Buy it for the keyboard, but not much else
The good: The Samsung Gravity Q has a simple design that's easy to use and a spacious, comfortable keyboard.
The bad: The Gravity Q has a small, dark display and supports only 3G data. Call quality was variable, with a speakerphone that's almost unusable.
The bottom line: If you're not opting for a smartphone and you can look past its dated design, the Samsung Gravity Q is your best choice for a T-Mobile keyboard phone.
The Samsung Gravity Q is one answer for anyone wondering where can they find a cell phone with a real keyboard. As a simple feature phone, it isn't the best answer, but it bravely carries on the (dying) tradition of slider handsets with physical keys.
In fact, the keyboard is the best thing about the Gravity Q and the only reason to buy it. That's because if you took the keyboard away, you'd have only the most basic features, a dim display, and variable call quality, with 3G data. That doesn't make it much different from most of the previous six Gravity devices (except for the Android-powered Gravity Smart), but it does stand alone in a smartphone-obsessed world.
In that respect, I have to wonder just what kind of T-Mobile customer the Gravity Q will attract. At $154 (no down payment, 24 payments of $6.42), at the time of this review it's $50 more than the Gravity Smart, as listed on T-Mobile's Web site. Yes, the Gravity Smart is older, but it will deliver more features for your money. Yet, if you just don't want to deal with the complexity of a smartphone or the extra data charges that come with it, the Gravity Q is the best choice for T-Mobile keyboard lovers and texting pros. It also could work as a beginner phone for tweens or anyone who just needs a handset for quick communication.
The Gravity Q: a design from another time.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Design and display
Hello? Oh, 2004, is that you calling?
Hello? Oh, 2004, is that you calling?
Indeed, the Gravity Q is a design from another era, an era when sliding-keyboard phones were all the rage. Now, I promise that I'm not being snide when I say that. Even a decade later, it's a design that continues to be versatile, functional, and extremely easy to use. It's also a nice change since almost every other phone on the market now is a plastic rectangle.
At 4.43 inches long by 2.35 inches wide by 0.56 inch deep, the Gravity Q is small, short, and fat with rounded ends and curved sides. In my hands, which are accustomed to using a big-screen smartphone, it felt instantly foreign, but more familiar the longer I held it. Given that I used to have a phone like the Gravity Q ages ago, it almost felt like an friend coming to visit. It's heavier than it looks at 4.19 ounces and though it's made of plastic, I'd feel more comfortable watching it take a tumble than I would a Galaxy S4 or an iPhone 5.
The paltry QVGA display is just 3 inches from corner to corner. That's positively miniature by today's standards, but, honestly, there's no need for more space given the low-end features. I'm more concerned about the dim resolution (262,000 colors; 240x320 pixels). Yes, you also could argue here that the resolution befits the Gravity's Q's meager features, but I'd prefer even a small step up. After all, even on a phone like this, you're going to spend a lot of time staring at the display while you text.
On the other hand, the display is a touch screen, so there's at least one mark of a smartphone. It's not terribly responsive, but I never had to use the touch interface all that much. You can cycle between five home screens and you can populate them with several widgets -- nice. At the bottom of the display are three touch controls for the (small) virtual dial pad, your contacts list, and the main menu. There's no accelerometer, except when you're in camera mode, but the display will rotate automatically when you open the keyboard (more on that in a moment).
Controls and keyboard
Below the display are the Talk and End keys (both are touch controls) and a physical Back/Clear button. Up top is the 3.5mm headset jack, on the left spine are a camera shutter and the power control, and the right spine has a long volume rocker and a microSD slot that can hold cards of up to 32GB. I can't imagine ever needing that much space on the Gravity Q, but it's a welcome touch just the same. The camera lens is near the top of the back of the phone, just where I wanted to put my finger.
Below the display are the Talk and End keys (both are touch controls) and a physical Back/Clear button. Up top is the 3.5mm headset jack, on the left spine are a camera shutter and the power control, and the right spine has a long volume rocker and a microSD slot that can hold cards of up to 32GB. I can't imagine ever needing that much space on the Gravity Q, but it's a welcome touch just the same. The camera lens is near the top of the back of the phone, just where I wanted to put my finger.
The Gravity Q has three touch controls at the bottom of the 3-inch display. Below them are two more touch controls and a physical Back button.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
To get to the keyboard, flip the Gravity Q to the left 90 degrees and slide up the front face. The slider mechanism takes more than a gentle nudge, so it's not too loose, and it springs into place without feeling too stiff. For such a small phone, the physical keyboard is quite spacious, with big keys that aren't crowded together. It also passes another test of mine by not crowding the top row of keys up against the slider. With four rows of keys, most buttons serve double duty with a letter and a number or symbol. Four arrow controls, an OK button, and a dedicated ".com" / "www." key sit off to the right, and I like the long spacebar that's right in the middle of the bottom row. Helpful shortcuts take you to your mailbox and a list of emoticons. The buttons are only slightly raised so you can't type by feel, but I still found the keyboard to be very easy to use. In fact, it's an improvement over the keyboard on the Gravity Q's most immediate predecessor, the Gravity TXT.
The Gravity Q's keyboard is spacious and easy to use.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
Features
As I mentioned, the Gravity Q delivers little fun beyond the most essential cell phone features. For starters, the phone book holds 2,000 contacts with multiple fields per entry. Organizer features, which include a calculator, a calendar, an alarm clock, and a notepad, hold no surprises. You also get Bluetooth, voice dialing and commands, and a voice memo recorder, but no Wi-Fi. The Gravity Q supports a limited range of apps and comes stocked with three demo games. You can buy more titles if you like, but app-happy shoppers would be better off with a full-fledged smartphone.
As I mentioned, the Gravity Q delivers little fun beyond the most essential cell phone features. For starters, the phone book holds 2,000 contacts with multiple fields per entry. Organizer features, which include a calculator, a calendar, an alarm clock, and a notepad, hold no surprises. You also get Bluetooth, voice dialing and commands, and a voice memo recorder, but no Wi-Fi. The Gravity Q supports a limited range of apps and comes stocked with three demo games. You can buy more titles if you like, but app-happy shoppers would be better off with a full-fledged smartphone.
As you'd expect from a keyboard device, the Q supports many kinds of written communication, including text messages, messages accompanying photos and videos, and some e-mail services. Keep in mind, though, that while domestic text and photo messages are free with any T-Mobile service plan, e-mail uses data. Yes, you do get 500MB of data with the carrier's cheapest plan, but you'll have to factor in e-mail when monitoring your data use. Fortunately, the Gravity Q's tiny display and slow 3G connection won't put you in a data-crazed mood in the first place. The same goes for the Web browser. It's slow and rather tedious to use, but still serviceable when you really need it.
Camera and music
The Gravity Q's camera hardly qualifies as a sharp shooter, but with a 2-megapixel resolution you shouldn't be expecting much in the first place. You won't find a flash or any useful way to take self-portraits, but the camera comes with a few editing features like several shot modes (like panoramic and continuous), exposure metering, a self-timer, and a night mode.
The Gravity Q's camera hardly qualifies as a sharp shooter, but with a 2-megapixel resolution you shouldn't be expecting much in the first place. You won't find a flash or any useful way to take self-portraits, but the camera comes with a few editing features like several shot modes (like panoramic and continuous), exposure metering, a self-timer, and a night mode.
There was a lot of image noise in our standard studio shot.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET)
The handset comes with 128MB of RAM, though the preset ringtones and photos take up a chunk of the space from the start (sadly, you can't delete them). As I mentioned, you can buy a microSD card for more space and you can organize all of your content with the handy file manager. Photo quality wasn't stellar, as you would imagine, but not terrible for a 2-megapixel camera. That means that it's fine if you have no other camera around, but don't rely on it to capture any scene that's important. Of course, I doubt you're buying the Gravity Q for its camera anyway.
In this action shot, the camera captured the white Ping-Pong ball, even if it is blurry.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET)
The camera also records video, but it bumps down the resolution to 320x244 pixels. Editing options are about the same as the still camera, minus the various shooting modes. Videos meant for multimedia messages are capped at 1 minute, 20 seconds. If you're not filming for a message, your video length will be limited by the available memory.
This outdoor shot is better, though it's rather dark.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET)
The music player is an unexpected bonus, but don't get your hopes up for anything fancy. Sure, you can play music, but that's all you can do besides building a playlist. Quality through the external speaker is pretty painful, though headphones help a lot. You don't get any in the box with the phone, but you can use any set with a 3.5mm jack. A memory card is the easiest way to load music on the phone as the only clips you can download via the Gravity Q's Web browser are ringtones.
Colors are washed out in this shot and there's some noise on the building on the right, but it's not terrible.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET)
Call quality and data speeds
I tested the quad-band GSM Gravity Q in San Francisco using T-Mobile service. Call quality was dependable most of the time. When calling a landline from a quiet place with good reception, I didn't come across any significant issues. Voices sounded a tad shriller than they should, but that's being really picky. I had more trouble hearing if I called from a noisy place (like out on a city street) as the handset's median volume level is rather soft. Cranking up the volume helped, but the audio became more distorted the louder I went.
I tested the quad-band GSM Gravity Q in San Francisco using T-Mobile service. Call quality was dependable most of the time. When calling a landline from a quiet place with good reception, I didn't come across any significant issues. Voices sounded a tad shriller than they should, but that's being really picky. I had more trouble hearing if I called from a noisy place (like out on a city street) as the handset's median volume level is rather soft. Cranking up the volume helped, but the audio became more distorted the louder I went.
I had more-mixed results when calling another cell phone. I could hear most of the time, but I had to ask a friend to repeat herself occasionally when we were both talking outside. On her end, she said she could hear me well, except when a heavy truck was going by behind me. On the other hand, I didn't have any problems using an automated calling system. Unfortunately, the speakerphone performed poorly. The sound on my end became really jumbled the louder I went -- to the point of being indecipherable. It was better if I tuned the volume way down, but then it was difficult to hear unless I was alone in a silent room. What's more, I had to repeat myself a few times when talking. The Gravity Q is compatible with T3 and M3 hearing aids. According toFCC radiation tests, it has a digital SAR of 1.24 watts per kilogram.
Samsung Gravity Q call quality sample Listen now:
As I mentioned, the Gravity Q is a 3G device with data speeds that top out at UMTS. In a quickly expanding 4G universe, it will be far behind the pack in data performance. But as a 3G device, its speeds are respectable. For example, the mobile CNET site loaded in about 1 minute and the mobile New York Times site did better at 40 seconds. The Gravity Q will default to a mobile page, which is best. Given the small display and variable touch interface, there's no need to even bother loading the full version of site.
The Gravity Q's battery is rated for 5 hours of talk time and 20 days of standby time. Other promised times are as follows: 28 hours of music, 9 hours of video, and 6.5 hours of Internet use. Internal performance is fluid and speedy when switching between applications (you can't expect too much from a 416MHz processor). Booting the phone from a cold start takes 26 seconds and it takes just 2 seconds to open the camera.
Conclusion
If you want a keyboard phone from T-Mobile, you don't have a ton of choices. On the smartphone side, you have the BlackBerry Q10 and T-Mobile MyTouch Q. Both deliver more oomph than the Gravity Q, but each has its downside. The Q10, for instance, has a small display and a disappointing camera, and even the new BlackBerry 10 OS won't be for everybody. The MyTouch Q runs Android and it has LTE, but it's one of our least favorite Android handsets of T-Mobile's bunch. And as I said, though the Gravity Smart also has Android and is cheaper, it's more than 2 years old.
If you want a keyboard phone from T-Mobile, you don't have a ton of choices. On the smartphone side, you have the BlackBerry Q10 and T-Mobile MyTouch Q. Both deliver more oomph than the Gravity Q, but each has its downside. The Q10, for instance, has a small display and a disappointing camera, and even the new BlackBerry 10 OS won't be for everybody. The MyTouch Q runs Android and it has LTE, but it's one of our least favorite Android handsets of T-Mobile's bunch. And as I said, though the Gravity Smart also has Android and is cheaper, it's more than 2 years old.
That leaves the Gravity Q and the Gravity TXT. Both deliver simplicity and basic reliability for less than you'd pay for a smartphone. But if you've narrowed your selection down to these two siblings, definitely choose the Gravity Q. It's newer and its better keyboard gives it the edge.
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