Folks,
In my continued trend to look at some of the bright aspects of lead-free assembly, I quizzed Motorola Senior Technical Staff Member Vahid Goudarzi, on the assembly process used to make the Motorola Q. He confirmed that lead-free solder was used and that due to lead-free solder's poorer wetting, the "Q's" pad spacings are "tighter" enabling a smaller, thinner, lighter unit. Having hefted the "Q' amd comparing it to the Palm Treo, it is feels much lighter and lives up to its thinnest QWERTY device in the world billing.
Lead-free solder is a fundamental requirement in the thinner, lighter, faster design thrust of portable products.
Cheers,
Dr. Ron