Hands-on with Moto's MOTOZINE ZN5 camera phone

Motorola and Kodak team up for a camera phone that—for once—actually takes snapshots worthy of a stand-alone camera.

I've been snapping away with the ZN5 ($99 with a two-year contract, available now on T-Mobile) for about a week now, and I have to say—it takes the best pictures I've ever seen from a camera phone, even in iffy lighting conditions.

Armed with a 5MP snapper, auto focus, a Xenon flash, and Kodak's "Perfect Touch" imaging technology, the ZN5 looks like a pretty standard candy bar-style phone—and indeed, its ho-hum main menu and navigation aren't anything to write home about.

But the Wi-Fi- and Bluetooth-enabled (if EDGE-only) phone is aces in the camera department. Now, I'm not much of a photographer (as many of you have noticed, what with my shaky, glare-prone product shots), but even a rank amateur like me managed to snap some eye-popping pictures with the ZN5.

My outdoor shots looked razor-sharp, with deep color and (at the risk of sounding like ad copy) stunning detail—I've taken pictures with stand-alone still cameras that have looked much worse. (The examples I've posted here are scaled-down versions.) I even managed to take decent indoor shots thanks to the powerful Xenon flash, which puts the puny flashes on most camera phone to shame.

One of my favorite features on the ZN5 is its enhanced panorama mode, which automatically snaps successive pictures as you turn; the images are then stitched together, and good luck finding the seams. Nicely done.

Once you're done snapping, you can share your images over EDGE or Bluetooth, or upload them to photo-sharing services over Wi-Fi. Wireless printing via Bluetooth is another option.

Overall, great stuff, but I do have a couple of complaints—no geotagging (or aGPS capabilities at all, for that matter), and fuzzy video capture quality (just 15 frames per second).

Other features on the ZN5: Moto's ModeShift technology (which makes the various keys light up depending on the phone feature you're using), up to 4GB of microSD memory, a 3.5mm headset jack, support for stereo Bluetooth headsets, a TV-out port, Web-mail access (including AIM, AOL, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail), and a media player.

Now, if you're looking for a phone with top-notch multimedia, video-streaming, or Web features, the ZN5 isn't it; in terms of mobile applications, you won't find anything here to rival the iPhone or T-Mobile's own G1. Indeed, except for its top-notch imaging features, the ZN5 is a relatively middling phone.

But for budding photographers who want a solid point-and-shoot that also makes calls, Moto's latest camera phone makes for a compelling choice.

Related:
MOTOZINE ZN5 product page [T-Mobile]