Motorola ZN5

The MOTOZINE ZN5 is built to shoot: it's the only phone to use KODAK Imaging Technology and KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology, which together create brighter, more vivid pictures that you'll want to show off. The phones grabbing all the press recently are notable for slick user interfaces and on-line experience. These phones are however, missing many features that were previously taken for granted in advanced smartphones. Bluetooth file transfers, Voice dialing, ability to run Java apps, and Camcorder functionality are some of these features.

Size and Weight :

The phone measures 118 x 50.5 x 12-16 mm & weighs 114 g.

Network and connectivity:

The ZN5 connects over T-Mobile's EDGE quad-band network, but also supports Wi-Fi. The browser loaded pages at a moderate speed and displayed them clearly, but with limited Java support. The ZN5 definitely could benefit from a faster 3G connection, particularly for the photo-uploading features. Connecting through Wi-Fi didn't really increase the speed. The connectivity features are GPRS (Class 12, 32 - 48 kbps), EDGE (Class 12), WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/I, Bluetooth (v2.0 with A2DP), USB (v2.0).

Camera and Video:

Motorola Kodak is going to be named ZN5 and is to feature a 5 megapixel auto focus camera with Xenon flash. There is also a LED flash, which is probably to be put to use when shooting video. The camera itself will be able to shoot in RAW mode, unprecedented in cameraphones. There is even binned RAW (producing lower resolution photos but preserving color depth), which is a rarity even among the dedicated camera devices. Flash, digital zoom, red-eye reduction, auto focus (including macro), and compatibility with Kodak's Easyshare products and services. The concept of actually taking pictures with a phone, with the intent of framing them and displaying them may previously have gotten laughs, but when your pull out your Motozine, and people see features like red-eye reduction, and the actual focusing lens, they realize that it is a serious camera. The only thing I regret is that I could not use it to take the pictures for this article, since itself is the subject. The ZN5 supports video recording, including audio, but supports only 144 x 176 and 96 x 128 resolutions (15 frames per second). Despite the capability of the CCD, the systems CPU power, and the 4 Gig storage potential, there is no provision for even Standard Definition (SD) video recoding, let alone High Definition (HD).The camera interface is nice and provides some advanced options to tweak your camera. The included Kodak Perfect Touch technology is a blessing for newbie shutterbugs. It is an image enhancement option that works wonderfully well in most cases. One touch and your images are magically transformed to better ones. It optimises the brightness, contrast, exposure, ISO, white balance automatically to give you a better picture.

Memory and Display:

The internal memory of this handset 350MB, optional removable 4GB memory card. The display on the front is a large 2.4 inches with a resolution of 240×320 pixels. It is bright and crisp and looks fantastic.

Entertainment Features:

The ZN5 has the standard Moto media player, which supports WMA, MP3, and AAC, plus a few other types of audio files. Unlike other Motorola phones, such as the Rokr E8, the ZN5 does not support protected AAC from the iTunes store. The media player is pretty bare-bones: You can browse your music by recently played, artists, albums, genres, and composers. The ZN5 offers no music-store app, but you can sync your music library on your PC to your phone via Windows Media Player 11. The handset also includes an FM radio, which triggers when you plug in the included headphones. If you prefer, you can swap those headphones for better ones, since the ZN5 has a standard 3.5mm jack. This is a feature phone, so it has a fairly standard phone interface that gives you access to your contacts, calendar, games & apps, messages, email, IM, photos, and settings. Email is supported and there are several supported clients, including AOL, Yahoo!, Gmail, Comcast, Mac, Juno, and more. I used it with Gmail during my test period and it worked pretty well, even if it was a basic application. AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger are supported IM clients on the ZN5.

There's finally a Linux phone with the feature set that rivals anything from Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, or any of the major names. It's attractive, functional, and offers high quality and performance. Not only that, but it's Linux/Java operating system offers real advantage, even for people that do not know or care what an operating system is. If you carry a Laptop, Netbook, MID or UMPC, the ZN5 is an excellent and extremely functional companion. It's true that in many ways the ZN5 looks downright primitive compared to an iPhone. If you want an iPhone, buy an iPhone, if you want a quality phone, with a full set of features that work, along with an excellent digital camera, buy a Motorola Motozine ZN5.