Motorola RIZR Z8

...had decided I wanted the Motorola Z8. I hate Motorolas as a general rule - I find them quite clunky and hard to use but I had tried a Z8 out and decided I quite liked the feel of it. I was sold on the HD screen, the fact it will play a full length film (not that I often have occasion to watch a film on my phone but you don't think of these things when you buy one). It seemed pretty easy to use with a decent sized memory but most of all I liked the ...
...phones. Its still disappointing that Motorola seem to have chosen to make savings on he camera and I feel that this lets the phone down.

The reception quality is ok but not great and I have to assume that this is the phone as I have been with o2 for some time without any reception problems.

The other major problem as far as I am concerned is that files, messages, numbers etc are automatically stored on the phone unless ... more

Many moons ago, I came to the end of a phone contract and decided to switch networks and get a brand new sparkly phone. However, my boyfriend, being horrendously competitive and magpie-like in his love of sparkly new things, could not possibly tolerate me having a brand new phone while he suffered a clunky old brick. So we ended up with identical handsets and phone numbers that are one digit different - testimony, not to our romantic close-ness, but rather to his green-eyed monster streak.

So now we are stuck in a cycle where our phone contracts always expire at the same time and we both end up with the same phone. I always choose the phone I want, he always swoops in and gets the same one, and, amusingly (for me at least) he ALWAYS has a problem with his phone while mine is always hunky dory. And for a year I get the blame for the problems with his phone because I chose it!

So…preamble over, last month our contracts were both up for renewal yet again. I had decided I wanted the Motorola Z8. I hate Motorolas as a general rule - I find them quite clunky and hard to use but I had tried a Z8 out and decided I quite liked the feel of it. I was sold on the HD screen, the fact it will play a full length film (not that I often have occasion to watch a film on my phone but you don't think of these things when you buy one). It seemed pretty easy to use with a decent sized memory but most of all I liked the look of it. Unlike my previous phone which was a Sony Ericsson K800i, the Z8 is a slider phone but with a difference - as you slide the handset up it kicks the bottom half of the phone out so it curves out slightly around your face. In my head, this made it like the kind of phone a spy might use - and in my head this is a good thing. It also looks pretty funky - shiny black with neon green edges. I had heard a review of the phone on Jo Whiley's radio show where she called it a "nu-rave" phone. I was going to look like a nu-rave spy. I was sold!

I announced to my bloke that this was the hone I had settled on. I then called my network (o2) and haggled a little so I could get the handset for free on a £25 per month contract - they originally wanted £159 for the handset. While I was on the phone to o2, my fella walks in and instructs me to obtain the same phone for him - here we go again!

So now we both have Z8s. And I quite like mine. And he hates his!

The Phone Itself

In terms of functionality, The Z8 is not as easy to use as my old Sony Ericsson. Once the slider is up, the keys are a flat sheet of plastic in between the slider section and the raised mouth piece. To be honest there isn't much room to fit your thumbs in when texting and it has taken some getting used to.

The Z8 has a central panel with 3 keys either side of the main navigation circle. The main buttons are 2 hotkeys that you can assign functions for, a home button that will take you to either the menu page from the main screen or back from the menu page to the main screen. There is also a back button and a green call button and a red button to hang up calls or to switch off/lock keypad/turn on flight mode. The central button can be set to take you straight to your phonebook etc.

The menu is laid out in a similar fashion to most modern phones, with icons depicting various functions. The look of the phone menu is pretty good - I hate phones with clunky graphics and the graphics on these are as good as any computer.

Our Z8s were supplied with a memory card pre-loaded with the full version of the Bourne Identity (which is, incidentally, quite a good film) and wireless Bluetooth headphones which wrap round the back of your head. I'll be honest and admit that I've never used these - I hate the idea that someone might think I'm talking to myself and I never have any calls that are so important that they can't wait for the time it takes for me to pick up my phone and put it to my ear. However, as Bluetooth headsets go, these are one of the more discrete sets that I've seen.

The Z8 - The pros:

The phone is a lovely thing to look at - its fairly slim - 15 millimetres when shut - and small enough to fit in a handbag or pocket but big enough to use (I must be getting old to say something like that!) - it measures 109 by 50 millimetres. Its also pretty light.

As I've said, it's a slider phone and comes pre-programmed with a pleasing little chirping noise when you open and close the phone - not very spy-like but quite nice!

The screen is large and clear takes up most of the phone when shut. The speakers are pretty loud and I've not had a problem with the alarm not waking me up in the morning!

To run through the technical specifications, the phone comes with Bluetooth, email, internet access. Its 3G so has two cameras - one on the front of the phone and one on the back - the phone switches between the two when opened or closed which is a nice feature. It comes with a removable (tiny) 512mb memory card (when I say its tiny, I mean its so small I thought I had lost mine yesterday even though it was still in the phone!) and also has 90mb internal memory.

The music player plays both MP3 and AAC files and is pretty easy to use with a specific side button which takes you straight to the media gallery. It comes with one pre-loaded game - Asphalt 2 - Which is a racing game - the graphics are pretty good on his but its quite easy. With it being quite a new phone there are not that many other games to add to the phone as of yet.

The look of the phone is smooth and glossy and most of my friends are impressed by it. I've not seen many other people with this handset which I think is quite good, in fact, the only other person I've seen with this phone is my boyfriend. I'm not sure why this is as its now available on a few networks.

The Z8 - The cons:

The Z8 is very pretty but quite difficult to use. As I've said, the buttons are fiddly and when texting, the predictive text is not as intuitive as on other phones I've used. The phone arrives set with the internet as one of the fast keys from the main screen and until I changed this I kept looking at my phone to find I'd been on the internet for an hour. Obviously, depending on how you are billed, this could be a major problem.

The phone does come with all the things one expects from an up-to-date phone but disappointingly, for all its functionality, the camera is only 2 mega pixels. This is compared to 3.2 mega pixels on my previous phone and the whopping 5 mega pixels on the new Samsung phone which has just come out (how annoying). That said, the video camera apparently shoots at more frames per second and the video clips I've taken are definitely clearer than ones I've taken on other phones. Its still disappointing that Motorola seem to have chosen to make savings on he camera and I feel that this lets the phone down.

The reception quality is ok but not great and I have to assume that this is the phone as I have been with o2 for some time without any reception problems.

The other major problem as far as I am concerned is that files, messages, numbers etc are automatically stored on the phone unless you change this - this meant that my phone filled up very quickly and would not let me take any photos. You also have to go into the file storage section to send any items by Bluetooth as you cannot do this from your media gallery which is quite annoying.

Conclusion

The main reason to buy this phone is for its looks - it is very slick although I'm still not sure if I look like a spy. It does, however take some getting used to and while I'm now able to use mine pretty well, it seems that most of the thought went into the design and not the actual workings. It's a kind of "fur coat and no knickers" phone if that makes any sense.

However, my experience of my Z8 and my boyfriend's experience of his are two completely different stories - his constantly crashes - particularly if he tries to take a photo. It takes ages to load up anything and keeps telling him its "busy" which to a man as impatient as him is apparently very annoying. Also his handset keeps turning itself off and his battery does not last as long as mine for roughly the same usage. He has been told this is a software problem which is not really very good given how new his phone is.

I've just asked him what he dislikes most about his phone and his phrase was "Its like having a pc on your phone - its just a faff on". He is something of a Luddite to be fair but I know what he means - aside from the technical problems his handset has (which I think stem from some sort of sinister magnetic field he has - he always seems to break phones!), the Z8 is not easy to use - settings are not where you would think they are. I just dread next year when we start the whole phone saga again…

Anyway…
As someone who has always hated Motorolas, I am quite pleased with my Z8 - Motorola have really put the effort in with this phone but in all honestly they are not ready to compete with Sony Ericsson, Nokia or even Samsung yet. Although I'm quite happy with my phone at the moment, I can't see my next handset being another Motorola. Yes, I do feel like a spy when I answer my phone, but you don't see many spies having to carry the instruction manual for their phones about with them!

THE PICTURES TAKEN WERE TAKEN ON MY BLOKE'S Z8 SO YOU CAN SEE THE CAMERA QUALITY

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Update to review - Since I posted the above, the memory card on my phone suddenl;y stopped working, meaning I lost all the images, music etc I had saved. I put my card into my bloke's phone to see if it was the card that was broken or my handset, and now his phone won'tr read its own memory card either. Also My handset has become really painfully slow and sometimes decides to send random blank texts to people in my address book.

I have also noticed that my phone has started dropping calls when I am in the middle of a conversation - my bloke's handset does this too.

I now can't wait until the end of my contract and would buy a new phone now if I could afford to! 

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