Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5 - Motorola MOTOZINE ZN5

The ZN5's camera pops into action when you slide the slightly flimsy lens cover away. It has autofocus and a Xenon flash, plus multi shot and panorama modes, too.

Three new front buttons become available when you are in camera mode. Before you shoot an image, a button taking you to the camera gallery sits near the '5' key. After you've taken a shot, a trash button and one that lets you share photos by MMS, email, Bluetooth or uploading to Kodak's Image Gallery pops up. These are efficient and easy to use, and I like them. I also like the way you can use the D-pad to set up the shooting mode and flash. It is really easy and fast.


The coloured dish was photographed indoors under normal household lighting with the flash off and it is not as bright as I'd have liked. Of course I got better results with the flash, and there is a ‘low light' setting for better quality flash-free indoor shots.

The macro mode disappointed a little. The carnivorous plant was photographed indoors with light from a window on it and the shot is not as sharp or clear as the similar photograph taken with the 8 megapixel Samsung Pixon. The camera was at its best outdoors and the white chair is a perfectly acceptable photo.


I'm a bit nonplussed by the micro USB slot that is used for mains power supply. Yes I know that is the way things are going, but it is still irritating at present because plenty of devices use mini USB and I need to carry two cables around.

I'm also not too happy about the fact that the microSD card slot is under the battery. Moto provides a 1GB card to augment the 300MB of built-in memory. On the other hand I like the side-mounted lock button.

Other features of this handset include three alarms, calendar, calculator, IM, to do list manager, notes application, Web browser, email, FM radio, voice recorder, a couple of games and ShoZu for uploading photos and video to the Web.

Verdict

Motorola's partnership with Kodak has a way to go before it can rival the best camera phones, but I'd like to see it develop further. Overall, this is a chunky phone with quirky if distinctive looks. It is a reasonable mid-ranger, but Moto needs to up its game in this very competitive segment of the market.