I got a new phone–again. I think I have a problem with acquiring new phones but that’s a subject for a different day. Anyway, the new one is a Motorola Q (more info) which so far is pretty much the perfect phone in my opinion (if you’re okay with not having wifi access). It’s a smartphone with a little qwerty keyboard. It’s really actually super thin and light, has a really bright display, and just plain old great so far on the usability side.
For those who are wondering if the Motorola Q will pair successfully with an Acura TL (via the HandsFreeLink feature), the answer is yes. It took me a few tries to get it work (for some reason our TL, or all TLs, have a tendency to fail to pair right at the last step in the process) but it worked and I’ve successfully made, received calls, caller id works, and even the battery indicator is coming through on the dashboard. This is the first of maybe 3-4 bluetooth phones I’ve used with the car that had support for the battery display on the dashboard.
I think I’m going to keep this phone for quite some time. It’s the first time I get a phone/pda that I’m not left wanting something different on it or annoyed by some random issues. Given my past experience, I think it’s going to take quite a bit to get me to move on from this one.
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Thanks for the info! hit you offa google by searching for ‘motorola q with acura tl’ was wondering exactly this.
Glad to hear it helped.
gus,
do you have the navigation system on your tl? i just got the q phone and unlike my previous phone (v710) on the q i cannot send the number from one of the displayed POIs to the phone. have you tried this? the v710 also displayed signal strength…
it is still a very cool phone-i am sending this comment from the q’s browser! thanks.
Hey Joe, yes we have the nav system as well but I haven’t tried what you mentioned. I’ll try soon and update with another comment.
And yeah, definitely a cool phone. Still very happy with it. :)
Joe, I tried it this morning and it worked fine. I found a local store, clicked the button to call their number and it instantly was calling on the phone. What kind of error are you getting or do you just not see anything ever happen on the phone when you try?
Gus,
Dialing a POI number from the nav is now working for me too. At the time I first tried it the button on the nav display was dimmed (disabled). Perhaps I was passing through an area of no reception so it couldn’t call at that time.
While still happy with the phone, I do get random occurences of calls through the HFL getting dropped or being incorrectly transferred to the handset which are annoying… What has your experience been?
Joe, good to hear it’s working for you as well now. I have had a similar experience though this is the third or fourth phone I’ve used with the TL (handsfreelink) and I’d say it’s the one that’s doing the best. What that probably means is that the issues I am running into are mostly HFL issues and not with the phone. Other phones in the past have been much worse with HFL such as Verizon’s XV6700. On that one the link would just disappear and I’d need to reset the phone to get the link back, etc. It was a pretty frustrating experience. With the Q, I’m seeing some dropped calls sometimes but for the most part it’s pretty reliable. Unfortunately, I think to get HFL patched it probably requires to buy a new car. :) Which is not something in my plans for at least a year or two. It would be nice if there was such a thing as “Acura Auto Updates.” :)
I have successfully paired my Motorola Q with my Acura TL. However, when I dial out through the Handsfree Link, the call is placed, but I do not get to communicate through the car’s speaker system/microphone. I basically have to communicate through the phone. Anyone else run into this issue?
ej
Yep, that’s been happening to me somewhat regularly. Sometimes it looks like it disconnects the call as soon as it gets through but reality is that the HFL has disconnected but the call is live on the phone. Sometimes it looks like it disconnects but somehow comes right back and does work through the car. It’s not very reliable though I still think it’s probably more HandsFreeLink than the actual phone.
I’m glad to see someone shares the same affinity for the Q as I. One question though, have you had difficulty installing programs (Avantgo) onto you Q? I keep getting “unsucceful install” for my .cab files. Please Advise.
Hi West, I’ve tried to install only a couple of apps at most so far and haven’t had any problems. Though I haven’t tried avantgo. Sorry I’m not of any more help…
Hey all, it seems the Motorola Q update seems to fix some of the issues we were all facing. See this post for details.
Gus, I noticed your comment on the XV6700 not working well will HFL. I have done some testing with this phone and have found that these drop-outs are not an issue with HFL, but rather the the XV6700 kills it’s Bluetooth links when it goes to sleep. I can not reconnect to it until I first wake up the phone by touching the screen. Have you installed the update for the XV6700 phone and tried that. I have not yet had a chance to try this update, and therefore do not know if it resolves this problem with the phone. If this is still a problem, please let me know, as I may be able to talk to someone working on BT for the HFL. I have been looking at getting this phone myself, but want to know that it works well with the HFT first.
As far as getting downloadable updates to become a feature for the HFT, strongly suggest to Honda to get this feature added in coming model years. As of now they have not yet asked us for this feature.
Hi JWW. I no longer have the XV6700 so I can’t try anything out with it any more. I can tell you I still have some drop-outs with my Motorola Q (post-update) that I’ve gotten used to working around. For example, about 50% of the time when I place a call it’ll drop off HFL but my phone will continue to be making the call. I’m now used to performing a “transfer” with the HFL a few seconds after it gets dropped to link back up with the call. Not a very smooth experience but it does work.
With regard to the problems being due to HFL or the phone, it’s really hard for an end user to know but I totally believe your reasoning above. My problem is that I’ve used maybe four different Bluetooth phone since I bought the TL with HFL and each of them had their own types of issues and were to some extent different experiences. I do still love it though. :)
I’ve downloaded music on a Motorola Q and was wondering if my 05 TL HFL can pick up the music via bluetooth. Is that possible or not – anybody ever tried it? Or, is there any way to get the Q music to connect to the TL sound system. Would appreciate any input. Thanks
Hi FW, my guess is that’s not supported but I personally haven’t tried. I remember someone talking about that on a forum somewhere when I first got the TL but can’t remember the details.
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