Motorola Z9 Review - Design & Features
Design & FeaturesLike I said, Z9’s kind of a big phone. Measuring up at 114 x 54 x 14 mm and weighing in at 140g, it’s a heck of a lot larger and heavier than other AT&T slider phones like the Sony Ericsson w850, which weighs just 94g, or just about one-third less than the Z9. But I kind of like Z9’s heft. If you don’t mind it taking up a little more room in your pocket or purse, Z9 rewards you with what I like to call a “luxurious heft.” I never felt like this phone was going to creak, give, or otherwise break on me, and there was plenty of room between buttons and on the display. It’s like driving a big luxury car - once you learn to embrace the size, you dwell in the security and comfort of all that length and weight. And I never worried about the Z9 getting dinged or possibly breaking if I dropped it - it’s pretty solid and durable.
I liked the glossy burgundy finish of the Z9, though it proved to be a real fingerprint magnet. The front panel is dominated by the 2.4” display and control array, which features a circular D-Pad that’s ringed by a raised ridge of silver plastic that provides good tactile feedback. Flanking the D-Pad are six buttons: Two softkeys, and dedicated buttons for AT&T’s Media Mall, Back, Send, and Hang-Up/Power. Motorola chose to use fairly tiny little raised circles for these buttons and the 12 keys on the dialing pad, but I had no problems using them. The little silver dots are raised just enough to be easily found in the dark with a thumb, but are also mounted close enough to the phone’s surface to make it easy to mash on them. I may not be the world’s fastest texter but the Z9’s keys didn’t slow me down at all.
MOTO and AT&T filled the Z9 up with features galore, including Opera for Web browsing, a media player backed by a microSD memory card slot, and access to almost all of the carrier’s multimedia services including Mobile Email and IM, CV Video, MobiTV, XM Radio, and AT&T’s music store. A built-in A-GPS chip there’s also a 2MP camera with flash and video capture mode that turned out pretty decent images - a little better than your average cameraphone with the added benefit of the flash for shooting close-range photos in the dark.
Next: Usability & Performance »Fetch me more...Quickly jump to more information about related topics, cell phones, carriers or phone manufacturers mentioned in this In-Depth Review by using the links below. About our in-depth cell phone reviewsWe take great pride to ensure that the our reviews are thorough and accurate. In no way are our editors directed or influenced by any manufacturers, advertisers, or partners; we believe that honest, opinionated reviews -positive or negative - are the only way to maintain credibility and serve our users. Reviews by companyApple, BenQ, BlackBerry, Eten, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, o2, Palm, Pantech, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony EricssonHello MOTO. The new Motorola phone for AT&T is the Z9, a sliderphone with a jewel like finish houses integrated GPS, a music player, video share services, and much more. Check it out behind the scenes at CTIA '08. Previous Posts in this series: AT&T: Apple iPhone 3G, LG VuVerizon Wireless: LG Voyager, LG Dare, Samsung Glyde, LG DecoyMOTO Z9 - AT&T WirelessMotorola's Z9 is an interesting phone. It's larger and thicker than most of today's feature phones, and yet it has tiny little buttons on its dialing keypad. The Z9 feels good in hand, has a solid slider mechanism, and a big, bright display. Add GPS, 3G/Cellular Video support... What’s Good: Great voice quality; fast 3G data speeds; good GPS system; mobiTV compatibility; sleek, attractive design; clean menus and UI; solid build; easy to hold and use
What’s Not Good: Rather large for a sliderphone; some may not like tiny buttons; heavy
Bottom Line: MOTO’s Z9 is a top-notch featurephone that provides access to nearly all of AT&T’s data and multimedia services in an attractive form factor. The phone is rather large... Motorola bucked the “Thin is In” trend with their latest handset, the Z9 slider for AT&T. This full featured device is a big, solid phone with features galore, and while some might be put off by it’s (relatively) large size and heft, I kind of like it. The Z9’s comfortable to hold and use and feels solid, with nary a creak or wobble to be found anywhere on its burgundy body.
The Z9 is a 3G phone with access to AT&T’s CV... The Z9 is definitely one of the better cell phones I’ve tested when it comes to voice quality. I tested it on AT&T’s network in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, and was really impressed by the clarity of callers’ voices coming through to my end - and got a similar response from the people I was talking to. Chalk it up to MOTO’s Crystal Talk noise reduction technology, which apparently works. Signal strength... Messaging phones are all the rage right now, but some folks would rather have a solid phone without a QWERTY board or all the complexities of a smartphone. Motorola’s Z9 sits atop AT&T’s current range of feature phones, offering just about every service and multimedia option you could want in a handset without delving into slide-out thumbboards and complicated operating systems.
The Z9 is literally a solid performer, combining good... Just a little over a week after I first saw it at CTIA, Motorola sent a review loaner of their new Z9 slider for AT&T. The Z9 is a 3G slider that takes some styling cues from the RAZR2 series, and features Moto's Synergy OS along with a 2MP camera with flash, AT&T Video Share compatibility, GPS with Navigation services, and access to the carrier's Cellular Video streaming video service (not to be confused with the newly unveiled...
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