Motorola MOTORIZR Z3
May 10th, 2007 | by Stewart Wolpin
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Average user rating from 18 users |
Very compact and highly functional
by Matt on Mar 31st, 2008 at 4:45 PM:
I currently own and use a Motorizr Z3 and I wanted to take some time to explain why I chose it and continue to use it in spite of the problems that I have encountered. Prior to owning a Motorizr Z3, I had a run-of-the-mill, free, Motorola flip phone from T-Mobile. I found the menus easy to navigate compared to Nokia and I liked their design aesthetic a bit more as well. I have also previously owned a Nokia flip phone and I found that the upside to it was that I could enter text or numbers as quickly as I wanted into the phone and they would appear as soon as they could be displayed. I was dismayed to find out that I had to wait almost a full second to type a name into the address book of the Motorizr with the fear that the first few letters would be cut off. Motorola really needs to work on the load times of their phone apps. The Motorizr interface is otherwise a pleasure to use. The device is only a bit bigger than my iPod and it feels smooth in my pocket and doesn't catch on anything. The slider is very smooth and is the best that I have found compared to the other LG Chocolate rip-offs. The menus are intuitive and I found linking the phone to the computer via USB cable or Bluetooth both to be easy (I had to download a plug-in for iSync with my Mac from the German Company Nova Media). The 1000 number capacity of the phonebook is one of the features that first attracted me to the phone (many only store 500) and the expandability of the phone via the MicroSD card is also cool. However, because the phone is so small, the card is wedged in the battery compartment and while removing it once I snapped it in half and had to remove the broken pieces with tweezers. Thankfully, I had just made a backup of everything. Anyway, I am mostly pleased with the phone and it does everything that I want a phone to do without reminding me of its design flaws. However, there are a few things that really should be dealt with so that they never happen again. First of all, the talk command button calls up an amazingly slow, loud and functionally inferior applet. Because of the position of the button I find myself hitting it inadvertently and then having to wait for the slow app to load and then close. I have learned to avoid this annoyance, but Motorola really should have enabled a reassignment of the function of that button, so that I could put something more interesting there like a calculator or datebook. The biggest problem with the phone in my opinion is the weak glue used to adhere the center menu button, the circumferential navigation ring, and the thumb bar to the face of the phone. Within two months of using the phone, the thumb bar had fallen off and a few weeks later I saw the center button go as well. With an additional exposed opening, the circular navigation ring fell off as well. T-Mobile customer service (611) told me to push the button back on the phone, which I did. However, I knew that this would only be a temporary fix and found the time between reattachments growing shorter as time progressed with the ring in a permanently unattached state (no sticky left in the glue) after another three weeks. I have since replaced the phone, as the center buttons are a known issue and I am happy with the renewed functionality of the phone. Overall, I would recommend this phone to anyone who doesn't want to shell out the money for an iPhone or other handheld, as it has much of the core functionality of those devices (music player, phone book, address book) with a more barebones interface. Just don't let anything get under the buttons susceptible to unattachment, by keeping them clean and not doing picking at them. If you have any opinions or with to further discuss how I implement this phone in my tech-life, feel free to contact me.
Looks good & works well!
by Gina on Mar 31st, 2008 at 4:03 PM:
Being a former Ericsson-die-hard, I had the idea to try out this special offer for €99.00, stereo Bluetooth headset included. Using all the menus showed to be somewhat complicated in the beginning, but still manageable after getting used to it. The stereo sound on the headphone is magnificent. But outdoors you have to think about the placement of the phone to avoid interruptions. This sometimes spoils the pleasure of listing to music and/or doing calls.
The phone itself looks good, feels good, and performs well. Connection to the computer and data exchange through USB cable and special software is easy and efficient. The software even allows modifying audio files and movie files, and to synchronize telephone and calendar data from computer and cell phone. Movie clips are pretty sharp to look at, and my overall impression is very positive.
Looks aren't everything
by Jane on Mar 27th, 2008 at 4:55 PM:
I am on my fourth Motorizr Z3 to no fault of my own. The first phone the middle button fell off and they said this was a common problem and sent me a new phone. Great except mine was in perfect condition beforehand and I had to pay the shipping. After a few months my second phone started acting like it had a virus. Hanging up on people in the middle of a conversation and not disconnecting or letting me hang up. My third phone arrived with a broken speakerphone. Anytime I pressed a button, speaker phone on or not, it would make a static (like a blank channel) noise for 10 seconds. T-Mobile had never heard of this and made me go in to the store and after a 45 minute wait the person said they had never heard of this before either. They sent me a new phone, free of charge because I refused to pay shipping again. So, now I am on my fourth phone. I don't know why I bother being careful with it.
Now, the actually phone is hot that is why I bought it and spent too much money. Now I wished I had gotten the $30 phone. The software that comes preloaded takes up too much space. It came with about 10 pictures, some of them moving ones, and now I can only take about 8 pictures before it gets full. I talked to T-Mobile and Motorola and there is no way to get these pictures off. I will not be buying a Motorola again. The music player I used at first, but once I realized I could get 25 songs loaded instead of the 100 the salesperson told me I could it got old. If you have powered down the phone and you have a reminder the phone will turn on or ten seconds while the reminder comes on and then shut back down. This is really freaky until you realize what is happening. So, you need to turn it on silent before you turn power it off. The battery is ok. I charge mine every other day. I have noticed that on all four phone is doesn't give an accurate meter reading of the battery. It was say full, even if you go within the detailed menu, and then within in half an hour be on critical. This is why I charge it every other day, not that I need to I just have no idea when it will suddenly start dying. The ring and speaker phone aren't very load. The screen is gross. All I do it clean it
Less than average
by Sean on Feb 11th, 2008 at 2:51 PM:
I've owned a number of cell phones and this one is the most difficult to carry and use. The music player does not download from my Macbook, the screen is small, and the speaker phone is difficult to hear.
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Great Phone for the Average Person
by Henry Tsang on Apr 1st, 2008 at 2:58 PM: