Short Nerd Chief

I know I said I’d never buy a BJ II just to get WM6, but I’ve been seriously reconsidering.  I had to go into the AT&T store (to swap a blue RAZR I got via Premier for a pink one), and the shiny new toys were calling.  Plus, MS just officially released the update to Office Mobile, and I’d love to have HTML mail.  So I started thinking about new devices.  I like the smartphone form factor better - the Tilt is nice, but huge.  The obvious choices are the BJ II and the Moto Q9h, which are roughly equivalent in price.  The BJ is familiar, so I was leaning that way, but I’m dissuaded after reading Omar Shahine explain why the Blackjack II Sucks.  Omar hates the crappy battery life, and that the screen comes on whenever a new email arrives, thus making battery life even worse.  Since Richmond got 3G service a couple of weeks ago, by BJ I battery life has been horrible, so I’d hate to see it get worse.  But this was the kicker:

Internet Connection Sharing is removed from the ROM. Gone, bye bye.

AT&T has always hidden ICS, which allows you to use the phone’s data access via USB without paying for tethering (Omar actually pays for tethering, so it’s even worse for him).  But the file was still there, in the Windows folder.  You just had to make your own Start menu shortcut.  Now, apparently, it’s gone completely.  I use ICS on occasion when Wi-Fi isn’t available.  It’s a very handy feature.  It’s not fast, so I’d never use it over Wi-Fi, even Wi-Fi that I have to pay for, but there are times when there’s no Wi-Fi, and such times are few enough and far enough between to make it impossible to justify adding a cellular data card to my plan.  The Q9h apparently has ICS (hidden, of course).  So if I do upgrade, AT&T made my choice for me.  Hear that Samsung?  Your benighted carrier partner just lost you a sale.  I’m sick of being nickel-and-dimed to death by AT&T just so they can push their overpriced add-on services (data tethering, GPS, etc.).

If anyone has experience with the Moto Q on AT&T, I’d love to hear it.  Reviews have been fairly positive so far.