Motorola MOTO Z10
Discontinued 7th January 2008
The Motorola MOTO Z10 represents
a straightforward upgrade of the MOTO
Z8, and it manages to overcome many of the shortcomings
of the Z8 while retaining most of the good features
of the previous model.
We will say from the outset that we're
not keen on the MOTO Z10's looks, something that we
felt was a problem with the Z8 too. It looks pretty
much indistinguishable from a whole load of other Motorola
handsets, and yet the Z10 (and the Z8 before it) are
two very accomplished 3G smartphones.
As with the Z8, this is a "kick
slide" phone which actually curves around to make
it more natural to use. The Z8 won praise for the slide
mechanism, and we expect the MOTO Z10 will follow the
same high standards of usability and construction.
The
MOTO Z10 is a 3.5G device supporting HSDPA high-speed
data and UMTS 2100 MHz. It's also a quad-band GSM phone
with GPRS and EDGE support. There's no WiFi though,
but most buyers won't care too much about that. The
display is a 2.2" 320 x 240 pixel panel in 16 million
colours.
One weakness with the old Z8 was the
camera, and this is much improved on the MOTO Z10. It
is now a 3.2 megapixel unit with autofocus, a "Superfast"
multishot function and video capture at 30 fps. However,
there's no flash and Motorola haven't specified the
Z10's video capture resolution. Videos can be uploaded
to YouTube or other services, and basic editing can
be done within the phone itself. The Z10 also supports
video calling.
This is a Symbian UIQ smartphone, as
was the Z8. Again, the Z8's software and user interface
was very well received, and the MOTO Z10 will build
on this. The Z10's media player is also pretty comprehensive,
supporting MP3, MPEG4, AAC, AMR, WMA, 3GPP, H.263 and
H.264 formats. The Z10 also supports stereo Bluetooth
for playback, or it can be used with one of a range
of new speaker systems from Motorola.
Memory is expandable up to a whopping
32GB using high-density microSD (SDHC) cards. Overall
the Z10 measures 109 x 50 x 16mm and weighs 115 grams.
Talktime on the Motorola MOTO Z10 is an impressive 5
hours on 3G, or 5 hours of video playback.
It's not a Nokia
N95 killer, but the MOTO Z10 is certainly an impressive,
highly-specified phone. If you have a Z8 already, then
it might not be worth upgrading quite yet.. the rumours
are that Motorola will have some even better phones
coming up in the near future, but if the flaws of the
Z8 put you off, then the MOTO Z10 does look to be a
much improved device.
Motorola say that the MOTO Z10 should
be available during Q1 2008, although no pricing information
was available at the time of going to press.
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Motorola
MOTO Z10 at a glance
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Available:
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Q1
2008
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Network:
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UMTS
2100 + GSM 850/900/1800/1900
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Data:
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GPRS
+ EDGE + UMTS + HSDPA
|
Screen:
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240x320
pixels, 16m colours
|
Camera:
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3.2
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Medium
slider 109 x 50 x 16mm
/ 115 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
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microSD
(SDHC)
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Infra-red:
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No
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Polyphonic:
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Yes
|
Java:
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Yes
|
Battery
life:
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5
hours talk (3G)
|
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