6 Standard
– 325MHz OMAP processor
– 256MB Flash ROM, 96MB RAM
– microSD card slot
– 2.4-inch 320 x 240 landscape-oriented display
– only 11.8 millimetres thick
– QWERTY keyboard
– quad-band (GPRS/EDGE) and HSDPA technology
– video capture at 15fps and playback at 30fps
– Bluetooth 2.0 (A2DP, AVRCP)
– Two-megapixel camera with digital zoom and LED photo indicator light

And, before you ask, no Wi-Fi.

I’ve had the Q 9h for a little over a week, and my initial impressions are positive, subject to a couple of caveats. It’s a similar size to the BlackBerry 8800 (perhaps a smidge wider) with a decent QWERTY keyboard (not quite the best I’ve tried – I’d say it’s in the middle of the pack) and a nice solid feel to it.

My main beef is that it doesn’t come with Office Mobile or Windows Live (which includes Messenger), and when compared to the Samsung BlackJack, the on-board ‘value-add’ software seems sadly lacking. Product Page [Vodafone]