Motorola Photon Q
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| Manufacturer | Motorola |
|---|---|
| First released | August 2012 |
| Predecessor | Motorola Photon |
| Related | Motorola Atrix 4G Motorola Photon Motorola Droid 4 |
| Form factor | Slate, slider |
| Operating system | Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean upgradable to Android 7.1 Nougat via LineageOS 14.1 |
| Storage | 8 GB on board and MicroSD slot |
The Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE (XT897) is a smartphone manufactured by Motorola which runs on Sprint's 4G LTE network. The "Photon Q" has a 4.3-inch touchscreen and a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor. It runs the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system and includes a built-in, sliding keyboard similar to the one on the Motorola Droid 4.
On April 25, 2013, the Photon Q was upgraded to the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean version of Android. The device has reached its end-of-life, and will remain with 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.
Enthusiasts and free developers have shown that it is possible to desolder the on-board SIM IC and connect a SIM socket/card to use this phone in other networks or countries. Because this is one of the most modern QWERTY-phones, there is a huge demand for this model in the Android developer community.
The Photon Q launched with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, and was considered a flagship/halo device for the operating system, thanks to its 1.5 GHZ Snapdragon S4 Plus. The device was subsequently upgraded to Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. However, it was excluded from future Android upgrades. To-date, Motorola has not provided any public-facing explanation for why Android 4.4, KitKat was not released for the device - or any future Android releases. The Photon Q did not receive Motorola's benchmarked two year target for software upgrades, which was later dropped, again without any public explanation.
The Snapdragon S4 family of processors were jointly supported by Qualcomm and Google through the Android 6.0, Marshmallow release cycles.
The Photon Q shares most of its platform underpinnings with the Motorola Droid RAZR, albeit shipping with Sprint adaptations. As such, it is supported in LineageOS 14.1 (tracking Android 7.1 Nougat). TWRP has presently has dropped support for the device, terminating at version 3.0.2.
The processor of the Moto Photon Q is a 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Plus dual core CPU. It includes 1GB of RAM, and notable for its time, a micro-HDMI port. The device is compatible with Motorola Lapdock devices. While Motorola's Linux desktop shell was removed, the device works fully with Lapdock 100 and Lapdock 500. Additionally, it functions as an admirable Android laptop solution when paired with LineageOS or another modern community ROM with multi-window support.
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