Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent phone, great camera, November 8, 2008
The phone part's great. Motorola's been making communications equipment for years, and their experience shows. The Crystal Talk feature work like a charm. I could be heard talking while standing under an elevated train rattling overhead. By comparison, try an iPhone, whose phone portion is on par with phones I owned in the '80s.
And the Kodak camera works amazingly well. The Night Mode gets surprisingly good results at very low light levels. And in daylight, the pictures are on par with what I've gotten from small digital cameras. Very impressed with that as well.
The device itself is quite nice. Well put together, totally solid construction. Nice materials. A pleasure to handle.
The downside is that the software is a pain. Different parts of the device seem to have been put together by different developers. And navigating around between different parts of the phone is baffling. But slowly, I'm getting used to it and I've gotten the Bluetooth to my computer (to download photos - great feature) to work after lots of trial and error.
Overall, the two key parts of this phone are excellent. It's just the overall integration that's not up to standard. Net result: I'm pleased.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I like this phone a lot, but it's not perfect, February 12, 2009
The first time I saw this phone, I knew I had to get it. It looked so stylish, and at such a reasonable price. It had many features I liked, like the 5mp camera, 2.4 inch screen (I cant handle anything smaller than that) and sliding lens cover, which doubled as a camera on/off switch.
I kept this phone for about 2 months before I lost it. I bought a SE w902 to replace it, but I missed my ZN5 too much, and 2 weeks ago, bought a new ZN5 and sold the SE.
Likes:
- Stylish. eg flat keypad, "take the photo" button is stylishly disguised as a diagonal purple chrome button on the side.
- Bright screen with scratch resistant glass- very shiny, smooth and nice.
- The default purple Kodak theme for the UI is attractive imho.
- Slim, yet solid build.
- Easy to open a new sms message and send. To send, just press "send" once, unlike other brands, where you have to press "send", then press "yes" for "are you sure?"
- Very customisable menu- can reorder items and lists.
- Affordable.
- Comes with 3.5mm headphone jack, so can use your own.
- Camera:
*Quality is so good that you can use as an actual camera, if you dont mind a fixed lens camera. Of course, be sure to charge the battery before you go out.
*Panoramic photo feature is interesting, and often results in a good quality pic.
*Like many mobile phones, you can take multiple photos quickly. However, most will only let you do it as VGA size, or maybe let you choose one ("best shot"). The ZN5 will let you save all the photos you take, and at full size- up to 5mp. Excellent.
*Sliding lens cover doubling as quick on/off switch is practical.
*Dedicated buttons for viewing photos.
*5mp camera takes good photos, especially in good light.
*Camera xenon flash is very bright, excellent for indoor photos in the same room.
*Kodak software fix works well to lighten up dark or underexposed parts of a photo.
Dislikes:
- My second phone has a glitch. After I take a photo, it saves, then the screen goes black, as if you have closed the lens cover. All the other software lists are there, just no picture. My first ZN5 never had this problem.
- My first ZN5 did, however, turn itself off after being turned on for a few minutes. I have read others online saying this is because the battery slips from its contact slightly, turning the phone off. My second ZN5 doesnt have this problem.
- Video is pitiful. I mean it is so bad that it looks grainy, even on the 2.4 inch screen. Such a waste of high quality lens.
- Battery got hot after prolonged camera use.
- The word "Kodak" on the camera lens cover. I dont think Kodak is a very prestigious brand and detracts from the Motorola.
- The sms dictionary is still screwy- strange words instead of the expected word, and you cant add words to a customised dictionary (well, I havent found out how to, at any rate)
- Camera- Panoramic feature only lets you move horizontally, so cant get vertical collage effect like with the SE "manual" panoramic feature.
-mp3 player is ok, but not as good as SE.
- Reception was poor on my first ZN5, and average on my second one. Dont know what the hype about Crystal Talk is, because there was no crystal with my talking.
- After downloading the contacts from my sim card, it added "/1" to the end of every contact. No idea why that is. eg "Adam" become "Adam/1"
There's probably more things I do and dont like, but I cant think of them at the moment. Overall, it's not perfect, but I like it and I think I'll be keeping it for a while.
Should you buy it? It depends on what you want. Do you need video? Give it a miss. Want a lot of fancy features and games? Give it a miss.
Want a stylish slim phone with a great camera at a low price? The ZN5 should be in your top 3 list of phones to try out.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
well designed all-in-one device, December 27, 2008
First phone where I actually use almost all of its features. I have had it for about a week and can't stop playing with it. It's now the only thing I have to carry around, mp3 player, camera, phone, internet device(with WiFi), and I love it. This phone was made for me.
Was thinking about getting other phones, iphone, g1. But they force you to buy the most expensive data plan for the phone to be fully functional that is way too much money for me.
Only con I have found is it has an internal micro SD slot under the battery.
I have the locked version, but you can still get google maps on it if you download it a bunch of times, very cool free app!
Also the voice recognition works fine for me (I had problems at first but all you have to do is wait till after the beeps to say your command). And for the radiation concerns, they give you a free stereo headset with the phone (a pleasant surprise).
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