Best Camera Phone Yet: Motorola Zine ZN5

There's nothing unusual about a camera phone...if fact, a mobile phone without a camera is an anomaly these days. The reality is, though, that the camera is pretty much an afterthought on most phones.

But that's where the Motorola Zine ZN5 differs. This device is all about the camera. It doesn't pose a threat to DSLR cameras or even to the better standard digital cameras; but, it is a huge leap beyond most camera phones and will reliably produce pictures that you'll be happy to print.



Welcome to the phone camera.

The Motorola Zine was developed in conjunction with Kodak and features a 5-megapixel, autofocus camera with a Xenon flash. The back side of the device looks pretty much like a standard digital camera. The camera function is activated simply by sliding the lens cap open. When held like a camera, the shutter button is cleverly located in the upper right, just like a real camera.

When you depress the shutter button there is none of the typical and frustrating lag that is commonly encountered with camera phones. There are loads of camera options including four resolution selections and plenty of editing choices. The flash includes on, off, red-eye reduction and automatic settings.

Focus settings include automatic, macro, and an especially cool landscape mode. In that mode, you can easily string three photos together to get an extra wide panorama shot. Just snap the first picture then pan to the right. The camera will let you know when you get to the next spot in the panorama and take the shot automatically. Repeat the procedure for the third segment of the panorama. Video recording doesn't offer much in the way of options but the quality is better than with other camera phones.

Uploading pictures to Kodak's Photo Gallery or T-Mobile's MyAlbum is simple using Wi-Fi or the GPRS network. Photos can be transferred to a computer or printer via included USB cable or Bluetooth. Photos can also be displayed on most TVs using the USB cable. The device has 128MB of built-in memory and comes with a 1GB MicroSD card. It can accept up to a 4GB MicroSD card.

When in camera mode, there are buttons that illuminate between the standard phone buttons for ease of use. We shouldn't fail to mention that the Zine is also an excellent phone that is easy to use and makes high quality calls. It has a pretty basic but completely adequate music player, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and supports Bluetooth stereo. Talk time is a very respectable 570 minutes with standby time rated at 548 hours.

Check out our phone reviews for other good choices. And be sure to peruse these other photogenic blog posts:

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