T-Mobile Gets Motorola RIZR Z3 Slider

Motorola's been struggling to find a successor to its ubiquitous RAZR flip phones, and the RIZR (first announced last August) is one of Moto's would-be pretenders to the RAZR throne (besides, of course, the new KRZR flip-phone models). Now available on T-Mobile for $99 with a two-year service agreement, the RIZR Z3 was Motorola's first stab at a slider phone, and while it's a solid handset, don't expect a lot of head turns.

Weighing in at about 3.8 ounces, the blue, quad-band RIZR should serve globe-trotters well with its world-phone capabilities, and its EDGE support will let you indulge in some basic mobile Web surfing. I'm also impressed that T-Mobile is bundling the Z3 with a 128MB microSD card for additional storage (most carriers usually make you pay extra for a memory card) and a USB cable. But the RIZR lacks 3G data access, meaning you won't be able to download songs or stream video (not surprising, given that T-Mobile still lacks a 3G network of its own), and in my brief tests, I wasn't impressed with the Z3's sliding action, which felt a but stiff for my taste. Personally, I'm waiting (and hoping) for the RIZR Z6 to arrive here in the U.S.; it's glossier version of the Z3 with a much smoother sliding action, plus the ability to sync with your Windows Media Player collection.