Motorola ZINE ZN5 (MOTOZINE)
Discontinued 23rd June 2008
The Motorola ZINE ZN5 (also called the MOTOZINE)
is an advanced camera phone featuring some very clever
Kodak technology, combining very clear high-resolution
images with some intelligent integration with web applications.
The five megapixel camera has autofocus and a Xenon
flash, plus low-light capabilities, panoramic stitching,
multi-shot picture taking and a number of other
proprietary Kodak imaging enhancements to ensure that
the ZN5 delivers high quality results when it comes
to stills photos. The results are impressive (as you
can see from the Kodak
gallery), and one clever thing is that the
Motorola ZINE ZN5 can upload pictures directly to the
Kodak gallery through the handset's data connection.
The ZN5 also supports Bluetooth printing to compatible
devices.
So, the camera technology looks impressive. The problem
with the ZN5 is that the rest of the phone is extremely
disappointing.
The
biggest problem of all is that this is not a 3G phone,
and is stuck with GPRS and EDGE data transfer while
on a cellular network. That's just stupidly slow for
a multimedia phone, although it does have WiFi. In a
market segment where 3.5G is almost standard on new
releases, the limited speed of the MOTOZINE ZN5 is likely
to be a real turn-off. OK, so the ZN5 will initially
be launched in China which doesn't have much in the
way of UMTS coverage, but even so it is no excuse for
a phone that will eventually be sold worldwide.
The lack of 3G is not the only serious problem. The
high-quality camera would indicate that this should
be a very high-end phone, competing against the Nokia
N95 8GB and N96,
but the ZN5 doesn't have GPS and the 2.4" display
is significantly smaller than the Nokia's 2.8"
panel.
There
are some nice features though - the MOTOZINE ZN5 has
a similar ModeShift keypad to the ROKR
E8, comes with a TV-out port, FM radio, stereo Bluetooth
and has 350MB of internal memory and a microSD slot.
The interface appears to be broadly similar to most
new top-end Motorola phones, in other words it is much,
much better than handsets of old. It's also a pretty
good looking device, and the long battery life will
be useful for many. But if you ignore the camera,
the technical features of the Motorola ZN5 are hardly
impressive.
What we appear to have then is an excellent digital
camera welded to a mediocre mobile phone, a combination
that we don't think serves anybody very well.
If you really care about photographs, then you can
buy a Kodak
C613 camera for just £60 / $120 / €70
which is much better than the ZN5 when it comes to being
a camera. Although the ZN5's camera is very good,
the overall ZN5 package seems to be quite poor.
We would dearly have liked to have told you that
the Motorola ZINE ZN5 was the device that had once again
made Motorola a class leader, but we can't. If Motorola
could put this quality of camera in something like the
MOTOMING
platform and then breathe some of the magic they had
when the original RAZR
came out, then Motorola would have a winner, as it is..
we think that the Motorola ZN5 won't be the success
that Motorola really need.
Motorola say that the MOTOZINE ZN5 will be available
in China from July, with the rest of the world following
before the end of the year.
|
Motorola
ZINE ZN5 (MOTOZINE) at a
glance
|
Available:
|
Q3-Q4
2008
|
Network:
|
GSM 850
/ 900 / 1800 / 1900
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + WiFi
|
Screen:
|
240 x 320 pixels
|
Camera:
|
5 megapixels
|
Size:
|
Tall monoblock 51
x 120 x 16mm / 114 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
microSD
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
GPS:
|
No
|
Battery
life:
|
5.8
- 9.5 hours talk / 13 -
24 days standby
|
|
|