Motorola QA30 Hint for Cricket review

We haven't been hearing much from Motorola lately in terms of phones here at MobileBurn HQ, thanks largely to the company's financial and legal issues. But that somehow made our little rendezvous with the Motorola QA30 Hint for Cricket Wireless all the sweeter.

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In spite of the fact that this little 3G QWERTY messaging phone hasn't been picked up by either of the big national CDMA carriers, the QA30 Hint turns out to be a really fun, capable little delight. It weighs a respectable 123g (4.3oz), but it is the phone's super-compact 86.5mm x 62mm x 16mm (3.4in x 2.4in x .6in) dimensions, when closed, that really grab your attention.

Once you open it up, however, the nicely laid out 4 row QWERTY keyboard takes the center stage. The keys are a bit stiff, perhaps, but it is very usable. The 2.5-inch QVGA resolution display is more than adequate for the job at hand, but Motorola's user interface does fall a bit short at times, lacking the polish that users expect in today's market. But polish or no, the phone is plenty usable and fun.

In terms of capabilities, the QA30 Hint features 3G data, a 2 megapixel camera, and a music player application that has its own dedicated key. A 3.5mm headphone port up top is also quite useful since the Hint can support microSDHC(INFO) cards as large as 8GB in size (not included).

Call audio on the Hint was quite good in general, though the speakerphone put in just an average performance. We didn't really get a chance to test out the battery life on the device, but Motorola claims it should be good for up to 4 hours of talk time. 3G data came through well on the phone, since its signal reception appeared to be pretty good.

So if you are a pre-paid Cricket subscriber that is looking for a nice messaging and music phone, and you are willing to drop the requisite coin ($249.99), then Moto's QA30 Hint is a worthy contender. Watch the video below to get a feel for how the phone works. You'll find a few more photos on the following page, as well.