The Motorola Quench XT5 XT502 has a 3.2in Gorilla Glass display that also serves as a capacitive touchscreen. The display has a resolution of 320×480 pixels with 256K colour output. The Quench also supports Wi-Fi and GPS and offers 3G support (HSDPA 7.2 Mbps). The Quench has a 5Mp camera (without autofocus) complemented by an LED flash that can shoot videos at 320×480 pixels.
The Quench is powered by a 600MHz ARM11 processor and a dedicated Adreno 200 GPU. It also has 256MB of RAM and 100MB of internal storage, expandable up to 32GB using microSD cards. The Motorola runs Android 2.1 which means that you will have to install all needed apps on the phone’s internal memory and will not be able to do so on external memory.
However, Android 2.1 still means you get access to the entire gamut of Google Mobile Services including excellent integration with Gmail, Google Contacts and Google Calendar.
Call quality is very good on the Motorola Quench XT5, with voices coming across clearly and loudly. It also handles calls well and you can easily access other functions during a call without the risk of the device hanging. However, the absence of smart dialling was a negative mark against the Motorola.
Motorola Quench XT5: Design and usability
The Quench doesn’t depend on flashiness to be a good-looking device. Instead, it relies on an elegant all-black (with metal edges) plastic, rubber and glass body. The build quality also does no disservice to Motorola’s reputation of building quality handsets. The XT5 may not have an AMOLED or SLCD display that the newer high-end smartphones boast of, but its display is sharp nonetheless and also looks fine under sunlight. An added bonus is that entire screen is made of Gorilla Glass that keeps it safe from scratches.
Motorola has intelligently decided to stick with the stock Android UI and as a result, performance is great. The Motorola Quench XT5 is the fastest mid-range Android phone that I’ve used so far and the responsive touchscreen just adds to its great usability. Motorola has also given the Quench a helpful little scrolling wheel which comes to use especially when scrolling through text.
The XT5 also has all the requisite hardware buttons below the screen to bring up the context sensitive menus, jump to the homescreen, bring up the search tool or go one step back in the navigation. I do wish these keys were backlit because they are absolutely necessary to use and it’s very difficult to do so when there isn’t enough light to see what button you’re tapping.
Motorola Quench XT5: Browsing and multimedia
Our colleagues at PC World India gave the Motorola Quench XT5 a thorough testing in their labs. Here’s how it got on.
If you look past the missing Flash support, you will find that the XT5‘s default browser is very usable and performs well too. The browser responds well to touch and operates smoothly. Couple that with must-have features such as support for multiple windows and an extensive bookmarks manager and you have a very good web browsing experience.
The Motorola Quench XT5‘s 5Mp camera is about average. The outdoor shots I took were very dark and looked underexposed. However, there was no noise in both the indoor and outdoor shots. The absence of auto-focus did take its toll in close-up shots as details went for a toss. Extreme close-up shots were just a hodge-podge of blurs. The XT5 has a powerful LED flash that managed to capture subjects in excess of 10ft away from the camera in complete darkness. The Quench also captures sharp videos that were a little choppy.
