Motorola Rizr Z8 review

Motorola Rizr Z8 Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Reviewed on: 20 July 2007

We could, however, watch the The Bourne Identity, which comes bundled for free on a microSD card. The Z8 plays video at 30fps and the screen displays 16 million colours making it relatively watchable -- just don't expect high-definition quality.

Equally, don't expect high-quality pics from the Z8's 2-megapixel camera. You do get a relatively decent shot for MMS messages and small prints, though. You can also use the camera to shoot video if you're in the mood for something a little more lively.

The keypad isn't very responsive and lacks a decent amount of tactile feedback

There's a secondary camera (VGA) on the front for making video calls -- if you really want to that is. Alternatively, you can use it to take pictures of yourself, which we found just as satisfying as staring blankly at our friends, if not more so.

One of the Z8's best features, and potentially most useful if you're a telly addict, is the ability to program your Sky Box using the pre-installed Sky Box app, and watch a variety of Sky channels over a 3G connection. This feature works rather well.

In order to listen to programs on Sky, or your music using the Z8's music player, you have the choice of using the loudspeaker, wired stereo hands-free kit or a pair of Motorola S9 Wireless Stereo Headphones that come bundled free with the Z8.

Not only do the S9 headphones look good but they're also quite comfortable to wear and have very easy-to-use controls on the side of each earbud. The other great thing about the S9s is that they let you listen to music wirelessly -- no more annoying leads.

In terms of the day-to-day features, sending text messages, setting an alarm and inputting calendar entries is fairly straightforward, but it is worth pointing out that most of the Z8's features are hindered by the awkward-to-use keypad.

Performance
Audio quality during calls was loud and clear, as was the loudspeaker which performed as expected.

Battery life was okay when we didn't use HSDPA (3.5G), but it did get drained if we used Bluetooth and HSDPA for prolonged periods.

Picture quality from the camera was relatively good but, again, don't expect to print out large high-quality prints.

Conclusion
The Motorola Z8 looks great and is a definite move in the right direction for a company that, since the success of the Razr Z3, has remained relatively conservative with its designs.

The 'kick-slider' mechanism makes the phone curve towards you like a banana

Our only reservations are that the handset doesn't feel as good to use as we expected, and even though it comes packed with features that we like, the keypad and navigation keys make accessing them a bit of a pain.

If you're looking for a similarly feature-packed handset, we recommend you give the Nokia N95 a once over. Alternatively, if you prefer a phone that turns heads the Motorola Razr 2 V8, which will be out very soon, is a real looker.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Kate Macefield