Comments on: Motorola MOTOZINE 5 MP Camera Phone, Black

By: David Le

David Le — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:47:23 +0000

I bought this phone in December of 2008 for the 5MP camera. I have to ADMIT, it is by far the best camera phone on the market. It's fast, responsive, and take GREAT pictures. There's not a day that goes by that I don't want to use my phone to take a picture. I also love the fact that I can upload the picture to FACEBOOK right away. I've tested out the Samsung Behold and the Samsung Memoir, but I feel the ZINE is a much better camera.

That being said, the phone itself, really sucks. First of all, it's not touchscreen, so the unit is rather ugly. It's so ugly that I'm in the process of looking for another phone because I can't stand how ugly it is. Secondly, like the other reviews, this phone is horridly unresponsive. It takes me forever to go through the menus or send write a text message.

PROS: EXCELLENT CAMERA, good music player with standard 3.5mm output jack.

CONS: EXTREMELY ugly, very slow and unresponsive, difficult to text.

Right now, I need a phone with a good camera, decent music player, easy to text, and has touchscreen. The Samsung Memoir has all these features. However, I think it is overpriced and not too nice looking. The G1 is too clunky and heavy. The Samsung Behold is georgeous, but its camera leaves much to be desired. Rating: 3 / 5

By: M. Larson

M. Larson — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:08:58 +0000

Here are the problems with the phone:

*Sometimes it will take several seconds for a button push to register. This is very annoying when I’m dialing and I think the original push didn’t register so I push it again. And again.

*The picture transferring software for the phone isn’t user friendly, and tech support was worthless. I found that the easiest way to transfer pictures was to remove the micro SD card from the phone and put it in a chip reader.

*While the pictures are better than those from most other camera phones, they really aren’t that impressive. As I have found out, there is more to picture quality than megapixels. If you’re looking for decent pictures I’d suggest that you buy a real digital camera.

It is also ridiculous that t-mobile makes you buy some kind of add on data plan to get the rebate. This is a 2G phone – who would want a data plan for a 2G phone?
Rating: 1 / 5

By: H. Nguyen

H. Nguyen — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:32:28 +0000

I have used this phone for four months. I actually purchased it when it first came out, but should of waited for reviews. I got this phone primarily for the camera and to be honest, the pictures are sometimes good and sometimes bad. Sometimes when I take a picture and download it to my computer I say wow great picture considering it is a camera phone, and other times the pictures turn out so blurry that I erase it immediately. My biggest complaint is that it is slow. Pressing the keypad sometimes takes a few seconds for it to register on the screen. For example, dialing numbers is slow. Pressing the end call button takes a few seconds as well. The buttons are extremely small and texting is a pain in the arse. I also have a lot of drop calls and sometimes don’t even get a signal. I was in a hotel room and did not even get one bar. I asked two other people and they got great signal.

I would not recommend this phone for three reasons. 1) Slow (most annoying) 2) Key pad is small 3) Horrible for texting.
Rating: 1 / 5

By: Stephen Langenthal

Stephen Langenthal — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:49:55 +0000

I have had T-Mobile for almost ten years and have had many phones – Eriksson, Samsung and three previous Motorola models. I bought my Zine from T-Mobile. I had it for two days and returned it. It was the worst cellphone I have ever had. For example, notwithstanding many calls to T-Mobile customer service, it would not download my favorites. If I put the phone down, no matter how gently, it would turn itself off and then back on. The software and the instruction manual are extremely difficult to use and in many cases do not agree with each other. The manual, for example, says that you can silence the keypad sound but does not explain how. When I called T-Mobile to ask about this, technical support told me that the keypad could not be silenced. Several hours later I figured out how to do it wihout instruction. My advice is to avoid this phone, run away from it, don’t even think about it. It should be withdrawn from sale by Motorola and T-Mobile
Rating: 1 / 5

By: Dave Matthews Fan

Dave Matthews Fan — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:36:08 +0000

I purchased this phone because of the camera and the features, not to mention a reasonable price. Then I found out that this phone has the 2nd highest radiation output of any cellphone out there. The FCC allows a maximum of 1.6 SAR, digital radiation, the Motorola ZINE has an SAR of 1.59. Now some studies have found no link between cell phone radiation and cancer…fine. Some studies have found a link between cell phone radiation and sleep problems and headaches. It really is just a matter of whether you would like to have the world’s second most radiation generating cell phone. I didn’t, so I opted for the Samsung Behold, which is a touch screen, decent camera, and has all the bells a whistles.

This late in the game, Motorola has the power to put out a great phone with lower SAR levels…look at the RAZR, one of the lowest SAR levels of any phone.

So, ZINE is an okay phone with a wonky interface that takes great photos…..but you might sprout multiple arms, breathe fire, and attack New York City.
Rating: 1 / 5