Motorola Rizr Z3

In keeping with it's slim phone styling and funky names such as the Razr and Krzr, Motorola has done it again with the Rizr Z3. But at what cost?

Whilst the Rizr looks the part, its performane quality takes me back to the days of the first shaky camera phones.

Sound quality is pretty poor on todays standards and the camera didn't take the best pictures.

So will it's sexy blue slider styling be enough to keep the trend conscious coming back for more. With the Rizr is slightly taller and wider (4.15x1.79x0.62 inches) than the Krzr (4.05x1.73x0.67 inches) we are not so sure.

Today's cellphone users are becoming so technology savvy with their digital cameras and mp3 players, that lacking in quality is all but evident, very quickly.

On the usablity - Moto has certainly improved the central toggle button but has sadly neglected the side buttons which are rather awkward to use. Raising the five-way toggle slightly above the surface of the phone has made it much easier to use. This design feature is also present in the number buttons.

With smaller phones, button proximity is always a challenge, for both designers and those with larger fingers or wearing gloves. The Rizr has fallen down a bit on the top row of buttons, which are rather close to the bottom end of the slider. Easy to misfire the finger here.

The microSD card slot could have been located in a more convenient location. But real estate on ever decreasing phone size is challenging.

Whilst the spine is becoming a popular location for hotkey buttons to access multimedia and on-call features, the Rizr's sleek buttons make them hard to use.

The right spine houses a voice-dialing button, a camera shutter, and a mini-USB/charger port/headset jack

The left spine has a volume control rocker and the Motorola Smart key.

It seems choice is a key design strategy of the Rizr

Contact Management: Each contact in the Krzr's Phone Book holds 6 phone numbers, 3 e-mails, a Web site URL, 3 street addresses, nickname, birthday. Add contacts to groups, and assign a photo and polyphonic ring tone for caller ID. Sim holds 250 names.

Camera: Choose between taking MPEG4 pictures in four sizes - 2 megapixel, 1.3 megapixel, 640x80 pixels, and 320x240 pixels.

Productivity Tools: vibrate mode, voice recorder, text and multimedia messaging, alarm clock, calendar, and calculator are all pretty standard but welcome features.

Performance: The Motorola Rizr has a rated battery life of 6.6 hours talk time and 14.6 days standby time.

Overall, a good average range phone with great style and in spite of its downfalls, users rate it highly.

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