In our Motorola Zine review, we take T-Mobile's new 5-megapixel shooter out into the country for some real photography testing. Check out thirteen image samples inside.
Review summary of the Motorola Zine ZN5:
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 The Motorola Zine is a phone that would be a good replacement for your low-end point-and-shoot camera, and that's the nicest compliment you can pay a cameraphone. It's a good phone, a pretty good camera, and a surprisingly capable multimedia and Web browsing device. The camera takes real, good-quality pictures, helped along by some agile post-processing, and we even enjoyed the full-size 8 by 10 inch prints we made directly from the device. Kodak et al. don't quite deliver on their promise of easy uploading, and we had trouble sending and managing our pics, probably caused by the phone's buggy OS, which was sluggish some times, and completely unresponsive at others. Still, if you can manage your own pics, and you're looking for a casual shooter that's also a fine phone, the Motorola Zine is a great choice. Release: November 2008. Price: $100.
Pros: Very good call quality with fantastic battery life. One of the best cameras we've seen on a phone.
Cons: Still can't match a good compact point-and-shoot. Image transfer software buggy and useless. Messaging options limited. No 3G networking.
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Full Motorola Zine ZN5 Review:
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Design - Good
For a cameraphone, Motorola didn't try anything too outlandish with the Motorola Zine, which is a good thing. The phone is a simple candybar, except for the bulging camera on the back. To activate the camera, you simply slide open the lens cover. This is a great idea, as most folks probably don't realize how much a grimy camera lens can ruin their pics. The phone uses just a bit of Motorola's new keyboard shifting design idea, but not as much as on the blank-faced Motorola ROKR E8. When the camera is active, a few sideways buttons light up for fast access to the file sharing, gallery and delete options. These aren't soft keys, but actual buttons, separated from the keyboard enough that they were out of the way during normal use.
The Motorola Zine follows the new Motorola design aesthetic for candybars, like the ROKR E8. It has a parallelogram shape from the side, and a mostly flat front with tiny, raised dots to help your fingers find the keys. The soft keys up top run a little too close to the Send and End keys, and we did have the occasional misfire, but not often. Otherwise, there is a locking switch on the side to lock the keypad, a two-stage shutter release for the camera and a microUSB port.
The interface design on the Motorola Zine is similar to what we found on the ROKR E8, a basic icon-based grid. It looked nice and clean on the phone's tall, colorful, 2.4-inch screen, but offered no real surprises or innovations. The main menu could be organized a bit better. We think IM, E-mail and SMS could all be unified under a single "Messaging" head, which would leave room to bring "Music" to the top. Also, since the Kodak Gallery is really only there to sell us stuff (more on that later), it could certainly get rolled into the T-Zones menu, since T-Zones is a special browser made to sell us more stuff.
Calling - Very good
Call quality on the Motorola Zine was very good, with callers reporting some of the best sound they've heard from us on a cell phone in a long while. This is probably because the phone uses Motorola's Crystal Talk technology. Most of the Motorola phones we've tested that use the voice tech, like the Moto ROKR E8, sound very good. Reception was a problem, though more of a network issue, as the phone performed about as well as other T-Mobile phones trying to pick up the same signal. Though the phone does include Wi-Fi, it can't be used for calling, like the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, also on T-Mobile.
Battery life on this phone was truly astounding. We managed a call that lasted more than 8 hours, and probably could have made it to 10 hours total if we hadn't started messing with the camera. Of course, the camera, with its auto focus and xenon flash, will tax the battery even harder, but Motorola hasn't skimped on power for this combo device.
Otherwise, the address book was good, and Motorola's MPT included software tried to make it even smarter by synchronizing out Outlook contacts. This didn't work the first few times, and we only had successful results synchronizing one name at a time, but this was still better than typing every name fresh. Speaker-independent voice dialing took some practice on our part to get the timing right, as we kept speaking over the "listening" signal, but once we had the pattern down it worked every time.
Camera - Very good
Here at infoSync, we get a chance to test not only cameraphones, but also standalone compact cameras and prosumer DSLRs, so we can be fairly critical when it comes to camera performance, especially on a phone. That said, when we got around to printing glossy test image samples directly from the Motorola Zine, we quickly realized that this was the first phone we've used capable of producing images that we might actually want to print. They weren't perfect, but the level of detail, the color accuracy and the lack of serious problems in these images quickly put them at the head of the pack. We've seen cameraphones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson that brag about the provenance of their imaging technology, using Carl Zeiss and Schneider-Kreuznach branding, but wouldn't you know it was good ol' Kodak and Motorola who finally delivered a top-notch cameraphone to the U.S. market.
Fruit on display
The image isn't perfect, but it looks pretty nice, with a wide, dynamic range that lets the dark spots stay dark, with lively color all around. At full zoom, we see some over-sharpening, giving a television effect to the shiny spots on the fruit. Also, there's a little fuzz that isn't natural, but rather a lack of detail. In the corners, where the hanging signs and lights were not themselves well-lit, we see loads of compression artifacts and noise, resulting in blurry, fuzzy lines. But how about them apples?
Self-portrait
The shot is pleasantly-lit, with life-like color and good detail in this editor's graying hair (can you pick out the white strands at the temple?). Unfortunately, the background is again noisy, and details, like the writing on the flash card reader behind us, were fuzzed out.
Gazebo
Gazebo (with Perfect Touch)
Here's an example of Kodak's Perfect Touch system doing some good work. First, we shot the gazebo with the White Balance set to "Cloudy." This gave us a somewhat reddish tone, probably as the camera tried to warm up the light issuing from the cooler clouds. The Kodak Perfect Touch enhancement, available in the viewing gallery on the phone, lightened up the dark spots, and also helped with this pinkish cast on the original. This resulted in loads of noise, especially in the darkest spots, like the bushes to the left of the structure, and this noise could be quite colorful and distracting. Still, for lighting, Perfect Touch seems to do a nice job.
Railroad tracks (with Perfect Touch)
Fence and house (with Perfect Touch)
Loads of tiny details in branches and leaves and gravel in both of these shots, and Kodak's Perfect Touch manages to bring our the fall colors without completely crushing the fine print. We used the railroad tracks as our print sample, and the glossy, printed version looked good as a borderless 8.5 by 11 inch print. We could still see some of the digital sharpening, but from a step back it was a nice print.
Laptop fashion show
We tried taking shots at this Intel-sponsored fashion show with the xenon flash on and off. With the flash on, the camera usually focused on the folks directly in front of us, and the image was completely washed out. Without the flash, we got what you see here, which is a completely unusable, noisy image. At full zoom, the image looks like a watercolor filter has been applied in PhotoShop.
Wanna go out?
Wanna go out? (with Perfect Touch)
Here, Kodak's Perfect Touch couldn't quite save the day, as the photo still looked like an oil painting at full zoom. Also, the wood flooring looked better without Perfect Touch, and with the enhancement applied the dog's white fur took on a slightly bluish tint.
Park panorama
The Motorola Zine has a great panorama mode that lets you simply sweep the camera in front of you as it takes three successive shots. The camera uses a wireframe and vibrating feedback to guide you as you move the lens, then stitches the image itself. The fence here doesn't like up perfectly, but in the grass and trees the effect is much better. This is definitely one of the most effective, easiest panorama modes we've seen on a camera, and definitely the best on a camera phone.
Short ribs
Short ribs (with Perfect Touch)
Apologies to our vegan readers as we photograph dinner in the making. The flash helped here to cut through the steam and light the dark inside of the cast iron dutch oven. With Perfect Touch applied, though, the meat lost most of its juicy redness, and the camera seemed to focus instead on the rising vapor.
Skewed Pole panorama
One last nifty vertical panorama. The lightpost is curving due to the photo stitching, it isn't really shaped that way, but we were expecting some sort of distortion. Our only real problem is that the camera doesn't balance light and color throughout the shot.
Image transfer - Mediocre
Unfortunately, once you have all your shots taken, getting them off the phone and onto the Web, or in your recipients' inbox, is more difficult. We had no trouble just pulling the pics directly off the card, except for the fact that the card is buried under the battery, which was an annoying design decision. We tried the Kodak Gallery, but transfer to our Gallery page was sluggish and unreliable, even over Wi-Fi. Plus, once we uploaded our pics, we couldn't actually view them at their full, 5-megapixel resolution, which would have been ideal for sharing these pics as downloads. Kodak seems much more interested in selling prints and coffee mugs than actually letting people view pictures.
We also had trouble sending these pictures by any means. Whether we tried MMS for simpler messaging, sending pics through the Gmail account we set up on the phone, or even sending by Bluetooth directly to our laptop. Often there were long delays before the message would pop up for us to edit, but usually it never came up at all. Then, we got frequent errors trying to send, and none of our e-mails came through. This should have been a key feature for this phone, especially considering the Wi-Fi connectivity. We would have liked to see a whole new, intuitive interface built around sharing pics however we please, and not just with Kodak's upselling service.
Messaging - Good
Thanks to some handy presets, the Motorola Zine did a fine job with our simple messaging needs. SMS messaging had a nice, clean interface, and it was easy to add our contacts to the messaging recipient field. For IM, you'll find MSN, Yahoo, AOL and even ICQ on board. For e-mail, there was a nice list of presets, including Gmail, Yahoo, Apple's .Mac (now defunct), and even Verizon. Unfortunately, e-mail lacked our favorite choice: "Other." So, if you didn't make the list, you won't be using the included e-mail app.
Typing on the flat keypad was better than we expected, but still not the most enjoyable experience. The keys have a surprising amount of travel, and it feels like there is quite a bit of space beneath the flat upper layer. Our only problem came while typing the * and # keys, which didn't get as much space. Also, in some applications, the "0" key activates capital letters (according to its Up arrow), but in some we had to fiddle until we realized it was the # key doing that job.
Multimedia - Very good
For a simple music player, the Motorola Zine did a surprisingly capable job, easily surpassing even some of its peers that claim music as their raison d'etre. First of all, the phone uses a 3.5mm headphone jack for multimedia cables, so we were able to use our favorite headphones to listen to the device. The 1GB memory card included with the phone will probably be more useful for shooting pics, but at a maximum of 4GB, we could easily devote a Gigabyte to music as well. We wish that our album artwork came through okay, but it didn't, though that was the only trouble we had synchronizing with Windows Media Player.
Once the music starts, there are more options to explore. Beyond simple playback controls, the phone has some nice EQ options, as well, including a spacial audio adjustment that will add some fullness to the sound. We wish there were some dedicated hardware controls, but the music will play fine in the background, and while it's playing, "Stop Music" becomes a top-level option under the "Shortcuts" menu.
Web browsing - Good
When GPRS reception was bad, the Motorola Symphony browser on the Motorola Zine simply did not work. It would load up parts of a page, then crash out, keeping us from viewing even this fraction. Under a strong Wi-Fi connection, however, we read a different story. The Web browser chewed through our image-intensive homepage, and it looked very good rendered on the phone's screen. Graphics and text were all crisp and clear, and layout seemed accurate. We wish there were easier ways to pan and zoom quickly on a page, like a mini-map style option, but at least the pages came through looking good.
Value - Very good
The Motorola Zine costs $100 at launch, with a contract agreement. Though the camera might not live up to the quality we've come to expect from compact point-and-shoot cameras, there is hardly a camera on the market for $100 that can do what the Motorola Zine can do; namely, make great-sounding calls. T-Mobile probably could have gotten away with selling this phone at twice the price, but at $100, we think this cameraphone represents a great bargain.
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