Customer Reviews

Motorola RIZR Z3 Cosmic Blue Phone (T-Mobile)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I have had my RIZR from T-Mobile for a few weeks now after switching from Verizon. I was originally considering the Nokia 5300. But when I compared the 2 phones side by side, the RIZR seemed more solid, more durable and less flimsy than the Nokia 5300. So I chose the RIZR and I could not be happier. The phone is easy to program and a breeze to use. The display is bright, clear and very easy to read (even without my bifocals!). So far the sound quality and reception have been outstanding. The best feature for me is the mp3 player. With my new RIZR I can transfer mp3 songs directly from my computer to my phone with a simple drag and drop (the 128 MB card is not very large, but enough for my needs). I can then select the songs to act as ringtones. Being able to assign a song/ringtone to a certain phone number is a really cool feature, at least for me.
The mp3 player included with the phone is very easy to use too.
My only "minor" gripe is the screen goes black during calls. But I found pressing the volume up button, which displays the volume screen temporarily, brings the main screen back fast enough for me.
All in all a great phone and highly recommended.

Pros:
* 2 megapixel camera with decent video and flash
* micro SD card
* solid updates of motorola UI
* good looking
* stereo bluetooth (but $100 for a stereo bluetooth headset)
* uses miniUSB for recharging
* sound quality is adequate

Cons:
* music player has poor UI
* reception is not stellar, but ok for city usage.


I principally bought this because it was on t-mobile, I liked the design and it had a 2 megapixel camera with a LED illuminator (flash). I also do a reasonable amount of texting and picture messaging, so I wanted something good for that. I am happy with this decision.

The camera is quite good, for a pinhole camera phone. However, the maximum size I can send in MMS messages is 640x480. That is likely a t-mobile limitation.

The music player leaves much to be desired. There is enough of it there to call it a music player, but if you've ever used an iPod, you won't love it. There is no way to "keylock" the phone while using it so you end up ending the music play if you drop it in a pocket and bump it. The music player has no concept of what podcasts have been played nor does it remember the last place in the podcast like an iPod does. It is borderline unusable as an mp3 player due to this lousy software.

I had a problem with the phone after about 5 weeks where the predictive text stopped working. It was as if the dictionary had been deleted off my phone or the keys wouldn't work when in predictive text mode. It is under a 1year warranty and t-mobile chose to replace it anyway. An annoyance, but it is ok now.

I'm 90% happy with the phone. Batteries live long, standard USB slot for charging (not proprietary cables any more, thank God), slightly improved interface. Love the way it slides, my sliding Samsung did it with less reassuring feel.

10% of unhappiness is due to the fact that it looses signal in places where some of my friends' phones don't. Also, dust gets between a screen and a protective glass.

Yes, like most of you who are observing this review I was once caught up in the glamor of having a phone that glided in a sleek direction... Well I have advice for you; don't buy this phone. I currently own this lethargic, useless piece of junk and it bestows upon me more problems everyday. This has to be one of the slowest phones I have ever used, it has several features on it, which run terribly laggy. If you are in the finger mashing market of text messaging like yours truly, then you to will be retarded with the fact that by the time your done with your sentence, it will appear 3 seconds later only to have the words predicted in the incorrect fashion because it could not keep up with you. The battery meter on it stays full until the last 4 hours where it plummets to the critical battery indicator. Be sure to give a nice shout out to Motorola when you miss your appointment, because the only thing on the front screen is "T-mobile" and the time; that's right kids, no date or day of the week on your display!
The camera is fairly exceptional and has some nice features. The 2 mp pictures turn out at a respectable image if the quality is all the way up and the you are very very still while capturing. Other than a decent camera, there is no reason to purchase this phone. It also takes the pleasure of not showing you your pictures whenever it feels like concealing the folder, which means your background is a nice blank gray until it is content to locate your photo's once more. The phone also takes the liberty of shutting off randomly about twice a week for me... A terrible purchase, I strongly recommend not splurging $120 dollars on.
Hope you found this useful.
~Stephen
P.S. After one months past of this submitting this review, the center (or menu) button fell off..

Like other moto's, this seems to go through some sort of 1 or 2 second echo cancellations when first using a new (cell) tower. However, once it's calibrated into your location it sounds perfect.

The device is amazing and quite a bundle of features overall. Voice recognition works perfectly and promptly for me.

However, I have to give it low marks for cosmetics. The screen gets greasy from your face. It doesn't feel or handle at all like a phone. I think the only way you can enjoy using it is with a bluetooth headset. I don't like the slider aspect of it at all. I'd prefer a flip phone by a long shot. But this seems to be the best tmo subsidized offering at this date. Battery really does seem to last all week for me. Camera takes great indoor pictures/films and I have to wonder if the complainers about the camera bothered to take the film off of the lense.

I haven't figured out how to make it beep when a message is waiting and I really need that feature.

Get an arm band holster, screen cover, 2gig memory, and bluetooth headset; your going to want them for this type of phone. Not too bad.

It has an extremely slow reaction time, and the keys are very difficult to operate--especially for texting. The screen temporarily goes white and sometimes it takes up to 7-10 seconds for a letter to show up on the screen (while texting). I have had to send this phone back twice due a slow reaction time and freezing.

I've had my phone for several months. The camera on this phone was excellent, and I generally had no problems with the sound quality or reception. Unfortunately, the central button (which is used for EVERYTHING) came unglued several times and was recently lost for good on a run. The warranty will not cover a replacement or repair, so I'm left to choose whether I want to deal with a sticky, broken, hard-to-use phone, improvise a DIY duct tape/aluminum fix, or shell out money for a brand new cell. I'm very disappointed in Motorola's lack of responsibility for a clear design flaw, and will not likely purchase another Motorola phone.

I'm glad I waited awhile to write this review, because when I first got this phone, I loved it (I should note that I'm already on my second one as the first one stopped working, and was covered under warranty). The music player is fun, and the camera takes good pictures (the flash is a helpful feature). But, as time goes on, this phone really wears out - and fast. The power/end call button stopped working altogether on my first one, and the select (circle) button fell off. The power button was a warranty issue, so I had to pay $10 (S&H) and got a new phone. Well, six months into the second one, I had the same issue w/ the select button. This is a well known defect with this phone, as I learned when I went into the T-Mobile store, but it is not covered under warranty. Then, about 3 months after that, the entire larger circle that contains the up/down/left/right arrows fell off. The phone is now very difficult to use as I must use my nail and press in one exact spot to navigate anywhere on the phone. I also have to mention in here that the lack of a date on the main screen is a huge downfall of this phone. There is also a ridiculous lag during texting and sometimes during navigating. I gave Motorola a try, but I'll definitely be switching brands after this.

I bought this phone from T-Mobile as an upgrade. I have not had some of the problems other reviewers have mentioned (slow response, phone dying), but I agree that it is poorly made. After having it for little more than a year, the tiny round button in the middle of the circle fell off, leaving a sticky residue on the white rubber of the button pad underneath. Well, okay, still useable. A few weeks later, the circular button also came off (leaving a gross sticky residue). I continued to use it although it was awkward trying to press the buttons that, without the black covering buttons, are tiny nubs under white rubber. The rest of the buttons on the faceplate are metal. I found this out when the T-zones/internet button caught on something and got bent out. Now the phone stabs me in the leg if I carry it in my pocket, and I have to be careful not to scratch or cut my face when talking on it. I'm sure there must be a better phone for the money. Based on this phone, and a previous Motorola model I owned, I will not be buying a Motorola product again.

I like many of the features on this phone. With the expandable mini sd card I now have +300 songs and +10 movies on my phone which keep me busy especially when traveling. If you haven't already done so, make sure to download mini opera onto this phone which will give you a great browser almost identical to firefox for cruising the web. Picture quality from the camera is decent in well lit areas, but not very good anywhere else. Sound and Video quality are ok, unfortunately many of the optional stereo headsets that fit the mini usb port suck, if you purely want an mp3 player you're better off with a nokia. Browser/internet speed is ok, once again make sure to get the mini opera application or something similar, the one which is supplied with the phone is horrible. With mini opera I can fully access Facebook, hotmail, myspace, even outlook webmail, also Google has some great applications like mobile GMail and Google Maps that work great on this phone. Overall pretty good for the money.