The Hi-Res Camera Phone Gets Affordable
Developed by Motorola and Kodak, MotoZINE ZN5 for T-Mobile succeeds admn ably at its two primary goals: to excel as both a camera phone and a voice phone This is the first 5-megapixel camera phone offered by a U.S. carrier, and with the contract price and mail-in rebate, it's a terrific deal. But to hit this price point, Motorola had to make some sacrifices, such as 3G capability and decent video recording. Still, if you just want to make calls, send text messages, and snap good pies, the ZN5 is the way to go.
From the front, the 4-ounce ZN5-4.65 by 2.0 by 0.6 inches (WD)—looks like your average high- class slab-style handset. It's got a large, bright, 2.4-inch, 320-by-240-pixel screen over a flat keypad with small tactile bumps on the number keys. Various parts of the keypad light up to activate special functions, such as photo reviewing or editing, when needed. With a combination of hard-and soft-touch plastic, the ZN5 feels comfortable. Call quality is excellent: Voices are clear even in extremely noisy locations. The speakerphone also sounds good. The phone's RF reception, on the other hand, didn't stand out from the crowd of 2G T-Mobile phones on my tests.
The ZN5's connected without a problem. As stated, the phone's camera is responsive and produces good shots, even in low light. You can store your photos in the 350MB of memory or on a microSD and download them via the included micro USB cable or over Bluetooth.
Overall, the Motorola MotoZINE ZN5 is a solid device, and its super-low price makes it an amazing value—the most affordable camera phone you'll find in the U.S , in fact. It fell just short of winning our Editors' Choice award; that prize still belongs to the Sony Ericsson TM506, which uses Jr-Mobile's new 3G network.—Sascha Segan
PC Magazine February 2009
This article is published on More Techs, Handphone Reviews, Fun Gadgets and Cellphones Info.
MOTOROLA MOTOZINE ZN5
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RIM BLACKBERRY STORM 9530
|A Troubled Storm
Verizon's BlackBerry Storm 9530 is a radical new direction for BlackBerry, but it's imperiled by a difficult-to-use QWERTY keyboard and widespread reports of serious bugs.
The decidedly sexy 5.5-ounce Storm is a 4.4-by-2.4-by-0.5-inch (HWD) slab dominated by a 3.3-inch, 360-by-480-pixel touch screen. The screen is capacitive, meaning it detects the electricity from your fingers, thus requiring less effort to press. It is also transflective, so it's easy to view outdoors in bright light.
Below the display are Pick Up and End call buttons, a Back button, and the familiar BlackBerry menu key. On the sides of the handset, you'll find Camera, Volume, and a programmable multifunction button. RIM has again transformed keyboard design with the Storm's click screen, which you click by pressing down. Although this method gives you actual feedback, the learning process for the new interface is challenging. Furthermore, the keyboard had some serious accuracy problems.
The Storm showed zippy performance when it wasn't overcome by software bugs. It is a world phone, running on Verizon's EV-DO Rev A network here in the U.S. and on dual-band CDMA, quad-band EDGE, and 2,100-MHz HSDPA networks abroad. On our tests, the Storm registered fine reception, and earpiece and speakerphone volume are both very loud. In a straight-up talk time test, I got an excellent 7 hours 25 minutes.
Overall, the Storm is an exciting device Nonetheless, I can't recommend it strongly until the software bugs are fixed.—Sascha Segan
PC Magazine February 2009
This article is published on CellPhones Info, Handphone Reviews, Fun Gadgets, and More Techs.
Nokia N85
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Good looks and an OLED screen in a small package
The N85 is the sleeker younger brother of the N96; it's similar in size to an N95 without the slider and its own slider feels positive and well built. The case is largely black. with menu, application. cancel and media keys lighting up when they're active and fading away the rest of the time, giving a very polished look. Push the slider down and the buttons will either light up in media player mode or N-Gage mode for gaming. The phone's a little heftier than the N95 and feels more solid, despite being smaller.
It has an OLED screen, rather than LCD, which helps with battery life and gives great, vivid colours - though as it's OLED, you'll find the scrcensavcr glows. It's also great for movie playback.
At first the keypad looked similar to the N96, which felt flat, but in use it's actually much closer to the N95, with good tactile feedback, so you can text quickly and accurately. The navigation pad can also double as a scroll wheel, though it takes a little getting used to. The software - S60 Third Edition Feature Pack 2 - is much the same as on the N96, with support for WebDav, and you can connect to services such as Apple's 'Disk and browse them in the file manager. There's Internet radio support (as long as it's MP3), as well as the standard FM, and you can even share your music in the car, thanks to a built-in FM transmitter .
We do have a few gripes - the usual Series 60 browser isn't up to par. USB charging is a welcome addition, but the micro USB port means another cable, and there's no socket for an ordinary Nokia charger. The camera is OK, but needs pretty good lighting for best results. And there's no edit button - if you want to copy and paste, you need to call up the menu.
But those are mostly minor issues; this is a nice phone - it's compact, has good battery life, good build, and a great screen. The N96 may have DVB-H, which is probably pointless in the UK, but it's the N85 that's really the flagship in our book - and arguably what the N95 should have been. Nigel Whitfield.
Price £405 SIM free;
free on contract
Contact Nokia
Specifications 50x16x103mm (wxdxh) • 128g • 2.6in QVGA OLED screen • Quad-band GSM & 3G • 802.11b/g Will • Bluetooth • FM transmitter • FM radio • USB2 • Micro USB connector • Micro SD slot (8GB card included) • 74MB memory • Five-megapixel camera with geotagging • Video capture up to VGA 30f ps • WMV, WMA, AAC, MP3 • Flash video, Real Video playback • Assisted GPS • Symbian S60 Third Edition Feature Pack 2
Personal Computer World February 2009
This article is published in More Techs, http://handphoneku.blogspot.com/2009/03/nokia-n85.html, Cellphones Info and Handphone News.