Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5 review

What do mobiles phones get up to on a raucous night out? Embarrassing pictures on Facebook and a hangover like the rest of us, perhaps? If you’re Motorola’s experimental ROKR E8 phone and you have a night you most certainly don’t remember with a Kodak instamatic, you’ll most likely end up with a bundle of ‘joy’ like the MOTO MOTOZINE ZN5.

With its father’s looks, the Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5 not a device that makes you swoon. Looking spookily similar to the E8 with disco-like lighting it’s all a bit overwhelming on first glance. On the plus side, the handset is unlikely to attract the eye of a thief in the pub (or in the night for that matter).

There’s the usual keys (which are shown the whole time unlike with the E8) that become backlit when the phone is called into action. Call, end call/off buttons in the usual green and red shades are where you’d expect them to be and there’s a record-like navigation in the centre. Ours had a jazzy mini purple wheel too.

We’re not really sure what purpose the Braille-like bumps positioned by the keys serve other than helping your finger to be sure it has hit the right spot. And we were a bit puzzled by what looks like small pieces of – albeit neat- graffiti around the 2,5,8 and 0 keys. Although we later found out these have a life of their own when the camera’s in play.

At 114g it’s fairly light but its bulk - 50.5x12x118mm (WDH) – over compensates for its weight. We also found it cumbersome to hold during calls because of the camera on the back. We naturally put our finger on the top back of the phone when we’re calling and it kept getting trapped in the gap next to the shutter.

While the 2.4-inch screen size made us smile, we were bemused by the slight gap between the screen and the top of the phone’s casing, which looked like it might smart if you got your finger stuck between the two while trying to get your phone out of you bag/pocket in a rush.

Once we’d calmed down about the design, we realised the UI wasn’t as bad as the shell and found the navigation quite nice and easy to use.

Thankfully, the ZN5 has its mother’s camera magic. Many months ago we were lucky enough to go to a Motorola roundtable where they showed us a number of photos and asked us to tell them which one we thought best. Those apparently snapped with the ZN5 kept coming out on top.

Ever suspicious until we can prove something for ourselves, we took a few pictures of our own in quite low lighting. The camera picked up embarrassingly minute details such as the dirt on the carpet and also recognised the tonal range of our desired subject, translating it into fine photographic form.

There’s a dedicated camera button (again in snazzy purple) on the bottom right of the handset, and shortcut keys such as delete and share light up once you’ve taken a shot (remember the graffiti mentioned earlier?). You can take photos with the phone in portrait mode, but we found it much easier (plus the controls and shortcuts are easier to access this way) by flipping it into landscape to take snaps.

As well as boasting a Xenon flash, auto focus, multi-shot and panoramic modes, the phone also lets you upload pics to the Kodak Image Gallery (once you’ve set up an account) pretty easily. Kodak’s easyshare software can also be found in the box and ShoZu is also on hand to enable quick and easy uploading to the usual social networking suspects.

With a 3.5mm jack, IM and email capabilities, a web browser and an FM radio, the phone does offer more than just a five-megapixel camera. It packs in WiFi support but, alas, no 3G.

While we’ve quite a few gripes about the Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5, we see promise in what Motorola and Kodak are trying to achieve. After all, this is just the first in what will be a line of MOTOZINE-based devices and it has a great camera and some stunning photographer-friendly features.

Truth be told, it’s never going to win any beauty pageants but as everyone has different tastes it may well have many admirers out there who like their phones with a little bit more meat (or metal) on their bones.

Alas, it’s not for us. Doing something a little out there once could be considered quirky. But, doing it again and to lesser effect is, well, a bit lazy. We want to love this phone as it has so much else going for it in terms of photographic excellence but, alas, you can’t marry someone you think is ugly no matter how intelligent they are. We’re crossing our fingers that its younger siblings are prettier and get more of the Kodak gene…