Motorola Hint QA30

"A really fun, capable little delight," Michael Oryl says of the Motorola Hint QA30, a square-shaped phone offered by Alltel, U.S. Cellular, MetroPCS and Cricket. Sascha Segan of PCMag.com is representative of reviewers' opinions when he calls the phone "odd-looking, but not hideous." The Hint weighs 4.2 ounces, and has a slide-out, four-line QWERTY keyboard with small, pointy keys and a 2.5-inch LCD screen that testers like. Users and reviewers are split on the merits of the Hint's keyboard. Some find the Hint excellent for texting, especially since it supports threaded messaging where you can see entire conversations at once. PCMag's Sascha Segan calls it the best texting phone for MetroPCS, but others complain that the keyboard is cramped and the keys are too stiff.

Reviewers say call quality and battery life vary. Some critics report "staticky" calls and battery life falling well below Motorola's rated 4.5 hours, while others have no complaints about either. Web browsing is disappointing since it's limited to mobile-formatted sites. The Hint's 2-megapixel camera is what reviewers have come to expect from a low-resolution camera phone. However, audio and video playback are cited as good by testers and owners alike, and the Hint has a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, so no adapter is required for listening to music. CNET calls the music player "minimalist," but notes that "it offers playlists, shuffle and repeat modes, and a basic equalizer." The phone also has Bluetooth capability, though there are reports of some headsets not being recognized.

The Motorola Hint QA30 is under-represented by professional review sites. Only CNET and PCMag.com give the Hint a full review, and neither can recommend the phone wholeheartedly. MobileBurn.com also has some constructive observations in its review, but doesn't go into as much detail as other reviews on the site. We also found numerous positive user reviews of the Hint QA30 on CellularSouth.com.