Moto's face-off

The Motorola ( MOTORIZR ) Z8 was first seen at this year’s 3GSM in Barcelona. Photos of the device can be seen on the left and currently the phone is shown on 3G’s shop as coming soon – on O2 and Vodafone. When you first think of the term "Z8" my first thought was the BMW Z8 sports car, so the Motorola Z8 starts well with that kind of association.

The Motorola Z8 is pretty unique and it looks like Motorola is aiming to make a swaggering comeback with the Z8, so lets find out more about what Moto’s designers have been up to.

The slider phone has been reinvented for the Z8. The slider action ( kick slider )  on the Z8 is an innovation- it glides partially open and then snaps apart - to fully open the slider. See photo 5 to get the idea. This is patented by Motorola and is officially called a KiKR slider action. The slider is propelled in a curve rather than a conventional slider which follows a straight line. The keypad is curved too which some people may find strange to use. I like the kick slider action and think its definitely something that you could show to your friends as something new and hip.

The dimensions of the Z8 are 109mm x 50mm x 15mm which makes it larger than some current trendsetters such as the Nokia 6300 or the Samsung U600 yet it seems by no means out of place with regard to size and weight. Motorola’s aim was to create a face friendly mobile that improved the usability and sound quality you experience. This is because the phone is shaped like the side of your face and hence it ends up closer to you.

The Z8's colour scheme seems very current, with the styling lines creating an impact on what otherwise could have looked a dreary handset. The launch colour is black handset with a trendy yellow styling theme. There is also matching colour scheme in yellow for the keypad numbers etc. The main front facing controls are the 5 wayscroll, two softkeys, app/back and the send/end key. This is definitely a current, trendy eye catcher.

The Z8 is expected to hit the shelves in Europe in June / July 2007.

Motorola Gives Back !

Motorola is giving its customers of the Z8 a great opening incentive - three freebies to enhance the Z8 experience. Firstly, there is a 512MB memory card which will be included in-box pre-loaded with a full-length feature film – “The Bourne Identity” – from Universal Pictures.

Secondly, is that weComm has developed the Sky Anytime on Mobile application for BSkyB, and has worked closely with Motorola to port the application onto the Z8 for pre-installation in the factory. Sky Anytime on Mobile is an interactive mobile TV application that extends Sky's digital TV experience to the mobile platform. As well as offering access to an on-demand library of updating news, entertainment and sports, Sky's Anytime application also provides an access point to Sky's range of live mobile TV services. There are now over 30 TV channels streamed over 3G networks supported by in-stream programme information and fast channel switching.

Thirdly, the Z8 comes with a Motorola S9 Bluetooth stereo-headset. Here's the spec for the headset.

• - Stream from your compatible phone
• - Lightweight. Barely 1 oz
• - Discreet. Behind-the-head wearing style
• - Never miss a call. Mutes or pauses when calls come in
• - Control music and calls from the headphones
• - Small 13mm speakers for better comfort and fit on the ear
• - Sweat and water resistant for active conditions.
• - Up to 6 hrs of music play from a single charge

The features of the Z8

The Z8 will work in 5 continents and is a 3G HSDPA handset which will handle speeds of up to 3.6Mbps HSDPA. This means that a typical song will download over the air in approx. 10 seconds.

The Z8 is a smartphone yet does not have a touch-screen .Of note is the redesigned user interface with one-click access to phone functions. It runs UIQ 3,1 ( user interface ) and Symbian OS v9.2. ( operating system ) with a combination of OMAP2420 ( 300Mhz ) and ARM 11 processors that provide a powerful platform for multi-tasking. The display at this preview stage seems more than adequate and measures 2.2 inches diagonally.

The display and UI summary is :

• 2.2" QVGA 16 Million colour TFT display
• 5 wayscroll, two softkeys, app/back,send/end
• Symbian 9.2, UIQ 3.1, Motorola softkey UI
• Dynamic homescreen

The camera is an area where the Z8 falls behind. The Z8 has 2 cameras with the main camera being a 2 megapixel camera with 8x zoom and lumi LED light, video record and playback capabilities. Motorola need to put more megapixels into their handsets and soon. The other camera is VGA for two-way video calling.

A summary of the camera functions follow :

• 2MP camera with 8x zoom and flash
• Modes: Normal, Indoor, Outdoor, Sports,Portrait, Night and Backlight
• Flash: Always On, On Once, Off
• Dedicated camera shoot key
• JPEG/EXIF, ISO, White balance

The Z8 has approximately 90 MB free for internal use, plus a hot-swappable microSD memory slot expandable up to 4GB optional memory which means that you can store around 12 full-length motion pictures or 70 hours of music. The Z8 can actually accommodate up to a 32GB memory card if you could source them.

Dedicated keys access music in one touch, storage for approximately 1,000 songs and stereo Bluetooth wireless technology optimize the device for mobile music. The MOTOROKR S9 stereo headphones ( see above ) provide wire-free enjoyment with A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth stereo profiles4.

The Z8 is proclaimed a star by Motorola when it comes to video playback. At 30 frames per second, the large QVGA 16 million color TFT display optimizes the viewing experience in both portrait and landscape mode. The screen at this level will enhance Internet browsing and game play.

A summary follows :

• Resolutions up to QVGA at 30fps on capture
• Recording in AMR at 8kHz
• Video clip length limited only by free memory
• File format .mp4 and .3gp (for MMS)

When shooting video, you can pick one of two settings – good and best. Clip duration is unlimited on the Z8. Available resolutions – SQCIF, QCIF, QVGA at 15 frames per second. Intuitive UI allows one-click picture or video sharing with friends or easy uploading to chosen social networking Internet sites, such as Flickr, MySpace, YouTube.

The power horse for the Z8 is a Li-Ion 1030 mAh battery with instantON. This will roughly give you five hours 3G talk time and up to approximately 16 days standby time. The summary is :

Talk Time: up to approximately 5 hours 3G talk time
Standby Time: up to approximately 16 days
Video Playback: up to approximately 5 hours (MPEG4, 30fps)
Music Playback: up to approximately 12 hours (MP3 at 128kbps)

The items supplied with the Z8 are :

• microSD 512 Mb memory card
• Battery / Charger
• miniUSB cable
• Bluetooth stereo-headset Motorola S9
• CD with software plus User Guide

ShoZu has an agreement for the download and pre-installation of its mobile media services on the new generation of Motorola handsets and this includes Z8. The client software that powers ShoZu's services will be available for free download to the Z8 when the phone is rolled out in Europe. ShoZu is a free service for your phone that makes it incredibly easy to send and receive photos, videos and music while you're on the move.

3G's verdict on the Z8

Our initial thoughts on the Z8 are very positive. The introduction of the Symbian OS will attract the normal Smartphone buyers whilst the bonus items : the "Bourne Identity" on memory card, the bundled Motorola S9 Bluetooth stereo-headset, the ability to view Sky TV and use Shozu should cause enough interest to pull in main stream buyers who may have previously overlooked a smartphone like this.

3G's initial verdict is that you should check out Moto's "face-off" for yourself, you won't be disappointed.