Verizon Motorola Q First Photos: The Moto Q Before Its 2006 Release

Nearly seven months before Verizon Wireless put the Motorola Q on store shelves, a set of leaked photos already showed the world what the phone looked like — thin, silver, QWERTY-keyboarded, and running early Windows Mobile software on Verizon's network. Mobility Today republished those photos in a short post on November 18, 2005, crediting a poster on BlackBerry Forums who claimed to already be holding the device. This article restores what that original page said, verified against archived snapshots pulled from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, and keeps its focus squarely on that pre-release leak rather than assuming the finished retail Motorola Q that shipped the following May.

What Were the Verizon Motorola Q First Photos?

In November 2005, Mobility Today published a short news post titled "Motorola Q Verizon Style," built around four photographs of a Verizon-branded Motorola Q smartphone that had surfaced on a BlackBerry enthusiast forum. The post wasn't Mobility Today's own hands-on — it was a republication, crediting BlackBerry Forums as the source and quoting the original poster's own description of the device. That framing matters: everything reported that day came secondhand, from someone claiming early access, not from an independent test by Mobility Today's own staff.

When Did the Photos Appear?

The post carries a byline date of Friday, November 18, 2005, credited to Mobility Today founder David Ciccone. The earliest archived snapshot of the page, captured by the Wayback Machine on November 24, 2005, already shows the full post with four reader comments attached, meaning it had been live and drawing discussion for close to a week by the time it was first crawled. That puts the leak roughly four months after Motorola's official Q announcement and about six months before Verizon actually began selling the phone.

Where the Photos Actually Came From

Mobility Today didn't claim to have taken these photos itself. The post credits BlackBerry Forums directly, linking to a specific thread, and quotes a forum member who said he already had a Verizon Motorola Q before everyone else. The four images themselves carry a watermark reading "Boy Genius" — a handle used at the time by an early device leaker who would go on to found Boy Genius Report (BGR) roughly a year later, in October 2006. Whether that specific individual was the original forum poster or simply the watermark's source isn't spelled out on Mobility Today's page, so this article isn't asserting more than what the surviving text and image files actually show.

Was It a Prototype? What the Leaker Said About the Hardware

This is the most important detail for anyone treating these photos as a preview of the finished retail Q: the person who posted them said outright that it wasn't finished hardware. In his own words, quoted directly in Mobility Today's post, "I do know that this is not the final hardware," adding that he expected the keyboard to be reworked before release. He also described the keys as considerably worse than those on a BlackBerry 8700 he'd been using, and worse than a Palm Treo 600's keyboard — a direct, contemporaneous claim of a hardware gap between this unit and whatever Motorola eventually shipped. This article treats the keyboard feel and build quality shown here as unverified against the retail Q, not as confirmed final specs.

What the Four Photos Actually Showed

The post included four images, hosted directly on Mobility Today's own servers rather than just linked out. One shows the device's front screen displaying a Verizon Wireless splash graphic, with a printed Verizon logo on the phone's lower chin. A second shows the phone held in a hand for scale, its Today screen showing a date of November 14, 2005, zero unread emails and text messages, and a Profile set to Normal. A third places the Q beside a Cingular-branded BlackBerry for a size comparison, and a fourth is a close-up of that same Today screen, showing Start and Contacts soft-key labels and a small EV icon consistent with an EV-DO data indicator.

The Rumored $2,500 Price — and Why We're Skeptical

Mobility Today's own post floated a specific number — a price rumored to be in excess of $2,500 — though that figure came from the site's own framing rather than from anything the forum poster said about cost; his comments never actually mention a price at all. The post's own language treated the number skeptically, questioning the source's familiarity with Windows Mobile generally. Given that Verizon's actual retail Q launched at $299.99 with a new two-year contract the following spring, this $2,500 figure reads far more like an unverified rumor, a misunderstanding, or possibly a reference to an early gray-market resale price for a pre-release unit than anything resembling the phone's eventual retail cost. This article isn't treating it as a real price point.

Rumored Release Window vs. What Actually Happened

The forum poster who supplied the photos also offered a release estimate, telling Mobility Today's readers he expected the phone out in January or February 2006 on Verizon. That turned out to be off by several months. Verizon Wireless didn't actually launch the Motorola Q until May 31, 2006, roughly four months later than the leaker's own guess and more than six months after these photos first appeared. It's a useful reminder that even a source holding actual hardware wasn't necessarily plugged into Motorola or Verizon's real internal timeline — early access to a device doesn't automatically mean early access to accurate release-date information.

Reader Reaction on the Original Thread

Four reader comments were attached to the post by its earliest archived snapshot, and the same four were still the only ones present in a snapshot taken more than five months later, in April 2006 — suggesting discussion cooled quickly. The comments focused less on the leak's authenticity and more on what kind of device the Q actually was: readers debated whether the missing touchscreen was a dealbreaker, with one clarifying that the Q was a Windows Mobile Smartphone rather than a Pocket PC, meant to be navigated without a stylus. Another compared it to the not-yet-released Palm Treo 700w, while a third questioned why anyone would pay the rumored price for a device they didn't seem to understand.

Motorola Q Announcement Context

Motorola had officially introduced the Q about four months earlier, on July 26, 2005, positioning it as a direct answer to BlackBerry's dominance of the keyboard-smartphone category. That announcement wasn't paired with a widely publicized carrier partner or launch date, which is part of why leaked photos like these carried real news value — they were among the first concrete looks at a customer-ready, carrier-branded version of the phone, months before Motorola or Verizon released official images or specs of their own.

Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition

The retail Motorola Q that eventually launched on Verizon ran Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition, the non-touchscreen branch of Windows Mobile built for devices controlled entirely by physical keys rather than a stylus — a detail reader comments on the original post specifically flagged when clearing up confusion about the missing touchscreen. The Today screen visible in the leaked photos is consistent with this software: a Start soft-key, a Contacts soft-key, and a battery and signal status bar, all standard Windows Mobile Smartphone Edition elements. Whether the exact build shown was a final or pre-release version of the software isn't something this article can confirm from a screen photo alone.

Landscape Display, QWERTY Keyboard, and Thumbwheel

Physically, the leaked unit already showed the design Motorola would carry through to retail: a landscape 320x240 display sitting above a full QWERTY keyboard, with a five-way directional pad and a rounded navigation cluster positioned between the screen and the keys. That layout is visible clearly across all four photos. The one open question, again, is the keyboard's feel and final key shapes — the leaker's own comment about the keys likely being redone means this article can't say with confidence that the exact key travel or texture shown here matched what retail buyers got the following spring.

EV-DO, Bluetooth, Camera, and Storage

The leaker specifically praised the device's multimedia support and its web browsing speed over EV-DO, Verizon's fast mobile data network at the time, calling it a genuine strength even though he wasn't otherwise impressed with the unit. The close-up photo's status bar shows an EV icon consistent with an active EV-DO connection. Retail Motorola Q units also shipped with Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel rear camera, and a miniSD card slot, though none of those components are independently confirmed from the leaked photos — they're carried over here from verified retail specs, not from anything visible in this specific set of images.

Thin, RAZR-Inspired Styling

One detail the leaker did comment on directly, and one the photos back up visually, was just how thin the device felt. He specifically noted being struck by how much thinner the Q was compared to the BlackBerry he set it beside, and the side-by-side photo shows a noticeably slimmer profile on the Motorola device. That thinness became one of the retail Q's signature traits, widely described at launch as borrowing design language from Motorola's RAZR line — a comparison the leaked photos anticipate, even without using that specific phrase.

The Verizon Motorola Q's Actual May 2006 Launch

When Verizon Wireless finally did launch the Motorola Q, on May 31, 2006, it arrived as a carrier exclusive priced at $299.99 with a new two-year contract, commonly reported as effectively $199.99 after a $100 rebate. That's about four months later than the leaker's own January–February guess, and more than six months after these first photos gave the public an early look. A companion Mobility Today retrospective covering the site's own Motorola Q giveaway goes into more detail on that retail launch and the device's specs as they actually shipped.

Motorola Q vs BlackBerry and Palm Treo

The comparisons readers reached for in November 2005 were the same ones that would follow the Q through its entire retail life. The leaker measured it directly against a BlackBerry 8700, and reader comments brought up both BlackBerry's push-email strength and the not-yet-released Palm Treo 700w. The Q's pitch was always this middle position: no touchscreen, a thinner one-piece body than a Treo, and a QWERTY-first design aimed at the same keyboard-and-email crowd BlackBerry had already built a following around, running Windows Mobile's broader software ecosystem instead of BlackBerry's own platform.

What We Could and Couldn't Verify

Confirmed directly from the archived page and its images: the post ran November 18, 2005, credited to David Ciccone; it republished four photos sourced from BlackBerry Forums and watermarked "Boy Genius"; the poster said outright that the hardware wasn't final and expected the keyboard to change; he estimated a January–February 2006 launch; a rumored price above $2,500 was reported skeptically; and the photos show Verizon Wireless branding, a side-by-side BlackBerry comparison, and a Today screen dated November 14, 2005.

Not confirmed: the forum poster's identity or his exact relationship to the "Boy Genius" watermark; how he obtained the unit; the exact software build number; whether the keyboard shown was actually changed before retail, beyond the leaker's own expectation that it would be; and any official Motorola or Verizon comment on the leak. Where this article flags something as unverified, that reflects a genuine gap in the surviving record, not a guess.

Why We're Preserving This Page

Short leak posts like this one rarely survive online in any usable form — once a device actually ships, nobody has much reason to keep hosting blurry pre-release photos and a skeptical price rumor. This one survived because the Wayback Machine crawled it repeatedly between late 2005 and 2008, preserving both the original post and its unchanged comment thread years after anyone was still discussing it. Restoring it here keeps a small, genuine piece of Mobility Today's coverage of the Motorola Q on the record — clearly framed as a historical snapshot of a pre-release leak, not a description of the finished phone.

FAQ

What were the Verizon Motorola Q first photos?

Four leaked images of a Verizon-branded Motorola Q, republished by Mobility Today on November 18, 2005, and credited to a poster on BlackBerry Forums who said he already had the device months before its retail launch.

When did the photos appear?

The post is dated November 18, 2005, with the earliest archived snapshot captured November 24, 2005 — about four months after Motorola's July 26, 2005 announcement of the Q and roughly six months before Verizon's retail launch.

Was it a prototype?

The person who posted the photos said directly that it wasn't final hardware and specifically expected the keyboard to be reworked before release, making this a pre-release unit rather than a retail-ready device.

Where did the photos come from?

Mobility Today credited BlackBerry Forums as the source and republished images watermarked "Boy Genius," a name later associated with the founder of Boy Genius Report (BGR).

Did the leaked unit run Windows Mobile?

Yes. The Today screen visible in the photos is consistent with Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition, the non-touchscreen version of Windows Mobile the retail Q also shipped with.

Did the photos show EV-DO?

An EV status-bar icon consistent with an EV-DO data connection is visible in one close-up photo, and the leaker separately praised the device's EV-DO web browsing speed in his own comments.

What about the camera?

The leaked photos don't show or confirm camera details. The retail Motorola Q's 1.3-megapixel camera is carried over here from verified retail specs, not from anything visible in this specific leak.

What price was rumored?

A price above $2,500 was mentioned in Mobility Today's post, but treated skeptically even at the time and never actually confirmed by the forum poster's own comments.

When did the Motorola Q actually release?

Verizon Wireless launched the retail Motorola Q on May 31, 2006, about four months later than the leaker's own January–February 2006 estimate.

Mobility Today's November 2005 look at the Verizon Motorola Q is a small but genuine artifact of the phone's pre-release life — four photos and a skeptical price rumor, sourced from a BlackBerry Forums poster who said plainly that what he was holding wasn't finished hardware. The keyboard he expected to change, the launch window he guessed at, and the price he heard secondhand all turned out differently than what Verizon actually shipped in May 2006, a reminder that early leaks — even ones with real photos attached — don't always get the details right.