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Phone As well as being a standalone camera replacement, the MOTOZINE ZN5 is a strong mobile phone. It's a quad band GSM world phone that supports all the world's GSM bands (850/900/1800/1900MHz) with GPRS and EGE for data. Sorry, no 3G here. As a consolation, it has WiFi, but that's here for the camera image transfer and doesn't seem to be used for web browsing. There is no UMA calling for T-Mobile @Home service either. The phone does display a WiFi icon on the home screen when connected to a WiFi network.
The 3.5mm stereo headset jack and USB port (under a fiddly rubber cover) are on this side. Voice quality is typical Moto: very clear. Volume is average to a bit above by GSM standards, and outgoing call quality is strong in terms of quality and volume. The phone works with mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets and we had no problems pairing and using a selection of current headsets with the Zine ZN5.
5MP Camera! Clearly, the 5 megapixel camera with Kodak imaging technology is the Zine ZN5's claim to distinction. It has an autofocus lens that's relatively fast by camera phone standards and a Xenon flash that's significantly more effective that the more common LED camera phone flash. The camera runs in landscape mode and uses the entire screen as the viewfinder. The interface is a little funky and not as intuitive as the Sony Ericsson K850i's or the Nokia N95 and N82. But as with the other user interface elements, once you get a hang of it, you'll do just fine. The camera uses the d-pad to display and change a variety of common settings like white balance, flash (on, off, auto and red eye) and light setting (low light on/off). The selections pop up on screen and change as you hit the d-pad in a given direction. There's also a softkey menu with more settings for things like panorama mode, multi-shot mode, save location, image prefix and resolution. When in the camera, you can access the gallery and send a photo via MMS or Bluetooth or upload images to the Kodak Gallery if you wish (press the pink button next to the 5 key that lights up when the camera is running).
Images are certainly very good for a camera phone, and it competes decently with the N95, N82, Samsung Omnia and Sony Ericsson K850i (all 5MP GSM camera phones). Indoor images taken under good, mostly fluorescent lighting (say at a Walmart or a mall) tend to have slightly weak colors with some over-exposure of light areas (see supermarket veggie photo below) even without the flash. Flash shots look like flash shots (that Xenon flash is bright!) and you'll see some over-exposure but nothing to complain about. The phone tends to over-sharpen foreground/near subjects, and images would look better with a softer focus, but these can be toned down with some image processing. That said, overall the MOTOZINE's images are very good. Certainly for a phone that's only $99 with a 2 year contract, this is an absolutely marvelous high end camera phone. The unlocked GSM Nokia N95 and Sony Ericsson K850i may take more pleasing photos, but you'll never find them near this price. Strangely, the video recorder is a low spec affair, with a max resolution of just 144 x 176. Videos look nice, though obviously they're rather small. Sample Camera Photos These were taken at maximum 5MP setting, and the original file size averages 1.6 megs (rather large for a 5MP camera phone). Click on a photo too see a 1000 x 750 version of the image (averaging 220k).
Music Though the ZN5's focus isn't on music, it has a very competent music player complimented by a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack (earbuds included) and A2DP Bluetooth stereo. The player has an EQ, spatial audio (stereo separation), bass boost, playlists and sort by artist, title, composer, genre and etcetera. It supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, WAV, WMV 9 and 10 formats as well as XFM. There's also an FM radio player and a voice recorder.
Conclusion If you're a camera buff and haven't wanted to spend $500 on an import 5 megapixel GSM camera phone, the MOTOZINE is the heart of temptation. At $99 it's a bargain given the very good camera, solid build, great looks and strong voice quality for calls. The web browser is surprisingly good for a feature phone and music support is very good as well. We like!
Price: $99 with 2 year contract after rebates web sites: www.t-mobile.com, www.motorola.com
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